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From the article:

Working for a company as rich as Google comes with an incredible number of fringe benefits: the free food, the free laundry, the doctor on duty at company headquarters and the impressive five months of maternity leave with full pay and benefits, to mention a few.

Five months is impressive? 26 weeks (almost 6 months) is a legal right over here. In some countries it's much, much more!

especially given their terribly below level of quality and usefulness.

Aww, come on, tell me this isn't the best thing you've ever seen.

£3,290 per year, the maximum and pretty much uniform amount chargeable in the UK. For comparison try this http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153,4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

No kidding.

The cost of a replacement passport
An adult passport costs £77.50 for standard service and £112.50 for the one-week Fast Track service. A child passport costs £49 for standard service and £96.50 for the one-week Fast Track service. The Premium one-day service is not available for replacement passports.

And for Driving Licence:
Apply by phone
You can apply by phone if one or both parts of your photocard licence have been lost or stolen and none of your details have changed. DVLA accepts the following credit or debit cards - MasterCard, Visa, Eurocard or Maestro and the fee is £20.00.

No kidding.

The cost of a replacement passport
An adult passport costs £77.50 for standard service and £112.50 for the one-week Fast Track service. A child passport costs £49 for standard service and £96.50 for the one-week Fast Track service. The Premium one-day service is not available for replacement passports.

And for Driving Licence:
Apply by phone
You can apply by phone if one or both parts of your photocard licence have been lost or stolen and none of your details have changed. DVLA accepts the following credit or debit cards - MasterCard, Visa, Eurocard or Maestro and the fee is £20.00.

In the UK, if you're working sat in front of a monitor health & safety recommendations state that 'There is no legal limit to how long you should work at a VDU, but under health and safety regulations you have the right to breaks from work using a VDU. These don't have to be rest breaks, just different types of work.'

I hope you take regular breaks away from sitting at your computer, for your sake.

Some more of the highway code...

AMBER means ‘Stop’ at the stop line. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident

You're right that you can stay there if you're turning right, *but* it is still illegal to enter on a yellow when you can safely stop.

In some countries the light sequence is green, yellow, red, yellow, green.

Not quite -- it's red, red-and-yellow, green, yellow, red. You need to know whether the lights are about to go green, or about to go red.

UK Highway Code -- the first PDF has pictures and the rules.

The second yellow occurs after the opposing traffic turns red (with maybe a slight delay) to indicate that you can start driving but, to be cautious.

No -- it indicates your light is about to go green (so stop fiddling with your make-up, phone, put your car in gear, or get back on your bicycle). You shouldn't cross it, and generally no one does -- there might be someone running the red light in the other direction. There's not necessarily much delay between one direction getting red and the other red+yellow.

they are probably more likely to actually look before entering an intersection even after a red light has changed.

I always look after a light has changed (I don't if I'm following someone else). On a bicycle, someone running a red light could easily be fatal, and the law's not much use for dead people. Neither is not being delayed by a few seconds. A car's gone through a red light across my path after my light turned green once in the last 6000km.

UK Highway Code rule 176

You MUST NOT move forward over the white line when the red light is showing. Only go forward when the traffic lights are green if there is room for you to clear the junction safely or you are taking up a position to turn right. If the traffic lights are not working, treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction and proceed with great care.

The light can turn red after "taking up a position to turn right", the red light means you mustn't cross the solid white line across the road.

In the UK (click the "Light signals controlling traffic" PDF):

AMBER means 'Stop' at the stop line. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident

(HTML link, rule 175 references the law.)

In the UK (click the "Light signals controlling traffic" PDF):

AMBER means 'Stop' at the stop line. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident

(HTML link, rule 175 references the law.)

Have you ever done the experiment where someone holds a metre rule between your hands, and suddenly lets go? You have to catch it when they do, and measure how far it dropped. Human reactions are awful compared to a computer.

If you hit something your airbag will fully deploy (several processes occurring in sequence) before you even realise you've hit it.

Look at the "stopping distances" at the bottom of this page. The blue is the "thinking distance" and the red the "braking distance". You need to know that for the theory part of the UK driving test. You also need to pass a hazard perception test -- that's something computers (AFAIIA) aren't so good at.

I suspect computer controlled driving won't be popular for plenty of people because it will be slower. The developers/manufacturers of the system won't be willing to take any risks, but most drivers take lots of risks all the time.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_184702

What is considered "terrorism-related"?

