We’ve brought back one of our classic shirts for a limited reprint run in time for the holidays.
If our recent Routemaster London Bus t-shirt over at Anglotees has inspired you to learn more about the classic London bus, we’ve found this great video that tells about all the history. Very interesting!
Buy the shirt here if you haven’t yet: http://bit.ly/19SowuZ
Editor’s Note: This article was written by John Rabon and originally appeared on Anglotopia.net.
MI5, otherwise known as The Security Service, is the domestic counterintelligence and security agency for the United Kingdom. While the Security Intelligence Service (otherwise known as MI6) focuses on foreign threats (and where the fictional James Bond works), MI5 focuses on threats within Britain. Though not as buried in secrecy as MI6, MI5 has its own interesting history and facts.
For a limited time, get our exclusive MI5 themed t-shirt featuring the MI6 coat of arms on a stunning Dark Heather Grey t-shirt. Available in men’s, women’s, long sleeve, hoodie, tote bag and v-neck starting at $16.99 and available for 1 week only – only 3 days left!
MI-5 formed in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau. The first Director General was Major-General Sir Vernon Kell.
As the Secret Service Bureau, MI-5 wasn’t formed to just protect against domestic threats, but to gather intelligence on German Imperial activities. It’s worth noting that this directive occurred five years before World War I. While the SSB handled both foreign and domestic threats, Captain Mansfield Cumming successfully argued for a separation into two departments, leading to the split of the SSB in 1910 in the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
Accusations of spying continue even today. In 2006, Russia claimed that Britain kept a listening device in a rock on a Moscow Street. The accusation turned out to be true. Meanwhile, MI5 estimates that Russia has as many spies in Britain today as it did at the height of the Cold War.
Despite the organization’s importance, WWII was one of MI5’s lowest points. The staff had been reduced to 30 operatives and 6 surveillance operatives. The Blitz ended up destroying most of the Security Service’s files and it had to leave its headquarters at Blenheim Palace. Despite all of this, as you can imagine, the Service’s workload increased during the war. Eventually, MI5 was given more resources to combat threats at home.
Michael Bettaney was an MI5 agents who apparently wasn’t so good at maintaining his secrecy. Recruited to the counter-espionage unit of MI5 in 1982, he was eventually convicted of passing sensitive documents to the Soviets in 1984. Besides his frequent boasting of working for “the other side”, he twice admitted to being a spy: once to avoid a ticket master at the station; and a second time to get out of being arrested for public drunkenness. He was arrested for treason when a MI6 agent working inside the Soviet embassy, Oleg Gordievsky, reported Bettaney to his superiors.
MI5 has vehemently denied such a thing actually exists. Of course, if MI5 and MI6 agents killed as often as Bond, they wouldn’t be very good at staying secret.
Much like MI6, MI5 has made a transition from being a super-secret organization to being more open to the public. In 1989, the Security Service Act gave the Service legal standing within the government for the first time, but also forced it to become more accountable. The Security Service could no longer tap phones or install bugs without a warrant. In 1993, it published a book, aptly titled “The Security Service” described the six branches of the organization: counter-terrorism, counterespionage, counter-subversion, protective security, security intelligence, and record keeping.
With the Cold War winding down in the early 90s, MI5 went from catching Soviet spies to preventing terrorism at home, specifically acts of violence committed by the Irish Republican Army. The Metropolitan Police officially handed over the intelligence effort against Irish terrorism to the Security Service in 1992. In addition to preventing several bombings, MI5 was responsible for at least 21 successful prosecutions of Irish militants.
Though MI5 began under the Directorate of Military Intelligence, in 1952, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill transferred the Service over to the Home Office, under whose authority MI5 remains to this day.
In 2006, MP Norman Baker accused MI5 of “hoarding information on people who pose no danger to this country.” The accusations proved well-founded, and it came out that MI5 had secret files on 272,000 people. It also revealed a “traffic light” system governing the files: “Green” referring to active files (10% of the files), “Yellow” meaning “enquiries prohibited, further information may be added” (46%), and “Red” meaning “enquiries prohibited, substantial information may not be added” (44%).
