British Bazaar Week: Reflect your Britishness in a British Isles Mirror

As a household of Anglophiles, Jon and I love when we find everyday items that we can use in our home that have British flare. We decorate with more of a modern look, which can be difficult when trying to show off our British flare, as lots of little souvenirs tend to make the house look messy. British Bazaar found the solution, a fabulous mirror, shaped like the British Isles. The mirror is an etched outline of Great Britain and Ireland.

We were curious so we ordered one. I must honestly say, the mirror is great! First of all, it is acrylic not traditional mirrored glass. The benefit of it being made of acrylic is that it is lighter and therefore easier to hang. Another plus of the acrylic construction is that it won’t get age spots like old mirrors get over time.

My favorite part of the mirror is the way it is hung – with adhesive tabs that stick to the back of the mirror. This is perfect, because you don’t have to put nails in the wall. This will be especially great for places that will not allow tenants to use nails to hang things. The mirror comes with detailed directions to tell you how to properly use the glue tabs, it also tells you how to hang your mirror in a bathroom. The directions to hang it in the bathroom are slightly different due to moisture, but they’re still strait forward.

The only problem that Jon and I have had with this mirror is the discussion of where to hang it, normal husband and wife argument. The mirror is defiantly a conversation piece. The mirror is very clear and reflects light beautifully. I would recommend this mirror to fellow Anglophiles in a a heartbeat.

Click here to buy your very own Great Britain Mirror from the British Bazaar. Don’t forget to use coupon code Anglo to save 15%!

Anglophile Reviews: The Good Hotel Guide – Guide to Hotels in Britain

One of the hardest aspects of trip planning to Britain is find good and decent hotels. Many of the trip planning websites have reviews – but sometimes they are just a little hard to believe. There’s usually an extreme between people who loved the hotel or hated it and post disturbing pictures.

That’s why I love The Good Hotel Guide – it’s filled with hundreds of great reviews for hotels all over Britain and they’re written by professionals. They’re not biased based on one terrible experience and they judge hotels on many different sets of standardized criteria.

The book is definitely thorough with detailed and honest reviews of over 800 hotels, inns, guest houses and bed and breakfasts throughout Great Britain and Ireland. A hotel cannot asked to be review, they have to be recommended by someone and then a trained professional is secretly sent to evaluate the place (gotta be a hell of a job!) and write an honest assessment.

Each review gives you the basic information about the hotel, the detailed review and any specific notes about the establishment, such as if they allow pets, number of rooms, payment options and any other special requirements.

This book is not quite for you if you’re on a budget. Many of the hotels featured are high dollar hotels, but there are also a few budget hotels worth looking at. More often than not, when talking about British hotels, you get what you pay for. So, if you can afford a little more to splash on a nicer hotel, you’re bound to guarantee a better time.

My wife and I have stayed in some real crappy hotels on our many trips to England and after our last trip where we had the opportunity to stay at a Hilton, we’ve resolved to save more so we can spend more on much nicer hotels. Sometimes a broom cupoboard will do for a hotel room. But sometimes, a much nicer room can help you have a much more enjoyable vacation. And this book will certainly point you in the right direction.

The book some with £150 worth of vouchers for you to save money on your hotel booking, which will help offset the cost of some of these hotels. In the back of the book, there’s a very useful map that plots all the hotels so you can easily plan your holiday accordingly. The front of the book features a handy ‘hotelfinder’ that breaks down the best places to stay based on certain situations such as value, family, location, etc. Very helpful indeed.

My only complaint about the book is that there are absolutely no pictures, which is a real shame as it would be lovely to be able to visulize some of these really amazing sounding places. Thankfully, they do have a website with ample pictures.

If you’d like to buy a copy for yourself – it’s only £17.50 plus shipping – check out the Good Hotel Guide Website here.

United Kingdom Officially Emerges from the Recession – Econopocalypse Ends

While many people in Britain may not feel it quite yet, statistically Britain officially came out of the recession today, well in the 4th quarter at least.

There was growth – but not much. But it’s a sign of good things to come.

It was the longest recession since 1995 and was the worst since The War. But Britain made it through and although the economy is still gaining it’s footing – things are looking up for Britain.

This will be good for Gordon Brown if Labour can spin this in their favor.

We’ve seen the recovery ourselves. One only has to look at our Analytics and see where our traffic is coming from and what people are looking for.

People are traveling to Britain again – our travel articles are the most popular. Ads related to Britain are being clicked – people are buying things.

Looking at the UK immigration picture, hopefully a rebounding economy will take the pressure off the British government to cap and reduce highly skilled immigration. We continually monitor the UK job boards and there are lots of empty jobs that need to be filled.

The future is bright.

UK economy emerges from recession

A Pint of Bitter: Gordon Brown survives brief blizzard Coup Attempt, Islam in the UK and Much More!

