MetaFilter posts tagged with UK and greatbritain

I have nothing to declare except my prejudice.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:22:08 -0800

"Let them arrest me". Vehemently anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders was scheduled to travel to London tomorrow to attend a screening of his controversial short film Fitna (wiki, mefi). Yesterday however, the UK's Home Secretary notified Wilders that his presence in the UK would pose a "serious threat to [...] public security" (PDF), presumably intending to refuse his entry into UK. Wilders plans to board the flight anyway, daring British authorities to arrest him. Not that he's sitting so comfy at home either, however: Wilders faces prosecution in the Netherlands for hate speech and inciting discrimination. The decision to bar the self-styled "freedom fighter" from entering Britain has met with widespread criticism from the Dutch cabinet -- which by the way is completely made up of Wilders' political opponents -- and fellow MPs. The Dutch Foreign Minister has phoned the UK Foreign Secretary and stated he was "deeply upset and disappointed" by the decision. British papers join the chorus of condemnation.

"One sheds one's sickness in books." D. H. Lawrence

anotherpanacea — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:41:23 -0800

Books that heal: bibliotherapy banishes vexations of soul. Maybe.

"The package was not recorded or registered."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:55:31 -0800

Oops: UK tax collection agency loses discs containing personal details of 25 million Britons in the mail.

It's gonna be multiple choice, right?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:52:59 -0800

Think you're smart? Apply for a Prize Fellowship at Oxford's All Souls College. [via adrianhon]

Toob to Beeb

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 13:38:40 -0800

"I feel guilty because I have friends that are working really hard to get into television or acting and I'm just sitting here having not done anything more than enjoy playing with gadgets."

Susi Weaser (24) makes little one-minute gadget reviews and posts them on YouTube . The BBC must have liked them - because they hired her.

Brownlow's and Mollo's Nazi Britain

matteo — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:04:11 -0800

"The German invasion of Britain took place in July 1940, after the British retreat from Dunkirk". We see, documentary-style, members of the Wehrmacht trooping past Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedral, lounging in the parks, having their jackboots shined by old cockneys, and appreciatively visiting the shrine of that good German, Prince Albert, in Kensington Gardens. Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's film "It Happened Here", with its cast of hundreds (.pdf), imagines what a Nazi occupation might have been like — complete with underground resistance, civilian massacres, civil strife, torch-lit rallies, Jewish ghettos, and organized euthanasia. Shot on weekends, eight years in production, made for about $20,000 with nonactors and borrowed equipment and Stanley Kubrick's help, "It Happened Here" was originally envisioned by Brownlow as a sort of Hammer horror flick about a Nazi Britain. Thanks in part to Mollo's fanatical concern with historical accuracy, however, it became something else. The most remarkable thing about this account of everyday fascism is that it has no period footage. Brownlow's 1968 book about the film's production, "How It Happened Here", has recently been republished. More inside.

penthouse dealers

The Jesse Helms — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:21:51 -0800

"Were there U.K. publications?" Hilton responded: "No... there is stuff in London." Hilton's lawyer, Larry Stein, jumped in: "London is a U.K. publication." Her retort: "Right. U.K. Whatever."

Anglo-Sikh Heritage

plep — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 03:56:54 -0800

Anglo-Sikh Heritage. Sikhs and Britain. More at the Sikh Cyber-Museum.

temporary temples

specialk420 — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:50:04 -0800

temporary temples
man made or not ... they are cool. via the new newstoday

Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

arto — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 00:21:35 -0800

Hippie Atrocities and Beautiful Freaks -- Oz Magazine was, for a ten year run during the Sixties and Seventies, Australia's, and later England's, premier underground satire 'zine. Featuring contributions from (among others) Lenny Bruce and Germain Greere, and subject to two obscenity trials--one in Australia and another, more famous one following the editors' exile to England--it evolved, in its English incarnation, a wicked, witty and of course, thouroughly psychedelic design aesthetic. There are galleries of cover art here and here, and a Shockwave adaptation of the infamous School Kids issue here. [warning: some images NSFW.]

Microsoft announces music service:

aladfar — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 10:30:04 -0800

Microsoft announces music service: Apple roughed up in playground, candy stolen.

The life of Twine

twine42 — Sat, 05 Apr 2003 14:50:38 -0800

My bet is no-one will care, but I'm marrying my fiancee six months today. Who cares, you say. But think about this... Current UK law means you can either be married by an Anglican minister or by a Registrar. Due to ecumenical fun we're getting married in an Anglican Parish Church with a URC minister and have to get a registrar to stand in the church. Why the religious difference? Does it matter?

