MetaFilter posts tagged with UK and britain

Badger badger badgering the Cameron government!

markkraft — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:34:17 -0800

Dr. Brian May, CBE, PhD FRAS, recently retired Chancellor of LJMU, winner of The RPS' Saxby Award for achievements in the field of stereoscopic photography, distinguished author, lecturer, film producer, entrepreneur, and occasional musician has been quite busy lately trying to prevent a sweeping cull of the British badger population. His efforts have been surprisingly successful. The overwhelming response to his government petition led to a parliamentary debate, where MPs overwhelmingly rejected the cull in a non-binding vote. The government has attempted to press forward with the cull, but has faced significant resistance from scientists, naturalists, and concerned citizens that have led to implementation delays. The movement recently got the attention of Weebl, who has recorded a rough cut of a new song with Brian May called "Save the Badger Badger Badger" which was recently used in a flash mob protest. The final version will include additional vocals by Brian Blessed.

jittery UK government reveals itself before potential claims of former v

infini — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:42:33 -0800

Mau Mau to Midnapore: Confronting the brutality of empire There are certainly some Britons, including academics, journalists and human rights lawyers, who are aware of the realities of colonialism. However, in the society as a whole and in the media in the UK there are still far too many who seem strangely reluctant, even after so many decades after the end of the British empire, to come to terms with the true nature of colonialism or learn from the perspective of former subjects who had rebelled against it.

His home is his castle

acb — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:45:08 -0800

This St. George's Day sees news of the next attempt to redress Britain's superhero shortage: Englishman, who looks like Iron Man crossed with a mediaeval crusader. The series promises “brand new, quintessentially English characters, including Greenbelt and Dry Stone Wall”. Englishman is by no means the first attempt at a British superhero; Marvel attempted to transplant the Captain America formula across the Atlantic with Captain Britain, and later reprised this with the historical character of Union Jack and the John Lennon-imitating John the Skrull, and DC commissioned John Cleese to reimagine Superman as a Briton. What is new is a rejection of the idea of Britishness as a national identity, in favour of Englishness; on their blog page, the publishers explicitly state this, saying that “characters such as Captain Britain cannot be classed as patriotic: there is, of course, no such country as ‘Britain’.”

Enter, Stranger

lalochezia — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:31:00 -0800

How we made Knightmare The creator and the dungeon master of the 1980s fantasy game show revisit dodgy technology and terrified children. The wikipedia entry explains more. Knightmare mentioned previously on mefi

Her Name was Lucy Meadows

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:30:43 -0800

Popular transgender Lancashire teacher Lucy Meadows was found dead last Tuesday. Blame has quickly fallen on an inflammatory Daily Mail article by Richard Littlejohn, which has lead to a petition to sack the writer. Is this fair? Jane Fae at the New Statesman says it doesn't matter, while the New Scostsman calls it 'monstering'. The f word blog and the Guardian have longer articles on the case and the issues surrounding it.

Fortress UK

Artw — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:36:57 -0800

The Last Stand - the remains of the Britain's coastal defences photographed by Marc Wilson.

From an axe to Auerbach

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:01:06 -0800

The story of British art From the earliest evocative stone structures at Skara Brae and Stonehenge to the disturbing 20th-century portraits by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, the art inspired by the British isles tells a truly spectacular story. Through painting, sculpture, architecture and much more, immerse yourself in the best of critic Jonathan Jones's epic survey of the artworks that have made us who we are interactive, intro

Politician apologizes, is autotuned, creates beauty

running order squabble fest — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:01:12 -0800

