Here’s the editors’ test of our readers’ knowledge. All the questions are themed from articles which appeared in the Socialist this year. You don’t have to resort to using a search engine – the answers are below!

Season’s greetings and a happy New Year.

Questions

Numbers and percentages
Big crowds come to cheer Jeremy Corbyn in Derby photo Steve Score, photo Steve Score

Big crowds come to cheer Jeremy Corbyn in Derby photo Steve Score, photo Steve Score   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

1) In June, how many Labour MPs supported a ‘no confidence’ motion on Jeremy Corbyn?

2) What percentage of leave voters want EU migrants to stay after Brexit?

3) According to Oxfam, what percentage of the world’s wealth is owned by 62 super-rich people?

4) How long did the Chilcot report into the Iraq war take to be published?

5) How many young Americans preferred a meteor to destroy Earth than see either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the White House?

6) What’s the average household debt for every adult in the UK?

7) How many England matches did disgraced Sam Allardyce manage before being dismissed?

Places

1) Where were zero-hour contracts banned?

2) Where did the ‘fishball revolution’ break out?

3) Where was an attempted coup on 15 July?

4) Where did workers successfully strike against migrant worker exploitation?

Named

1) Who took strike action in January for the first time in 40 years?

2) Who replaced Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff following her impeachment?

3) Name the anti-labour law which led to mass strike action in France?

4) Name Britain’s “worst railway company” which wants to axe all its conductors?

5) Who was told to pay back £11 billion?

6) Who proposed a referendum to repeal the Irish republic constitution’s eighth amendment banning abortion?

7) Who said: “I didn’t think they hated me so much”?

8) What was the name given to the leaked 11.5 million files on the secretive financial affairs of the world’s rich?

9) Who were “unlawfully killed”?

10) Whose mass strikes in October and November forced Spain’s government to withdraw the ‘revalidas’?

11) Who resigned over cuts to disability benefits?

12) Who said: “I’m not sure I fully understand politics right now”?

US President Barack Obama, photo NASA

US President Barack Obama, photo NASA   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

13) Who called US president Obama a “son of a whore”?

14) Who banned Burkinis saying they were a terrorist-related public order threat?

15) Who was found guilty of false imprisonment of Ireland’s deputy prime minister?

16) Which group of bikers defeated attacks on pay and conditions?

17) Whose denunciation 60 years ago caused a big political stir?

Miscellanea

1) What gaffe did low-paying Sport’s Direct boss Mike Ashley make at his Shirebrook warehouse open day?

2) What did Home Secretary Amber Rudd rule out?

3) What event 100 years ago shook the British Empire?

4) Why did 15,000 Liverpool FC fans walk out during the team’s game with Sunderland?

5) Why did 30,000 children stay away from school on 3 May?

6) What health crisis erupted on the eve of the Olympic games?

7) Which group of tenants successfully resisted eviction?

8) What will cost at least £18 billion to build?


Answers

Numbers and percentages

1) 172 to 40 against.

2) 77% according to an opinion poll.

3) 50% – as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people combined.

4) Over seven years. Gordon Brown announced the inquiry in 2009.

5) 25% according to a University of Massachusetts opinion poll.

6) £30,000 – 113% of the average annual income.

7) One.

Places

1) New Zealand on 11 March.

2) Hong Kong, after street traders were forcibly evicted by police at the start of the Chinese new year.

3) Turkey. Middle ranking officers attempted to overthrow president Erdogan.

4) The Fawley oil refinery, near Southampton. Unite members succeeded in getting the same pay rate for contracted workers from Italy and Bulgaria.

Named

1) Junior doctors over Tory government attacks on their contract.

2) Michel Temer of the right-wing PMDB.

3) The El Khomri law (named after the labour minister).

4) Southern Railway owned by Govia Thameslink.

5) Apple. The EU ruled that it had avoided this amount in tax due to a sweetheart deal with the Irish government.

6) Socialist Party member and AAA TD (MP) Ruth Coppinger

7) Several candidates – we’re going with ex-PM Matteo Renzi following his defeat in Italy’s constitutional referendum.

8) The Panama Papers.

9) The 96 Liverpool FC fans killed at the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989 – an inquest jury ruled this year.

10) Sindicato de Estudiantes (Students Union). Revalidas were despised university entrance exams.

11) Tory minister Iain Duncan Smith – despite previously voting for cuts and introducing the hated bedroom tax.

12) Tony Blair, unable to grasp the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders’ anti-capitalist messages.

13) Philippines strong-man president Rodrigo Duterte.

14) The mayor of Cannes, France, followed by more than 20 other municipalities. The ban was declared illegal in the courts.

15) A teenager at Dublin Children’s Court. The ludicrous charge followed a peaceful sit-down protest in Jobstown over water charges in 2014 which delayed Labour deputy PM Joan Burton. Socialist Party member Paul Murphy TD faces imprisonment on similar charges.

16) Deliveroo couriers in August.

17) USSR Communist Party chief Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin (but not Stalinism) at its 1956 congress.

Miscellanea

1) Taking out of his pocket a thick roll of £50 notes, saying: “I’ve just been to the casino”!

2) An inquiry into police violence against striking miners at Orgreave in 1984.

3) The 1916 Easter uprising in Dublin led by revolutionary James Connolly.

4) In protest at home ticket price hikes. The club backed down.

5) Parents protesting against Sats tests for seven-year-olds.

6) An outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The lack of preventative health programmes over decades due to funding cuts was blamed.

7) Butterfields housing estate in Walthamstow, east London. After a months-long tenants’ campaign.

8) EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant. In addition, the public subsidy to EDF’s energy bills will be over £30 billion.