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TRIVIA: Practices that are peculiar to the UK

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Bletchleyite

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I very much like the idea, as it means you can just have smaller bins in the house and put a bag out every evening if you like - no issues with missing the collection. You'd probably need CCTV at them, though, to catch people "fly tipping" business waste and dumping things like mattresses and large appliances by the bins.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Never seen one in Scotland yet and I've been all over the place in the 8 years I've been up here.
It's always a switch outside the room

In England it seems to be a bit of both. Pull cords are safer, as invariably people don't dry their hands properly and operate the outside switch with a wet hand after using the facilities.
 

DelW

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Pull-cord light switches in bathrooms/toilets

Never seen one in Scotland yet and I've been all over the place in the 8 years I've been up here.
It's always a switch outside the room
Often confuses visiting Americans, who are used to wall switches inside the bathroom. Vice versa, theirs confused me the first time I visited, and couldn't find the switch where I'd expected. Of course, both are logical because of the different voltage.

Paying for your drink/food at the bar rather than after you have drunk/eaten it.

For once, I think our system is better than continental as, sometimes, when you have finished you need to get away (for a bus/train etc) and you can be hanging around waiting for someone to take your money (and return your change) and even if you go back to the bar to pay - the barman may have gone missing.
Pay first seems to be appearing in (some) large German beer gardens now - at least, I've encountered it in both Berlin and Dresden recently. Collect food and/or drinks from counter(s), then pay at a till on the way back to your table. I don't recall encountering it over there before, waiter service was the norm.
 

341o2

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Boxing day as a secular second day of Christmas only in the UK and former countries of the Empire
Fish and chips, which until around 30 years ago wrapped in newspaper. During D day, it was practice to call out "fish" on encountering another platoon, if they answered "chips", you knew they were on your side
Going back to the 60's the Lancashire Tripe Shop
Black puddings - i quite like them
 

GusB

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Never seen one in Scotland yet and I've been all over the place in the 8 years I've been up here.
It's always a switch outside the room
I find it strange that you've never encountered pull-cord switches. Of all the various flats I've lived in/visited, I'd say that a fair proportion of them had cords. Our house has two - one for the light and one for the electric shower.
 

Bletchleyite

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Having to stick your hand out to stop the bus. In most other countries it stops and opens the doors if the driver cannot absolutely 100% see there is nobody there who might want it.
 

RichT54

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:)

Found this list in an old GCSE typewriting manual: https://books.google.fr/books?id=CDZdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129#v=onepage&q&f=false

View attachment 69241

That’s 40 if I count well, and it is “by no means exhaustive”.

By contrast in France we commonly use around 10 : rue, avenue, boulevard, place, passage, quai, chemin, route, allée, impasse

An ex-colleague lived in a road called "Shaw Pightle" - he always had to spell it when trying to tell someone his address.
 

SHD

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Boxing day as a secular second day of Christmas only in the UK and former countries of the Empire
Fish and chips, which until around 30 years ago wrapped in newspaper. During D day, it was practice to call out "fish" on encountering another platoon, if they answered "chips", you knew they were on your side
Going back to the 60's the Lancashire Tripe Shop
Black puddings - i quite like them

Black pudding is hardly a UK peculiarity, it is (with regional variations) a traditional item in France, Italy, Spain and Latin America, much of Eastern and Northen Europe, and probably in many other cuisines too
 

Calthrop

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An ex-colleague lived in a road called "Shaw Pightle" - he always had to spell it when trying to tell someone his address.

I seem to remember that when Harlow New Town was being set up, some streets / roads therein were deliberately given rustic-sounding names, one of which was "The Pyghtle" (with a "y"). The general opinion re this business, was that it was ridiculous / pointless / inappropriate: trying to seem folksy and countrified in an environment which was, inescapably, a large and modern new town.
 

VauxhallandI

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After three pages it's fair to say the answer is "not a lot"

I think there is a tendency for people to think they are in some way different when in fact we are in the main all the same.
 

