Questions tagged [united-kingdom]

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe.

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Do trucks cause disproportionate pedestrian and cyclist fatalities for the distance travelled?

In an interview with Autonomy, Volta Trucks founder, Carl-Magnus Norden, said: in London trucks constituted only 4% of road miles but 26% of pedestrian fatalities and 78% of cyclist fatalities. I've ...
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Are half of transgender women inmates (in England and Wales) sex offenders or category A prisoners?

The group Fair Play for Women published a report in Oct 2017 claiming that Half of all trans-identifying males (transwomen) in prison are convicted sex offenders or dangerous Category A prisoners. ...
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Did UK hospital tell the police that a patient was not raped because the alleged attacker was transgender?

The Daily Telegraph wrote in 2022 (archive.is link): Hospital told police patient was not raped because alleged attacker was transgender ... Lady Nicholson said that the case had arisen as a direct ...
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Does an official UK government report show 'Hope Not Hate' as a radical extremist hate group?

On the 12th of February 2023 Douglas Murray, Author and political commentator, wrote the following tweet: Evidence from official UK government report shows radical far-left group ‘Hope Not Hate’ (⁦@...
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Were over 3000 persons arrested in Britain for social media posts in 2018?

In 2019, John Anderson interviewed Konstantin Kisin. The discussion is transcribed by me. I is the interviewer and K is for Konstantin. K: In Russia last year 400 people were arrested for things that ...
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Do 1 in 4 of us experience mental health problems each year?

I have seen this quote before but today I received an internal company email with this quote. The ratio is also cited on page 7 of this 2014 report by Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London: In any ...
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Is there a significant number of people who claim benefits when they could work instead?

The Home Secretary of the United Kingdom Suella Braverman recently claimed that there is a "stubborn core of our population that sees welfare as the go-to option [and] is not motivated... to get ...
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Does an “average-sized” power station pay over a quarter billion pounds per day when unable to generate electricity?

Given the war in Ukraine and associated sanctions on Russia and reciprocal withholding of supply, Europe is facing a gas shortage. The UK imports very little Russian gas, but because of the reduced ...
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Did UK police agree to drop sex-offense charges in exchange for an apology?

In the United Kingdom, Community Resolution Orders give the police the powers to deal with minor offences in which the offender pleads guilty and agrees to reparations, without using the court systems ...
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Is their tax bill the single biggest cost of living for most households in the UK?

Mark Littlewood wrote an opinion article in The Telegraph [unpaywalled alternative] atacking the UK's Conservative Party. He claimed: For most households, the single biggest cost of living is their ...
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Was 17 the average life expectancy in Liverpool in the 1850s?

DK History of Britain and Ireland: The Definitive Visual Guide (2011) claims: 17 The average life expectancy in years in Liverpool during the 1850s. High infant mortality depressed the figure, as did ...
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In 1936, did brothers Mark and David Ferrow transition?

The story of transgender brothers Mark and David Ferrow has become popular on Tumblr and Twitter in recent weeks. It claims In 1934-1936, trans brothers Mark and David Ferrow of Yarmouth, UK both ...
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Is the "Dutch reach" standard practice in the Netherlands?

The United Kingdom is introducing a new traffic rule. According to this BBC article, A method known as the "Dutch reach" is to be introduced to the Highway Code in the UK after years of ...
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Was Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, the largest private house in the UK?

Wentworth Woodhouse is a large country house in South Yorkshire, England. In 2016, Mansions Global describe it as: the largest private house in the UK In 2014, Yorkshire Life described it as the ...
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Was "their" a singular pronoun in English before the 16th century?

I saw this meme on facebook: So, was "their" truly a genderless 3rd person singular pronoun prior to some change in the 16th/17th century? This Wikipedia article indicates that the ...
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Is the UK lorry driver shortage unrelated to Brexit? Do EU countries have equal or greater shortages?

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claims that Brexit is not one of the causes of the UK lorry driver shortage which is causing shortages of food in supermarkets and shortages of fuel in petrol ...
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Is the UK experiencing wage growth for people on low incomes?

In a TV interview with Andrew Marr on 3 Oct 2021, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that UK wages were growing for people on low incomes. The interviewer (Marr) said that wasn't true - Johnson ...
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Did a 'Black History Month website' call white people ‘genetically defective descendants of albino mutants’?

