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: […]
Author: Tomasz Oryński
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 […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 224
Despite the economic crisis, there is still some money to be done in Poland. And what money it is – it would easily help to beat not only Polish, but even Venezuelan rate of inflation. So how you do it? Related posts: Meanwhile in Cuckooland 217 Meanwhile in Cuckooland 215 Meanwhile in Cuckooland 212 Meanwhile […]
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 […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 223
The big news in Poland is, of course, a village near the Ukrainian border that had been hit by a rocket, killing two men. The international media covered it well and since, judging from what I see in the Social Media, I am the only person in Poland that is NOT an expert in rocket […]
What are Finnish housing standards compared to British ones?
In my last Polish language podcast I shared my first impressions after moving to Glasgow. One of the listeners, a British Pole, asked if I could do a twitter thread about it, so I did. And I got carried away a bit, so I am going to make it into a blog as well for […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 222
Dear readers, first of all I owe you an apology for not being able to come with new chapters of my series for some time. As some of you might know, I left Britain for Finland, and moving house across the half of the continent on budget is complicated enough without things going wrong – […]
Cold pint of Lech at 21:37, or why you should not overdo the mourning.
The Queen has died at the beautiful age of 96 years. After the initial shock of the nation, the news from Britain became more and more ridiculous. Center Parcs kicking out their guests in honour of the queen and the food banks closing its doors to hungry, poor people to commemorate her majesty. All while […]