Big Sale at the BBC America Shop – Coupon Codes Inside
March 19, 2010 by jonathan
Filed under Anglophile Gear, BBC, british products
The BBC America shop is having a great sale right now, with some items up to 50% off. The sale is only good until the end of March. Some of the products are pretty cool and unique. See below for some coupons codes to save even more money.
Here’s a sampling of the products on sale:
BBC America Coupon Codes
- Save $5 off a $50 or more order enter at Checkout: US510
- Save $15 off a $100 or more order enter at Checkout: US1510
- Save $25 off a $200 or more order enter at Checkout: US2510
A Pint of Bitter: Brown’s plan for May 6th; the BA strike; and England’s Achilles heel
March 19, 2010 by Carl
Filed under A Pint of Bitter, British Airways, London, Politics, Prime Minister, Prime Minister's Question Time
So now we’re sure the general election will be held on May 6th. Not officially. Firm knowledge on the day Gordon Brown decides (and it is his personal decision) to take the short car ride to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament. Which she certainly will, according to constitutional convention and because Parliament is near is legal end in any case. No, the unofficial confirmation of the date comes from the other various announcements that have been made, for instance about the budget – that’ll be held next Wednesday, the 24th – and about the Parliamentary Easter recess, which is from 30th March to the 6th of April. It’s then – just less than three weeks away – that we expect Brown to see the Queen. The election is almost upon us.
Downing Street | CreativeCommons
What this tells us is, first, that the Prime Minister feels fairly confident about the economic statistics that will be published at the end of April, figures that will say whether Britain continues even a fragile recovery or slips back into recession. He still might panic and go to the country before then, but would be visibly running scared. If there’s a chance the figures will look good, there was always a strong argument for his waiting for them. They may be politically priceless for him. Secondly, they tell us Gordon Brown may be preparing for a short election campaign, something that surprises some political commentators, since the long attritional period of pre-election talk has seen Labour narrow the gap with the Conservatives. Why not stretch the fight out even longer?
For two reasons, I think. First, precisely because the “phoney election” is going so well for Labour. Brown wants to stretch this surprisingly helpful period out as long as possible before changing the dynamic to the real campaign. Second, because Labour wants to fight a new type of campaign. The party is in real financial trouble, and while money from trades unions will come, it needs to neutralise what will surely be the Conservatives’ bigger spending power. The idea is to replace the type of election we’ve become used to – leaders expensively touring the country in helicopters day in, day out, glad-handing voters – with a much more concentrated fight centred on the three massively important, and entirely new, leaders’ debates. It’s not just about money, either. Psychologically, Brown wants to follow the phoney election, in which Tory support has gone soft as doubts have crept in – with a short, sharp wake-up campaign to focus minds more intently than ever on the choice between him and David Cameron. I’m sure he believes a short, intense campaign will help create the drama of choice he wants to produce.
Caribb | CreativeCommons
Two political issues have high saliency right now. First, the fact that Brown has had to correct his evidence to the Iraq inquiry, having wrongly claimed that defence spending rose in real terms in every year he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. That was a blunder that’s done him more harm that the spending record merits, in truth. Second, there’s the British Airways strike, planned to start on Saturday. The strike is politically embarrassing for the PM because the union involved, UNITE, is the biggest donor to the Labour Party. David Cameron tried at Prime Minister’s question time to make the strike a partisan issue; Brown must stay above it, and hope next week’s budget blows it out of the headlines. Yes, many people fly with BA. But in truth, the strike will affect Anglotopia readers, on average, more then the woman in the number 98 bus or the marginal Labour voter, who probably won’t leave the UK until summer, if then. And those Brits who are affected won’t necessarily blame the union or Gordon Brown.
CLF | CreativeCommons
In non-political news, England’s footballers are living up to two of their deserved reputations. First, John Terry who I wrote about a few weeks back (and who was later stripped of the England captaincy) is in trouble again, this time for injuring a steward while driving, apparently after having had a drink following a game. Second, it was always on the cards that one of England’s stars would be injured before the tournament: that always happens. If it happens to Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard, England really will be sunk. But it’s happened to David Beckham, still England’s most famous footballer internationally, although football watchers here know he’s past his best and would only have had a supporting role in the World Cup in any case. This is, in effect, the close of a distinguished sporting career. I’ve always thought Beckham overrated as a player, certainly not in the class of real England legends like Bobby Charlton or Bobby Moore. His considerable PR skills having gained him the international profile he enjoys. But even I can’t deny he was a very good player, who made important contributions that swung games for England at crucial times. Or that he was generally speaking a positive example of a well-behaved footballer. He once claimed to have no books in his expensive house, which didn’t impress me. But we may think worse of his coarser colleagues when he’s gone.
