I’m curious, not mocking in any way. If you saw it on holiday, would you say “yeah that captures it”?

I am German and a lot of people in my country say that if talking to Brits (especially middle class or upper middle class) you should be polite instead of honest.

Example: You are not allowed to say “I do not think the solution you came up with for a problem will solve the problem. The solution I came up with is much better, because….“. Instead you say “Great idea but we might also try…“.

Is it true? How to tell if a Brit really thinks your idea is great or just wants to be polite?

An admin for another department has started bringing her dog in and no one is happy. While they like dogs, her previous one had to be put down as it bit someone. This one is a rescue dog she only got 2 days ago (edit: it used to be tied outside and left alone) and hasnt interacted with humans. I was told shes scared of people and today she ran at someone while barking.
No one’s happy about it and it’s causing tension in the office.

Other directors who bring theirs in keep them in their individual offices. The one mentioned above lets hers run loose around the main office.
She slept with her dept director which is why we think she’s getting away with what she wants to do.

Edit: is there anyone that I can inform about this? It like she wants the dogs to act out. It’s not right by us or the dogs.

I just read that when they cut all the garden railings down in WW2, the metal in a lot of cases was too poor quality to be useful and a lot of it just built up in piles or went for scrap. But it made people feel they had done something.

It made me wonder what else is commonly done or advised in a sort of good citizen type way, that arguably doesn’t really add a lot.

Like I know WD40 is pretty much the GOAT of products, but what other tips and tricks have been passed down that actually work?

I came home tonight with a bag of fresh tumeric, 2 pouches of baccy, and 6 blocks of Cathedral City (I know where everything came from except the Cathedral City, but it was given to me so please don't judge).

My old man used to tell me loads of great stories about acquisitions from the pub. What's our greatest ones?

I seem to start most business emails with it, would you appreciate it or shall I just get straight to the point? After 20+ years I'm questioning it...

My family were dirt poor and a lot of the time we never even had any gas or electric so we didn’t have a tv. I’d watch it sometimes when I went to my aunties and uncles or my grandparents but that was it. Never watch any of the Saturday morning kids tv, never watched neighbours or home and away, never saw red dwarf or blackadder although I’ve watched them all since.

I do but its more like she let's me sleep in her bed.

EDIT: Answered! Thank you for all the replies. I am upvoting even if not responding to all. Nothing to worry about - ignore me!

I’m in NHS mental health treatment. My psychologist sent a letter to my GP to update them. The letter includes my full name, DOB and address, plus some pretty sensitive medical history.

In my GP notes that I can see in the NHS app, I can see the letter has been logged in by someone, and a short summary has been generated by an AI system called ANNIE (it says that’s how it was generated).

Now, I’ve never been particularly fussy about data privacy. I’m in my 40s and I’ve been very online for nearly 30 years, so a lot of companies have a lot of data on me and I’m not that bothered.

But… I’m not sure how I feel about this and I’m vaguely uncomfortable. It’s probably just me not knowing enough about GenAI - I know in the broadest sense how it works, and I use ChatGPT for some tasks that it is useful for. I wouldn’t tell it my DOB, address etc.

Am I right in thinking a system the NHS are paying for should protect my data from it being used for AI training?

I don’t know… Is it just that I’ve hit the age where new technology makes me nervous?! I used to be such a geek.

Looking for balanced answers from those who know a bit more than me about this stuff rather than just “all AI is terrible and will destroy the world” (I should probably have posted in an AI sub… I’ll see how it goes here). Quite happy to be told this is nothing to worry about if that’s the case!

EDIT: This is the first time this has happened so I think the system is a relatively new thing at the GP practice.

How do you survive on £404 Universal Credit? When rent alone cost around £1000 pounds per month in London? What about rest of living cost such as utilities, food, travel and other bills. How do people manage to survive off £400 per month?

I live in a small town in Wales. I have a shit old transit that I use for work, which has been targeted about 6 times THIS YEAR.

Three of my neighbours also have vans for their jobs, all of which have also been targeted. We park our vehicles in a residents car park opposite our houses. 3 of us have CCTV/doorbell cameras watching, and there are signs around the car park which state that there is CCTV active. There are no visible cameras over the car park itself though.

In the last 3 months, my van has been broken into, wing mirrors have been pulled off, the fuel tank has been drilled/drained. The same has happened to all 3 of my neighbours.

Every incident has been reported to the police. Nothing ever gets done. It's costing me and my neighbours thousands of pounds to repair our vehicles.

There's nowhere else we can park. What can we do?

For me Philip Madoc as the U-Boat captain in Dad’s Army “The Deadly Attachment”. I don’t think an actor has added more to a show by his presence in just one episode.

His character seems to suddenly justify everything Captain Mainwaring had been saying all series and is arguably the single best point of the show.

Very weird situation that has happened recently.

