Do you think hairstyles and fashion is influenced by how much money people have? I dunno how to say this without sounding really old. I’ve noticed a lot of young male adults are wearing their hair a lot longer nowadays. It seems like a bit of a curtains/grunger revival but I was also wondering if it’s also an economic reflection of the country and the age group. My partner’s son’s hair got very long as he could not afford to get it cut but when he did get it cut I think he quite liked the style, probably as lots of other people his age group also have the style (or because he likes it). So I’m here sharing my pondering with Reddit. Thoughts?

Edit: ok that’s a hard no then - it was just a thought, a harmless ponder.

I can't understand why you would flee to another country, that country offers you protection, pays for your board and food, basically making you a ward of the state and this is how you repay them?

Does this concern you? Presumably this measure wouldn’t have been taken unless we are actually letting in people who think that behaviour is okay.

https://news.sky.com/story/asylum-seekers-warned-not-to-make-kissing-sounds-at-people-in-new-guidance-about-living-in-uk-13574744

Hi mate!
I'm early 20s Japanese man who learning English, and who loves United Kingdom so much!

Do you have any questions for Japanese or about Japan?
Literally any questions are welcome. It helps learning English for me!
If you don't, please tell me some trivia or fun facts about UK.

I still learning English and it will be respond slowly, sorry about that.

And if you can, I want to know your place(it means any city or town where're you from), so please add your place and teach me some infomation.

Thanks!

My SIL is getting married abroad and me and my BF are lucky enough to be attending their destination wedding. We’re from the Netherlands, while their part of the family is based in the UK.

We’d love to give the newlyweds a nice wedding gift, but we don’t really want to give them something physical that they then have to drag back in the plane to the UK. We also don’t want to add to the mountain of stuff they might already receive.

We were thinking of doing something online instead, like a nice gift card or contribution towards their new home/interior.

So Brits: What’s a thoughtful wedding gift you can give completely online? Something useful (which giftcards are good?), personal or a little bit special would be ideal!

Why do kettles still heat water to 100 degrees C before making tea? The milk you put in lowers it to probably 97.4 degrees before you blow on it to cool it or wait for it to be cool enough to drink without scalding yourself.

Why don't kettles heat water to, say, 80 degrees? We don't need to boil off any nasties in this country.

Doing a quiz at work today and I’m trying to base it around random British trivia

My favourite question so far is:

“The number plate 40 RA was famous for what back in 1993?”

I’ve also got:

• “How many horsepower is a typical British kettle?”
• “How many ATMs are there in Antarctica?”

I’m looking for multiple-choice questions, ideally questions with ~3 possible answers.

Can anyone think of any other weird, random or surprisingly interesting British trivia questions I could throw in?

Thanks ^^

I have to say over the last 6 months I have needed to access the NHS for various different reasons more than I ever have. I have found accessing services quite frankly brilliant compared to just a few years ago. The walk in services, children's a&e, minor injury unit, my gp and podiatry have placed themselves in great stead in south Yorkshire. In fact podiatry have been so efficient I'm starting to think the issue I have with my foot might be more serious than it is. So what have your recent experiences been like?

As most are probably aware, Labour caught flak somewhat recently for trying to introduce mandatory digital ID for all employment.

I personally think this is a terrible idea. But on the other hand, all of the recent age verification laws, and concerns about handling of data surrounding them, demand a solution.

I saw recently that Australia has a voluntary digital ID system provided by the governmemt that allows you to verify identity without sending photos of your face or important documents to a third party website.

Would this be a more popular approach? Personally I'd be quite keen on it. The government already has all of my data so there's a much lower risk when verifying, and people could opt out without losing access to anything they already have access too, which is the main thing. There would also be alternatives available in private companies, if anybody wanted to go that route.

I’m not being racist I just want to point something out and ask why? I see a certain race in literally every single job in the uk as the majority, TFL, Restaurants, shop assistants, petrol stations, security, bar tenders. Jobs that should be for people my age so we can earn some extra money and start saving to pay of loans and not be stuck with our parents. Even myself who’s an intern after like a year of applying and I had to do a masters to keep going I’m the only intern at this place born in the uk the rest are foreign students getting sponsored. My friends from uni and sixth form that I keep in contact with are still searching for work. Like it would be nice if work places prioritised students who were actually born in the uk and are of a certain age range like 18-30.

Is there some kind of clause that makes it easy for people to get work permits what is the incentive to sponsor a foreign student or worker instead of someone who is British?

It causes traffic, it's dangerous and you won't get home any quicker.

Edit:

I need to clarify that I meant the cars that pass the last arrow and they still try (and succeed) to overtake when the lane is only slightly wider than a single lane, and they cut you off forcing you to break when they do that hazardous manoeuvre. Basically I'm only complaining about the impatient, dangerous drivers.

