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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Did the UK homicide rate go up after handgun ownership was banned?
During debates about gun control, I have seen gun advocates quote a statistic that the UK homicide rate increased in 1996 following a ban on handguns. Furthermore, the claim usually goes on to suggest ...
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Are refugees in the UK holidaying in the countries they fled from?
According to UK Conservative MP Adam Holloway, quoted in the Daily Express:
“Likewise, we have people in this country who have come here, claimed asylum and then go back on holiday in the places ...
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Could someone who sent a letter in 19th century London expect a reply within 2 hours?
The official QI Twitter account (@qikipedia) today said the following:
If you sent a letter in 19th century London you could expect a reply within 2 hours
Is there any merit to this claim?
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Is Muhammad one of the most popular names for boys in England and Wales?
A number of articles describe how Muhammad is the most popular name in the UK for baby boys, topping William and other names.
A few links for reference:
2016 Independent article
Muhammad has ...
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Is this photo of Jeremy Corbyn and caption accurate?
At a Time when Margaret Thatcher was calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist, and a young David Cameron was living it up on all expenses paid tours around apartheid South Africa, Jeremy Corbyn was being ...
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Was Stonehenge built in the 1950s?
A set of photos from a Russian web-site apparently show Stonehenge being built in the 1950s, rather than the more customary dates of 3000-2000 BC.
An conspiracy theory web-site Max Resistance ...
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Did the UK slip to sixth largest world economy from fifth, less than 24 hours after the EU referendum vote?
Some news sources have reported that in the 24 hours after the UK's results on the EU referendum came through, the UK dropped from 5th largest economy in the world, to 6th, being overtaken by France.
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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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Are razor blades tax-free in the UK?
A comic by artist Naoise Dolan published March 2015 has been circulating heavily on social media:
The world according to the UK government:
Men’s razors are taxed as necessities because you need to ...
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During Great Britain's coal-free day, were coal plants shut off, or active and generating power GB didn't use?
On Friday 21st April, the UK National Grid announced the following on twitter:
National Grid can confirm that for the past 24 hours, it has supplied GB's electricity demand without the need for #coal ...
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Was the Obama administration responsible for the decision to move the US embassy in London and the sale of the old location?
President Donald Trump claims that moving the US embassy in the United Kingdom to a different location was a bad decision and a "bad deal". He puts the blame on the Obama administration.
Reason I ...
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Does the BBC have TV detector vans and how can they tell if you aren't paying a license fee?
I've heard from more than a few Brits that if you own a TV but don't pay your license fee, they'll come after you with unexpected visits and or fines.
Here is an example article debating their ...
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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 austerity in the UK responsible for "120,000" extra deaths?
The UK government has been implementing tight constraints on public spending to attempt to recover from the 2008 financial crash and bailout. But this austerity is controversial.
A recent report in ...
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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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Is Queen Elizabeth queuing for a sandwich in this photo?
Found it floating around Facebook with comments praising the queen for behaving like ordinary people.
Did the Queen Elizabeth actually queue for a sandwich in this photo? Or something else is ...
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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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Did Putin threaten to have traitors assassinated?
In the recent U.N. Security Council meeting, U.K. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Jonathan Allen quoted Putin by the following words (YouTube link, the relevant part starts at 1:07:30):
...
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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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Is refusing to decrypt data for the police illegal in England and Wales?
I've been recently downloading PuTTY from the official page and I have noticed a message stating:
LEGAL WARNING: Use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink is illegal in countries where encryption is ...
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Are exams getting easier, or are students getting smarter?
There is an interesting trend in test scores in exams (GCSE and A-level) in the UK: they are increasing, or so the trend in the grades would tend to show. This is known as grade inflation and affects ...
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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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Did "the UK court system abduct and murder a baby" with mitochondrial depletion syndrome?
According to a blog post by the Mises Institute:
...the court system in the United Kingdom, at the behest of National Health Service bureaucrats, abducted and murdered an 8-month-old baby...
...the ...
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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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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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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 ...
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Does Queen Elizabeth II own 6,600 million acres of land?
According to WhoOwnsTheWorld.com, Queen Elizabeth II owns 6,600 million acres. They claim,
Largest five personal landowners on Earth
Queen Elizabeth II 6,600 million acres
King Abdullah ...