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally written on Anglotopia.net by John Rabon and is being republished here.
“Bond. James Bond.” Though they may not refer to their agents as “00” anything, MI6, more officially known as the Secret Intelligence Service, is still a crack intelligence agency. MI6 actually stands for “Military Intelligence, Section 6” and is comparable to the C.I.A. in America. It’s sister organization, MI5 is the security service responsible for protection from domestic threats, much like the F.B.I. or Department of Homeland Security. Of course, any intelligence agency builds up its share of secrets and interesting facts over many years of service, and MI6 is no different.
For a limited time, get our exclusive MI6 themed t-shirt featuring the MI6 coat of arms on a stunning Navy Blue t-shirt. Available in men’s, women’s, long sleeve, hoodie, tote bag and v-neck starting at $16.99 and available for 1 week only – only 4 days left!
Though the head of MI6 in the James Bond films always uses the letter “M”, in the real world, the head of the service is actually referred to as “C”. This originated with the first leader of the organization, Sir Mansfield Cumming, who signed everything “C”. All subsequent heads of MI6 are also referred to as this, regardless of what his or her real name is. “C” always writes and signs every document in green ink.
At one point, there were 19 different Military Intelligence branches. MI1 handled the management of information, MI11 was responsible for codebreaking, MI2 for Russian and Scandinavian Intelligence, MI4 for aerial reconnaissance, and so on. Eventually, many of these branches were absorbed into MI5 or MI6.
MI6 Headquarters is in Vauxhall Cross, first seen as the home of MI6 for the Bond films in “The World Is Not Enough”. It was completed in 1994 and the price tag was rumoured at £130 million. Much of the building is underground to protect more sensitive materials and the layout is protected by the Official Secrets Act.
MI6 was born as the Secret Service Bureau in 1909 and its existence was not fully disclosed until 1994.
The official retirement age for senior MI6 staff is a secret. Only the Intelligence and Security Committee know what the age is.
John le Carre, the author responsible for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and “Smiley’s People” was himself a MI6 agent. “TTSS” is based on the infamous Cambridge Five: Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, John Cairncross, and Kim Philby, who were recruited as university students by the Soviets and became moles for the KGB. Le Carre changed his name from David John Moore Cornwell as agents aren’t allowed to publish under their own names. In addition to la Carre, author Graham Greene was also an MI6 agents. Ian Fleming was not with MI6 but with Naval Intelligence during the war which inspired his creation of James Bond.
MI6 agents hacked an Al-Qaeda online magazine and replaced instructions for bomb-making with cupcake recipes.
Much like the CIA finally signing up with Twitter, MI6 has gone online with its own webpage. There visitors can learn about the history of the agency, search for jobs, and take a virtual tour of the organization.
Super spy gadgets were a very real thing, though maybe not to the extent of having magnetic watches and grenade pens. Real spies used technology like cameras in matchboxes and brushes with secret compartments.
Social media nearly lost the current “C”, Sir John Sawers, his job when his wife posted a great deal of his family’s personal information to her Facebook profile. The information included the couple’s home address and the locations of their three children. Fortunately for him, the data was later removed.
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We’re simply chuffed to bits at how popular our British Slang themed t-shirt has done so far. Many folks understand what the different phrases mean but we’ve gotten a few questions from some that don’t know them all. So, here is a handy list for everyone curious as to what they all mean.
All of these words and phrases are defined in Anglotopia’s Dictionary of British English, which has over 1,000 words and phrases.
CHUFFED TO BITS – To be thrilled by something.
KNACKERED – Tired
CHEERS! – Thank you.
BRILLIANT! – Something wonderful or outstanding (an American would say Awesome!).
TICKETY BOO – Going smoothly, doing all right.
