I think that, by definition, that is the antithesis of the Argentinian view!
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TRIVIA: Practices that are peculiar to the UK
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DaleCooper
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Yes, you understood my remark.
Belperpete
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When I started working on the railway, distances were measured in the wondrous mix of miles, quarters, chains, and either links or yards. Although links were obsolete for new work, you could still find them on old records (100 links in a chain, 20 chains in a quarter, and of course 1 chain is the length of a cricket pitch). Even to this day, you can still see the chainages painted on retaining walls and such-like.Well, if we're going down that route it's time to post my favourite graphic from Wikipedia:
(Image shows the confusing relationships between units of Imperial measurements)
It all went metric rather nicely:
1 mile = 1600 metres
1 quarter = 400 metres
1 chain = 20 metres
OK, not exactly, but well within the kind of tolerances that we could measure to in those days using tape measures and wheels.
SteveP29
Member
Most pubs used to put cheese, nuts, black pudding, yorkshire pudding (and a jug of gravy) etc on their bars on Sunday lunchtimes.
But people don't wash their wands after going to the toilet (hell, some people don't wash)
nlogax
Established Member
True. I remember going to a Oxfordshire pub in the not too dim and distant past and they would put roast potatoes on the bar at weekends. Tbh I should have just moved in.
Not true - I've been on trains that have run late in France and Germany. I've even known German trains to be cancelled.
There are probably quite a lot of practices in UK schools that are peculiar to the UK, though I guess they might also be found in Ireland and in other Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand whose education systems are, I would guess, closely modelled on that of the UK. For example:
Having some kind of daily assembly or act of worship in school - AFAIK almost unheard of in mainland Europe except maybe in religious schools.
In secondary schools, having a form teacher who you have to report to for registration each morning and afternoon. AFAIK in mainland Europe you simply go straight to your first lesson when you arrive at school in the morning. I would guess that this partly to do with the culture of mistrust here in the UK (i.e. the idea that pupils can't be trusted not to play truant, whereas in mainland Europe they assume that most people are honest) and partly because in mainland Europe they don't have the same concept of pastoral care of pupils as we have in the UK.
School uniforms - common in many countries throughout the world, but again pretty rare in mainland Europe at least in state schools. Certainly in France and Germany, for example, being allowed to wear what you like (within reason) is the norm.
Having some kind of daily assembly or act of worship in school - AFAIK almost unheard of in mainland Europe except maybe in religious schools.
In secondary schools, having a form teacher who you have to report to for registration each morning and afternoon. AFAIK in mainland Europe you simply go straight to your first lesson when you arrive at school in the morning. I would guess that this partly to do with the culture of mistrust here in the UK (i.e. the idea that pupils can't be trusted not to play truant, whereas in mainland Europe they assume that most people are honest) and partly because in mainland Europe they don't have the same concept of pastoral care of pupils as we have in the UK.
School uniforms - common in many countries throughout the world, but again pretty rare in mainland Europe at least in state schools. Certainly in France and Germany, for example, being allowed to wear what you like (within reason) is the norm.
<Mcbain That's the joke dot gif>
Yes, there aren't enough of those pubs.
Struner
Member
Indeed, mainly regarded as silly...
I think you missed the sarcasm.
My last four trips on DB in Germany have a PPM of precisely 0%. My last two trips on SBB have a PPM of 0%. I’ve been on several trains in Italy over the years, guess how many were less than 10 minutes late?
Meanwhile my last 2 Transpennine services have been on time. (Both yesterday).
From this I can only draw the conclusion that Transpennine is the most punctual railway in Europe.
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Struner
Member
Lol...
There is the good reason that with uniforms, children won't get bullied for not wearing the latest fashion or expensive designer clothes by those with wealthier or more indugent parents, or pressurised into doing so.
urpert
Member
What about those electric showers with a separate box mounted on the bathroom wall? I can’t recall seeing those anywhere else.
Do any other countries have different colour front and rear number plates? (I know France used to but they’re just white now.)
Do any other countries have different colour front and rear number plates? (I know France used to but they’re just white now.)
Struner
Member
Is that why school uniforms were introduced? & how are they paid for?
transmanche
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Ireland used to have white at the front and red at the rear - but both are just white now.
SHD
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They are common in Brazil and other South American countries where there is often no need for a central heating & hot water production system.
