Word: britishisms
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...strength of the pound has long been a source of British pride - the word "sterling" has come to describe something of the highest standard. When the pound plunges, as it did in 1976 and in 1992, the damage to the British psyche is almost as far-reaching as the impact on the economy. And right now sterling's losing its shine. In the past year, the U.K. currency has lost about a fifth of its value against the euro, the currency used in much of the rest of Europe, and 30% against the dollar. Causes aren't hard to come...
...Having grown faster than Europe's other big economies over the past decade, British GDP will shrink more this year, estimates the E.U. Brits have begun comparing themselves to Iceland, another north Atlantic island buffeted by financial turmoil. When squatters were discovered living in two $20 million Park Lane mansions, it was taken as a powerful reminder of the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. "There will be lots more people like me in the coming months," said one of the squatters. Britain's opposition Conservative Party says things could get so bad that the country might have...
...British public, long a Euro-skeptic bunch, are having none of it. According to a January poll by ICM for the BBC, 71% of Britons remain opposed to adopting Europe's single currency; more than two-thirds said the pound's slide made no difference to their thinking. "There's a long sentimental attraction to a coinage that has been around for such a large part of our history," says Nicholas Mayhew, a professor of monetary history at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. "I'd be surprised if all that is lost in a matter of months...
This evening, three British broadcasters - ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 - will air the DEC appeal. The satellite broadcaster Sky News today confirmed that it will not do so. John Ryley, head of Sky News, said, "We have concluded that broadcasting an appeal for Gaza at this time is incompatible with our role in providing balanced and objective reporting of this continuing situation to our audiences in the U.K. and around the world...
...Alexander, Britain's International Development Secretary, is dismayed. "While this decision is ultimately - and rightly - one for the broadcasters, it is the essence of humanitarian-aid agencies that they never take sides in a conflict. That is the long-standing position of the DEC and organizations such as the British Red Cross," he says. "The British public can distinguish between support for humanitarian aid and perceived partiality in a conflict. All I have asked the BBC and Sky to do is to publicize the means by which people can make donations to those organizations which are in a position...