Nick Clegg is so, so sorry. (YT) During the last British general election, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was riding high on a wave of popularity (previously). Young, dashing and charismatic (for the values of all three allowed by British politics), Clegg promised an alternative to the tired two-party politics of the Labour and Conservative parties. After a televised debate between the party leaders in the run-up to the 2010 election, "I agree with Nick" became a catchphrase (knowyourmeme link), so often did the other two party leaders say it. It seemed increasingly possible that an alliance with the Liberal Democrats would be required to form a majority in Parliament, and that Clegg would be the kingmaker. Key to Clegg's appeal to the two major Westminster parties was his pull with student voters, and key to that pull was the Liberal Democrats' manifesto pledge to scrap tuition fees for university students. (Until the relatively recent past, most British student were able to take undergraduate degrees with their tuition free at the point of delivery, paid for by general taxation.) This commitment led to expressions of support from students like this flash mob (YT). As Deputy Prime Minister in a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition which not only retained tuition fees but raised the cap on the fee level an institution could charge, the Liberal Democrats have seen their support drop precipitously, and Nick Clegg's personal popularity drop into negative figures even among those who voted Liberal Democrat in 2010. All of which set the scene for Nick Clegg's unexpected and dramatic apology (YT) for making a manifesto pledge his party had been unable to keep. Which was almost immediately seized upon by the British humor site The Poke and autotuned to create the remix linked in the FPP, which quickly gave the Liberal Democrat leader a level of virality unseen since the halcyon days of 2010. Opinion is divided on whether this Clintonian (YT) (or Woodsian - also YT) video apology will be enough to salvage the Liberal Democrats' electoral future. But, wags observe, Clegg at least now has the chance for a fresh start as a Bieberesque teen idol.

Cripes!

Artw — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 07:49:14 -0800

The Economist on the decline of British boy's comics as The Dandy ceases print publication. As it circles oblivion it risks joining the ranks of Whizzer and Chips, Buster, The Beezer and subversive late entry to the genre Oink. The days of the Great British girl's comic are sadly long passed.

Even Better than Team Fortress 2

Bwithh — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:34:28 -0800

The BBC's new Olympics 2012 ad (full 2m40s version; SLYT) is a CGI masterpiece for the video gamer era. (best viewed with YouTube HD resolution settings on) I'm not even going to link to the predictably idiotic Daily Mail criticism of this ad.

It was a good war. (For some.)

markkraft — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:34:08 -0800

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., repeatedly lobbied Tony Blair to invade Iraq. In the days leading up to the invasion, Tony Blair's Director of Communications wrote that "(Blair) took a call from Murdoch who was pressing on timings, saying how News International would support us, etc. Both TB and I felt it was prompted by Washington, and another example of their over-crude diplomacy. Murdoch was pushing all the Republican buttons, how the longer we waited the harder it got." The phone call in question took place just days before a crucial vote on Iraq, and was one of three personal calls from Murdoch that Blair received in that week alone. Blair recently testified, admitting an "unhealthy" level of closeness with Murdoch, oftentimes communicating more with him than with his own ministers. In the first 19 days following the invasion of Iraq, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News averaged 3.3 million viewers, a 236% increase from the weeks preceding the war. Huge increases in newspaper sales were seen throughout his global media empire, with advertising revenue soaring to record levels. That empire now faces serious calls for it to be broken up.