Inside the Lamb | Ewan-M | CreativeCommons
Beer? Happily, my local the Queensbury now sells real ale, I’m pleased to say: the quality of life in Willesden has just gone up a notch. Otherwise, I went to the Lamb, in Lamb’s Conduit Street, one of London’s fine old pubs, just north of Holborn. I’m very much hoping, whatever other cautious measures Alastair Darling takes in next week’s budget, that he doesn’t put more than a penny or so on a pint of beer. Much more than that, and all confidence could drain from my personal economy.
UK Immigration: Big Changes Ahead for the UK Points Based System – Good Changes
March 18, 2010 by jonathan
Filed under Expat Life, Politics, UK Immigration
One of the hardest things about being an Anglophile is that it’s extraordinarily hard to move there and make a living. There are many visa options out there – the most popular being the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Visa. The Tier 1 visa is a highly skilled visa that people can get if they meet the requirements and once they get it, they are free to live and work in the UK. The Tier 2 visa relies on employer sponsorship to go to the UK and work. Neither are easy to get.
This time last year, in an effort to appear ‘tough on immigration’ in a bad economy, the UK Border Agency tightened regulations on the Tier 1 visa so that anyone wishing to get it had to have a Master’s post-graduate degree to qualify for it. This gutted my wife and I as neither of us have a Master’s and it wasn’t an option for us to go back to school.
The Tier 2 visa is practically impossible to get because it’s very hard to find an employer willing to sponsor a foreign worker in this bad economy and the regulations behind the visa mean that the employer has to prove that no one in Britain and the European Union is available to do the job – which basically means the Tier 2 visa is closed to most peoples unless you’re a high dollar executive and you’re worth the trouble it entails.
I reported last December that the Migration Advisory Committee, or MAC – the non-partisan organization that advises the UKBA on it’s policies, issued it’s yearly report and recommended that the Master’s requirement be removed and require a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree, with raised previous income requirements.
This filled us with hope. The MAC submitted their report to UKBA – which always accepts their recommendations – and in traditional civil service expediency promptly did nothing for the last 3 months.
Until today.
I’m happy to say that the UKBA announced that it was accepting the MAC’s advice and that on April 6th it would implement ALL their recommendations. Meaning that from April 6th anyone with a Bachelor’s Degree can again apply for the Tier 1 visa.
I honestly can’t believe they followed through, especially when April 6th is the day an election will most likely be called. I’m shocked because the policy changes can be percieved as going ’soft on immigration.’ Nevertheless, come April 6th, UK immigration is going to change for the better.
Here’s the details from UKBA themselves:
The Government has accepted changes to Tier 1 recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee
(MAC), and has set out further details of how it will implement changes the MAC recommended to Tier 2.
The changes include new points tables for Tier 1 and Tier 2, a simpler route for very highly skilled workers without Master’s degrees, greater flexibility for short-term transfers by multinational companies, and more protection against such transfers being used to fill long-term vacancies that should go to resident workers.
Borders and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said:
‘We’ve always said that we would run our immigration system for the benefit of the UK and that is what we are doing.
‘The changes that we are making today will build on an already robust system which is now the envy of the world. A strength of the points-based system is the flexibility to predict and respond to events.
‘By utilising the flexibility of the points-based system we are now ensuring that only those that we need to come to the UK to work can do so.
‘I will continue to ensure that immigration does not act as a disincentive for employers to employ and improve the skills of the British workforce.’
These changes are included in the latest Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules, which was laid before Parliament today.
