However, by comparison, it still consumes less than half of the what the U.S. consumes daily.

FORBES: Why China Won't Save Oil Prices

Such challenges are likely to pale, however, by comparison with the edicts handed down by multilateral tribunals whose deciding votes are, in every instance, selected by international bureaucrats (in the case of one arbitral panel, by the UN Secretary General himself).

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A Navy LOST?

Private equity, however, appears by comparison to be one of the darker arts.

FORBES: Private Equity's Public Image Issues

Obama, however, is no Reagan by any comparison.

FORBES: Barack Obama Is No Ronald Reagan - He Is The Worst Of FDR

Perhaps the most useful comparison, however, is offered by the Republic of Ireland, which gave inmates of its jails the right to participate in elections for the first time in 2006.

BBC: Would prisoners use their right to vote?

The environmental costs levied on China's 400 million urban residents pale in comparison, however, to those faced by the country's more than 800 million farmers and other rural residents.

CNN: Economic miracle, environmental disaster

However, this year the BBC will measure 2013 change in seats by comparison with the last election, 2009, when most of these councils were elected (thus ignoring subsequent by-election changes and councillor defections).

BBC: Q&A: Election results 2013