Sing us a Song to Keep us Warm, There's Such a Chill

Rhaomi — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:06:13 -0800

In the wake of their grunge-y breakout hit "Creep" and the success of sophomore record The Bends, Thom Yorke and the rest of Radiohead were under pressure to deliver once more. So they shut themselves away inside the echoing halls of a secluded 16th century manor and got to work. What emerged from that crumbling Elizabethan castle fifteen years ago today was a shockingly ambitious masterpiece of progressive rock, a visionary concept album that explored the "fridge buzz" of modernity -- alienation, social disconnection, existential dread, the impersonal hum of technology -- through a mosaic of challenging, innovative, eerily beautiful music unlike anything else at the time. Tentatively called Ones and Zeroes, then Your Home May Be at Risk If You Do Not Keep Up Payments, the band finally settled on OK Computer, an appropriately enigmatic title for this acclaimed harbinger of millennial angst. For more, you can watch the retrospective OK Computer: A Classic Album Under Review for a track-by-track rundown, or the unsettling documentary Meeting People is Easy for a look at how the album's whirlwind tour nearly gave Yorke a nervous breakdown. Or look inside for more details and cool interpretations of all the tracks -- including an upcoming MeFi Music Challenge! Album tributes and cover versions: Quinton Sung deftly recreates the whole album in 8-bit chiptune style Stereogum's OKX: a multi-artist tribute (previ-ously) Strung Out on OK Computer: The Vitamin String Quartet's classical cover of the album Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead: Airbag - Paranoid Android - Subterranean Homesick Alien - Let Down - Karma Police - No Surprises Amazingly choreographed renditions from the University of Arizona marching band: Airbag - Paranoid Android - Fitter Happier - Karma Police - Exit Music (From a Film) - Lucky Individual tracks: "Airbag" (notes)

Inspired (along with several other songs) by a car accident Yorke and his girlfriend had been in years before; muses on "the feeling you get when you realise that you've just missed having a serious accident, and the feeling of elation that follows."

"Paranoid Android" (notes)

The most ambitious track, a mutating six-minute sprawl in the tradition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun" that took the band eighteen months of practice to play live. Rooted in a harrowing experience Yorke had in a druggy Los Angeles club, he later passed the track off as a lark, but NME's Luke Lewis (who declared it the best single of the last 15 years) objects:
Far from penning a universal hymn of woe, Thom Yorke claims he picked the title as a self-mocking "joke", and says the lyrics are "not personal at all." Bassist Colin Greenwood remembers the writing process being "a laugh", the result of "getting wasted together". When the band came to actually play the song live, according to guitarist Ed O' Brien the whole thing was "completely hilarious" and had them "pissing ourselves as we played". Anyone would think they'd written 'My Humps', not one of the towering rock songs of the 20th Century. And yet... they protest too much. I have a theory. I think that Radiohead knew they'd written an era-defining masterwork, but - in a very British way - felt embarrassed by the grandeur of their creation, and ever since then have bashfully tried to make light of it. They're not fooling anyone. [...] Anyone with ears and a brain can tell that this is a song about the horror of modernity. Thom Yorke surveys the whole grand sweep of humanity and finds he's disgusted by all of it. [...] Besides, this idea that 'Paranoid Android' was intended as a joke - a sozzled attempt to rewrite Queen’s 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - doesn't quite tally with Yorke's own account of how he wrote the lyrics. They came to him at 5am following a hateful night out amongst coked-up music biz types in Los Angeles. "I was trying to sleep when I literally heard these voices that wouldn't leave me alone," he recalled in 1997. "Basically 'Paranoid Android' is just about chaos, chaos, utter fucking chaos." When pressed to reveal more about the "kicking squealing Gucci little" piggies who inspired the song, Yorke described them as "inhuman… you do often see demons in people's eyes. They're like fucking devils…. Everyone was trying to get something out of me. I felt like my own self was collapsing in the presence of it." Hmm. So not quite dashed off as a rib-tickling novelty wig-out then? Lest you doubt that 'Paranoid Android' burns with a core of genuine misanthropy, note the hex on the single sleeve. The ensuing world tour was called Against Demons. 'Paranoid Android' is a song about seeing evil in the world around you, and being absolutely terrified by it.
Don't miss the phenomenal cover version compiled from dozens of amateur YouTube videos (previously). Other notable takes: - Weezer - Mike Massé acoustic guitar (previously) - Christopher O'Riley on solo piano - jazz pianist Brad Mehldau's 9-minute interpretation - Male and female a capella - early demo version - Easy Star All-Stars reggae version - Sia Furler's soul version - University of Arizona marching band

- Big band arrangement "Subterranean Homesick Alien" (notes)

Namechecks Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues and evokes the fanciful "Martian poetry" style to take an anthropologist's eye to mankind's troubles. The need for vintage soft keyboards has led to the track not being played on live tours in the last decade.