Here's some information linked from the reporting page:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Counterterrorism/DG_183993

Scaring large groups of the population by threatening to report them for a terrorism-related fate of certain doom could in itself be considered an act of terrorism...

That's quite a stretch. If you want an actual guideline of terrorism according to UK law, the following is a link to the full text of the Terrorism Act 2000 (or TACT), and right up the top, we have a definition:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000011_en_2#pt1-l1g1

Scaring people is not enough. It actually has to be a threat.

The worse part about this site is that they have recaptcha on it but verify the request in javascript.

Hence you can stick this request on your spam bot...

https://reporting.direct.gov.uk/bin/submitter.php?report_type=1&report_url=reporting.direct.gov.uk&report_desc=GeorgeOrwellWasRight

By that time everyone would be on IPv6 and their site won't work.. https://reporting.direct.gov.uk/bin/url_checker.php?url=ipv6.google.com

I'm sure that should be http://ministry_of_love.direct.gov.uk/ .

(If you've not read Orwell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Love )

You live in society, you follow society's stupid rules.

Not in London you don't. You throw your garbage anywhere. You park and block people in anytime. You never cover your mouth when you cough, even in crowded metropolitan transport. You cut in line, and start a fight if someone asks you to go to the back of the line. You listen to your leaky cheap Apple headphones as loudly as possible so that everyone in the carriage knows you like Eminem. Oh, and you steal from grocery stores, particularly if it's a crowded New Year's Eve and you and your gang of mates know full well no one can stop you.

If you're Islamic, you get to wear a full head veil and only show your eyes, even in a bank (I've seen this in Ealing)! If you're Sikh you're legally permitted to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.

If you're poor, you get to burgle property, threaten the lives of those inside, and watch the owner go to jail when he tries to protect himself.

I could go on...

Broken link: here

Maybe you should look at the form again...
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_067819.pdf

Could he sack someone for wearing listening to music? If I was sacked for that, I'd claim it was unfair and probably (a) get compensation (b) get my job back

Those kids on your lawn are doing this stuff online. I can apply for a passport, or a driving license, or do my tax return, apply for housing benefit (social housing money), or loads of other government stuff (pay a fine, buy vehicle "tax", etc).

For contracts, it's the business that prints it. I expect a solicitor would print my will.

Those kids on your lawn are doing this stuff online. I can apply for a passport, or a driving license, or do my tax return, apply for housing benefit (social housing money), or loads of other government stuff (pay a fine, buy vehicle "tax", etc).

For contracts, it's the business that prints it. I expect a solicitor would print my will.

Those kids on your lawn are doing this stuff online. I can apply for a passport, or a driving license, or do my tax return, apply for housing benefit (social housing money), or loads of other government stuff (pay a fine, buy vehicle "tax", etc).

For contracts, it's the business that prints it. I expect a solicitor would print my will.

If traffic is moving slowly enough that there's a risk you'll block the junction, then slowing down before you enter the junction isn't a problem.

Every day I cross several "yellow box" junctions. If it's busy, most people hold back accelerating when the lights go green until they can see they'll be able to cross. It doesn't slow them down, as they're only going to join the queue on the other side of the junction. (I think the fine is £100 if you stop in the box.)

Disabled people would have a car specially modified to suit them, with the information codes on their licence describing the modifications necessary for them to drive. Someone with one arm would probably use a knob on the steering wheel, so code 40 would probably be used, possibly along with code 78 because they would be incapable of using a manual transmission.

Why, I'll bet we Americans could get stumped even easier!! take that, britian!

From links found on the sciencesowhat site:

Are you more science-savvy than the average American? Take the quiz and find out.

While we're at it, answers to why the sky is blue and other questions.

Why, I'll bet we Americans could get stumped even easier!! take that, britian!

From links found on the sciencesowhat site:

Are you more science-savvy than the average American? Take the quiz and find out.

While we're at it, answers to why the sky is blue and other questions.

He is talking about PTO (Paid Time Off).

Ah, they're always separate here.

Some companies have 1 pool vacataion and sick time come from.

It doesn't matter how long I'm ill for (within reason) so long as I have a medical note from a doctor (for less than a week my employer doesn't require the note, but they could). It doesn't affect how much paid holiday time I get, except for long-term sickness (I don't know what "long-term" is, at least a month).

You can lose your job for long-term illness though: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Dismissal/DG_175834 but an employer would need to be really careful doing that.

Invalid carriages are speed limited, whereas bikes are only limited by the ability of the rider.

