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17 votes
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Labour's spending plans aren't especially unusual – just look at Sweden
5 votes -
Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg is to appear as one of the Christmas guest editors of Radio 4's Today programme
6 votes -
Peter Kay's Car Share
This is another British comedy that I think people will enjoy. The title is weird: Peter Kay is the stand up comedian, but he's playing a character in this sitcom. IMDB calls it "Car Share", but...
This is another British comedy that I think people will enjoy. The title is weird: Peter Kay is the stand up comedian, but he's playing a character in this sitcom. IMDB calls it "Car Share", but BBC calls it "Peter Kay's Car Share". It's British, so weirdly small number of episodes: only 12 (and this includes all the specials).
The setup sounds like it's going to be unbearably claustrophobic, a series long bottle episode. A supermarket sets up a car sharing scheme, and we watch John and Kayleigh share a car as they drive to work everyday. But this creates intimacy and we get to learn about the characters. It's heartfelt and lovely. It's well acted, and I think it's very funny.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4635922/
4 votes -
Squarepusher - Vortrack [Fracture Remix] (2019)
9 votes -
Kenya Airways stowaway: Mystery of the man who fell from the sky
5 votes -
In Denmark, children's homes are places of stability, comfort and support – now a British entrepreneur is bringing the model to the UK
3 votes -
From an Oslo forest comes the Christmas gift Norway gives Britain every year – a towering tree for London's Trafalgar Square
7 votes -
Former UK consulate worker says he was tortured in China
12 votes -
Detectorists - "unremarkable lives gone slightly awry"
I'm currently re-watching all episodes of Detectorists and it's one of my favourite tv things ever, so I thought maybe Tildes would be interested. Detectorists is a single camera sitcom about two...
I'm currently re-watching all episodes of Detectorists and it's one of my favourite tv things ever, so I thought maybe Tildes would be interested. Detectorists is a single camera sitcom about two men and their friendship around their metal detecting hobby.
Here's the link to the BBC Four webpage for it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l51nr
Some review sites -
Rotten Tomatoes 100% (few reviews), 99% audience score: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/detectorists
IMDB 8.6 : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4082744/
Guardian review (because she writes about it far better than I can): https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/09/detectorists-rich-portrait-unremarkable-lives-gone-slightly-awry-mackenzie-crook
Detectorists is about nothing and everything. Made with palpable love, it’s about people and their passions; camaraderie and community. As a portrait of male friendship, it is closer to documentary than drama, delving beneath the topsoil of mid-life ennui via the sparsest of exchanges. You won’t find a laughter track, or smart-arse punchlines or an oh-so-subtle veil of irony here; instead of begging for your attention, Detectorists is notable for its avoidance of snark. It’s the drama least likely to culminate in alpha plonkers blowing up cars, taking down baddies or ravishing beautiful women.
Instead, it lingers lovingly over dewdrops on grass, magpies on gateposts, scudding clouds and gently fluttering leaves. Even an alfresco wee takes on a painterly aspect, viewed solely through the steam cloud billowing from behind a sunlit tree. Meanwhile, the camera makes high art out of Lance’s face in closeup, crestfallen as he unearths a scaffolding bracket instead of an Anglo-Saxon nugget, and from Andy’s silent incredulity when a colleague jokes about Richard Attenborough when he means David.
Radio Times review https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2017-12-13/detectorists-series-3-review/
If all British programmes took this much care over their tone, look and overall distinctiveness, the golden age of television would never go away.
Modern comedies are often predicated on cruelty: laughs are hard, clanging or sharp as barbed wire. In its quiet, undemonstrative way, Detectorists has ploughed its own furrow. Buried in its field of fun are evergreen truths about life, and the things we don’t say but should. So if kindness and companionship are unfashionable, I know which side of the hedge I’d rather stand.
13 votes -
The rise of 'facadism' in London
13 votes -
Interpreting GDPR data requests: Why does British Airways need to know that I'm 98% LGBT?
10 votes -
Slot Machine - A British Pathé short film about vending machines in 1960s Britain
5 votes -
Taskmaster now has a YouTube channel for people outside the UK
7 votes -
Harrods was accused of ruining the spirit of Christmas after limiting Santa visits to customers who spend over $2,500
11 votes -
Roads from the past - a short animated history of Britain's Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers
6 votes -
"Children and Politics" - a 3 minute interview with British children before the 1964 general election
This is short, but it demonstrates something that's been missing from tv for a while, which is the simple interview with children that recognises they are children but still takes them seriously...
This is short, but it demonstrates something that's been missing from tv for a while, which is the simple interview with children that recognises they are children but still takes them seriously as humans.
EDIT: Somehow I missed the main link, which goes to a BFI page here: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-children-and-politics-1964-online
There are some amazing old (1960s, 1970s) British tv interviews with children carried out by Harold Williamson. He asks children a question and then just lets them answer. There's no attempt to laugh at the children, and there's no attempt to say "zomg look at what this cute kid is saying".
A few clips here, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tq93b and there are probably more on Youtube: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tq93b
It's showing its age - "what would you do if your husbands went on strike? How would you run a household?" (asked of two girls) isn't acceptable.
