(Part 3) Top products from r/AskUK

Other people have addressed the EU question, so I'll focus more on politics in general. There's some decent BBC media which covers current politics, it can sometimes be a bit tedious, some shows are better than others, and I certainly wouldn't recommend rigorously following all of them, but it's pretty good for familiarising yourself with the current state of affairs. Some TV and radio shows to follow -

Daily Politics - daily show analysing politics, which often gets high profile politicians on.

This Week - weekly show, airing after Question time, with a slightly comedic approach to political analysis.

Andrew Marr Show - weekly show, the one which senior ministers (the prime minister, the chancellor, the home secretary, etc) are most likely to appear on.

Question Time - weekly topical debate program, with questions from the audience directed towards politicians.

Any Questions - radio version of Question Time. Often not quite as annoying as Question time.

Today in Parliament - daily radio show covering news from parliament.

 

Parliament.uk and gov.uk are both great resources for learning how parliament and government functions, and learning about legislation. If you'd prefer a less fragmented read, such as a book, then Exploring British Politics by Garnett and Lynch seems like a good introductory source, though I will add the disclaimer that I've only used it occasionally as a reference book, and it is fairly pricey.

 

It can sometimes be difficult to understand the significance of things in politics without a basic grounding in the historical context, so I will recommend some more books to help with that (although much of the info can be found online). Two of the most important figures in recent British political history are Thatcher, and Blair. Charles Moore's Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume One is a good book for starting to understand the political context of the Thatcher era, although it is obviously quite biographical too, and being the first volume it only covers roughly the first third of her time in government. The comprehensive tome on Blair and his wide-ranging effect on the functioning of british politics is surely Seldon's Blair's Britain, 1997-2007, although I will warn you that is it most definitely a tome - incredibly thorough and a bit of a slog. The best way to approach this is probably to read the sections on things you are interested in, like the NHS, and leave the rest until you feel you want to learn about them. Sections of Seldon's Cameron at 10 are definitely worth a read if you want some more insight into the first Cameron ministry, and the coalition years.

 

I can't really recommend any comprehensive histories on the political parties (although what I've read of Tim Bale's The Conservatives Since 1945 is pretty good). One I would recommend is Goodwin's Revolt on the Right, which offers a fairly original analysis of the phenomenon that is UKIP. There's a more up-to-date follow-up to that, (UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics), which I imagine is also pretty good, but I haven't read it. Familiarising yourself with general political ideologies (to rattle off an incomplete list: one nation conservatism, high toryism, classical liberalism, social liberalism, libertarianism, social democracy, democratic socialism, etc), how these relate to each other, and how they have manifested in the various 3 main parties over time is a must for understanding the parties and the political tensions within them. Wikipedia should suffice in filling in the details there (and in other places), for now.

>Furthermore I just don't know what my purpose is. I don't have anything to work towards, I don't know what I want in life.

Welcome to adult life, the realisation that this is it. You have to make your own entertainment, set your own goals.

There is a massive difference between depression which is an illness and a general disillusionment with life. The first should seek medical help the second is just life, get on with it.

I can't answer to the first but the second, well I have some experience. Get a hobby, preferable both physical and social.

You have three beasts to satisfy.
The intellectual, the social and the physical.

Intellectual is easy, read a book. You were a student reading should come naturally. This time do it for entertainment and enlightenment. (I find that they are often the same thing)

Physical is so very important, we are intelligent animals but we are still animals. We need exercise! it's good for our health and mental wellbeing. Go for a walk!

Social is more tricky, picking up a book is easy, going for a walk is easy. Finding a social group is way harder. Those lucky people that have large social groups just seem to fall into them and don't appreciate their good fortune.

The good news is that it's just a skill and skills can be learnt. You learn them from reading books, see that's the first thing I mentioned.

Welcome to the world of self-help books. There is a lot of dross in this world but there are gems to be harvested from the shitpile.

First on the list is a classic. How to win friends and influence people. LINK if you find it useful, then there are several others from the same author.

TLDR: Read more, talk to people and go for a walk.

For the question of what makes cities rich and poor there a huge number of possible answers including human capital, infrastructure, luck (take Seattle as an example, it got a big technology industry pretty much by luck because Bill Gates moved Microsoft there from Albuquerque because it was his home area and then the forces of urban economics does the rest), resources, etc.

I'd recommend reading these books: Keys to the City by Michael Storper (he was my lecturer, he's a professor at LSE, UCLA and Sciences Po) and The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti. Even just the introductions provide a good insight.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Geography-Jobs-Enrico-Moretti/dp/0544028058http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keys-City-Institutions-Interaction-Development/dp/0691143110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451394581&sr=8-1&keywords=keys+to+the+city

To get an insight into what our economy makes and then sells, and it buys from abroad, and from where, this is a good website. Bear in mind it's looking at goods - the UK sells quite a lot of services abroad too. http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/gbr/all/show/2013/

In a nutshell the UK is good at services (financial services, consulting (of all types not just management or strategy), advertising, law etc.), pharmaceuticals, high tech engineering (aerospace stuff, ARM in Cambridge for example and other IT, car production)

Good article about growth and decline of a city here too http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/03/29/the-churn

The economy section of the ONS website also contains a lot of information about which sectors are big, how many people work in them, their growth and contribution to the economy, regional growth and contribution to UK overall too, and so on. House of Commons Library and Bank of England are good too.

I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but I can give you a perspective of a sociolinguist and also a Yank who's lived in the UK for over a decade.