Not true. An imported car must be registered with the DVLA, and must meet certain standards. LHD cars are perfectly legal, and relatively common -- especially with sought-after vehicles, such as the early Smarts.

See: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/ImportingAndExportingAVehicle/DG_4022583

Just to address the rules local to the UK, this government website shows that bicycledriving.org is not an entirely reliable authority, at least in this case:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069837

Note in particular the final sentence in rule 63.

From the Highway Code:

60

At night your cycle MUST have white front and red rear lights lit. It MUST also be fitted with a red rear reflector (and amber pedal reflectors, if manufactured after 1/10/85). White front reflectors and spoke reflectors will also help you to be seen. Flashing lights are permitted but it is recommended that cyclists who are riding in areas without street lighting use a steady front lamp.

The UK Government believes in climate change. They broadcast frequent propaganda about it in the form of TV commercials ("Act on CO2").

Watch these taxpayer-funded climate change commercials and tell me you're not 100% totally convinced that the Government is right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9MzzcCPf8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCJotacAmo4

INDEPENDENT THOUGHT IS KILLING THE EARTH. DO NOT QUESTION THE GOVERNMENT.

Under the UK model, you pay about 11% national insurance tax on your income (which in your case would be nothing), and the healthcare is free at the point of need. That's the beauty of a national scheme - you don't buy into it, it's just there financed out of everybody's tax payments. Note that there are residency requirements, although accident and emergency treatment is always free (even for visitors), and there are reciprocal arrangements with many other European countries.

Emergency services in the UK all use flashing blue lights. e.g. see The Highway Code, Rule 31.

The Home Office

The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, counter-terrorism and the police.

Even so, your car is likely to spend more time at the mechanic's over its lifetime than your laptop will spend at the shop getting its battery replaced, even if all you need is regular servicing and MOTs.

On top of that, my car has had both driveshafts replaced on separate occasions, plus two exhaust replacements, which I wouldn't consider user-serviceable parts.

Education Maintenance Allowance http://ema.direct.gov.uk/
It's only £30 a week.

I don't know how many people abuse it, I went to an independent school and only a few were eligible for EMA (those with 100% scholarships whose families were poor). They had to get a bit of paper signed by the teacher every lesson, but there was at most one per class.
The problem I mentioned was at the nearest state 16-18 college.

£30/week wouldn't make much of a dent in my £24000 of student loan debt. I wasn't required to register attendance for much at university, but there was always the feeling that missing a lecture was a waste of £20 (or whatever we worked it out as, that figure might be what the non-EU students were paying with their many-000s fees).

Does this apply in your legal code? If so, you could sue. IANAL

If you're forced to quit your job because of the way you are treated, it's called constructive dismissal. Although there's no actual dismissal by the employer, the end result is the same as if you had been sacked. It's often very hard to prove that your employer's behaviour was so bad as to make you leave, so you should get legal advice before leaving your job.

The reason for leaving your job must be serious - there must be a fundamental breach of your contract. Examples include:

• a serious breach of your contract (eg not paying you or suddenly demoting you for no reason)
• forcing you to accept unreasonable changes to your conditions of employment without your agreement (eg suddenly telling you to work in another town, or making you work night shifts when your contract is only for day work)

Constructive dismissal

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Only exceptions to this in government is the Official secrets act. which means the information comes out in 50 years. this is better than the US where 90% of it never comes out at all. The Act

I'm more familiar with metric than the Imperial system.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/CrimePrevention/DG_078569
7.62cm (3 inches) is allowed in public for a Swiss Army-type knife. That's longer than I thought was allowed.

Actually, there are situations in many countries where you must complete government forms or other mandates, which are stored in proprietary formats, and not completing them can result in jail or fines.

In the UK for instance, for certain types of tax return you must use proprietary accounting software... see here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/SelfAssessmentYourTaxReturn/DG_10013651

specifically the sentence which says "Bear in mind that HMRC's software only offers the supplementary pages listed above. If you want to send other pages online you'll need to use third party software"

There is no documentation available publicly to write your own interoperable software, so if you want to do anything beyond submitting the "supplementary pages listed above" you are forced to obtain software from one of the listed vendors, who have clearly obtained this information, most likely by paying a fee for it which places it outside of the reach of hobbyists.
If you don't want to do this, you have to fill out the paper forms which have a much shorter deadline for completion, and the government is gradually pushing people onto the online system. And by that extension, the chinese also have the option to not use computers at all.

