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
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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 genderless 3rd person singular pronoun was "it" for early…
Astor Florida
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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 cup with a spoon (or, in some sources, even with his…
Quassnoi
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Was the UK's drive to acquire civilian metals to use in WW2 necessary for the war effort?
This question was asked here recently:
Were World War II scrap drives in the United States truly necessary for the procurement of raw materials?
And it has produced some very solid analysis and fascinating statistics.
But the USA had a very…
matt_black
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Does the UK send the EU £350 million a week?
I got this propaganda leaflet through my door today, this has been widely claimed by parties in favor of the British EU referendum:
We send the EU £350 million a week - let's fund our NHS instead
Does UK send that much money to the EU every week?…
Sklivvz
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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 needed].
No. 303 Squadron claimed the largest…
vartec
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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 their part… for the Muslim rapists.
The report heard…
user4234
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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 David Cameron jumps on the Mandela bandwagon,…
slim
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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 the city’s unhealthy cellar dwellings and an…
user62611
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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 radio 4 (reported in the Guardian) the US ambassador…
matt_black
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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. The latest deal negotiated by the government was…
matt_black
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Have more British Muslims joined Islamist groups than serve in British armed forces?
From the New York Times: Her Majesty’s Jihadists
Her Majesty’s Jihadists
More British Muslims have joined Islamist militant groups than serve
in the country’s armed forces. How to understand the pull of jihad.
and from the body of the…
Andrew Grimm
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Did Benjamin Franklin almost cause a war between England and France over a hoax letter to a London newspaper?
This story shows up a lot in sites like Reddit:
In the late 1700's, a letter appeared in the major London newspaper complaining that England was being forced to take deported French prisoners. The British were furious and wanted it stopped. The…
Soandso
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Do airlines increase price on repeat visits?
Where I live in the UK it is a common statement that looking around on comparison websites such as GoCompare or holiday websites such as BritishAirways will result in them using various methods to identify who is checking and raise the price when…
DynamicPeanuts
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Could you drive a tank through London and not have to pay the congestion fee?
In the following video Ross Noble tells an interviewer that you can drive a tank on UK roads and also that it is congestion fee exempt. If we ignore for a moment the practical issue of driving a tank through London is this actually true, is it…
Neil Meyer
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Do 22% of Muslim women in the UK speak little or no English?
According to the BBC, the UK government claims:
22% of Muslim women living in England speak little or no English.
It also quotes a former Superintendent of the Metro Police as disputing this figure:
Mr Babu also said he did not recognise the…
PointlessSpike
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