"Exit Music (For a Film)" (notes)

Written for the end credits of Romeo+Juliet and partially inspired by Zeffirelli's 1968 version, which had moved a 13-year-old Yorke to tears and wonder why the two lovers never tried to just run away from their families. The intimate vocals were recorded on the manor's stone steps.

"Let Down" (notes)

A melodic musing on the disappointment of glib sentimentality promoted in the media; guitarist Jonny Greenwood plays in a different time signature to amplify the feeling of disconnection and disorientation. For aural effect, it was recorded in the spacious manor ballroom at 3 a.m.

"Karma Police" (notes)

Named for a band in-joke about the "karma police" nabbing anyone who misbehaved, equated with the overly regimented atmosphere in large organizations. Originally passed on by Marilyn Manson, the concept for the backseat music video led to a hairy situation where Yorke was stuck in a car leaking carbon monoxide fumes (referenced later in "No Surprises").

"Fitter Happier" (notes)

A bleak piece dominated by increasingly surreal robotic pronouncements on ways to live a better life (voiced by the same synthesizer Stephen Hawking uses). Yorke claimed the list of imperatives was "the most upsetting thing I've ever written."

"Electioneering" (notes)

Late '90s Britain was swept by the landslide victory of Tony Blair's "New Labour" party, but this angry broadside held no illusions about modern politics. Inspired by both the Poll Tax Riots that helped remove Margaret Thatcher from power and the gladhanding "rope line" atmosphere that dogged the band's American tours.

"Climbing Up the Walls" (notes)

An eerie track from the perspective of various creeping horrors, from serial killers to insane asylums to "the monster in the closet." Prompted by Yorke's experience working part-time in a sanitarium emptied of many dangerous patients by Conservative budget cuts. Incorporates a string section modeled on Krzysztof Penderecki's nerve-wracking "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima."

"No Surprises" (notes)

The first song recorded for the album (and on the first take). The music video, involving Yorke locked into a 2001-esque space helmet slowly filling with water, was somewhat disturbing to make, even with special effects tricks to speed up the submersion sequence.

"Lucky" (notes)

Recorded in five hours for a charity benefiting Bosnian War victims, the band considered this track their best. Brian Eno agreed, calling it "the most beautiful song I've heard for a long, long time."

"The Tourist" (notes)

A slower, spacier closing track written by Greenwood as a reaction the breakneck pace of the other tracks. Thematically linked to the rampant pace of technology as well as to the opening track's car crash, implying a kind of Joycean circularity to the album.

MeFi Music Challenge: Recently announced and still open to applications is next month's Music Challenge -- multiple cover versions of every OK Computer track by Mefites of all stripes. Discussion is over in MetaTalk; here's the set list for now:

Airbag: unSane, The Great Big Mulp, naju, davejay, Corduroy, bedhead Paranoid Android: InfidelZombie, chococat, Ardiril, Jofus, ignignokt, ZsigE Subterranean Homesick Alien: snsranch, dobie, god hates math, Rube R. Nekker, burnmp3s, dismas Exit Music (For A Film): askmeaboutLOOM, koeselitz, th3ph17, two lights above the sea, O9scar, the_very_hungry_caterpillar Let Down: dubold, pyramid termite, The World Famous, curious nu, fleacircus, theichibun Karma Police: uncleozzy, tigrefacile, erikgrande, Acari, michaelh, lazaruslong, modernserf Fitter Happier: sleepy pete, azarbayejani, flapjax at midnite, Listener, threeants, freya_lamb Electioneering: TwoWordReview, motty, muhonnin, roboton666, not_on_display, MrVisible Climbing Up The Walls: Doleful Creature, Elmore, supercres, Captain Najork, Johnny Wallflower, Sebmojo No Surprises: cortex, Grangousier, John Cohen, visual mechanic, OrangeGloves, the jam Lucky: grog, cmoj, googly, idiopath, Karlos the Jackal, greenish The Tourist: cathodeheart, qnarf, sinnesloeschen, Philosopher Dirtbike, evoque, zix

