British Expat Newsletter:
12 March 2008
This week: Citizenship – and some of the recent attempts to define and shore up “Britishness” in the UK’s ever-changing population
British Expat Newsletter:
23 November 2005
This week: Weight – with one in five Britons now clinically obese, a look at some of the costs of obesity, for the obese themselves and for society in general.
When did they take the “Great” out of Britain?
“It has been some 30 years since I flew off to warmer climes clutching my passport and the intention to return home one day. But now that I’ve had my fill of wadi-bashing, dune driving, and tax-free living, I find that home has turned into a cross between a yob’s paradise, a banana republic and a police state. What the heck has happened to Britain during my absence?” Linda Heard ain’t planning on returning to the UK any time soon…
Going out in style
“‘I wanted my son to have an evening that he’ll never forget – you only have one matric farewell and you can get married several times.’ This sad comment on modern marriage is one of the reasons that some wealthy South African families spend the same kind of money on the end of a child’s school career as they do on weddings.” Mike Kingdom-Hockings takes a look at a South African rite of passage – the Matric Ball.
Smoking
“Fast forward to the 1990s. Smoking is not acceptable in the UK and you feel like a complete outcast when you have to sit alone in the garden at parties, because you’re not allowed to smoke inside. You get to the stage where you feel you might as well say, ‘I hope you don’t mind if I just find a vein.'” Phil can live (just) with becoming a pariah – but being mucked about by the airlines is another matter.