Tag Archives: UK

Washing your hands without mixer taps/Wie machen es die Engländer?

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an old discussion on wer-weiss-was about the British and mixer taps (actually in this case a former Commonwealth country).

War jetzt zum wiederholten mal in einem ehemaligen Commonwealth-Land und hab mich wie immer gewundert:
Wie waschen die sich die Hände?
In der einen Ecke des Waschbeckens gibt es einen Brüh-Heißen Wasserhahn in der anderen Ecke einen Eis-kalten.
Gibt es irgendeinen Trick?
Und nur mal theoretisch ist EIN Wasserhahn (mit Mischregler) nicht billiger und einfachere/schneller einzubauen als ZWEI?

An Englishman replies:

but if having a good wash, then you put the stop in the sink and put hot and cold into the basin until temperature is ok for you

The Germans may not have thought of that one.

It’s one of those topics that heats national prejudices.

I ask myself: how long have the Germans had mixer taps? Were they introduced together with the autobahn?
I remember how impressed my brothers were when I was living in a ramshackle building in Germany with other students, and the fuse went. The fuse was a large round plug half the size of a rolling pin, and all you had to do was unplug some electrical device and push the fuse back in. They had been expecting work with a screwdriver. But I think that fuse system had existed since the early 1900s at least.

This follows a mailing-list discussion on u-forum about a use of the word spigot in British English and how to translate it into German.

Mr Bean as banker/Britische Banken von Mr. Bean verwaltet

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Business owners try (successfully) to stave off being wound up:

‘It aint our fault, the stoopid court froze the bank account so we cuddent pay the stoopid bill could we, but we done it today some’ow like’

The other director chipped in ‘Yeah, our account is managed by the banking equivalent of Mr Bean’

Everyone looked at the judge. Possibly because these two guys looked as if they meant business and would beat up anyone who would disagree with them.

The judge looked up ‘I am afraid that you will find that the whole British banking system is being run by the equivalent of Mr Bean!’

From an entry about winding up day at the law courts in London by Swiss Tony.

Another entry on the same topic by Paranoid Pupil.

British blood refused/Britische Blutspende abgelehnt

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John Flood, temporarily at Miami Law School, tries to give blood:

I hand in the forms and a moment later the medic looks glum. Was it because I’d admitted to taking an aspirin that morning? No.

“I have to reject you,” he said. “You’ve been in the UK.”

“So? I come from there.”

“It’s because of ‘mad cow disease’. We can’t risk you.”

LATER NOTE: the Wikipedia entry on Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease has more details of the dangers, and information on bans on blood donors in other countries – Australia, Singapore, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland. In the UK, blood donors may not include those who have had a blood transfusion since 1980:

In 2004 a new report published in the Lancet medical journal showed that vCJD can be transmitted by blood transfusions.[19] The finding alarmed healthcare officials because a large epidemic of the disease might arise in the near future. There is no test to determine if a blood donor is infected and in the latent phase of vCJD. In reaction to this report, the British government banned anyone who had received a blood transfusion since January 1980 from donating blood.

Details of McCartney-Mills divorce/Details der McCartney-Mills-Scheidung

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Yesterday’s judgment in the Paul McCartney – Heather Mills McCartney divorce has been released in full. Both the Guardian and the Independent have the full text online, and no doubt they are not alone.

There hasn’t yet been a divorce. Both parties have agreed to wait until after May 1, when they will have been separated for two years and can therefore base their divorce on the fact of separation rather than ‘unreasonable’ behaviour.

This judgment relates to the ancillary proceedings for maintenance pending divorce and for property arrangements. The English courts can decide themselves what is a fair division of property, guided by statute and precedent.

