This Britain
Freebies unwrapped: The 'celebrity gifting lounge' new
While most of us will be looking to wind down on the present front after Christmas, for celebrities the season of giving will have only just begun. Early next year at Britain's awards ceremonies, stars won't be looking to just pick up gongs, they will also be hoping to bag a few freebies before the event has even started.
Inside This Britain
Designers reveal modern take on royal memorabilia...
Sunday, 12 December 2010
We ask a band of young designers to come up with memorabilia that’s a cut above the usual tat. By Lena Corner.
Boring? The number 23 bus? Never!
Sunday, 12 December 2010
A conference finds unlikely fascination in bus routes, breakfasts, car parks, and even in the humble pint of milk. Susie Mesure at the Boring Conference, London.
Home from Helmand: Leaving the front line
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Terri Judd meets the soldiers adjusting to life after being at war.
Minor British Institutions: The office Christmas party
Saturday, 11 December 2010
The roots of the Office Xmas Party, you won't be surprised to learn, are pagan. It's a celebration of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun (25 December, as it happened), of the old Yule, always observed most enthusiastically in these islands, and uninterrupted by the coming of Christianity.
Will we ever learn just to be content?
Friday, 10 December 2010
We're stuck on a treadmill of envy, acquisition and dissatisfaction, says John Lanchester. Worse, developing nations are copying our unsustainable ways.
Appeal: Rescued from a life of crime by cooking
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Emma Jackson had three convictions before she had turned 16 but Barnardo's gave her a fresh start.
Minor British Institutions: the postcode
Saturday, 4 December 2010
The postcode is another triumph of pioneering British bureaucracy. Sir Rowland "Penny Post" Hill split London into ten compass-point districts in 1856; the current code took 15 years to arrive after its trial in Norwich in 1959.
Two thirds of Britons are feeling underwhelmed by Royal Wedding
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
The majority of Britons feel indifferent about the announcement that Prince William is to marry Kate Middleton next spring, according to an opinion poll carried out for The Independent.
Boring Conference sells out in minutes
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
The first batch of tickets sold out in two minutes, the second in five minutes. Now the 2010 Boring Conference in London, the first of its kind, has completely sold out.
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1 Streetwise I'm not, says a chastened Alan Bennett
2 'Off with their heads!' shouted the crowd as Charles and Camilla met rage in Regent Street
3 Iceland walks out of fishing talks
4 Sympathy for those on benefits is lowest since Thatcher's time
5 How many civil servants does it take to put up a tree?
6 Day of protest over axing of education grant
7 Britain braced for snow and plunging temperatures
9 Life on the poverty line: Breadline Britain
10 Police 'kettling' under fire as May refuses to rule out water cannon
11 British household debts reach a record high
12 Boring? The number 23 bus? Never!
13 Women who travel for sex: Sun, sea and gigolos
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