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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Does food on blue plates look tastier?
This Daily Mail article says the NHS is replacing their plates with blue ones to get patients to eat more.
NHS caterers have finally found a means of getting frail patients to eat more – putting ...
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Does higher education increase international competitiveness?
In this story, the UK chancellor is quoted as saying:
Each year, around 60,000 young people who have worked hard at school,
got the results, want to go on learning and want to take out a loan to
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Do BT routers secretly connect to a NSA/GHCQ network?
Today I was pointed at this document which claims, among other things, that the secret agencies perform man-in-the-middle attacks by using a second network connection established by the home router. ...
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Did the Britons stop growing crops in the time between 3300BC & 1500 BC?
It has been suggested to me more than once by amateur historians on forums, that in the time between 3300BC and 1500 BC the Britons stopped farming crops, and instead only kept livestock and foraged.
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Did the Britons start growing crops before 1500 BC?
It has been suggested to me more than once by amateur historians on forums, that before 1500 BC the Britons only kept livestock and didn't grow crops at all.
For example, AskHistorians on ...
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Does England devote as much land to Golf as housing?
England is, apparently, one of the most "crowded" countries in the world with a high population density and the population is growing quite quickly. This has prompted a variety of concerns ...
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Does smoking cannabis kill 30,000 people per year?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-179264/Cannabis-kills-30-000-year.html
Cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking...
[...]
[C]annabis could be a major contributor to UK deaths.
...
user4951
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Did British officers in Egypt use Indian soldiers to translate all radio messages into Hindustani?
I'm not entirely sure how notable this claim is. But a popular Tweeter named WW2 Tweets from 1941 made the following claim:
British officers in Egypt now using their Indian soldiers to translate ...
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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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Can the UK fire its nuclear weapons without US agreement?
Somebody told me that the UK cannot fire its nuclear weapons without the agreement and support from US. Is this true?
This claim is made in the following locations:
David Morrison - Britain’s “...
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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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Can certain broadcast frequencies be used for mind control?
I was reading an article last night on the communications system used by UK police. They use earpieces and there is skepticism about how they could be used to control the police or subdue them.
Is ...
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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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Does Scotland receive more public funding than its tax-payers contribute?
On the 18th of September 2014 the Scottish people will vote in a Referendum. The question:
"Should Scotland be an independent country?"
As you might expect the magnitude of this event has dredged ...
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Does the "Eatwell plate" cost £16.70 per week?
The "Eatwell Plate" is a broad dietary recommendation produced by the UK National Health Service.
This article in The Guardian says that a diet based on the Eatwell plate could cost as little as £16....
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Are vets legally allowed to treat humans?
A letter in The Daily Telegraph claims:
Vets are allowed legally to treat humans although doctors cannot treat animals. In my experience, vets offer the efficiency, pragmatism, charm, humour and ...
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Did Lloyd George say, "We must reserve the right to bomb niggers"?
The following is an excerpt from a speech by Noam Chomsky:
The United States took over from— inherited from Britain, the modalities of control over the region as well. These modalities had changed ...
user7920
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Is participating in competitive sport harmful to young children?
There is a proposal for all primary school children (ages 4 to 11) in England to play competitive team sports:
Competitive team sports will be made compulsory for all primary age children, David ...
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Were all but one of the US presidents descended from King John of England?
The Daily Mail says:
A 12-year-old girl created family tree linking 42 of 43 U.S. presidents to King John of England, who signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
Only the eighth president, Martin Van ...
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Is the weather particularly bad in England?
There's a well-known claim that weather is particularly rainy in England.
In the UK, a country known for its bad weather and lack of sunshine, there appears to be an ever increasing number of very ...
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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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Does Echelon exist?
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA ...
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Is sadomasochism more prevalent in England than in other countries?
In an interview Keira Knightley talks about her film A Dangerous Method which features sadomasochistic scenes:
I did think about turning it down because of the two scenes of a sadomasochistic nature ...
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Has immigration from Eastern Europe impacted UK youth unemployment?
MigrationWatch UK is a think-tank that argues for lower immigration levels into the UK.
In a 2012 Briefing Paper they claimed:
Youth unemployment in the UK increased by almost 450,000 in the
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Is it better to obtain vitamins and minerals from food rather than by taking supplements?
It seems that a great debate rages about whether we all need to eat our 5 a day in order to maintain our health or whether it is conceivably cheaper, faster and easier to obtain necessary vitamins and ...
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Is it legal to kill a scotsman in York?
I once heard that it is allowed to kill a scotsman in York, if you do it with a bow and arrow. Apparently there is no danger in this law, since the bow and arrow needed to be made by a no longer ...
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Was a monkey hanged as a French spy in Hartlepool?
Everyone in the North-East of England knows that during the Napoleonic wars the good burghers of Hartlepool, having found a shipwrecked monkey washed up on the beach, thought it was a French spy, and (...
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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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Are media reports about squatters' rights accurate?
So a few months ago there was a spout of stories in the UK papers pertaining to squatters, and the fact that they have just been breaking into houses and changing the locks whilst the owners had been ...
user2869
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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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Do the majority of people go 80 mph on the motorway?
I live in the UK, and my dad has told me "It is not possible to drive at 70 mph on the motorway. Everyone goes at 80 mph and [the police] don't care."
When he says nobody he means the majority of ...
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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 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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Is Prince Harry the son of James Hewitt?
Similarity between the Prince and James Hewitt have always been questioned and strengthened after Princess Diana's affair with James was confirmed.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1167157/...
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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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