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It seems very very odd that in order to be able to drink somewhere you're going to get asked to prove that you'd be a danger travelling home if you were to do so?

I'm from the UK and have never had problems getting served with alcohol in the US without any photo ID (assuming I'm not carrying a passport around, which half the time I wouldn't be). I'm very obviously of legal drinking age, which helps. Sometimes you get some comic who asks to see a driving licence, but showing that there's no photograph on it usually makes them not bother asking further and serve you anyway. Once I explained how to extract the date of birth from the driver number on there (see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DG_068315) and got the comment "You're not from round here, are you?". I still got my beer.

Look at http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/Signsandmarkings/index.htm under "Signs giving orders". It shows the standard international signs, as used throughout the UK, which prohibit vehicles above a certain height, length, width or weight, all without using a single word of English. If there is a plate with English on it, it will almost certainly be showing an exception to the prohibition.

In jolly ole England we use international road signs, very few of which have any English language text on them so that non-English-speaking drivers can still use our roads. The maximum clearance signs have an iconic representation of the vertical clearance and a height marked on them (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/Signsandmarkings/index.htm, under "Warning Signs"). They are not marked "Max Headroom", he was an animated character on 1980s TV.

Then they drop the suit (since they'd lose it anyway). At this point that employee starts having performance problems, gets lousy assignments, and generally suffers until they quit - but of course nothing is attributed to the blog and nothing is done that would give the employee grounds to sue.

I don't know about the US, but over here in the UK if that happened then you may well have a case for constructive dismissal.

Well, it's actually quite complicated. NHS dentistry changed quite a while ago. While we do have the NHS (National Health Service), which is supposed to provide health care free at the point of delivery it can be quite difficult to find an NHS dentist. Likewise NHS dentists themselves are a bit of a grey area. If you are truely bored this explains what they cover. Of course if you need work not directly covered you need to go private, hence the health tourism.

Don't believe anything you read, even this!

The UK government has a site for calculating your carbon emissions.

It is rather funny for people outside the UK because some of the questions are very stereotypical:
- "How much water do you use in a kettle if you only want one cup of tea"
- "How large is the engine size of your car... (Large = 2 litres or more)"

And others are so trivial, you have to wonder why they are included:
- "Do you own a digital radio?"
- "Do you own an external hard disk, scanner, modem/router, other?"

Transport/heating emissions are *HUGE* compared to that of a scanner or consumer router.

And regarding the options for which computer facilities you use in your house, the maximum number of options is FAR too small for Slashdot users. Prefixing "router" with "a " is unheard of for slashdot users, it should be "Which router?".

And they use imperial units! I wonder where they copied this calculator from...

• can only use your data for the purposes stated when you gave them the data.
  
• cannot keep much more data than is necessary for the purpose stated.
  
• cannot pass your data on to a third party without your permission (this means that I get no junk post at all).
  
• must ensure that any data they hold on you is accurate.
  
• is not allowed to hold the information for longer than is necessary.
  
• must keep the data secure.
  
• may not export your data to a place where it is subject to less stringent privacy rules.
  
• must provide you a copy of any data they have on you for a small fee (this is what allows people to request copies of closed-circuit television tapes they may appear in).
  

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body [...] Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may overrule any of the Board's decisions, passing films we reject, banning films we have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction

It just shows the difference in cultures between the USA and western Europe that paternity leave of a "couple of weeks off" can be viewed as a perk. Sadly as a Brit we are much closer to the USA than the rest of Europe (especially Scandinavia and Finland).

Actually, most UK employees are entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave now. See http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/W orkAndFamilies/DG_10029398 for details. Pathetic compared to Scandinavia but better than nothing.

The UK owns the bleeding edge of stupid shit that wastes taxpayer money.

One could class the US military in that category.

One could class the UK military in the same category as well. After all, there are UK troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Much more to the point, if the US government is wasting money badly, why are the US income tax rates and US sales tax rates lower than the UK income tax rates and UK VAT rates? And I don't mean just a little lower: if you don't want to follow those links, UK income tax is 10-40% vs. 10-35% in the US (depending on bracket/band), and VAT in the UK is 17.5% in most cases, whereas sales tax in the US usually falls between 5% and 8%, depending on state and local laws.