Other: An entire OK Computer live show (previously) Liner notes and artwork (part 2) The album's cryptic liner art analyzed Interview with cover designer Stanley Donwood Were OK Computer and In Rainbows meant to be played over each other? Radiohead and T.S. Eliot Not from OKC, but this creepy animation based on "2+2=5" is worth watching (previously) as is the "Homeless Mustard" cover of "Creep" (previously)

This post could not handle a link from the Daily Mail

mippy — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:36:47 -0800

As a flag-waving Britain prepares for the Jubilee/Olympics (or in the words of the comedy Twenty Twelve, 'Jubilympics'), the nation seems divided between the wildly enthusiastic and those suffering from Patriotism Fatigue(link may be NSFW). James Ward (of Boring fame) does a round-up of spurious Jubilympic themed products, after consumption of which you may require a sick bag.

British Bus Shelters

misteraitch — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:20:47 -0800

Some British bus shelters are, implausibly, powered by the light of the sun, and some can see what you’re up to & tell you to stop doing it. Others smell like baked potatoes, or dispense free pieces of cake. Others still can get you high if you set them on fire. More often though, these are dreary, malodorous locales where one is increasingly less likely to see a bus, let alone three coming along at once. Photographer Steve Ellaway has embarked on a project to photograph the bus shelters of South Wales: an unpromising subject on the surface of it, but one that has yielded surprisingly rich and varied results.

British Council Film Collection

Abiezer — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:34:37 -0800

The British Council Film Collection "is an archive of over 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played. Preserved by the BFI National Film Archive and digitised by means of a generous donation by Google, the films are now yours to view, to download and to play with for the first time." A couple of essays and case studies also already up, with more to come.

Colonial sunset

infini — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:39:35 -0800

The Foreign Office’s “guilty secret” revealed Thousands of documents detailing some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire were systematically destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of post-independence governments. Those papers that survived were flown back to Britain and hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive in breach of legal obligations for them to be transferred into the public domain. The Guardian details some of those papers released earlier this week. The name of Barack Obama, the father of the American president, is on the top of a list of names revealed in a hitherto secret British colonial file of Kenyans studying in the US. In June 1957, Eric Griffiths-Jones, the attorney general of the British administration in Kenya, wrote to the governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, detailing the way the regime of abuse at the colony's detention camps was being subtly altered. The "elimination of ranking terrorists" was a repeated theme in secret monthly reports on casualty figures circulated by the director of intelligence in British-controlled Malaya during the 1950s. The extent to which successive British governments set out to hoodwink parliament and the public over the decision to give the US a military base in Diego Garcia and force out the islanders is now laid bare. Britain planned to test a very virulent type of poison gas in what is now Botswana, the colonial archives reveal.

Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.

Helga-woo — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 06:25:32 -0800

Network Rail virtual archive Original drawings and plans of Britain's railway infrastructure from Network Rail, including the Forth Bridge, Bristol Temple Meads station, the Tay Bridge and lots more.

London is full of ghosts

timshel — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:04:27 -0800

"Everyone knows there’s a catastrophe unfolding, that few can afford to live in their own city. It was not always so." - China Miéville on Apocalyptic London

Austerity

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:11:53 -0800

If Britain were Greece... (audio slideshow)

