And, critically, the variance varies by discipline: science subjects hand out more firsts and thirds, while humanities subjects might give two-thirds of their s

And, critically, the variance varies by discipline: science subjects hand out more firsts and thirds, while humanities subjects might give two-thirds of their students two-ones. So, as a single grade it's not particularly meaningful even within a given university. There's some cross-university moderation (there are external examiners for each course from somewhere else) but that only goes so far.