MetaFilter posts tagged with britain

The Big Chill

Artw — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:15:21 -0800

What Britain looks like without the Gulf Stream.

Secrets of The Great British Sex Clubs by Tony Perrottet

jason's_planet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:18:40 -0800

(NSFW) So Much For the Stiff Upper Lip. Slate writer gets jiggy wit the history of Georgian Britain's aristocratic sex clubs.

Recanting Jihad

netbros — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:59:13 -0800

Renouncing Islamism: To the brink and back again — A generation of British Islamists have been trained in Afghanistan to fight a global jihad. But now some of those would-be extremists have had a change of heart. Johann Hari finds out what made them give up the fight.

"Britain punches above its weight"

Petrot — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:44:55 -0800

Britain: the birthplace of globalisation in the 19th century; ruler of a worldwide empire. But why, over a century later, is the UK still appearing as a major player on the political world stage? Its entire population of around 60m is comparable only with the population of California and Texas combined. Geographically it is a smaller size than Texas, and cut off from the larger and potentially more-politically-influential Eurozone. Is it relying on its history as a superpower, or on its current relations with superpowers? Britain's Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, still sees Britain as having a vital international role, "Our role in Europe magnifies the power of our ideas, and strengthens our international clout in Washington, Beijing and Moscow". The "Special Relationship" between Britain and the US is something British politicians try to maximise, although many in Britain see it as a one-sided arrangement, with Britain loyally following in its master's footsteps. "The concept of a special relationship with the UK is of little relevance or interest to most Americans. It is rarely a topic raised or discussed by the media or political analysts. British support for US foreign policy, if discussed at all, is largely assumed. On the other side of the Atlantic, the special relationship generates significant debate and is often a source of controversy,"( James K Wither, U.S. Army War College.) Michael Codner, head of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, believes Britain still has a taste for being a world power, with the British Armed Forces playing a significant part, although "our perception of the nation as a great power was pretty undermined - we really were starting to see ourselves as rather a footling nation." However a lesser role in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to the US, is no minor initiative for Britain, who aim to do things their own way. Special relationship or not, the economic downfall affects us both. Britain, although a world-class financial hub, is being left behind. Politically, militarily, financially, Britain manages to be far more influential (although not necessarily successfully) than its diminutive stature suggests. But is it due to its own prowess, or due to hanging onto the coattails of others?

"Everything is pessimistic. Your grandma stocks up on washing-up liquid in case there’s another Holocaust."

sleepcrime — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:48:28 -0800

Marc Isaacs is a British documentary maker with a talent for making poignant, revealing films about people. You can watch his new film Men In The City ‒ an affecting and beautifully shot profile of four very different London workers ‒ on the iPlayer, following its broadcast on the BBC yesterday. You also shouldn't miss his BAFTA-nominated short film Lift, filmed entirely from within an elevator inside a block of flats, and All White In Barking, a study from an English town with high immigration and strong BNP support ( pertinently ). Another interview with Marc.

Freedom Can Go To Hell

Talez — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:03:26 -0800

Geert Wilders is now making a splash in London drawing a protest from the hardline Islamic members of the British public. The protests featured such memorable slogans as "Freedom Can Go to Hell" and "Islam will dominate the world" and eventually forced Geers to change the location of his press conference. On the ground interviews conducted by Press TV show the attitude of some of the crowd. British nationalists are naturally responding in kind.

Podcast about the history of the Normans

Kattullus — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:24:17 -0800

Norman Centuries is a new podcast by Lars Brownworth, best known for his podcast series 12 Byzantine Rulers (previously). Norman Centuries, as the name suggests, recounts the history of the Normans, those literal vikings who gained Normandy and then England, Sicily, Malta, Antioch and, well, a whole heck of a lot of other places too. They were a conquering bunch. First two episodes are out with more to follow. [iTunes link]

SWEDEMASON

flatluigi — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:35:03 -0800

The Works of Swede Mason: "Jeremy Clarkson," "Get in the Back of the Van," "Jungle All The Way," "Bill Wyman's Metal Detector," "Put the Lotion in the Basket, *" "Got The Sucka," "The Gobshite, *" "Squashed Thingy," "Spare Me The Madness," and the pair of tracks based on Neighbors deaths "Coffee And Croissants" and "Todd....Dead." note: starred tracks have NSFW audio. mp3 downloads can be found here.