I was sat in the living room of my house with my mum. The way our living room is set up is that the couch is against one wall, two chairs against another and in the furthest away corner there’s like a small wooden cabinet. Anyway, we were both just sat on the chairs nowhere near this cabinet when one of the doors just flung open on its own. There’s nothing in that cabinet that would explain it opening fully and nothing fell that could have knocked it. Very very weird and explainable and making the obvious jokes ‘oh we must have a ghost.’

The first time it happened was weird, but then it happened again about 2 hours later which we both witnessed again and again were nowhere near and when we came downstairs the living room door was wide open, even though we both shut it after us and went up to bed at the same time and neither us went down through the night! Definitely can’t be explained! And no, nobody else lives here just two. The door also can’t just open you have to deliberately turn down the handle id it’s properly closed like we left it.

Very strange! Maybe we do have a ghost!

Curious to hear if anyone else has experienced anything weird or unexplained like this.

I (28m) have been out of work for the past month. I've been applying for an avarage of 5 "office" jobs per day and have received many calls and some interviews, so it could definitely be going worse.

I worked construction with my dad for many years (21-28) and the deal was £80 per day cash in hand, nothing more and nothing less. The reason I left was because my life was going nowhere on cash in hand pay and I didn't want to be 30+ before deciding to leave.

Because I'm out of work, my dad has asked if I want to go back, I do appreciate the offer but I also know what I'm getting myself back into.

He's been self employed for 30 years and really thinks you can find a job at the drop of a hat, it's becoming a hassle to keep explaining that's not how it works.

I'm not a useless layabout as I still pay bored and do most of the housework while my parents are at work, aswell as applying and keeping on top of new job listings.

I know money is important (obviously), but is so finding a job that has official pay and benefits such as potential promotions and an option of a pension etc.

I know it's mostly a joke, but how true is the saying "I wouldn't get out of bed for that?"

Cheers.

I've just started a new job and everyone seems absolutely lovely so give me some drama from your lives instead

We're nearly on day 4 of emails and phone calls and it always ends in someone dropping it by blaming the other company and closing the complaint. We just had a claim under property damage shut down because it was a human who did the property damage and they don't cover bad workmanship despite it still being property damage regardless.

I’m 24, never went to uni so have never lived outside of home a permanent basis. This is my first time so any practical tips are welcome.

I have a friend in the UK and I want to send them something, the only trouble is, it can't go to their house.

They've said they can pick it up from a parcel locker but I don't know how to do that. They also said they could pick it up from a courier pick up desk or similar.

I usually just send stuff in the mail when I'm sending to family over there but that stuff goes directly to their houses.

Any ideas?

TIA.

Are there any jobs/public services or industries that are crying out loud for people to join/train to be in that role. I don’t mean dying and loosing employees because of things like AI. I mean jobs/industries who haven’t met the demand that they need and have the available vacancies for.

Genuine question. I've started walking home from the station after 11pm a couple of nights a week and I'm trying to build better habits. So far I share my live location with my partner, keep one earbud out and stick to the main road even though the park is quicker. What do you do that actually makes a difference, and what turned out to be pointless?

I live in a converted period church, split into four homes. Since last year, I've been experiencing noticeable vibrations through my floors and sometimes walls, apparently from my neighbours' footsteps. I can physically feel the floor vibrating in jolts when they are home.

I'm trying to establish how the vibrations are travelling through the building's structure and what fix can be applied by an expert to stop us feeling this.

I'm confused about which professional I need. I've contacted structural engineers but none seem to think they are the ones to do the job. So what is the name of the job of the person that I need to find?

Ideally, I'd like someone to investigate on-site at my home, take off plasterboard etc if needed and identify the likely transmission paths such as joists, types of bricks, how beams intersect the houses, and provide a written report with recommendations that I can give to my builder so I can enact large scale works if needed.

Has anyone dealt with a similar issue or used a specialist who could help? I'm in Worcestershire, England.

Thanks!

Since being widowed, my mum has fallen for three phone scams. Luckily, her bank is on the ball, so she hasn't lost any money and each time it's happened, I've drilled into her that people cold-calling are generally not doing it as a favour to her.

I've just got off the phone and it's happened again today - someone called her offering a 'free' damp survey. She had them round this afternoon, and sure enough, they've diagnosed 'damp' throughout the house and quoted £3k to repair it.

Her house isn't damp, that's a fact, but she's now scared that it's going to fall down.

I'm fuming but also at my wits end. How do I manage this? I live and work local so could have been there when the guy arrived, but she never called me so I didn't know.

There's a POA in place but it's not 'active' yet. Is now the time for me to take control?

Note - she's otherwise OK, fit and healthy. She's just lonely and gullible and an easy target for this kind of thing.

I genuinely don’t want anything for Christmas, I don’t need any new clothes etc but feel I have to have an answer to what I want?
I would love a new iPad but I feel bad asking for that? The wife is determined to get an answer from me but I genuinely can’t think of anything 🤦🏼‍♂️

I feel like a lot of their products are fair trade, they give community vibes, the products are usually very good quality. All whilst I don't feel the prices are too much higher than other supermarkets.

Are they ethic washing or are they genuinely good? I shop here daily