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If
you're sad that the United States doesn't make things anymore, read this
and you'll feel a bit better: at least we're not Britain, where they really
don't make anything anymore.
Aditya Chakrabortty of The Guardian explains what's going on with what has been called Britain's De-Industrial Revolution:
In significant part, it's a tale about where Britain is going, one that's been told by Conservative and Labour alike over the past 30 years. It's a simple message that comes in three parts. One, the old days of heavy industry are gone for good. The future lies in working with our brains, not our hands. Two, the job of government in economic policy is simply to get out of the way. Oh, and finally, we need to fling open our markets to trade with other countries because, despite the evidence of countless Wimbledons and World Cups, the Westminster elite believe that the British can always take on the competition and win.
Yet there's ample evidence that the promised rewards of this post-industrial future haven't materialised. What was sold as economic modernisation has led to industrial decay, with too often nothing to replace it.
Link (Photo: Abandoned Spillers Millenium Mills, south east of London by The Urban Adventure/Flickr)
In October, internet users always look for the strangest, most inexplicable Halloween costumes to post. Here’s one that illustrates how little Americans and the British understand each other, despite the supposedly common language. This costume of a World War II Evacuee was posted at reddit. Some commenters thought it might be a costume from the Chronicles of Narnia films; others thought it was supposed to be Anne Frank. It actually depicts one of the many children who were temporarily sent away from Britain during the war. But the explanation has to do with schools in the UK, which teach history by designating dress-up days.
Parents get letter informing them that their little darling has to dress up as an Evacuee, Victorian child, Roman, etc.
Time-poor, stressed parents don’t want to have to spend ages researching and making said costume when they could be spending their time w/their actual child (or OK watching TV) (this doesn’t really apply for the Roman one because that costume is a sheet)
Parents grumblingly shell out their 15 pounds or so. All kids at school end up dressed identically. Costume company laughs all the way to the bank.
Well, there you go. Link
The estate at Witley Park in Britain has been a private home and a public facility at different times. What is visible above ground is nice enough, but the secret underground and underwater construction is a treasure. Deep passages lead to the rumored “ballroom under the lake”, which, as it turns out, was originally built as a billiard room, but it wasn’t the only glassed-in room. Guests can watch fish swim around them -or they could at one time or another. Link -via Metafilter
Also see: more pictures at Flickr. Link
We once featured an Euler diagram that explained the British Isles, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain. This video explains all that clearly but quickly, then goes on to explain the British Empire, the Crown Colonies, Crown Dependencies, and other terms that confuse Americans and others who don’t deal with such geographical concepts every day. If this goes too fast for you, the script is available from C. G. P. Grey. Link -via reddit
How has Britain changed in the past 10 years? Prospect Magazine has an interesting infographic detailing the transformation of Great Britain from 1997 to 2009:
Richer, fatter, living longer, more indebted, drunker, better connected, politically disillusioned: there’s no metric that can describe whether we are happier or living better lives after 13 years of Labour. But there are plenty to show how we have changed during a period of fulsome spending, borrowing and technological transformation;
The snipped above is from the Media and Technology section and shows that cell phone ownership has gone from 17% to 93% of household, Internet access has grown from 4% to 73% whereas music sales have declined from nearly 10 million singles to just 4 million. Similiarly, newspaper circulation has contracted by 25%.
Link | The infographic in PDF format – via metafilter
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Probably no tree better symbolizes Britain than Quercus robur, the native oak. In an essay at the BBC’s News Magazine, historian Simon Schama reviews its significance.
The tree is Britain, after all.
Boscobel oak, where Charles II hid from Cromwell’s army after the battle of Worcester.
And the song Nelson’s sailors are said to have sung at Trafalgar? “Hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men.”
But then, with a sudden chill, you remember something else. A story that seemed to come and go from the papers, but terrible in what it reported: that a mysterious blight is attacking Quercus robur, up and down the length of Britain.
No-one seems to know why it is happening or how to stop it, how to save infected trees. Apparently the “die-back” period (a horrible term) from the first tell-tale signs of shrivelled foliage to complete tree death is about five years: the life of a Parliament.
Schama reviews previous disasters that have befallen Britain’s oaks, including hurricane-induced devastation in the 18th century, and the “acorn fever” that followed.
Naval officers on leave, like Collingwood, went around surreptitiously scattering acorns from holes in his breeches in the parks of his unsuspecting hosts. And the all-time champion was the lord-lieutenant of Cardiganshire, Colonel Thomas Johnes, who between 1795 and 1801 planted some 922,000 sturdy oaks.
The prognosis re the current epidemic is rather grim. Articles at the Telegraph and The Independent offer more details re the science of the disease.
Link. Photo credit SRR/tywk.
Officials at a nursery school in Pemberton, England, confiscated the cheese sandwich a two-year old brought to school. The sandwich was considered to be inappropirate because it did not include either lettuce or tomato.
Wigan Council has since confirmed that the straight-up combination of cheese and bread contravenes its healthy eating guidelines — and fully supported the cheese-snatchers. “The centre has a list of recommended healthy food, according to national guidelines, which children are encouraged to eat,” said a spokesman. “A cheese sandwich would not feature on the list.”
Clearly in a situation like this there are two sides to the story, and the media may be focusing on the family’s side because it makes for more interesting press; there may be other issues between the family and the school, or concerns re the child’s diet. It seems reasonable to take the news with a grain of salt (or if you’re British, with salt substitute).
Two links. Image credit Luke Leitch/Times Online.
Cartography blog Strange Maps has a map of the British Isles showing current place names translated into modern English. It’s one from a collection known as The Atlas of True Names. You can view a larger image at the link.
Link | Other Maps of Translated Place Names | News Story
One of the charms of Britain is the array of friendly, locally owned neighborhood pubs and their interesting historic names.
Britain’s colourful pub signs speak volumes about the country’s equally colourful history, as well as depicting folklore, heraldry and social customs. Pubs were never named by accident and each sign invariably has a story behind it. The artwork on Britain’s pub signs is inspired by royalty and nobility, religion and the church, military heroes and battles, occupations and trades, myths and legends, sporting activities and pastimes, along with numerous other sources.
Read some of those stories at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
Remember the New Jersey man who tried to pay his traffic ticket with pennies? Well, in a courageous display of one-upmanship, here’s what one British guy did: he paid his parking ticket with a check written on a toilet paper!
It was a very British protest – cocking a snook at overbearing authorities while staying within the law. But Dick Roper’s glow of pleasure at using two sheets of toilet paper to write a cheque for a parking ticket was short lived.
Although Her Majesty’s Court Service said they would accept the £30 cheque, they demanded an extra £15 to cover the fee for cashing it.
When the 63-year-old grandfather refused, he was dragged to court for non-payment of a fine. He took advantage of his day in court by reading out a letter he sent to the Court Service in which he described the police community support officer who slapped a ticket on his car as a ‘snake’. Everyone, including the judge, was laughing as he described the man ‘slithering’ home at the end of the day ‘to digest the evil he had done’.
The judge in Mr. Roper’s case had a sense of humor:
When the district judge asked what he would have done if a customer had paid with a cheque written on toilet paper, he replied: ‘I would pay the cheque in and send them a receipt on toilet paper.’
Link – via Blue’s News