Basically what I'm saying is, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and if the UK is not better at wasting money, why are the taxes higher?

A carbon tax, levied on the f*ng idiots who drive SUVs in the city. Ideally, I'd like this tax to be paid each year, and it's amount to be directly proportional to the oil consumption of the car? Own an SUV? Fine, that will be 50% of its price, every year, as long as you own it. Own an hybrid/highly efficient/electric car? Fine, that will be 5% of its price every year. Don't own a car? Using your feet/your bike/ mass transit? OK, no taxes for you.

They're actually getting pretty close to this in London. Already, UK vehicle tax is based on carbon emissions and the London Congestion Charge (the fee that has to be paid to drive into central London) will more than treble from £8 a day to £25 a day for the most polluting cars from 2009.

Incidentally, the Mayor of London is slightly more diplomatic about SUV drivers than you, merely branding them "complete idiots".

What a load of ignorant nonsense.

VAT is 17.5%. If a business is VAT registered it does not pay VAT on the materials and services which it buys, specifically so that consumers don't get charged twice. A small business may choose not to be VAT registered, (although there's a maximum turnover, above which they don't get a choice). In that case, their customers are effectively paying VAT twice, but the company saves the effort of dealing with HMC&E. The threshold is quite low, I believe.

Some categories of goods have a reduced rate, e.g. domestic fuel. Some goods are zero-rated, e.g. food, (although that doesn't include snack foods, restuarants and a few other things). The full details are available on the Customs and Excise site, here: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/

Your knowledge of our income tax is also clearly quite flawed. Everyone gets a tax-free allowance of about £5k - more for married people and the elderly, plus there are other allowances available for various things. Starting rate on income above this is 10%, on the next couple of thousand income. Basic rate is 22%. Then you pay 40% on income above about £40k. You don't pay income tax on pension contributions, and a bunch of other stuff paid directly from your sallary. Nor do you pay income tax on the returns from certain types of investments, (ISAs).

There's National Insurance, too, which is not paid by the lowest earners, (effectively those on less than the £5k income tax allowance), then at 11% on upto £645 per week, and 1% on anything above that. This is specifically to cover the state pension and other social benefits, so once you reach the state retirement age you stop paying it - even if you're still working.

Tax is complicated stuff - perhaps needlessly so - but I'm prety sure those details are correct, since I just looked them up on http://www.direct.gov.uk/. (And I must remember to complete my tax return soon.)

Your comments on illegal immigrants are just as ludicrous: the sort of misleading garbasge spewed out by the most reactionary tabloids.

For a start, you're probably confusing illegal immigrants with assylum applicants - or more likely don't understand the difference. Illegal immigrants won't be getting any handouts because they're not known to the system! Assylum applicants don't have an easy time of it and certainly don't get "dole", if by that you mean job-seeker's allowance, (what used to be Unemployment Benefit). They do get some social security payments, because we're not the sort of country that would let them starve to death whilst their application is considered - nothing to do with being racist or not. Some will be accepted, some will be kicked out, (the majority). Being a bureaucratic process it takes a while.

There are quite a lot of perfectly legitimate workers coming in from outside the UK, but at the moment most of those are from Eastern Europe - new members of the EU like Poland - and they're providing valuable services to the UK economy, and paying UK taxes. Plenty of good Polish builders around at the moment, which is great for us homeowners who need roofs fixing and the like.

I'm glad you're happy in the USA, and I don't care too much what you think of the UK, but please, if you're going to slag us off take the trouble to make your claims at least vaguely resemble reality.

I would hope that the UK's Data Protection Rules will basically tell the US to get lost if they come knocking. However as there is the special relationship I expect it will just be ignored

"I'd imagine the VAT replaces the American income tax system entirely."
Nope, not even close

You must be getting something we Yanks aren't for all the extra taxes you are paying (National health insurance?)
Granted, most states also have a sales tax similar to the VAT, but it's much smaller (on the order of 5-6%)

Some good info on our taxes can be found here. They're you'll find some of our other taxes like Council Tax, Capital Gains and Stamp Duty.