You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.

puckish — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:08:41 -0800

High court serves first injunction via Twitter. British court served the notice against an unknown internet user, after ruling that the offending Twitter account, BlaneysBlarney, impersonated the Donal Blaney, owner of law firm Griffin Law, who has a blog in the same name. Called "Blaney's Blarney Order," it's named after the right-wing blogger who filed the complaint. From Blaney's blog: Today is a great day for the overwhelming majority of well-meaning, decent people who use the internet and a bad day for bullies. It is, as I have said in the media, the day the scales of justice were tipped back in favour of innocent victims. I am proud that my firm, Griffin Law, has set precedent and made law today. Blaney isn't the first person to take on rogue Twitter impersonators. Slate's Emily Bazelon has written on impersonation paranoia, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has tweeted on the problem (if you just want to stalk and don't want to impersonate, you can go here). UK law states that injunctions don't have to be served in person -- they can be delivered via fax or email as well. In this case, the twitter user will be notified the next time they log in. Read up on Twitter's impersonation policy, plus handy guideline for what to do if you are served with an injunction in Britain.

Utopian Communes in the British Isles

Kattullus — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:45:59 -0800

Utopia Britannica is a collection of stories and a gazetter about utopian communes in the British Isles from the 14th Century up until the end of World War II. There are some incredible tales in here, such as 'Free Love' in 19th Century Somerset, St. Kilda, Death of an Island Republic, Percy Bysshe Shelley's attempted communes, Augustus John, the King of Bohemia and many more.

a vague nostalgia for a benevolent, quasi-modernist English bureaucratic aesthetic

RogerB — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:06:28 -0800

Lash Out and Cover Up: Owen Hatherley in Radical Philosophy on "Keep Calm and Carry On," manufactured nostalgia for austerity, and modernist kitsch, in its authoritarian and ironically adapted forms. (Previous calm-keeping and on-carrying and Owen Hatherley.)

Thousands of poems by women writers of the British Isles in the Romantic era

Kattullus — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:28:33 -0800

British Women Romantic Poets Project is a collection of poetry written by women from the British Isles between 1789 and 1832. Over a hundred female poets are represented. Women rarely feature in literary histories of the Romantic period but there is treasure if you search (some poems are, frankly, terrible). A few places to start are Charlotte Turner Smith's Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Christian Ross Milne's Simple Poems on Simple Subjects and Mary Robinson's sonnet cycle Sappho and Phaon. The oddest works to modern readers may be Elizabeth Hitchener's Enigmas, Historical and Geographical and Marianne Curties' Classical Pastime, which are collections of verse riddles (the answers are at the end of the text).

People Like Us -- the documentary series about people, like us.

not_on_display — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:55:23 -0800

In 1999 and 2000, and again from 1995 to 1997, the BBC's Roy Mallard travelled across Britain documenting the everyday lives of ordinary citizens--people like us--for a documentary series with the odd title People Like Us, to show that these everyday peoples' ordinary lives are indeed just like ours, or us, and we, like theirs, or them.
Sample episodes in the series: Actors 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 / a Vicar 1 • 2 • 3 / Freelance Photographer 1 • 2 • 3 / The Pilot Episode, which turned out to be the final episode 1 • 2 • 3 / [Wikipedia] Bonus footage: The Bank Lender / The Solicitor Unfortunately, Roy Mallard's subsequent real life turned out much more uncomfortable than his on(off)-screen persona.

The Cully Flaug'd and other suchlike

tellurian — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:09:34 -0800

British Printed Images to 1700 is a fully searchable (if somewhat buggy at this early stage of release) online library of over 10,000 printed images from early modern Britain. As a taster, here is the naughty Cully Flaug'd [NSFW] of the title.

Hate Wins

chuckdarwin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:40:42 -0800

The far-right, whites-only British National Party (BNP) has won two seats (Andrew Brons, Nick Griffin) in the European Parliament. According to its constitution, the BNP is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948." The BNP also proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home."

