5 things we learned this week

1 TODAY’S politicians aren’t a patch on Stanley Baldwin. Before he became Prime Minister, says Dominic Sandbrook on the UnHerd website, Baldwin gave 20 per cent of his fortune to help pay off the Government’s debts from the First World War – and kept the donation secret because he didn’t want any attention. ‘Just try to imagine Matt Hancock doing that,’ writes Sandbrook.

2 FORGET bank cards – commuters in Beijing can now pay for their journeys with their palms. In what is thought to be a world first, the Chinese capital has introduced a system on one of its metro lines that reads the unique pattern of lines and veins on each person’s palm, then charges the account associated with it. All you have to do, once you’ve registered, is wave your hand over the scanner and the barriers will open. That the system also gives China’s authoritarian government one more way to track its citizens is, presumably, entirely incidental.

3 THE ‘ultimate post-workout snack’ is a small block of cheese, reports Men’s Journal. According to nutritionists, a oneounce wedge encourages the body to synthesise protein cells that help muscles recover faster, avoiding the dreaded next-day achiness.

4 BANKERS are much better behaved when they’re working from home. A new study on an unnamed UK bank found that traders who worked remotely had a 7.3 per cent chance of triggering a misconduct alert, compared to 37.6 per cent for those in the office. Not only do remote workers have less access to inside information, but unethical behaviour also appears to be contagious – take truthful traders away from unethical colleagues and they’re less likely to misbehave.

5 LAST Saturday marked a significant milestone in Westminster. It was the day the Conservatives equalled New Labour’s 4,757 unbroken days – just over 13 years – in Downing Street. Those over the age of 40 will remember a time when ‘it felt like Tony Blair might just be Prime Minister forever’, says the website Politico, a time when over-wrought political commentators were asking whether the Tories would ‘finally become extinct’. As always, the pendulum swung back.