To approach this clinically, if such a thing were possible, you need to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet. And probably take an Intro to Sociolinguistics course. What it boils down to is that English dialects have WAY more sounds than North American dialects. Like there are more than 10 extra symbols for the sounds native speakers make here. But knowing the IPA and how it works will give you a primer on how to use your mouth to actually make those sounds. Each sound can be broken down to where the tongue is, whether the teeth are involved, whether air is expelled (say 'poof' while your fingers are in front of your mouth - notice the shot of air coming out when you pronounce the p?), glottal stop, etc.

The watching of BBC shows is good too, because you can approach the words clinically and even rewind if you want to hear them again. Figure out what their mouths are doing and practice.

However, I must admit that as I moved here in my mid-20s, my American accent was pretty well drilled in. I do now say things with a more English accent, like saying cahn't instead of can't, and pahth/path. My 'r' has softened and so on, but even though Americans find my accent to be very different, here in England everyone knows I'm from North America.

A voice coach would be another, more expensive route. But honestly it's very difficult to maintain when you're surrounded by people speaking in your native dialect and accent. It's far easier for your brain to get your mouth to pronounce words in the way it learned them. That's why actors who do amazing accents in films don't keep the accent when they do interviews for the film. It's really hard work.

That said, you could probably do it if you were really determined. Grace Kelly had a voice coach in her early film career who taught her to speak with a 'soft British accent' which stayed with her for life. according to the Taraborrelli bio of her..

We mostly used Come & Praise but it didn't cover everything so we sometimes used [With Cheerful Voice] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0713612770) as well. The Come & Praise version of The Lord's Prayer was a weird Caribbean version that had "Hallowed Be Thy Name" every other line. Come & Praise 2 came out in 1987 which was far too late for my junior school to pick it up. They've redesigned the covers of both 1 and 2 but the only one that counts as far as I'm concerned is [this one] (http://www.eightieskids.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/take-you-back-to-school-1.jpg). Must have the 70s knitwear and the kid on the right at the back thinking the title is Praise and Come judging by the look on his face.

I took citalopram (an SSRI) as prescribed by my GP on the NHS. It did some good but it wasn't enough on it's own.

I also saw a therapist for CBT, which I paid for myself. Evening appointments were available. I think it cost £85 for each one-hour session. I appreciate I'm lucky to be able to afford that sort of money.

If you're looking for a book, Feeling Good helped me a bit too. The "homework" assignments from my therapist and the exercises in the book are pretty similar.

If you fancy, you could read Attention All Shipping for a tour through the shipping zones. I certainly found it an enjoyable read. :)

I also recommend a Delia book. I started learning to cook from my dad's old copy of Delia's Complete Cookery Course which I think was from the 70s or early 80s (had a picture of her holding an egg on the front lol). The book itself is still in print and will have had certain stuff updated, so honestly I really recommend it. Only book you need. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Delias-Complete-Cookery-Course-Classic/dp/0563362499/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=delia%27s+complete+cookery+course&qid=1559307699&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Also, start with simple things. I still mainly cook simple things - my current staple is homemade curry. Main things you need is a carton of passata and curry powder. Start off with a bit of chopped onion, chuck it in the pan with some oil and cook it for a bit. Then just add a 2-3 tablespoons of curry powder (i usually also add a little extra tumeric, ginger and cumin too) and mix it in with the onion for a minute or so, then pour in the passata. After that, chuck in whatever you want - usually for me it's some diced chicken and some frozen spinach. And that's it.

some of the best curries I've had are straight from this book

I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain is fantastic.

Read this -> Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

Swiftly followed by this -> The Establishment: And how they get away with it

Short books. Easy to read. Fucking eye opening.

These 2 would probably go well together The Making of Modern Britain & History of Modern Britain

Always used to think Andrew Marr had his finger on the political pulse while he still had the Westminster slot on BBC. Don't know about any good Tory books though.

@damian_barr wrote an excellent book about this

https://www.amazon.com/Get-Together-Surviving-Quarterlife-Crisis/dp/0340829036

The Oxford History of Britain is very good. You can also check out the /r/askhistorians book list for more specific texts.

A good book to try is A Little Aloud. It's designed to be read aloud.

I got a really good one from Amazon with adjustable volume and brightness. £15.99. It has a battery backup (not full functionality, but when the electrics go back on, it has the correct time and settings).

OCUBE LED Digital Alarm Clock, Bedside Clock with 5 Optional Alarm Sounds, USB Charging Port, Full Range Brightness Dimmer, Big White Digit Display, S https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VKM2K2J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_hUaycohyacQFU

Marianne Dreams, a book by Catherine Storr. Oh, and Interstellar Pig by William Sleator. Two books I read over and over as a kid.

Sadly yes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daz-Zoe-Puffin-Teenage-Fiction/dp/0140372644P

For background to the UK constitution, certainly start by reading (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devolution-United-Kingdom-Vernon-Bogdanor/dp/0192801287/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417568609&sr=1-3&keywords=Vernon+Bogdanor) or listening to (http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-new-british-constitution http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/our-new-constitution http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/devolution-and-the-territorial-constitution) Vernon Bogdanor.

John Curtice is the top psephologist on Scotland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Curtice list articles, but sadly he hasn't written a big book laying out the whole situation (possibly because he's on TV and radio every week).

David Torrance is an overtly Unionist journalist, not an academic, but I think he's the first person to write a book on the recent referendum (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Britain-Scotland-Independence-Referendum/dp/1849545944/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417568795&sr=1-1&keywords=David+Torrance)

Also, the BBC News website has thousands of pages covering this issue. Sadly the relevant front page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides) only covers a tiny fraction of them. Maybe start here instead? https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Scotland+Quebec+site%3Abbc.co.uk

Bloody hell. The Bible is extremely long and complicated.

I'd go for this sort of thing, which you could get as an e-book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bible-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192853430