Old Weird Brittanica

Miko — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:59:31 -0800

This entrancing 17-minute film compiled from footage of British folk celebrations was put together in honor of a new project created by set designer Simon Costin. Finding much of his artistic inspiration in the folklore of Great Britain, Costin wondered why there was no national center or museum dedicated to studying and collecting these traditional customs. So he's decided to start one, The Museum of British Folklore, and is launching the project this summer by outfitting a 1976 caravan and traveling to folk festivals around the country. The expedition is intended to build interest in the museum project, and to collect and document some of the surprising variety of more than 700 annual, seasonal, often pre-Christian festival celebrations that continue to this day. What's going on in the movie? Depicted in the film (as near as I can tell from the short snippets lacking notes and based upon pieced together clues, so IDs are probably not 100% accurate): Gloucestershire Cheese-rolling Abbots Bromley Horn Dance Morris dancing Mari Lywd Wassail Tar Barrel Burning Padstow May Day Border Morris Mummer's Day, also known as "Darkie Day" Molly Dancing for Plough Monday Jack-in-the-Green Sean-Nos (old style Irish step dancing) The Hunting of the Earl of Rone The Burry Man The Battle Bonfire

Pillocks

Artw — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:57:31 -0800

"The BNP represents Britain's workers? They don't even represent basic British craftsmanship" - a response to the recent political broadcast by the UKs far right extremists the BNP, who are currently trying to exploit expenses scandals hiting the larger parties. Weirdly despite demanding British jobs for British workers their advertising uses American models.

Obama administration's blackmail diplomacy over torture evidence

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:58:11 -0800

The Obama administration has repeatedly threatened to conceal future information of terrorist threats from the British government, unless the British government disobeys the High Court ruling requiring them to release information about the US government's acknowledged torture program. This may be a breach of the Convention Against Torture. Glenn Greenwald has new evidence. Previously.

The sins of the fathers

Joe Beese — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:52:02 -0800

Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre has seen hunger strikes and rioting. Now the British government has issued a report finding that its children "are being denied urgent medical treatment, handled violently and left at risk of serious harm". The Border and Immigration Minister replies, "If people refuse to go home then detention becomes a necessity." Plans have been approved to double the size of the facility. Of course, the right-wing feels that the detainees have it too good already.

“I ran ‘em all!”

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:07:22 -0800

'Roy Of The Rovers' is back... The footballer* has returned to the newsagents in a one-off special. Roy was just one of a number of British comics sport stars that have appeared over the years... such as the notorious 'Look Out For Lefty', er, 'Striker'. My favourite being Alf Tupper - 'Tough Of The Track', a runner whose only performance enhancer was a fish and chip supper straight off the newspaper. *That'll be 'soccer' to our friends across the water.

Field Force to Lhasa

Abiezer — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:36:41 -0800

Field Force to Lhasa 1903-04 Captain Cecil Mainprise accompanied General Sir Francis Younghusband's expedition to Tibet in 1903. He wrote 50 letters home which trace the expedition’s progress into Tibet. Read this insider's account on the day they were written some 105 years later. Final post is 18 November 2009. [Via]

Heroes of UK comics

Artw — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:40:37 -0800

Leo Baxendale, Hunt Emerson Neil Gaiman, Melinda Gebbie, Brendan McCarthy, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Posy Simmonds, Bryan Talbot - Paul Gravett's Heroes of UK Comics

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.

HMS Victory Discovered

tellurian — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:59:54 -0800

World's Mightiest Ship Was Lost Without a Trace in 1744 "In July 1744, she set sail to rescue a Mediterranean convoy blockaded by the French Brest fleet in the River Tagus at Lisbon. After victoriously chasing the French fleet away, she escorted the convoy into the Mediterranean Sea as far as Gibraltar, then set sail to return to her home port in England. During the course of the voyage, her fleet captured a number of valuable prizes, and she was also reported to have taken on board a consignment of 400,000 pounds sterling for Dutch merchants. On her return trip to England, HMS Victory was lost with all hands in a violent storm on October 5, 1744." [pdf] The pdf is also interesting because it has information on how current fishing methods disturb shipwrecks, to wit:

Site 25C lies in an environmental zone that is notorious for trawler disturbance. Trawls equipped with chain mats and 'tickler' chains designed to fluidize the upper layers of sediment and drive flatfish from the seabed into a net weighing about 8,000kg, towed at about 11km per hour, may impact the same area of seabed multiple times each year, destroying 5-65% of the resident fauna and mixing the top 6cm of sediment in a single pass (Duplisea et al., 2001).

Gasparcolor

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:49:24 -0800

Colour on the Thames is a 7 minute film shot in 1935 using Gasparcolor, one of the many early forms of tinting black and white film. Beside Colour on the Thames, which provides a wonderful view of 1930's England, the only film made in Gasparcolor I could find online was Colour Flight by New Zealand artist Len Lye, an abstract cartoon set to instrumental 1930's pop music. The story of Gasparcolor is in itself interesting, for instance touching on Nazis, Hungary between the wars and early color animation.