Happy New Year! Snow is on the ground again in London. It’s not like much of the rest of the country: my parents are actually snowed in, up North. There’s no infrastructural breakdown here, apart from the predictable tube delays. But cold, it certainly is. Ideal weather for settling down with a warming pint of winter beer somewhere like the St. Stephen’s Tavern, right by Westminster tube station, where Francesca and I enjoyed a pint of Pickled Partridge. This pub is much better than you’d think, being in such a tourist-grabbing spot practically underneath Big Ben. It’s plushly Victorian, very welcoming and has good beer – I like it. As do Scots musicians in kilts and the gin-drinking ladies who admire them. It was New Year’s Day. It doesn’t seem a very political pub, though – for that, I recommend the Red Lion, just round the corner opposite Downing Street.

Twenty-ten may only be minutes old, but believe it or not, Gordon Brown’s leadership is in question yet again. There’s been constant muttering: Labour MPs and Labour supporters know their party would be likely to do better with someone else at this year’s general election, and crucially, no one in Britain can imagine him serving as PM until 2014. He survived a serious crisis last June, when one of his Cabinet resigned, calling for a change at the top. Brown was vulnerable then – I thought he’d resign – but the Foreign Secretary David Miliband (much admired by Hillary Clinton) thought better of challenging Brown at that moment – he “bottled out”, as his critics would put it. I and many others thought Brown’s survival then made him safe until the election. But two former ministers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, astonished everyone on Wednesday by calling for a secret ballot of Labour MPs to decide once and for all whether Gordon Brown should lead Labour on polling day.

In truth, this was an attempt to remove him, veiled only flimsily. It didn’t work. The coup was ineptly timed – Labour MPs were e-mailed the idea just as Gordon Brown was giving an unusually strong performance at Prime Minister’s question time in Parliament – and failed to trigger the ministerial resignations it aimed at provoking. It was much too narrowly based, coming from the New Labour right rather than an alliance of the right, centre and left, which could unseat Brown. And it’s come far too late, with only weeks left before Brown must go to the country. If Hoon and Hewitt really wanted, as they said, to settle the leadership question, then they’ve succeeded. Gordon Brown is now surely unremovable internally. The tepid loyalty displayed by some of his Cabinet weakens him politically outside the Labour Party, though: David Miliband could only say

I am working closely with the prime minister on foreign policy issues and support the re-election campaign for a Labour government that he is leading

a tactically bad response that surely damages his future. I think he’s missed his chance to be Prime Minister, and will never have another. Worse for UK PLC, Alistair Darling made the bare statement that

The prime minister and I met this afternoon and we discussed how we take forward economic policies to secure the recovery. I won’t be deflected from that.

What international markets and credit rating firms think of that evidence of unity at the top of H.M. Government, as they scrutinise Britain’s deficit-reduction plans, I don’t know.

There was just time before the New Year Coup for another media storm to be shrewdly created by Britain’s leading Islamist, Anjem Choudary. He announced the intention of his group “Islam4UK“, which wants the UK to convert wholesale to radical Islam and to be subject to sharia law, to hold a procession in the market town of Wootton Bassett. It’s not a stronghold of Islam. It’s the nearest town to the RAF Lyneham, where the bodies of British soliders killed in Afghanistan land on return to the UK, and the public have taken to lining the streets as a mark of respect as their remains are driven through the town. There’s little doubt this obviously provocative march, if it was ever seriously planned, will be prevented. The Home Secretary Alan Johnson has already said he’ll stop it. But Choudary has succeeded in what was no doubt his primary aim, of gaining publicity for his strange outfit. It’s difficult to know how seriously to take him: few Muslims will agree with much he says, and his ideas are so extreme, they are unlikely to have any wide appeal. But the connection of Islamist ideology with violence, and that fact that a few vulnerable people can be susceptible to radicalisation and extremism in the service of mad ideas, means his activities can’t be dismissed as harmless crankery.

Before I go, I should mention the Cittie of Yorke, a fine, quirky old pub on High Holborn, just by the entrance to Gray’s Inn, where I enjoyed a beer a few days ago. The small booths in the main, back bar are packed with young lawyers and Bar students if you don’t take your seat by 5.30. It’s a place with many memories for me, of drunken nights worrying about advocacy tests, and is one of the few grand old London pubs to have improved in recent times – the Sam Smith’s beer (real ale, but not with a great reputation among drinkers) has improved, there’s not a bad wheat beer alternative, and reasonable food is served. This is quite a good stop for visitors to legal London who are interested in seeing young professional London getting plastered in quaint olde surroundings. I don’t expect to see Anjem Choudary in there. I expect he’d close it down; which is one more reason to oppose him.

Amazing Satellite Picture of the Island of Great Britain Covered in Snow

This picture made my jaw drop. It’s a satellite picture from NASA of the island of Britain covered in snow. The whole island. Covered in snow. You can clearly see the effects of England’s recent snowstorm in the image! It was taken in January 2010.

Check out Frozen Britain below!

Awesome!

Click the image to see a bigger version.

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