7 votes -
London protest ban on Extinction Rebellion ruled unlawful
10 votes -
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot...
I see no reason why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. Today is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night, where we commemorate the 1605 plot by Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics who...
I see no reason why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot.
Today is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night, where we commemorate the 1605 plot by Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics who planned on blowing up Parliament and King James I to set off a popular revolt and putting a Catholic Monarch on the throne.. We do that by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire, eating black peas, treacle and parkin and terrorising pets everywhere by setting off fireworks.
Unfortunately because of its proximity to Halloween and silly things like "safety" many of the traditional celebrations are dying out. Kids used to essentially beg for money by stuffing clothing and asking for "a penny for the Guy" which they'd use for sweets or fireworks. Locally made bonfires are also becoming rarer with most these days done by professional and regulated firework companies and organised by the council so it feels more like watching a show and less like getting together with your neighbours and family.
Are you going to any events, hosting one, do you have any stories or questions about Bonfire night, do you have any traditions. Thoughts on fire works etc.
Just a general Bonfire Night thread.
18 votes -
How Britain dishonoured its African first world war dead
7 votes -
Jungle - Casio (2018)
4 votes -
Her's - Cool With You (2017)
4 votes -
UK Parliament approves snap general election on Dec. 12
18 votes -
Welsh Male Voice Choir flashmob - Bread of heaven (2015)
7 votes -
Bruce Soord - All This Will Be Yours (2019)
3 votes -
Max Cooper - Repetition (2019)
4 votes -
Raf Rundell - Sweet Cheeks (2017)
3 votes -
Family of teen who died from Ecstacy support legalisation
8 votes -
Paedophile hunters went too far
13 votes -
If PHP were British
25 votes -
Karl Ove Knausgård is to become the sixth contributor to the Future Library, which collects works by contemporary authors that will remain unread until 2114
9 votes -
Trump ambushed parents of teenage crash victim, family spokesman says
13 votes -
What can the UK learn from Norway's EU border? Its border, with EU member state Sweden, is over a thousand miles long
4 votes -
Renewable electricity generation overtakes fossil fuel generation in UK for first time
8 votes -
The musicians helping revive the Cornish language
9 votes -
From failures in Europe to Finland great, the fall and rise of the Norwich striker Teemu Pukki
5 votes -
MI6 accused of thwarting efforts to solve the 1961 killing of UN chief Dag Hammarskjöld
8 votes -
Ringed on all sides by the UK but not actually part of it, residents of the Isle of Man value their independence
9 votes -
Whistleblower explains how Cambridge Analytica helped fuel US 'insurgency'
3 votes -
We are in the midst of a mental health crisis – advice about jogging and self-care is not enough
10 votes -
Harry Dunn crash: Chief constable demands suspect's return to UK
4 votes -
Shame on those who defend the "loving smack": it's just plain violence against children
19 votes -
Transgender man who gave birth must be registered as "mother" on the birth certificate
11 votes -
US Attorney General and officials from UK and Australia will ask Facebook to halt plans for end-to-end encryption in its messaging apps
10 votes -
Samuel Morland, Magister Mechanicorum
5 votes -
Doctors working for the Department for Work and Pensions must respect a service user's pronoun choice
This is a bit complicated. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the government department that pays social security benefits in the UK. There are a range of benefits. Some of these...
This is a bit complicated.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the government department that pays social security benefits in the UK. There are a range of benefits. Some of these benefits are for people who cannot work because of disability. In order to qualify for some of these disability benefits you need to have a medical assessment with an "independent" doctor. This doctor is independent from the patient. They're employed by companies who are paid by the DWP, so there's supposed to be some kind of arm's length arrangement there.
A doctor was employed by one of these companies to do this assessment work for the DWP. He was a committed Christian. He held that he would not be able to refer to people by anything other than the gender they were assigned at birth.
The DWP is clear: you must respect a person's choice of pronouns.
The General Medical Council (the registrant body for doctors in England) is also clear: you must not impose your personal views upon your patients, especially if it's going to cause distress.
This doctor was spoken to about his beliefs. He declined to change his stance. He lost his job. He took his employer to employment tribunal for unfair dismissal based on discrimination against his protected characteristic: his religious views.
He lost his case.
Here's the legal document: https://christianconcern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CC-Resource-Judgment-Mackereth-DWP-Others-ET-191002.pdf
It's pretty long! 42 pages! The last pages give a summary.
You'll notice the URL. He was supported by the Christian Legal Centre. I won't say anything about them, but I'll link this page which gives some useful information: https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2018/04/on-the-naughty-step-the-questionable-ethics-of-the-christian-legal-centre/
8 votes -
Video games don't lead to violence...
@bbcnottingham: Goose smashes through taxi window https://t.co/RThaDIRumk
8 votes -
The British show how to improve 401(k)s
8 votes -
65daysofstatic - Five Waves (2019)
7 votes -
AFC Bournemouth's striker Joshua King on his Black history tattoos, the impact of visits to Gambia and teaching his son to take nothing for granted
4 votes