Telegraph.co.uk reports that 'A Black History Month website' has made claims such as : [white people are the] genetically defective descendants of albino mutants [white man can] “fantasise that he ...
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Why does PHE data indicate higher death numbers for vaccinated than unvaccinated persons?

INTRODUCTION: The Public Health England technical briefings are technical documents indicating specific statistics and their breakdowns regarding COVID. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/...
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Is there a breeding population of big cats living wild in the UK?

In an October 2020 Daily Mail article, a 'big cat tracker', Rhoda Watkins claims the UK has a healthy wild population of leopards and pumas. However, when I search on Wikipedia and other wildlife/...
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Are 85% of autistic college grads unemployed?

In 2016, a paper entitled Autism in the Workplace: Assessing the Transition Needs of Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder claimed: The most recent unemployment statistics for adults with ASD ...
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Is most intermediate level radioactive waste according to UK regulations barely radioactive?

Lester Haines writes in Sellafield's nuclear waste measured in El Reg units: Most intermediate level waste is barely radioactive at all. If you put a completely legal luminous watch in a barrel ...
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Is only 13% of the UK economy and only 8% of its businesses involved with european Union trade?

CAPX recently published a pro-Brexit opinion piece by John Longworth who headed a pro-Brexit pressure group. He argued that the UK were being held to ransom and were being treated like a "vassal ...
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Was the UK the third poorest member of the EU despite being the second biggest net contributor in 1979?

This video on YouTube of Margaret Thatcher at the EU Dublin Council on the 29th of November 1979 seems to suggest that the UK was the second biggest net contributor to the EU and also the third ...
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Are the "DHSC Communications Team" using bots to flood social media with posts showing NHS workers supportive of government policy?

The image below seems to be circulating on Facebook along with a text To give you an idea of the times we are living in, Twitter has been flooded with hundreds of new accounts today. All ...
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Is it probable that the UK COVID-19 death count will eclipse China's? [closed]

The BBC News on March 25 cited a "best case" projected death-count for COVID-19 as 20,000: it is hoped the steps which have been taken, which are essentially about suppressing the virus, ...
Antonius Gavin's user avatar
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Were elderly patients denied dialysis in the UK during the 70s?

During a news broadcast by the Israeli public channel on March 15th, prof. Jonathan Halevy, the manager of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center said: לבריטניה יש היסטוריה עם בעניין הזה. בשנות ה-70 לא עשו ...
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Did British homes increase greenhouse gas emissions by 4% in 2018?

According to this report from The Times, Greenhouse gas emissions fell in every sector — including transport, industry and energy — in 2018, but emissions from homes went up 4 per cent, government ...
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Do 30 year old Millennials have lower average household income than Gen X did?

A 2017 Business Insider article claims that, in the UK: for the first time in more than 100 years the current generation of workers — millennials — are doing worse than the generation before them, ...
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55 votes
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Was a four year-old forced to sleep on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary?

I'm referring to this article, where a four year old with suspected pneumonia was, due to overcrowding after the NHS cuts, forced to sleep on the floor of the hospital. Numerous Twitter accounts, all ...
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12 votes
1 answer
819 views

Was it traditional for MPs to fully recline on a House of Commons bench?

At 1:09 of this Sep 18 2019 the Telegraph interview, Jacob Rees-Mogg proclaims JRM: It's very traditional to sit like that in the House of Commons, it has to be said. Christopher Hope, ...
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3 votes
1 answer
640 views

Has the Labour Party in Tottenham required in-home visits for Jews to join, at least in the instances described below?

In this tweet, Stephen Canning, a representative of Bocking, Essex is claiming that 25 Jewish applicants had their membership request into Labour pended dependent upon a home visit. STAGGERING: If ...
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3 votes
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534 views

Did an Irish teen accidentally fire a bottle rocket at Queen Elizabeth IIs Motorcade during her 1977 Silver Jubilee visit to the Isle of Man?

I just came across this screenshot of a Tumblr conversation on Twitter: In the story, the author describes how his father took part of a scouting jamboree on the Isle of Man in 1977 and set off some ...
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Did Yuri Gagarin eat a lemon out a cup of tea when dining with the English Queen?

There is an anecdote, popular in Russia, about Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, who was served tea with lemon when dining with the English Queen. After he had had the tea, he reached into the ...
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29 votes
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Did Bercow say he would have sent the EU extension-request letter himself, had Johnson not done so?

