Tag: U.K.

The Auctioning of Spouses During the 18th Century and 19th Century

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Traditionally, if a wife was no longer desired by her husband, he would lead her in her Sunday best, to the towns market square, laiden with a rope halter wrapped around her neck or waste, to be sold to the highest bidder. Women were exhibited the same way livestock are sold during the modern day. Over the course of the 18th and 19th century, approximately 300 transactions of a wife for money were exchanged within the U.K. The most recent exchange took place in 1928, in Blackwood, Wales for £1.00. Technically wife sales were illegal but because wives were considered the property of their husbands, English society turned a blind eye to the act

The Development and Repeal of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” Red Poster Campaign During World War II in Britain

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The Publicity Division of the U.K. Ministry of Information developed a propaganda campaign prior to World War II in August of 1939. Part of this collection was the iconic red “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster which was designed to be issued at a later date when morale was in need of a boost after destruction and conflict had begun to take place. It is believed that the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan is the best known of all war time campaigns in Britain. The Home Intelligence agency, tasked with monitoring public sentiment and morale, commissioned a survey to study how effective the red poster campaign was at increasing the confidence of the public within the British government. The British government quickly discovered that contrary to expectations, the public found the red posters patronizing and with overtones of an out of touch ruling class pressuring the working class to rise up and defend the state, the very same narrative which was felt by the majority of the public during World War I which was in recent memory for the majority of the British population. Because the red poster campaign was considered a failure, in early 1940, the Keep Calm and Carry On poster among all others were shelved indefinitely with virtually all 2,400,000 (2.4 million) copies rescinded and destroyed

The Imaginary Concept of Acquiring a “License to Kill”

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Everything performed during espionage is illegal as the act of espionage itself is by definition illegal which is why the imaginary concept of a “license to kill” is irrelevant and redundant as any execution performed during a spy operation is considered a legal act by the state of the officers nationality (e.g. the U.K., the U.S., France etc.), as these actions are always considered prudent and necessary of an officer in the field being that officers have extensive training for situations which they may encounter during a mission

The Typical Habits of North Korean Defectors

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30,000 people have managed to escape North Korea, most of them ending up in Seoul, South Korea because it acts as the closest analog to home in terms of culture, cuisine, and tradition. Many who have escaped refuse to provide an account to authorities or investigators for fear of retribution towards their families who are still living in North Korea. Seoul is approximately 75 kilometers from the North Korean border so most people fleeing North Korea make Seoul their target even if their final destination is somewhere further abroad (eg. the U.K., Singapore, Spain etc.)