The husband’s case on financial provision for the wife is summarised at paragraph 9 of the opening note of Mr Mostyn QC as follows:
“We submit that fundamentally this is a straightforward case. Because of H’s enormous pre-marital wealth and because of the brief duration of this marriage W’s claim should be determined by reference to the principle of need alone. This is not a case where the principle of sharing of the “marital acquest” is engaged at all. Nor is it a case where the principle of compensation will arise. W’s needs fall to be fairly assessed, not predominantly by reference to the standard of living during the marriage. W’s award should be reduced to reflect her postseparation misconduct. That misconduct is based on three distinct episodes as explained in our Conduct Note.”

Heather Mills McCartney’s case was harder to summarize. She argued inter alia that she was wealthy when she met her future husband and gave up a lucrative career for his sake; he advised her against taking on job offers:

Countless lucrative business opportunities were made to me once Paul and I married. Sadly, Paul advised against 99% of all of them. He stated that they were only interested in me because of his name and that I should just stick to charity work and he would take car of me. When I was asked to design clothes, create a food line, write books, make a video, write music or do photography, Paul would almost always state something like “Oh no you can’t do that, Stella does that or Mary does that or Heather (his adopted daughter) used to do that or Linda did that.” even though I had been involved with fashion and modelling for years.

There is much more.

The Guardian reports that Mills confirmed to the press that she had poured a jug of water over Fiona Shackleton:

Mills also confirmed reports that she had poured water on Sir Paul’s lawyer, Fiona Shackleton. Mills said she approached the lawyer and said: “I’m not a loser” before tipping the water jug over her.

“I poured the whole jug of water on her head. I was very calm”, she said.

The Chav Nativity

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The Chav Nativity – picture and text at Charon QC

Then these three geezers turn up, looking proper bling, wiv crowns on their heads. They’re like ‘Respect, bay-bee Jesus’, an’ say they’re wise men from the East End.
Joe goes: ‘If you’re so wise, wotchoo doin’ wiv this Frankenstein an’ myrrh?
Why dincha just bring gold, Adidas and Burberry?’

A Google image search reveals others.

Strange parking tickets book / Britische Strafzettel gesammelt

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In The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness and Traffic Warden Hell, Barrie Segal (described by some as Britain’s leading expert on traffic tickets) collects odd parking tickets.

amazon.de link:
The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness and Traffic Warden Hell

Examples in this article:

Robert McFarland’s horse was given a parking ticket under the heading, “Vehicle Description: Brown Horse”.
A motorist who received a ticket in an NCP car park, despite returning to her car an hour early, was told the attendant had fined her because he had “reasonable cause to think she would stay longer than the four hours for which she had paid”.

Here’s a picture of a British parking ticket (not my car):

Segal also runs a website helping people to fight parking tickets.

www.strafzettel.de looks considerably more strait-laced.

(via Legal Juice)

Bloody deed in Bournemouth / Kanzlei lässt Möwen töten

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Drei Möwenküken auf dem Dach eines Gebäudes in Bournemouth, an der englischen Südküste, wurden auf Veranlassung von einer Anwaltskanzlei von Schädlingsbekämpfern getötet, zum Leidwesen vieler Zuschauer, u.a. aus einer anderen Kanzlei.

Under the heading Gulls ‘Strangled’ In Front Of Staff, the Bournemouth Daily Echo reports:

STAFF at offices in Bournemouth were left horrified and in tears after watching three seagull chicks killed in front of them because they were deemed a health and safety risk.
The seagull family lived on the roof of Harold G Walker solicitors in Oxford Road, Bournemouth, and the young chicks had become favourites among staff in surrounding buildings.

Apparently members of the Crown Prosecution Service were watching too.
The story was also taken up by the Law Society Gazette and RollOnFriday (the latter writes ‘No-one mention the hawk in Broadgate’, but that would be the perfect antidote, of course).

The commenters on the Daily Echo are incensed and will not use the services of Harold G Walker in future. One writes (my emphasis):

What Harold Walker has failed to grasp is the impact on the people who have witnessed this incident as it was carried out in an unprofessional manner. ProKill are incorrest to quote that they followed the guidelines as I would like to know where DEFRA state that you are allowed to stamp on a birds head. I would like to add that we are not talking once ,but for several moments so death did not come quickly to the creature, and to add insult to injury to wave at the staff who had come out of their offices in shock is just unbelievable.