JOLLY GOOD – An expression used to describe happiness and joy
CHEERIO – Goodbye
RIGHTO – Yes or saying someone is right.
TALLY HO! – A military term often used to mean charge! Also used in hunting.
CREAM CRACKERED – To be very tired.
LOVELY JUBBLY – Excellent. As popularised by ‘Only Fools And Horses’
GOBSMACKED – When someone is left speechless after witnessing or being told something incredible.
BOB’S YOUR UNCLE – It’s a catch phrase dating back to 1887, when, in a blatant case of favoritism, British Prime Minister Robert Cecil (a.k.a. Lord Salisbury) decided to appoint his nephew Arthur Balfour to the prestigious and sensitive post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. So “Bob’s your uncle” is another way of saying “your success is guaranteed.”
SHIP SHAPE AND BRISTOL FASHION – Everything is in order. Sorted.
GIVE YOU A BELL – Give you a call.
LOST THE PLOT – Gone mad – ceased to act rationally.
A BIT OF A KERFUFFLE – A spot of bother/trouble.
KNICKERS IN A TWIST – To get unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter.
THE BEE’S KNEES – Something that is excellent and of high quality.
KNOW YOUR ONIONS – To be knowledgable on a particular subject.
OFF TO BEDFORDSHIRE – To go to bed.
There’s still time left to get our British Slang Bus Blind t-shirt – an Anglotees Exclusive. Available in men’s, women’s, long sleeve, hoodie, v-neck and tote bag. It will make a great Christmas gift for the Anglophile in your life. Order here now before it’s too late.
This article was originally published on our sister site Anglotopia.net on August 18th, 2014. It was originally written by John Rabon, an Anglotopia contributor.
There’s still two days left to get our exclusive Jane Austen themed t-shirt! Available in men’s, women’s, long sleeve, hoodie, v-neck and tote bag starting at $16.99. Also available in pink or white options.
Jane Austen was an amazing writer and woman for her time. She penned a total of six novels, all of which are still studied in classrooms to this day. Her keen insights into social customs paint a picture of life in the Georgian era and all the delights and pratfalls that life entailed. While not a famous name in her own time, her works made her a literary celebrity in the 19th Century, a status she maintains today. Have a look below at some things you may now know about this great author.
Jane was one of eight children in the Austen family and the youngest girl, though not the youngest child. Despite all her siblings being literary, Jane was the only one who became a published novelist. She honed her writing skills mostly as a way of entertaining her family members. Her father, George Austen, was a clergyman and her mother Cassandra was from a higher social class. Her mother actually experienced a social fall in marrying George, but it did nothing to dampen her spirits.
By the age of 23, Jane had already completed original versions of Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice.
Many of Austen works reflect situations in her own life. When her father died, Jane, her mother, and her sister experienced a financial crisis similar to Sense and Sensibility. The family’s financial situation also led to a fall in Bath society. The novel Northanger Abbey portrays Bath society in a very positive light, but Persuasion, which was written after George Austen’s death, is very cynical, reflecting Austen’s attitude towards the socialites who shunned her.
Mark Twain hated Austen’s works, once stating that that an ideal library is one “that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.” Of course, this may have all been an attempt to troll fellow author and critic William Dean Howells, who was an ardent Austen fan.
Jane Austen’s fans refer to themselves either as Austenites or Janeites. Pemberley.com is one of the foremost fan sites, and across the Atlantic Ocean, there’s the Jane Austen Society of North America. JASNA holds an annual meeting in the fall in Canada or the United States.
Though there are many period film and television adaptations of all six of her novels, there are several modern adaptations as well, mostly of Pride and Prejudice. Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’s Diary and its three sequels are based on it, even going so far as cast Colin Firth as Darcy expy Mark Darcy in the films. YouTube also has its own adaptation in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a video diary web series that ran for 100 episodes from 2012 to 2013. The film Clueless with Alicia Silverstone is actually an adaptation of Emma as well.
