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21 May 2025

This England: Never mind the knock-offs

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain – has run in the New Statesman since 1934.

By New Statesman

Veteran punks the Sex Pistols have sent a legal letter that has required an optician’s in Dundee called the Spex Pistols to change its name.

For more than a decade, optician Richard Cook has been selling glasses from the shop near Dundee’s West Port. He named his business after the band, and mimicked their distinctive font.

Cook insists that nobody – no matter how short-sighted – has confused his store for the real Sex Pistols. But that has not stopped the supposedly anarchic group from issuing him with a cease and desist.
The Courier (Kate McIntosh)

The scenic route

A commuter was left frustrated after finding it was cheaper to fly home to Manchester via Iceland than on a direct train.

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Muscab Salad claims he saved £70 on “ridiculous” train fares by flying to London from Manchester… via Iceland.

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The 32-year-old discovered he could buy a £21 flight to Keflavik in Iceland – where he spent 18 hours sightseeing – and a £36 flight back the same evening costing a total of £57. As well as saving £75, flying through Iceland was a “bonus” as he had always wanted to visit.
BBC Wales (Amanda Welles)

Taking the biscuit

The boss of the factory where McVitie’s chocolate digestives have been made for 100 years believes people are eating them incorrectly. Anthony Coulson, general manager at the company’s chocolate refinery in Stockport, said the biscuit was meant to be eaten with the chocolate side facing down.
BBC Manchester (David Lamming)

[See also: The brain behind Labour’s EU deal]

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This article appears in the 21 May 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Britain’s Child Poverty Epidemic

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