Interesting info. I love the picture of the woman reading all about taxes with a big smile on her face. Usually when I read about taxes, I've got one hand pulling out my hair, the other on a drink and you can bet there isn't any smiling going on.

I'd imagine the VAT replaces the American income tax system entirely.

Nope, not even close. Most people's personal tax allowance (the amount of money they are allowed to earn without paying tax) is roughly 5000 pounds a year (there are differences depending on circumstances, but this is a roughly accurate figure). After that, the first £2,150 you earn is taxed at 10%, between 2,150 and 33,300 is at 22% and any taxable income over 33,300 is charged at 40%.

And this doesn't include National Insurance (equivalent to Social Security), which is a somewhat complicated calculation.

Some good info on our taxes can be found here. They're you'll find some of our other taxes like Council Tax, Capital Gains and Stamp Duty.

It is also compulsory if you want to pass a driving test, as the DVLA sneaked some new rules in
A snippet from their site:

if you have an old-style paper licence, you must take your signed driver licence and a valid passport - from 1 November 2005 no other form of photographic identification will be accepted
http://www.direct.gov.uk/Motoring/LearnerAndNewDri vers/PracticalTest/PracticalTestArticles/fs/en?CON TENT_ID=4022541&chk=2ha3fv

My guess is, either they were trying to get a driving licence, or you were wrong about the Swansea bit and they were actually in Newport trying to explain their presence at the passport office. Neither is particularly simple for an illegal alien. :P

There is no British equivalent to a bill of rights and there isn't really a constitution either. Since 1998 you do have Human rights thanks to EU. Britian didn't even really want to sign that document from what I remember. Here's the list: http://www.direct.gov.uk/RightsAndResponsibilities /RightsAndResponsibilitiesArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_I D=4002951&chk=Ytl9Fh

While it does provide some of the same rights as the American Bill of Rights, it doesn't provide them all nor does it provide any of them in great detail. That is a bad thing in Britain because some court decisions become law.

Anyone who's actually British feel free to corret me. I just go to school here.

I did Google it:

1. Motorola
2. Motorola
3. Museum of Tolerance
4. Larz Anderson Car Museum
5. Motorola again
6. Motorola yet again
7. The Ministry of Trade for Vietnam
8. UKMOT with no explanation from Google on what that is (and thus no reason to investigate that page)
9. Cambodia Tourism
10. Microarray Databases

I finally figured out that "UKMOT" is what you're talking about, but no, it wasn't obvious, even after Googling.

Interestingly, Google UK doesn't even return UKMOT as a result on the first page. Though if you click "Pages from the UK", you get not UKMOT, but this page

With the amount of cross-Atlantic traffic, you could've helped us Yanks (not to mention the non-native English speakers) out with at least the full name .. which, even after reading their FAQ I still don't know what MOT stands for.

You could've also said "annual saftey inspection" in the original post instead of the UK-specific "MOT".

You're obviously trying to express information (by posting), which I applaud; you'll reach many more minds if you make your post self-explanatory, or at least provide a link.

Juichiro Koizumi actually had something like this when he was elected Prime Minister of Japan. I never got to read his email lists (don't speak Japanese, duh) but the idea was to give everyone-and-their-mom who subscribed regular updates as to what was going on. Sort of a "what I did on my summer vacation" for politics. The same goes for the U.S.' FirstGov, to be fair.

The only other people I've seen who tried this consistently are the UK government. Their pages, even the "government for the people" type ones, come across as fairly formal and even a bit propagandistic--i.e. not necessarily something that the average slob just looking for a quick update as to what's going on would turn to. Many friends of mine in the UK also take these efforts with a grain of salt. They also seem to have spent quite a bit of money and time trying to push their pages, as opposed to using something as powerfully simple as a weblog by those-in-charge to get the message across.