While Jane’s brothers all attended Oxford University, Jane and her sister Cassandra were home schooled by their father and mother. Because of his education, George Austen also educated other boys in the area and some of them lived with the Austen family.
Of the four novels published during her lifetime, none bore her name. Sense and Sensibility bore the byline “By a Lady” and Pride and Prejudice simply stated that it was by “The Author of Sense and Sensibility”. Her father had tried to get Pride and Prejudice (then called “First Impressions”) and Northanger Abbey published, but there was no success until Sense and Sensibility was printed in 1811.
Her brothers Charles and Frank both served in the British Navy and were a source of information for her to write Persuasion and the character of naval officer Frederick Wentworth.
Jane suffered from a mysterious disease that was never diagnosed accurately, starting around 1816 until her death in 1817. Today it is believed that she suffered from Addison’s Disease, a rare chronic endocrine disorder in which the adrenal glands do not produce sufficient steroid hormones that also affected President John F. Kennedy.
There’s still two days left to get our exclusive Jane Austen themed t-shirt! Available in men’s, women’s, long sleeve, hoodie, v-neck and tote bag starting at $16.99. Also available in pink or white options.
In honor of the Big Union Jack design this week at Anglotees, here’s some interesting facts about the Union Flag you might not know.
There’s still TWO DAYS left to get one of the design from the Union Flag Collection! Click here to BUY NOW!
Nothing says Britain like the Union Flag – also known colloquially as the Union Jack. The flag has a long history and within that history is many interesting nuggets of information.
The flag was first proclaimed by James I (aka James VI of Scotland) in 1606 when he inherited both the thrones of England and Scotland and sought to create a flag combining the two crosses of the respective nations. Ireland was later added in 1801 when it joined the United Kingdom.
The flag is actually made up of the three flags of England, Scotland and Ireland which are the crosses of each country’s patron saint.
England: Cross of St George – Red Cross
Scotland: Cross of St Andrew – White Saltaire
Ireland: Cross of St Patrick – Red Saltaire
While there are four constituent countries that make up the United Kingdom, only three of them are actually represented on the Union Flag. Why is this? Well, technically, Wales is a principality and has legally always been considered a part of England until recently when it was given more devolved powers. If Scotland votes to leave the Union, it’s highly likely Wales will get a place in whatever flag replaces the Union Flag. A dragon is a pretty cool thing to put on a flag!
While pretty much everyone calls it the Union Jack, it’s technically called the Union Flag unless it’s being flown at sea. Well, this is the tradition anyway. Everyone calls it the Union Jack these days.
If you look closely at the flag, you’ll notice that it’s actually not symmetrical in its shapes, which means that there is a proper way to display the flag. This little graphic should clarify how to properly display the flag.
Despite fighting a lengthy war for independence, there is still a US state flag with the Union Jack on it – the Hawaii State flag still features it in the upper left corner. Why is this? It’s a relic of Hawaii’s colonial past when it was more associated with the British empire when Hawaii was still a monarchy. The King of Hawaii at the time sought to placate both British and American interests by creating a hybrid flag and it’s stuck ever since. When America took control of the islands, they opted to stick with the hybrid flag.
There are still 23 countries around the world – many small territories or islands – that use some form of the Union Flag in their design. But there are big ones that still do like Australia and New Zealand.
Recently, the Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key has announced that he intends to hold a referendum after the next election for New Zealand to choose a new flag. The options would be to keep the current flag or create a new one, probably based around the Silver Fern that is associated with the country. According to surveys, they’re likely to keep the same flag – mostly to honor veterans who fought under it.
After much debate, in the 1960’s, Canada decided to discard their ‘Red Ensign’ flag, which was never actually its ‘official’ flag and adopt the Maple Leaf as their national flag. There was a huge public debate but in the end, public support was behind adopted a new national symbol to represent the independence of Canada.