So if you want to use a computer to file your taxes, you have to use software from the government supplied list and subsequently any dependencies it may have. Your alternatives are jail/fines or not using a computer.

In china if you want to use a computer to operate a cybercafe you have to use software from the government supplied list, which supplies the dependencies it has. Your alternatives are jail/fines or not running a cybercafe.

Do you know of any "format x to format y" converter i can use to convert the output from something like gnucash to interoperate with the government forms? Can i run one on my platform of choice and obtain it for free?

I hate having my freedom of choice taken away from me. Being told "you must use X" while extremely unpleasant, is direct and easy to explain to people why it's bad... Being told "you must use Y (and in order to do that you can only use X) is equally unpleasant, but much harder to get people to understand why.
And educating people as to why something is a problem is the first step towards having them stand up against the oppression and try to change things. There is nothing more damaging than people who don't care or don't realize that they're being screwed, that's why people get away with doing it in such underhanded ways.

But you don't pay to drive on a freeway, and that's pretty expensive to keep up. You don't pay the cost of the pollution you emit either.

we do...

I hate to say this, but given this, plus proposals such as the Communications Data Bill (2008) (described recently in Slashdot, and intended to monitor all telecommunications traffic in the country), when will people start thinking of the UK as a former democracy, where all of the democratic forms and customs are in place, but leached of any real meaning ?

Of course, the proposal for 42 days detention without trial recently went down for defeat in the House of Lords, along with the proposal for secret inquests, so maybe the inevitable reaction to the excesses of the Blair years is setting in and people will stop this rot before it is too late.

D'oh. All you needed to do was phone up your insurance, then phone up the DVLA. They'll check for the insurance (it's all electronic, no need to wait by the post) and give you a code to display in lieu of the disk. The code normally runs out after a week or two.

Any problems with that and you need to put it in someone's drive, and if it's going to take long do a SORN.

It's worth some dilligence when buying a car. Phone up the insurance company, both to check prices and to get them to determine if it's been written off (they do not bother until you ask or there is a claim!). This isn't just for your safety; insurance does not pay out for a car that any insurance company has written off. You can also check the DVLA's vehicle enquiry page.

I sympathise with your position, and cannot fathom why the DVLA do not put the above solution in their FAQ, but it should be obvious to anyone that motoring is a cash cow for the UK gov't and they milk every drop.

That link isn't of much relevance, it just details redundancy payment details once you've been selected for redudnancy. This link is what you should be looking at:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10029832

These two links are also relevant:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026696

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026692

As shown in all these links the key point is that there has to be a demonstrably fair reason to get rid of someone. You're certainly right that there's no shortage of people who think they're great when they're not, but under the above processes this will be uncovered by the evidence- if a worker feels they've been booted when they're not the worst performer and not the newest employee or some other valid reason then they need to prove this. Using a programmer for example, they might wish to demonstrate that they produce more lines of defect free code than other developers or something similar, this is the type of evidence they could produce from stats on such things to show that they've been dismissed unfairly or been unfairly selected for redundancy.

That link isn't of much relevance, it just details redundancy payment details once you've been selected for redudnancy. This link is what you should be looking at:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10029832

These two links are also relevant:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026696

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026692

As shown in all these links the key point is that there has to be a demonstrably fair reason to get rid of someone. You're certainly right that there's no shortage of people who think they're great when they're not, but under the above processes this will be uncovered by the evidence- if a worker feels they've been booted when they're not the worst performer and not the newest employee or some other valid reason then they need to prove this. Using a programmer for example, they might wish to demonstrate that they produce more lines of defect free code than other developers or something similar, this is the type of evidence they could produce from stats on such things to show that they've been dismissed unfairly or been unfairly selected for redundancy.

That link isn't of much relevance, it just details redundancy payment details once you've been selected for redudnancy. This link is what you should be looking at:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10029832

These two links are also relevant:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026696

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026692

As shown in all these links the key point is that there has to be a demonstrably fair reason to get rid of someone. You're certainly right that there's no shortage of people who think they're great when they're not, but under the above processes this will be uncovered by the evidence- if a worker feels they've been booted when they're not the worst performer and not the newest employee or some other valid reason then they need to prove this. Using a programmer for example, they might wish to demonstrate that they produce more lines of defect free code than other developers or something similar, this is the type of evidence they could produce from stats on such things to show that they've been dismissed unfairly or been unfairly selected for redundancy.

Well you're certainly wrong on the last one.