In a week where tensions between Israel and Palestine have taken centre stage, former Prime Minister David Cameron was grilled by two House of Commons select committees over his lobbying on behalf of collapsed financing firm Greensill Capital and Richard Bland won his first European Golf Tour Title at his 478th attempt, The Weekly has again done its upmost to condense the news from the last seven days into five short quiz questions to brighten your Sunday morning.

Questions:

1. Last night saw the FA Cup final played at Wembley in front of 21,000 fans, the largest fan attendance at a match in the UK since March 2020. On this occasion, Champions League finalists, Chelsea, came out second best, losing 1-0 to Leicester. This was Leicester’s fifth final having lost on all four previous occasions. There is now one less team to have made it all the way to an FA Cup final but to have never won the competition. How many of these thirteen teams can you name?

2. The big day has (almost) arrived. Tomorrow sees the next (and hopefully penultimate) significant milestone in the relaxation of COVID restrictions. Hotels and B&Bs can open. Hugging will be permitted. Indoor entertainment such as cinemas, museums and theatres can finally reopen. Restaurants, cafes and pubs can serve customers indoors. Of course, the Indian variant is a (growing) concern, but surely tomorrow is a day worth celebrating? Perhaps even with a trip to your local establishment? The nation’s food and beverage industry reportedly needs a £25.66 billion boost to return to pre-pandemic levels after a year of forced closures. This week, finance experts, Company Debt, suggested that drastic drinking would be the best way of saving struggling hospitality businesses and to protect pubs facing extinction. Based on a figure of 52 million adults in the UK, how many pints are they suggesting each adult should drink over the summer?

3. Yesterday afternoon saw the last remaining Debenhams close its doors for good. The brand name is disappearing from UK high streets after 208 years, when William Debenham became a partner at a draper’s store in London’s Wigmore Street, and the shop was renamed Clark & Debenham. Debenhams was at one time the largest department store group in the UK, owning eighty-four companies and one hundred stores in 1950. With retailing increasingly moving online, combined with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chain struggled over recent years and last year filed for administration, not once, not twice but three times. The significant issues facing the UK high street are well-known, but according to the latest BRC-LDC shop vacancy monitor (to the end of March), what has the national vacancy rate across the country increased to?

4. Tuesday morning saw MSCI release their numbers for the quarter ending March 2021. The UK Quarterly Index, which comprises 234 portfolios and has a value of £149bn delivered a quarterly total return of 1.80%, the strongest quarterly performance since Q2 2018. Over the past twelve months, the total return was 0.90%, hampered by both falling rental and capital values. It came as no shock to learn that Industrials were the best performing sector again over the year (14.1%) and that Retail was the worst (-8.3%). That’s a whopping spread of 22.4%. But the good news was that it appears that most sectors may have turned the corner. All Retail’s total return for the quarter was only just negative (-0.1%). According to MSCI, which UK city was the best performer (by way of All Property Total Return) over Quarter 1? By way of a small clue, the city’s football team won 4-0 yesterday.

5. There were signs on Thursday that the arts market was back on track after an uncertain year amid the pandemic. A painting by Pablo Picasso, ‘Woman Sitting Near a Window (Marie-Therese)’ sold for $103.4m (£73.5m) at Christie's in New York. The auction house had estimated the painting would sell for $55m. The painting was acquired only eight years ago at a London sale for £28.6m ($44.8m). Thursday's auction marked the fifth piece of work by Picasso to have sold for more than $100m. He is one of a very small number of artists to have sold multiple works above this threshold, alongside Jackson Pollock, Vincent van Gogh and Francis Bacon. What is the record price paid for a Picasso?

Enjoy your Sunday.

The Weekly

Answers:

1. Queen’s Park (the only Scottish club to reach the final of the FA Cup), Birmingham City, Crystal Palace, Watford, Bristol City, Luton Town, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Brighton & Hove Albion, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Stoke City and Hull City.
2. 124 pints per adult!
3. 14.1%. That’s one in seven shops.
4. Leeds was the strongest performer in Q1, delivering a total return of 2.2%.
5. $179.4m (£127.6m), which was paid for his painting 'The Women of Algiers' in 2015.