Bantamzen

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After three pages it's fair to say the answer is "not a lot"

I think there is a tendency for people to think they are in some way different when in fact we are in the main all the same.

We do as a nation seem to like to think we stick out from other nations, when in reality we really aren't all that different especially from our neighbour's on the European continent. So what is really peculiar to the UK? The fact that we think we are different?
 

Senex

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We do as a nation seem to like to think we stick out from other nations, when in reality we really aren't all that different especially from our neighbour's on the European continent. So what is really peculiar to the UK? The fact that we think we are different?
Yes, just that. The fact that we're so desperate to think of ourselves as not just different but also superior and exceptional.
 

Howardh

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We do as a nation seem to like to think we stick out from other nations, when in reality we really aren't all that different especially from our neighbour's on the European continent. So what is really peculiar to the UK? The fact that we think we are different?
Just wonder if it's a case of islanders don't - oh, I dunno, mix (?) with "outsiders" and it's in their/our blood to put self-preservation first? Also as islanders, in the distant pass, it would be more difficult for other cultures and their "peculiarities" to get in, whereas continentals are well used to crossing borders and quirks pass easily?
 

Bantamzen

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Just wonder if it's a case of islanders don't - oh, I dunno, mix (?) with "outsiders" and it's in their/our blood to put self-preservation first? Also as islanders, in the distant pass, it would be more difficult for other cultures and their "peculiarities" to get in, whereas continentals are well used to crossing borders and quirks pass easily?

That's one perception at the very least. However being an island has not been an issue for centuries, we've had more overseas influences that we can shake a history book at. Our culture, language and food have all been shaped by our interactions over hundreds of years. And even before the time of the likes of the Romans, there is evidence that early Brits were moving & trading over vast distances. I read not too long ago about an archaeological site somewhere in the Middle East, dated at several thousand years old where Whitby jet was found.

I think where the reason really lies though is the perception that because Britain once "ruled the waves", that this someone stands us out as unique. It may have been true for a time, but certainly not in the 21st century.
 

Tom B

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Newcastle City Council has been trialling the use of communal bins in back lanes in a couple of areas.

Parts of Edinburgh do this, inner city tenaments especially. I assume that it's much more efficient in manpower (vs moving lots of wheelie bins) and in not having to sweep the street afterwards.

Similarly, an estate just round the corner from me in London uses communal bins on wheels.
 

AlterEgo

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We do as a nation seem to like to think we stick out from other nations, when in reality we really aren't all that different especially from our neighbour's on the European continent. So what is really peculiar to the UK? The fact that we think we are different?

The UK is quite substantially different to other European nations by dint of its geography. Our geography of being a large island has shaped our collective attitudes. I can’t think of another European country I’ve walked around and thought “hmm, this place is like Britain”. Don’t forget the state religion is one which was set up by a king sticking two middle fingers up at the Pope and most of Europe. British experience of both world wars was also substantially different to much of mainland Europe. All of these things, and more, feed into a national consciousness.
 

PR1Berske

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The UK is European only by chance of geography. Sadly, disgracefully, unfortunately, we are American in outlook.
 

yorksrob

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The UK is European only by chance of geography. Sadly, disgracefully, unfortunately, we are American in outlook.

There is a lot to be commended in the American outlook. The belief in individual freedom and constitutional government were an American outlook before it became widespread in continental Europe.

That said, I think that we probably share a more 'communal' some might say statist outlook with continental Europe, than the free marketeers of the Tory right wing would want to believe (I say this as a bit of a statist myself).
 

Howardh

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How many countries can claim to have "overseas territories" - especially those that are still, to all purposes, still under their crown or similar? Excluding exclaves near the "home" territory ie Spain/Ceuta. UK has many, Netherlands has some (notably St Maarten which is part French), France, the USA has (Guam, Hawaii at a push) but after those I'm struggling. Portugal?

Meaning it could be quite a peculiar thing to the UK and those other countries to have such territories, and with Gibraltar (and the Channel islands) it's fascinating to see how much culture they have of the countries that surround (Spain) or are close (France) whilst you still feel in "Britain".
 
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