The Express claims: Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow said if Mr Johnson will not send the letter to the EU to request a delay, he would. Did Bercow actually say this?
Dolphin 613 Motorboat's user avatar
31 votes
2 answers
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Has Boris Johnson ever referred to any of his opponents as "traitors"?

Yesterday Paula Sherriff said (quote from Hansard, emphasis mine): We stand here, Mr Speaker, under the shield of our departed friend. Many of us in this place are subject to death threats and ...
Mark Amery's user avatar
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1 answer
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Has no UK party won a majority of seats with around 35% of the popular vote?

In Yahoo news from today, it is said that despite the Conservative party's lead in opinion polls, it is headed for a hung Parliament. One of the arguments is that “No party has ever won a majority ...
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0 answers
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Is this "the largest single donation to Oxford University since the Renaissance"?

The University of Oxford recently announced a £150 million donation from Stephen Schwartzmann, which their press release (PDF) prominently calls "the largest single donation to Oxford University since ...
georgewatson's user avatar
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119 views

Has austerity caused the death of over 130,000 people in the UK? [duplicate]

On BBC Question Time, Thursday 13 June 2019, Francesca Martinez said: Austerity has caused the death of over 130,000 human beings in Britain. That is absolutely outrageous. That is 130,000 mums and ...
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9 votes
1 answer
780 views

Could a foreign head of government be inadmissible to the US because of past drug use?

From the Guardian: Michael Gove’s admission that he took cocaine 20 years ago has triggered speculation that if he were to become the next British prime minister, he could be banned from visiting the ...
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Do UK background checks successfully ‘prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups’? [closed]

When working with children in the UK, it's common to hear griping about the restrictions and administrative overhead imposed by compliance with the Disclosure & Barring (DBS) regime. Despite this ...
08915bfe02's user avatar
39 votes
2 answers
8k views

Are 700 more planes a day expected to fly because of the Heathrow expansion?

Some people are protesting a proposed expansion of London Heathrow. I saw some protestors of the Heathrow expansion with signs that read "Stop 700 more planes a day". Greenpeace tells me "A third ...
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13 votes
1 answer
957 views

Does the UK provide 50% of EU's waters? And does this imply anything about fishing rights?

Leading Brexiteer Owen Paterson wrote in an article in the Telegraph about fisheries: At present, the UK provides 50 per cent of the EU’s waters but receives only a 25 per cent share of the Total ...
Dolphin 613 Motorboat's user avatar
42 votes
4 answers
10k views

Did the UK government pay "millions and millions of dollars" to try to snag Julian Assange?

In a Fox News broadcast (timestamp 2:59), Greg Palkot (London-based senior foreign affairs correspondent for Fox News) said of Julian Assange: "He has cost the UK government and security forces, ...
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16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is the rate of food poisoning in the USA much worse than the rate in the UK?

One part of the interminable debate in the UK about leaving the EU has been a debate about what the UK would have to agree to if they do trade deals with other countries. In an interview with BBC ...
matt_black's user avatar
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3 votes
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Does the UK subsidise fossil fuels more than other European countries? [closed]

According to a recent report in the Guardian the UK has much higher subsidies on fossil fuels than other European countries (presumably, it is the Guardian, this is a very bad thing). They report: ...
matt_black's user avatar
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6 votes
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Were 59% of British people unable to name the then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015?

According to this article The British public still have no idea what they voted for with Brexit – it’s not elitist to admit it, it is claimed: A survey carried out in the run up to the 2015 general ...
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1 answer
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Do a significant proportion of the British public think "no-deal" Brexit means staying in the EU?

Brexit is the plan to take the UK out of the European Union. The way the law is currently framed means that this will happen automatically at the end of march 2019 if no transition deal is arranged. ...
matt_black's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
625 views

Will smart meters cost each UK household 420 GBP?

The roll out of smart meters is well on its way in the UK. In this article it is claimed that smart meters will cost each household 420 pounds. Apparently, this money will be taken from each customers ...
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9 votes
1 answer
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Do 90% of rape cases in the UK go unreported?

According to this image which I've seen on facebook a number of times, 2 in 1000 rapists are falsely accused and 90% go are unreported. I already know that the number of falsely accused rapists shown ...
Tim's user avatar
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