There is a certain escalation in the comments.

Judicial dress again/ Richterroben

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Following the recent entry on changes to court dress in England and Wales, RA-Blog gives a link to a page with pictures of judicial dress all over the world.

It’s not quite accurate when referring to England and Wales – not surprisingly, since the situation is so complicated. And in England and Wales, ‘justices’ doesn’t refer to judges, but to lay magistrates.

>>Like everything else in Britain, British judicial costumes are regulated according to a myriad of ancient traditions, customs, and laws. Many of these rules date back to at least the 14th Century, making the modern British judicial system one of the world’s oldest.<< Does their dress date back that far? I don't think wigs were worn then. And what happened to 1066? I can't speak for Scotland and Northern Ireland (the page has separate pictures for Scotland later). >>The British judicial branch is very complex, and is composed of dozens of different courts of jurisdiction<< Not dozens. >> with grandiose names like the “Queen’s Bench” the “Chancery Division” and the “Crown Court.” Depending on which branch the judge belongs to, he could wear one of many different costumes. Unlike many other countries which limit their judges to wearing only red or black, in Britain judges wear almost every color. There are judges with blue robes, green robes, white robes, and even purple and pink ones. << I haven't checked the number of colours, but I have my doubts. >>There are several constants, however. All upper court justices in Britain wear the famous “full bottomed” powdered wigs while lower court judges wear the shorter “barrister” wig. << The full-bottomed wig is only for ceremonial occasions. In court they wear the bench wig - except the House of Lords judges, who don't wear wigs at all. On wigs, see earlier entry.

>>This is a holdover from the time when judges were members of the aristocracy, and it was considered fashionable for important people to show off their social status by wearing long flowing wigs. Once a year there is a special ceremony in Westminster Abbey during which all of the nation’s judges assemble to commemorate the start of the legal year. On formal occasions such as that, all judges wear “full bottomed” wigs.<< Exactly, and not on other occasions. The ceremony referred to is the Lord Chancellor's Breakfast. The picture of "more high court judges" with purple trim and full-bottomed wigs is a picture of the procession to the Lord Chancellor's Breakfast. Those are not high court judges, but circuit judges. By the way, the 'cross collar' is called 'bands'. For lots of pictures, including circuit judges in ordinary and ceremonial dress, see the wonderful PDF Legal Habits.

Another mystery to me is the picture that says ‘A lower court judge’. I don’t know what a lower court judge is supposed to mean – it can only mean a circuit judge (not a district judge, I think), and I don’t think it’s one of those. (The term ‘upper court’ quoted earlier is also dubious). I think it’s another manifestation of a high court judge. Here it is – any offers?

uk2.jpg

I’ve got a bit inured to English court dress, so I find the German Federal Constitutional Court judges the oddest. Their hats could have been designed for 2001. And I believe when they were invented, a theatrical costumier was consulted.

Court dress simplified/Richterbekleidung vereinfacht

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The Solicitors Journal reports that from January 2008, judges’ clothing in England and Wales is to be simplified and their dress allowance reduced. This was announced on July 12. Media release here.

Judges will no longer wear wigs, wing collars and bands when sitting in open court in civil and family proceedings. The Circuit Bench, in accordance with their current wish, will continue to wear the same gown. All other judges will wear a new, simple, gown which is in the course of desigm-

In criminal proceedings, High Court Judges will wear the present winter robes. At the moment, High Court Judges have five different styles of dress for different situations.

Advocates (mostly barristers but some solicitors) will similarly not wear wigs, wing collars and bands in civil courts.

For a picture of the High Court Judge dress to remain, see earlier entry.

Wikipedia has some information on current court dress. Examples with pictures here.

The judges of the House of Lords wear no wigs and gowns, just dark suits. That is apparently because they are sitting as a committee of the House of Lords rather than a court in the usual sense.