Other changes to the Immigration Rules include:
- changes to the provisions governing English language qualifications for applicants applying for permanent residence to ensure that applicants relying on qualifications in English for Speakers of Other Languages will study at accredited colleges, and to clarify the progression which migrants are required to demonstrate before applying for permanent residence;
- changes to prevent asylum applicants from claiming humanitarian protection where there are serious reasons for considering that they have engaged in undesirable behaviour;
- clarifying interview procedures for unaccompanied asylum seeking children;
- removing a requirement for an asylum seeker to be asked to sign the interview record due to other safeguards in place;
- lowering the marriage visa age to 18 for serving members of the armed forces and their partners, recognising the role of partners in supporting those on the frontline and reflecting the unique circumstances in which the armed forces operate;
- and adding Monaco to the Youth Mobility Scheme.
You can get all the details here.
What does this mean for us? Well, despite the rule changes we still won’t quite qualify for the Tier 1 Visa as I don’t make enough money to get enough points. However, I suspect that will change in the next year as I have a great job with good prospects. Also, if the UKBA changes the way they calculate previous earnings, which they plan to do, we may end up qualifying with my current salary. Now we can tell all our British friends that it’s now possible for us to move to the UK if we could. The British government is no longer holding us back. Now, it’s up to us to make it happen.
I just hope the Tories don’t win the election and scrap all the changes before we can make an attempt ourselves.
US Customs Stole Our Tea!
March 18, 2010 by jonathan
Filed under Anglophilia, tea
We’re not pleased American citizens at this particular moment.
Let me give a little backstory here – as devoted Anglophiles, my wife and I love to take tea. We stocked up last time we were in Britain (last November) but we were running near the end of our Twinnings Earl Grey supply a couple weeks ago. While you can buy Twinnings in most American grocery stores, it’s simply not the same. It must be processed differently or made somewhere else – it certainly doesn’t taste like the Twinnings you buy in England.
Since supplies were running low – we asked one of our friends in England to send us some tea with our Monthly British newspaper shipment (you can’t buy British newspapers in the US anymore – at least in Chicag0) and she was happy to oblige. So, as we waited for the newspapers to come, we finally ran out of tea – it began to get ugly in the Thomas household!
I’m used to waiting for the papers – it often takes about a week for them to get here from the UK. But after a week they still hadn’t shown up. When they finally showed up another week later, the papers arrived, but the tea hadn’t. Puzzled, we examined the packaging and it had been opened by US Customs!
US Customs took our Tea! And we can’t figure out why. Generally they allow food from the UK in as long as it’s sealed in packaging, which the tea was. How did they even know it was in there?!?!? They didn’t even leave a note of explanation, just ripped open our package and left it at that.
Ridiculous. We’ve had trouble before bringing UK food into the US but this is just absrud – it’s TEA!!!! Hardly something that will bring a food born contagion apocalypse on the USA.
Oh well. I just feel bad for our friend who went to the trouble to send it to us. Thankfully, we found a source for UK Twinning Tea in the USA- the official Twinnings store. Check it out here.
The British Invasion of the US High Street?
March 18, 2010 by jonathan
Filed under Anglophile Gear, Shopping, british products
The Telegraph had an interesting article yesterday I thought was worth sharing. Most Anglophiles know that American Main Street’s are stained with the blood of failed British chains trying the American market. But, they’re making a comeback, if a little stealthily.
These chains – M&S, Sainsbury’s, Dixons, WH Smith and Laura Ashley – all had dreadful times in the US. Indeed, so grim were their experiences that they gave rise to the ‘Britons are rubbish’ platitude. M&S’s 14 year ownership of Brooks Brothers in the US was a disaster, Laura Ashley opened 30 vast flagship stores across the States in the mid-90s only to sell them for £1 a few years later, and the less said about Dixons’ American car-crash the better.
However scratch beneath the surface and British retailers are thriving Stateside. UK chains are popping up all over the country. Indeed observers are talking about a fully-fledged British invasion.
Topshop and Fresh & Easy – Tesco’s chain of West Coast convenience stores – are the best-known UK chains to open in the US recently. However smaller operators like All Saints, Ted Baker, Space NK, Superdry and Ben Sherman are also making inroads. Hotel Chocolat, the posh confectionary store, has just opened in Boston. Meanwhile Paul Smith is big in Vegas. Even Cath Kidston – the epitome of Aga-saga, home counties kitchen, flowery Britishness – is said to be on the verge of being bought by a US buyout firm.
You can read the rest of the article here.
I know Target is on the Brit bandwagon with Boots on the shelves and the new Liberty of London line. So, have you noticed a proliferation of British high street brands making inroads on the American main street?
