Legal Alien » BBC

There is nothing like a Dane

Bjørn — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:41:45 +0000

Hey, what can I say, I’m definitely not a xenophone, I have borrowed that title from an article in the British newspaper “The Independent”, so it must be true.

To save you from clicking the link, the Independent article is about yet another Danish TV production being shown on BBC. Last year we had both “Forbrydelsen I and II” (The Killing), and now comes a new production “Borgen“. Interestingly the BBC hasn’t even translated the title. Maybe I can have some more fun with my colleagues who initially did a great British rendition of pronouncing “forbrydelsen” which, for the benefit of any Danish readers, became something like “forbraidelsen”.

British jobs for British workers

Bjørn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:48:24 +0000

The last couple of days have seen a lot of media attention over strikes around the country. People are complaining about foreigners working in the UK. Being a foreigner myself it is obviously a subject that I have a vested interest in. Though, to be honest, it isn’t something I’m giving much thought. I have in the 9 years I have lived in the UK never experienced any negative comments about me working in the UK.

The issue seems to be causing the Labour government some problems as Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, at a party conference in 2007 uttered the slogan: “”. According to both the BBC and “The Times”, the “National Front” (a right wing whites-only political party) has used the same slogan. According to The Times, when Downing Street (where the prime minister lives, referring to Downing Street is comparable to referring to “The White House” in the US) was confronted with this, their response was that Gordon Brown used the slogan first but as The Times points out, that doesn’t necessarily make it any better.

Rain

Bjørn — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:59:49 +0000

Friends back in Denmark frequently ask me how I can stand all the rain here in the UK. They never quite seem like they believe me when I tell them that in my experience it doesn’t rain a whole lot more here compared to Denmark. So I decided to find the official truth. That wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It turns out the BBC and DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) don’t agree on the numbers. The BBC is supposed to be very trustworthy, but I’ve decided to believe DMI on this one.

Rainy days per year:

London 119
Copenhagen 112

So there you have it, one more week of rain in London compared to Copenhagen for the whole year. Putting the numbers into a chart it becomes clear that in London the winter is wetter and the summer is drier compared to Copenhagen.

Quality of life

Bjørn — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:38:55 +0000

This is old news, but my blog on living in the UK is new, and I wanted to boast tell friends and family about the cool place we live in the UK. So back in 2007, Wokingham (the borough where we live) was found to be the number one place in the UK to live in. What particularly pleased me was that we here have “90 minutes more sunshine each week than the UK average”

Unfortunately, the latest survey from 2008 has Wokingham in fourth place. I assume the 90 minutes of extra sunshine haven’t gone away though…

BBC: Wokingham the ‘best’ city to live
Halifax press release: Residents of Wokingham have best quality of life