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.
Questions tagged [united-kingdom]
184 questions
29
votes
1 answer
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 true?
An aside: this made me think of Charles…
Ben Collins
- 393
- 2
- 9
27
votes
1 answer
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 everything
Tories: 10.7m
Labour: 8.6m
Lib Dems:…
Richard Downer
- 373
- 3
- 6
25
votes
1 answer
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 capacity so it could get the certification system…
Fizz
- 57,051
- 18
- 175
- 291
24
votes
1 answer
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?
Richard Stelling
- 5,694
- 8
- 48
- 93
23
votes
0 answers
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 I'd like to see where the facts stand.
Note that…
PointlessSpike
- 1,482
- 13
- 20
23
votes
1 answer
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 The Enemy in Your Pants: The military’s…
Andrew Grimm
- 38,859
- 36
- 141
- 342
21
votes
3 answers
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 ancient English in which it was written, and thus it…
Peter Turner
- 1,187
- 6
- 27
21
votes
1 answer
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 forums or…
Fluidized Pigeon Reactor
- 519
- 3
- 7
21
votes
4 answers
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.
Owen Morgan
- 331
- 2
- 5
20
votes
1 answer
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 negotiate the terms of that departure including the…
matt_black
- 56,186
- 16
- 175
- 373
20
votes
1 answer
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 Googling the only source for the data seems to be a…
Wilka
- 431
- 2
- 9
19
votes
1 answer
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 Department for International Development in 2010…
Russell Steen
- 12,872
- 1
- 64
- 86
19
votes
1 answer
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 20 Brits were reported to delete their accounts -…
Fizz
- 57,051
- 18
- 175
- 291
18
votes
1 answer
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 and is it actually accurate or a fake?
EDIT: Here…
Flexo
- 376
- 2
- 10
18
votes
2 answers
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] suicide is a very serious crime,death sentence of…
Kit Sunde
- 18,636
- 12
- 93
- 127