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Was Facebook cited as a reason for a third of UK divorces in 2010 in which unreasonable behaviour was a factor?
According to the Daily Mail:
Facebook is becoming a major factor in marriage breakdowns and is
increasingly being used as a source of evidence in divorce cases,
according to lawyers.
The ...
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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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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?
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Did this building cause carpet to burn and cars to melt?
The BBC reports that a building with curved glass in London appears to have caused damage nearby as a result of the architecture focusing the sun's rays.
Seems plausible enough to me, but is this ...
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Did non-voters outnumber the supporters of each political party in the UK in 2010?
I have noticed this image in social media recently:
Transcription:
Non-voters outnumbered the supporters of every single political party in 2010
Did not vote: 15.9m - these people could change ...
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Do (non-British) EU citizens make up 95% of the veterinary workforce in UK food production?
In a complex story about the potential gridlock of a no-deal Brexit, the following claim is made:
[T]he UK could try to move past the immediate chaos of no-deal, pull itself together, and level-up ...
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Are crop circles man-made?
Every summer in England crop circles make the news for a few days. But journalists never really attempt to "solve" the question of who is responsible.
source
Are crop circles man-made? How?
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Is sexual harassment of girls increasing in schools?
This article claims that experts told UK MP's that sexual harassment is increasing in schools because of internet pornography. However, I haven't seen any references to studies done on the subject so ...
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Is "Syphilis: All of these men have it" a WWII propaganda poster?
Spotted via https://twitter.com/LI_politico/status/692846941034549248 (courtesy of a parody picture in https://twitter.com/Megapope/status/692850205297741827), but described as real by Mother Jones in ...
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Was UK national debt higher in 2016 than 2010?
I saw this image being shared on my Facebook feed, and I was wondering the truth (if any) to it.
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Do green grapes cause more accidents on the London Underground than banana peels?
In Teary Deary's Horrible Histories: London, he claims that green grapes cause more accidents on the London Underground (I presume subway) than banana peels.
This claim is also repeated in several ...
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Did Robin Hood exist and get buried here?
I read Howard Pyle's Robin Hood wherein it is written (on whatever it is they write it on up there):
A certain one sayeth that upon a stone at Kirklees is an old inscription. This I give in the ...
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Does the UK have enough wind to power the country five times over?
Greenpeace UK tweeted about the UK having enough wind to power the country five times over:
MT @1010: The UK has enough wind to power the country five times over. Let's use it!
After a bit of ...
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Is 90% of world trade conducted on WTO terms?
The European Union is, among many other things, a large free trade block with few barriers to cross-country trade within it. The United Kingdom has voted to leave the EU and is currently trying to ...
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Is the United Kingdom funding forced sterilization in India to combat climate change?
The claim is made here:
Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men [...]
Yet a working paper published by the UK's ...
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Did 5% of British users delete their Facebook accounts after the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
Reported on the BBC:
But when the news came out that Facebook had passed on data of up to 87 million of its members to political consultancy Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge - and one in ...
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Correlation between BSE/CJD and Brexit vote
This image is currently doing the rounds on social media:
The implications and associated text with it is usually around how uncanny (and amusing) the correlation is. What's the source of this data ...
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Were fathers arrested while trying to rescue their daughters from rape in Britain at least on two occasions?
Front Page Mag (a blog for the conservative David Horowitz Freedom Center) quotes an unnamed report that UK authorities were complicit in the support of sexually abusive Muslims:
The police did ...
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Did there use to be a law that made attempted suicide a capital offence punishable by hanging in Britain?
This one seem to be all over trivia lists, but I'm having trouble finding a reference to anything credible. The claim goes something like this:
According to a British law passed in 1845, [attempted]...
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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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Did the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron score the most kills in the Battle of Britain?
It's often claimed in Polish media that No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron scored the most kills in the whole Battle of Britain. This claim is repeated in Wikipedia, although with annotation [citation ...
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Was David Cameron linked to "Hang Nelson Mandela" posters in the 1980s?
A post circulating Facebook and elsewhere reads:
Nelson Mandela will die soon. Today, tomorrow, this week, next week. It won't be long. Remember this, he out-lived Thatcher. When he does die, and ...
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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 ...