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Many Americans have recently protested against Obama's proposals to reform America's health service, fearing that it could become more like Britain's National Health Service (NHS). Scare stories were spread - nearly all of them not true - about Britain's "socialist" health system, including...

Usually, the sight of a rainbow barely warrants a mention. But it does if the rainbow appears at night. Photographer Chris Walker was driving through a storm in Richmond, North Yorkshire, last Sunday when he spotted a rainbow, despite it being 7pm and dark. Most rainbows are seen during the...

England may only be a part of the UK, just as California is a part of the US, Alberta is a part of Canada and Queensland is a part of Australia, but Roy Hattersley considers himself to be English rather than British. The former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Home...

The Whitechapel area of east London is not just famous as being the place where Jack the Ripper went on his (or, I suppose, her) bloody killing spree in 1888. It's also the location of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The foundry is Britain's oldest manufacturing firm, founded in 1570 during the...

The Queen today led the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in central London, the first ever in which no First World War veteran has been present. Britain's last two WWI veterans - Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - died earlier this year. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...

What a hugely eccentric (in a good sort of way) a nation Britain is. A man named Taffy Thomas, from the Lake District county of Cumbria, has been named the country's first storytelling laureate. Taffy, 60, will start his two-year tenure in January and will travel the length and breadth of...

The British military is preparing for its bloodiest year since 1982, when 255 British soldiers were killed in just two months during the Falklands War against Argentina. Since the War in Afghanistan began in 2001, 224 British soldiers have been killed, more than any other nation other than the...

With Remembrance Sunday approaching and people throughout the Commonwealth wearing red poppies, this is a time to remember the brave soldiers who fought for our freedoms in the world wars and other conflicts. Now a diary, written by a British soldier, Sapper John T French, a tin miner from...

It was one of the most momentous events in England's long, colourful and bloody history. An event which ended the Plantagenet Era and saw in the Tudor Era. The Battle of Bosworth was the penultimate battle of the Wars of the Roses, an English civil war which lasted from 1455 to 1485 and which...

The BBC is run by a bunch of Left-Wingers who either think that having a good education is only the preserve of members of the Royal Family and upper class "toffs" (especially Tory toffs) or that to spell words correctly would "offend" dysexics, people with learning difficulties or just plain...

Tony Blair, British PM from 1997 to 2007, is one of the frontrunners to be the first President of Europe. Running the undemocratic EU is just the job for Tony (or should that be Boney?) Blair - he loves getting his snout in the trough, national sovereignty means nothing to him and he can lie...

Despite it being the only English war with the phrase "civil war" in its title, the English Civil War in the 17th Century wasn't the only civil war to have been fought in England. And it wasn't even the first. The conflict known as The Anarchy, or the The Nineteen-Year Winter, which took...

It's no wonder that Horatio Nelson is viewed as a heroic figure by the British, 200 years after he walloped the Frenchies with six sixes over deep fine leg in the same over. According to journals in the National Archive, Nelson was giving orders to his men just 30 minutes after losing his arm...

There was action in the 4th Round of the Carling Cup last night. Blackburn Rovers, who are missing a few players as they have swine flu, thrashed lower division Peterborough United (whose manager Darren Ferguson is the son of the Manchester United manager Sir Alex) 5-2. A beleagured...

When it comes to alcohol, North Americans can be very strict indeed. A traditional British lemonade drink, Fentimans Victorian Lemonade, enjoyed in Britain for more than 100 years, has sparked uproar in the US after a teenager in Maine had the drink confiscated from him as he is under the...

The British are very good at colourful pomp and pageantry, and that was demonstrated again yesterday as the Queen welcomed the visit by the Indian president. The visit by President Pratibha Patil, India's first female Head of State since independence from Britain, was the first by an Indian...

Several new skyscrapers are currently being built in London, which will make London the skyscraper capital of Europe and probably rival cities like Los Angeles in terms of the number of high rise buildings. But the London Mayor, the Tory Boris Johnson, who succeeded Labour's Ken Livingstone...

It is famous throughout Britain for being the most haunted village in supposedly the world's most haunted country. And this year, spooky Pluckley, in Kent, is cancelling Halloween. The residents of Pluckley have had enough of ghost-hunting revellers causing chaos every 31st October. So this...

"One fan told me to get my coffin ready": Liverpool beach ball boy reveals his hell It was one of the most bizarre things you'll ever see in a football match. Last week, in an English Premier League match between Liverpool and Sunderland at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, just five minutes had...

The religious celebration of Diwali, known as the "festival of lights", usually passes by unnoticed by politicians at Westminster. But this year, with a General Election looming, it is different. Politicials have been clammering to host parties for Britain's 1.5 million Hindus, Sikhs and...