This is an English version of our polish-language podcast. Burns night is coming. On that day Scottish people sit to the table to enjoy their national cuisine. The most important moment of the evening is cutting the haggis and loud reading of the one of the most famous Scottish poems by their national bard Robert […]
Podcast
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 8: Trains, buses and everything.

One of Elisa’s English language students said that “Britain is the country where everything is organized and buses are always on time”. Oh, how wrong she was. With the bus and rail strikers, the government accuses trade union leaders for “making the public transport unreliable”. But perhaps they should go on strike, because it can […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 6: Trucking hell!

Our guest today is Mat Ireland, driver, podcaster, and writer. We discuss the topic of the infrastructure for truckers in Britain. You can find Mat: – on youtube – on Facebook – the Truck and Driver podcast is here and you can find his book here Related posts: You are not so great Britain. Chapter […]
You are not so great Britain. Chapter 5: British bureaocracy.

This week Elisa and Tomasz discuss why British bureaucracy is so dysfunctional and what can be done to improve users’ experience in contact with the government, banks, and other institutions. To illustrate problems when talking to automatic voice recognition systems, we used a fragment of a clip from a TV show Burnistoun: https://youtu.be/HbDnxzrbxn4 Related posts: […]
You are not so great Britain. Chapter 4: Home, sweet home. Tiny, mouldy home.

Britons are pround of being one of the richest economy. But are standards of living really that great? We lived in a few countries between us, and we can’t remember topics like “mould”, “leaving rooms unheated to save money”, “single glazing windows” and “struggling to fit double bed into the bedroom” to be topics of […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 3: Britain is a world-leading democracy. Or is it?

Britain is very proud of its democracy. You can often hear soundbites like “world-leading”, “well-established” or “historic”. Sure, Magna Carta and other things were good – for their time. But it’s the XXI century. Is Britain’s democracy suitable for the times we live in? Can it be even considered a modern democracy at all? Related […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 2: Britain’s Rubbish.

Britain is a beautiful country. Old victorian towns, beautiful landscape, walkable city centres. Yet it is all spoiled by rubbish. Litter is everywhere, even despite the fact that bins are plentiful and easily accessible – from the main streets of big cities to the most remote areas of Scotland. Why is it, that Britain can’t […]
Welcome to my new Podcast: “You are not so Great, Britain!”

Some say one should not criticize another man’s beliefs. But what I can do? It’s not my fault that the conviction that the NHS is the best health system in the world and everybody is jealous of it is like a religion for many Britons. So if you are not afraid your religious beliefs might […]
Russian Invasion of Ukraine as seen from Poland (Special podcast episode in English)

This joint production of Lewackie Pitolenie and West Country Voices is an English translation of the recent episode of the Polish language podcast Lewackie Pitolenie, in which we hear from Polish people engaged in helping Ukrainian refugees – both at the border and in the west part of the country, a Ukrainian protester in Glasgow […]