Category: UK
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Poundworld in the UK has closed down. The closest equivalent here is Japan Home Centre, which used to be the "10 dollar shop", but quietly dropped that concept (in 2001, apparently). When Poundworld tried to do something similar in 2016, it didn’t go well: Not so penny-wise: the last days of Poundworld “Each week we…
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Another excellent “Long Read” from The Guardian, by Tom Lamont – the same writer as the one about pubs that I highlighted last year. The big gamble: the dangerous world of British betting shops In total, there are around 9,000 licensed betting shops in the UK, around half of those operated by Ladbrokes and William…
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A really good article in The Guardian today: The death and life of the great British pub The Murphy family, John, Mary and their adult son Dave, were preparing to spend a 33rd Christmas as landlords of the Golden Lion pub in Camden, north London when they heard the rumours. A mysterious figure was said…
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Well, a strong sense of déjà vu for those of us old enough to remember the 1992 General Election. Then, as now, a significant number of people seem to have told the opinion pollsters that they intended to vote Labour (or Liberal Democrat), only to choose the Conservatives when they went to the Polling Station.…
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Sky News have been making the most of the lengthy post-election negotiations, and they even have (or had) a helicopter flying around London to try to make it all more exciting. On Monday when Gordon Brown was making his first resignation speech of the week you could clearly hear it overhead. It was a curious…
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The Sun really is a ridiculous newspaper. Their front page today has this nonsense about a ‘Brown Monday’: DEFEATED Gordon Brown yesterday sparked fears of a City meltdown after trying to hijack a Tory-Lib Dem deal for a unity government. His bid to rise from the dead by persuading the Lib Dems to prop him…
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Sky News presenter to Lord Adonis, the transport minister, about the volcanic ash problem: “Do you have a contingency plan for this unprecedented state of affairs” Adonis just ignored the question.
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Interesting article in The Independent (When the locals bought their local) about a pub that has been bought by its customers. Ten years ago this corner of northern Salford boasted eight pubs within walking distance of the Star. One by one they've closed their doors. Before Christmas the Star nearly went the same way. Robinsons,…
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Watching Cable TV news tonight is franky a bizarre experience. Gordon Brown seems to be the hero of the day, and thus we get to see the highlights of his political life, including the time his best mate Tony Blair bought him an ice cream (I guess you had to be there…). Just a few…
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Back in 2004, the boss of Ultimo (a lingerie company in the UK), claimed that conditions in the dormitories at factories in Guangdong producing her company’s products were similar to that of a ‘Travel Inn’. Well, maybe not. Or at least not the dormitories for the workers. Now comes a story (I read it…
Ordinary Gweilo 