The United States takes its flag very seriously and has an entire code dedicated to the proper treatment of the flag. The UK doesn’t have any of this and they have no legal concept of flag desecration. There is also no specific way in which the Union Flag should be folded as there is with the United States Flag. It should simply be folded ready for the next use. Which I guess explains why no one makes any noise over the availability of Union Jack underwear or seat cushions.
Since our Mini shirt is so popular this week, we thought it would be fun to explore the history of the car. So, we did some digging and found 10 interesting facts and figures about this iconic British Car.
There’s still 48 Hours left to get our exclusive Classic Mini T-shirt, Hoodie or Tote Bag. Details here.
1. The Classic Mini was one of the most popular cars every produced and a total of about 5,387,862 were built until it stopped production in the year 200. In 1961, the Morris Minor Mini became the first British car to sell more than 1,000,000 automobiles.
2. Due to the cars unique front wheel drive layout – with the engine sideways – allowed for 80% of the internal space of the car to be used for passengers, which explains how four people could fit relatively comfortably in a small space.
3. The Mini was not its original name and was originally built under two different brands at the British Motor Corporation. On introduction in August 1959 the Mini was marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor. The Austin Seven was renamed to Austin Mini in January 1962 and Mini became a marquee in its own right in 1969. In 1980 it once again became the Austin Mini and in 1988 the Rover Mini.
4. The designer of the car Sir Alec Issigonis hated the concept of windows that rolled up and down and demanded that the windows on the Mini slide open.
5. An original Mini could be bought for around $1000 in today’s money. A Mini these days costs substantially more!
6. Issigonis’ friend John Cooper, owner of the Cooper Car Company and designer and builder of Formula One and rally cars, saw the potential of the Mini for competition. Issigonis was initially reluctant to see the Mini in the role of a performance car, but after John Cooper appealed to BMC management, the two men collaborated to create the Mini Cooper. The Austin Mini Cooper and Morris Mini Cooper debuted in 1961. The Mini Cooper became a very successful car in its own right and many people think the Mini and the Mini Cooper are the same car.
7. Between 1960 and 1967, BMC exported approximately 10,000 left-hand drive BMC Minis to the United States. Sales were discontinued when stricter federal safety standards were imposed in 1968 and the arrival of the larger and more profitable Austin America. Mini sales fell in the 1967 calendar year and the U.S. importer was expecting the forthcoming Austin America to find a larger market. However, the America was also withdrawn in 1972 due to slow sales and the introduction of bumper height standards.
8. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park / Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.
9. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates – the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations, including an estate car, a pick-up truck, a van and the Mini Moke – a jeep-like buggy.
10. The legacy of the Mini endures. There are some 469 Mini clubs in the UK and at least another 260 world-wide. The car is continually voted one of the most favorite cars of all time and it was recently voted as Britain’s favorite car ever produced.
There’s still 48 Hours left to get our Classic Mini tribute t-shirt. Details here.
One thing that has surprised us the most since we started Anglotees is how popular our shirts are outside the USA. In fact, when we launched we intended to only ship within the USA due to the huge hassles and expense of shipping internationally. But we were hammered in our first few weeks about availability in this country or that country, so we made the wise choice to ship everywhere (now 20% of our sales are outside the USA).
Anyway, the reason I’m bringing this up is that shipping internationally is a much different beast than shipping domestically. It costs more. It requires more paperwork and it takes much longer.
In the case of one package, it takes almost 6 months.
Back in March, a customer in Brazil bought a t-shirt (incidentally, we ship A LOT of orders to Brazil, lots of Anglophiles there!). We dutifully fulfilled the order a few weeks later and didn’t think about it again. This was before we were using ShipStation for international fulfillment so this was when we had to fill out customs forms by hand and had no way to track orders. I got an email two months later from the poor customer – their shirt still hadn’t arrived.
I looked into the matter as best I could and came to the simple conclusion that the package had been lost somewhere between Valparaiso, Indiana and Rio De Janiero, Brazil. I gave the customer a refund/store credit and moved on, never giving is another thought.
