Ask a foreigner

[Movingforward10]

That’s so heartening to hear

Maybe that is a main difference between a country with a welfare state at its core and a country without one?

 

[mr_ranesh]

Yes I know the anthem and it is of course sung loudly, in 12 different keys, at football matches.

 

[Freddyt]

Yes I know the anthem and it is of course sung loudly, in 12 different keys, at football matches.

I figured that out once for NHL hockey players - over an 80 game season, considering 2/3 of their games both anthems are sung. To the tune of about 3.5 hours a year of anthems.

Double that and more for the lone Canadian Baseball team....

 

[Rose White]

Have you eaten jellied eels? What do they taste like? I just learned that eels were so abundant in the Thames in the 19th century that they were considered food for the poor and served with pie and mash for a hearty meal.

 

[Movingforward10]

Have you eaten jellied eels? What do they taste like? I just learned that eels were so abundant in the Thames in the 19th century that they were considered food for the poor and served with pie and mash for a hearty meal.

Just laughing at jellied eels. I have never ever eaten one. They aren't as popular as they used to be. But yep, in all the local chippies/pieband mash, you'd get jellied eels. I link jellied eels to Cockney rhyming slang. All that east London banter and culture.

 

[Rose White]

Is Cockney rhyming slang still a thing? Or like a nostalgic vestige of the past?

 

[Freddyt]

Is Cockney rhyming slang still a thing? Or like a nostalgic vestige of the past?

Still alive and well. I was a fan of Wheeler Dealer TV show for many years and I would catch the odd (usually negative) comment form the host about someone.
I enjoyed Spike Milligan's books and the TV show Black Adder that are full of rhyming slang. As was Still Game, a comedy about two Scottish retirees.

 

[Teasel]

Cockney rhyming slang still a thing? Or like a nostalgic vestige of the past?

Very much alive

Not eaten jellied eels! Went to a pie and mash shop a couple of times, not really a fan, one of the few foods I'd not want to eat. Though I was told the pie and mash shop I went to wasn't a good one

I love Japanese eel tho, cor yeah

 

[Rose White]

love Japanese eel tho

Oh there’s that sushi craving for me again

 

[OceanSpray]

What do people generally use for self protection in the UK?

I’m from the US so things like pepper spray, knives, stun guns, bear spray, and obvs actual guns are just a handful of things people here carry with them. I can understand things like guns and knives being banned there but from my understanding, all the rest is banned there as well. Which to me is silly considering crime still very much exists and a person should be entitled to have some kind of protection.

 

[Sideways]

Where I live, you’re not allowed to carry around weapons like the ones you’ve described.

And yes, crime still happens, and there’s definitely a vocal minority that advocate for the right to carry. But, currently, it’s a (perhaps surprisingly) small minority.

a person should be entitled to have some kind of protection.

I get that a lot of Americans believe this. But it’s a very culturally-specific belief which simply doesn’t resonate all that much in other places. It’s not that other places aren’t interested in individual rights, or individual safety, it’s just that there are other interests that carry a lot more significance than they might in the US. The rights of the individual, here, isn’t anything like as absolute compared to the position in the US.

Doesn’t make them right, wrong, better, or worse. But the ‘should’ in the statement you’ve made is misplaced in other settings.

 

[Movingforward10]

What do people generally use for self protection in the UK?

I’m from the US so things like pepper spray, knives, stun guns, bear spray, and obvs actual guns are just a handful of things people here carry with them. I can understand things like guns and knives being banned there but from my understanding, all the rest is banned there as well. Which to me is silly considering crime still very much exists and a person should be entitled to have some kind of protection.

Nothing. Same in other European countries.

Crime does exist, of course.

Is there evidence in the US that having forms of self protection reduces crime or helps when crime is happening?