They were originally associated with upmarket schools, but tended to be loosely specified (colour and style, but not specific items from specific off-the-peg suppliers). Even once ordinary schools had them, some grammar schools used expensive uniforms as a way of keeping out undesirables who passed their 11+, though more socially progressive grammar schools believed part of their purpose was to help deserving people overcome their backgrounds by erasing them (hence teaching RP and so on, though that went out of fashion in the 1960s). The progressive aspect was watered down when comprehensives were created, but erasing social distinctions was part of the point of creating them (cutting the cost of technical schools and an inter-union fight also played their part).
Hmm... I'm not so sure. Reason being that school uniforms are still universal for all levels of school at home and we would have inherited that practice from colonial days.
DaleCooper
Established Member
In one respect the old system was not absurd, 240 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, 80 and 120. Hence apparently odd amounts like 6/8d and 13/4d.
I am not advocating its return.
In the Harry Potter books, the wizards' currency is: 29 copper Knuts = 1 silver Sickle; 17 Sickles = 1 golden Galleon. Thought up by the author, one reckons, to chime in with the Wizarding World's being very markedly old-fashioned; and from the point of view of ordinary non-magical folk, bonkers (they think the latter, equally, about "Muggles" -- ordinary people like us). It would seem that there is a -- very rough-and-ready -- exchange rate between wizard currency, and pounds or dollars, in connection with the tiny amount of contact which there is between the two worlds.
According to Wikipedia there are still two non-decimal currencies in the world (in Mauritania and Madagascar), though neither is non-decimal on a practical level since the smallest currency units aren't in regular use. Looking at the page on Decimalisation it appears that Nigeria was one of the last countries to switch to decimal currency, in 1973.
hexagon789
Veteran Member
Ireland? Decimalised on the same day as us iirc. Malta decimalised the following year.
transmanche
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Ireland decimalised at the same time as the UK - but was effectively in a de facto currency union with the UK at the time.
South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Jamaica decimalised shortly before the UK, in 1961, 1966, 1967, 1969 and 1969 respectively. All converted at the rate of 10 shillings = 1 dollar/rand.
Uniforms are far more rigidly specified now at my old school than back in the 60s when it was a grammar school. Then you could just wear a shirt and sweater under the blazer in a prescribed range of colours now it is white shirt only and a sweater from a nominated supplier with the school badge embroidered. Similarly PE kit has to be badged when in my day it was just black shorts and T shirt.
Regarding reasons for prescribing uniform the head of my daughters' primary school became very hot on uniforms after a parent tried to claim that the school was responsible for damage to some expensive and delicate designer wear during normal play. (IIRC the parent was effectively told to get lost but the head didn't want that sort of hassle again)
DaleCooper
Established Member
We did lose (not loose) some colourful colloquialisms due to decimalisation:
Thrupenny bit (also rhyming slang)
Tanner
Bob
Two bob bit (more rhyming slang)
Half crown (or two and a tanner)
Bent as a nine bob note
Half a knicker
Thrupenny bit (also rhyming slang)
Tanner
Bob
Two bob bit (more rhyming slang)
Half crown (or two and a tanner)
Bent as a nine bob note
Half a knicker
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
Bless... I hope you've a big tray to hand because every bully will be asking you to hold their beer!
Busaholic
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My memory is that almost all the schools you are talking about most certainly specified exactly which supplier you went to, because badges for blazers etc were only obtainable through them. In my case, I remember being dragged to Harrod's by an equally reluctant mother so she could purchase the uniform for some outlandish price. I've had an aversion to Harrod's ever since. About twenty years ago I was killing time in John Lewis on Oxford Street, and decided to visit all parts of the store to see exactly what they had for sale, and discovered a huge school uniform department with lists of the requirements of hundreds of schools both in the U.K. and, I suspect, abroad. Whether it's still there, I've no idea.
Springs Branch
Established Member
The easy divisibility within the old system was extremely handy in olden times when prices for most day-to-day things were in pennies (and ha'pennies) or just a few shillings and all daily calculations had to be done by mental arithmetic, or paper and pencil (or maybe an abacus, if you wanted to be exotic).
When inflation started to kick in, and more day-to-day things started to cost multiple pounds, shillings and pence, the situation would have become more cumbersome, but many businesses and shops had mechanical adding machines and cash registers by then.
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