The allegedly amputated arm of the law

jaduncan — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:45:31 -0800

MI6 intends to use the 1994 Intelligence Services Act to deny all application of UK law to extraordinary rendition. The case in question revolves around the forcible extradition of several Libyan dissidents back to Gaddafi's Libya and entirely predictable torture, including a pregnant woman. s.7 of the Act states that any intelligence agency action authorised on foreign soil by a Secretary of State is automatically exempt from legal action in any UK court. This could be said to conflict in some ways with the Human Rights Act 1998 and international law, especially since the HRA may be held to have implicitly repealed s.7 of the 1994 Act. Intelligence Services Act 1994 s.7: "(1)If, apart from this section, a person would be liable in the United Kingdom for any act done outside the British Islands, he shall not be so liable if the act is one which is authorised to be done by virtue of an authorisation given by the Secretary of State under this section. (2)In subsection (1) above “liable in the United Kingdom ” means liable under the criminal or civil law of any part of the United Kingdom." Subsection 3 is too long to quote in full here, but contains important restrictions on when permission and the resultant exemptions can be given, but provides for the following limit: "(a)that any acts which may be done in reliance on the authorisation or, as the case may be, the operation in the course of which the acts may be done will be necessary for the proper discharge of a function of the Intelligence Service" Human Rights Act 1998: -S. 6(1-2) makes it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with convention rights: "(1)It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right. (2)Subsection (1) does not apply to an act if— (a)as the result of one or more provisions of primary legislation, the authority could not have acted differently; or (b)in the case of one or more provisions of, or made under, primary legislation which cannot be read or given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights, the authority was acting so as to give effect to or enforce those provisions."- S. 7(1) allows a person who claims that a public authority has acted unlawfully, to bring proceedings against the authority. "(1)A person who claims that a public authority has acted (or proposes to act) in a way which is made unlawful by section 6(1) may— (a)bring proceedings against the authority under this Act in the appropriate court or tribunal, or (b)rely on the Convention right or rights concerned in any legal proceedings,but only if he is (or would be) a victim of the unlawful act."

The Fall of the House of Murdoch?

strangely stunted trees — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:32:36 -0800

Five senior journalists and editors at the News International tabloid the Sun were arrested on Saturday along with three public officials as Operation Elveden, the British investigation into bribery of police by News International papers, broadened to include corruption of officials in the armed forces and Ministry of Defence as well. The Guardian reports that the new arrests escalate the stakes of the ongoing US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation of News Corporation, which carries potential penalties of millions of dollars of fines and prison sentences for senior executives. The scandal originated with an investigation of the Sun's now-defunct sister tabloid, the News of the World, hacking into the voicemail accounts of figures at the center of news stories, including senior politicians, victims of crime and the survivors of British soldiers killed in combat, and a subsequent cover-up and whitewashed police inquiry. The Sun and the News of the World were the original acquisitions in Murdoch's 1969 expansion of News Limited outside of Australia. The New York Times reports that a central element of the investigation of the top echelons of News International will be a 2008 memo to James Murdoch laying out the extent of the phone-hacking, contradicting the the younger Murdoch's previous testimony before Parliament that he had been unaware of the scandal until 2010.

It is a peanut in our total

infini — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:04:47 -0800

India tells Britain: We don't want your aid According to a leaked memo, the foreign minister, Nirupama Rao, proposed “not to avail [of] any further DFID [British] assistance with effect from 1st April 2011,” because of the “negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID”. But officials at DFID, Britain’s Department for International Development, told the Indians that cancelling the programme would cause “grave political embarrassment” to Britain, according to sources in Delhi. Further embarressment ensues. Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is incredible that ministers have defended the aid we send to India, insisting it is vital, when now we learn that even the Indian government doesn’t want it.”

The De-Industrial Revolution

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:48:50 -0800

Why doesn't Britain make things any more?

Reel History of Britain

Trurl — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:38:03 -0800

The Reel History of Britain, a BFI/BBC co-production, brings archive film into the nation’s living rooms. The footage shown in the series has been selected from the hundreds of thousands of films and programmes preserved in Britain’s film and television archives. We are complementing the series by making many of the films featured in The Reel History of Britain available online in their entirety, alongside expert commentary from the nation’s archive curators.

You have been watching...

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:57:01 -0800

RIP David Croft, writer / producer of some of Britain's most well known and loved sitcoms including Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de -Hi! and 'Allo 'Allo!