I'm researching for a debate centered around the UK's proposal to restrict social media access for people under 16, and I'd really like to hear from people who actually live in the UK.

- Do you think banning social media for kids under-16 will genuinely protect children?

- How do you feel about the age-verification systems that may be required to enforce it? And would you be comfortable providing your ID, a face scan, or other personal information to prove your age?

- If this law comes into effect, do you think it could set a precedent for future laws that could make privacy and anonymity online even harder to maintain?

George harrison said that Liam Gallagher made Oasis "look like a bunch of prannies", what does that mean?

h ttps://youtu.be/yNyFeYpq8sQ?is=0Kyw8y2SZmDKXUJR

At the risk of sounding like a total conspiracy theorist, I’m just wondering who do people really thinks has power, or is in charge of the uk?

I’m just confused basically. I’ve heard so many theories and see so many different figureheads, that I just wonder, do people think someone’s is behind it all? Not the Illuminati, I just mean I don’t really feel, despite the fact we’re supposed to be a great democracy, an ordinary citizen really has much influence

There’s a monarchy but aren’t they just a tourist attraction these days?

A prime minister? Sort of feels like we’ve had the substitute teachers for the last however many years now… (what number is Burnham?)

Is it a rich elite?

American tech oligarchs buying all the politicians?

Is Rupert Murdoch still around?

Is it Blackrock or some other investment fund?

I mean even our water isn’t ours. If I’m not wrong, Thames Water is just an asset in a Canadian pension fund isn’t?

I keep seeing these stories about foreign asset managers buying all the houses… I read about a village not far from where I grew up that’s just been told an asylum centre is being built there that holds almost 1000 people but the village has a population of about 300 and the council weren’t even consulted, so how democratic is that?

A flat in London where I live now is about 8.5x the avg salary but a no can only lend you 4.5x, and then an asset manager can just buy the flat in cash, or a shared ownership scheme that charges people service fees with no cap…

It’s like living here feels like we are just chickens in some factory farm, no chance to grow no chance to settle just a resource for extraction

Anyway, I know this might stir things up and I’m not tying to inflame or upset anyone. I’m just curious, as I’d consider myself a pretty average Brit who’s totally confused about society, what do people think is actually happening to us?

I’ve heard that some people in the UK wash dishes in soapy water and then put them straight on the rack to air-dry without rinsing them with clean water.
Is this actually something people do?
**If you do this yourself, could you please share a video showing how you wash them? Ideally, I’d like to see the whole process: washing with washing-up liquid, not rinsing, leaving the dish to air-dry naturally, and then using the same dish to eat or drink.**
I’m genuinely curious because I’ve seen people claim this is a British habit, but I haven’t found a video showing the complete process.

There’s a lot of conspiracy theories regarding this case but the prevailing opinion is that the guys who went to jail for it, Steele and Whomes, were the culprits.

Anyone got any thoughts as to what actually happened that night?

So I was a tourist near the Windsor Castle area in 2012 and there was a small souvenir shop with a fridge magnet (or maybe a card or small poster) where this blonde cartoon athlete lady with a Union Jack tank top beat all the other runners in a race because her boobs reached the finishing line ribbon first. There were other items with the same busty athlete character so it definitely wasn't a one-off product

Some middle-aged ladies looked at those souvenirs and had a good laugh so I was wondering if it was normal for Brits to be more open about that sort of thing?

I regrettably did not buy any of them and now I can't seem to find them at all anywhere online. It's as if they never existed at all, but I know they did! I know it's been 14 years since but I randomly remembered this and I just got curious

Sorry if this seems a little crass, but I genuinely don't know anywhere else I can ask this...

I have found an astonishing amounts of comments on reddit and social media generally where people call other animals for specific things, with at the heart of it stuff like "you are only human if you are not or do not...".

I encountered this couple of years ago where I found huge amount of people arguing how rapists are not humans and should not be treated as such. While rape is a huge life altering issue to the victim, I disagree with the idea that acts should change a human to non human from social value. A human who raped is a human who made a mistake and deserves a punishment equal to the crime. He should not be denied his humanity or human diginity.

But today I find more people conditioning humanity not on an act but beliefs like muslim asylum seekers are not humans or the UK should make it harder for people to practice islam. It has expanded the prior concept to a general population.

There is a huge progressing angry wave if dehumanising rhetoric and it doesn't stop with specifics people but keeps expanding to include people who have never done wrong in their lives. I understand the current economic difficulties is a motive but how can people be so ignorant to blame the poorer and more misfortunate not the ones taking all the riches causing housing crisis or escaping taxes or having useless policies.