Amazon UK taken down by demand in cheap PDAs

andyHollister — Wed, 19 Mar 2003 05:25:55 -0800

Amazon UK was taken down for over an hour today after a rush of orders caused by apparently mis-pricing Compaq HP iPAQ H5450 Pocket PCs and HP iPAQ H1910 Pocket PCs at £23 GBP and £7 GBP respectively (normally priced at over £200 GBP each)!! I know a few people who have ordered one or two ;) - Amazon is back up and running now but we're all a bit in the dark as to whether we'll get our cut-price goods or not. Logic and fair-play (and the Trades Description Act) dicatates that we should get our goods - but I wonder.... (see also here at The Register)

Entrances to Hell

staggernation — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 09:18:04 -0800

Entrances to Hell abound throughout the United Kingdom. Who knew?

UK millenium engineering projects

gravelshoes — Sat, 30 Nov 2002 07:07:01 -0800

I recently rode the Falkirk Wheel, perhaps the least well known of a number of UK projects marking the Millenium, which fuse stunning design with ingenious engineering. [more inside]

Great Britons

feelinglistless — Sun, 24 Nov 2002 16:54:45 -0800

Winston Churchill has been voted as the Greatest Briton in a BBC survey. Yes, he gave some great speeches when he needed to, but who gave him the language to make them? Who is missing from the list?

Mocata — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 09:34:32 -0800

In the new LRB, a pretty good attempt to answer the pressing question - why do the Bush people want to attack Iraq so much?

tabbycat — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 09:27:50 -0800

Cooking the Books The Office of National Statistics feels that the UK population is a little too small - so they're inventing one million people to fill the gap. Why did they do a census if they were going to make it all up?

dejah420 — Mon, 13 May 2002 08:15:35 -0800

Mother jailed for girls' truancy A question for our British gang, is truancy such a problem in the UK now that this is really necessary? When I went to school in England, lo those mumblemumble years ago, I don't remember it being this bad. For the rest of the world, do you think truancy in your country would justify locking up the primary caregiver or is this punishing the wrong person? Can parents be held responsible for everything a child does? And better said, should they? When should we grant children the priviledges and penalties of their own autonomous actions?

Summer — Sat, 06 Apr 2002 04:31:10 -0800

Britishness at its absolute bloody best I watched the whole Queen Mum procession thing yesterday, complete with "frantically filling BBC commentators", and this Brains Trust article was the perfect antidote. My favourite though is Die Sissons Die

feelinglistless — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 13:47:59 -0800

Another trip into TV Hell. In the UK we're much kinder to bad television -- shows will go on for weeks without an audience and often get comissioned for second series before someone releases they're awful (yes you 'Let Them Eat Cake' -- if that French and Saunder monstrosity had been on UStv it would have been cancelled after two episodes -- if it had been comissioned at all). 'Off The Telly' considers all the things prospective television producers need to avoid if they're going to create something they're proud of. Does anyone else have any bad examples?

Lanternjmk — Wed, 20 Feb 2002 08:39:53 -0800

Triple Palindrome set for tonight. For those that follow British time, tonight, at 2 minutes past 8 your clock will read 20:02 20/02/2002

Voyageman — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 14:14:49 -0800

Poor Prince Harry Drug rehab clinic it is. Also chips thumb playing football and puts foot through a glass door at party. Wonder if its all connected. PS Rehab for weed and alcohol only? Fishy.

feelinglistless — Mon, 24 Dec 2001 04:44:54 -0800

Was Christmas TV really ever all that special? 'Off The Telly' reviews three decades of Christmas Day television in Britain. "It's funny...that Christmas time is actually an excuse for some of the worst TV atrocities of the year to be inflicted upon us. Christmas telly does not equate with quality. And yet, never does TV become a more integral part of our own family or personal routines and traditions. And never are we so receptive to a gathering of disparate middle-of-the-road celebrities and their stale party pieces." And for the ultra-cynic, TV-Go-Home's Charlie Booker presents an alternative schedule.

feelinglistless — Thu, 06 Sep 2001 16:03:13 -0800

Over-educated, over here and overwhelmed The teacher shortage in Britain is so acute, that talent from the four corners is being shipped in at double the cost. The irony is, that if our teachers were actually paid the salary this gentleman is getting, there would be more of them...