Then on Monday, a package arrived in the post. A well packed package from Anglotees that had never been opened. It had been battered by its journey and was covered in labels written in Portuguese (a language I do not speak). On the one hand, I was pleased to see the shirt arrive back in the same condition we sent it – brand new.
On the other hand, I was dismayed that the package was returned at all. Why was it returned? Why was it never delivered to its destination.
Thanks to the help of Google, I was able to get the labels translated and it appears the mystery has been solved. The package eventually arrived in Brazil, but their Import Customs agency decided that tax was due on it. The tax was never paid and thus the package was sent back to its point of origin. A fascinating process that apparently takes 6 months to happen.
I wondered why the duty wasn’t paid. This has been a problem with a few countries we’ve shipped to – we’ve gotten emails from customers with sticker shock that their postal services were trying to extort them. We have no way of knowing how much import duty would be charged in which country. But I was able to look up Brazil and discovered that the customer would have been expected to pay over $30 US dollars in import duty – more than they had paid to buy and ship the t-shirt!
This is obviously absurd but there is nothing we can do about it other than warn customers that your country may charge you import duty if you buy a shirt from us. This is an area where our knowledge is woefully inadequate but a good rule of thumb is that you’ll probably be on the hook for VAT/Sales Tax/etc when you receive your package. If your country has a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, then usually you wouldn’t have to pay duties. But it depends. It’s really complicated and frustrating.
If your package is returned to us due to unpaid import duty, we will simply refund your order – MINUS the shipping cost. We can always resell the shirt but international shipping is expensive and we can’t recoup that.
All that said – this is rarely a problem – I’m only writing about it because I found it interesting. 99% of our international orders arrive at their destination promptly and we can track them every step of the way (and so can the customer as we provide you the tracking number). But there are some unusual cases where the various postal services return to the 19th century and something unusual happens.
I just hope that the t-shirt enjoyed its six month holiday in Brazil!
In honor of this week’s London themed themed T-shirt: Londoner at Heart – we’ve pulled this article from the archive featuring many words that are unique to London.
One thing you’ll notice when you travel to London are all the strange words they use to describe things. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don’t.
Rather than pull together a list of British Slang words (which we’ve done already on Anglotopia) we thought it would be fun to put together a list of words you’ll usually only hear in London.
Now, there will be some words used elsewhere but I tried to capture words that when I hear them – I think of London.
So, here’s your guide to some useful London Lingo or as I like to just say: London Words.
Did we forget something? What word makes you think of London? What’s your favorite one? Let us know in the comments!
There’s still two days left to get our exclusive London T-Shirt – Londoner at Heart. Available in Men’s, Women’s, Long Sleeve, V-neck, Hoodie and Tote bag starting at $16.99. Click here to order now.
Editor’s note: In honor of this week’s exclusive pub themed shirt, we’ve taken this article out of our archive over on Anglotopia to explain to British pub etiquette.
The final post in our Britannia in Brief series is a fantastic article from co-author William Mullins about how to behave in a British pub. I’m glad he decided to write about this as I’ve experienced the confusion of being a pub for the first time. Be sure to check out the rest of the posts for Britannia in Brief Week.
It should be straightforward – I mean, you’ve got bars here in the US – but I’ve always been struck by the trepidation that fills visitors to Britain the first time they have to step up to the bar at the pub and navigate the strange ritual of British pub etiquette. Quite understandably, no one wants to make a public fool of themselves in that inner sanctum of British culture, the public house.
In our book Britannia in Brief my wife Leslie, who blogged here on Anglotopia on Tuesday, and I explain the different kinds of pubs you’ll encounter, what they’ll serve in different parts of the country and how to navigate the culture. Following are a few tips which will help maximize your own pub-roving travels!
Do’s
Don’ts
There’s still a few days left to get our exclusive pub themed design: Britannia Pub.
