Low turnouts
Yet, in the 2001 election, the number voting fell to below 60 per cent for the first time since the election held in December 1918. Curiously, the turnout was highest in places where people found it hardest to get to the polling stations, like Brecon or Galloway, while in parts on inner-city Liverpool, Manchester or Leeds, where polling stations were within walking distance, half - even, in constituency two-thirds - of those who could have voted simply didn't bother to do so.

There is a way of construing this indifference as a good thing. It might, conceivably, be the sign of a healthy society: people who are relatively happy with their lot may not feel impelled to go out and vote. It might, perhaps, reflect a recognition of the declining powers of the national parliament.

But what it clearly demonstrates is the paradox that those who are most dependent on the state seem to have the least engagement with it.

Jeremy Paxman The Political Animal (2002)

A liberal appetite
Campbell-Bannerman weighed almost 20 stone, as did his wife. He once described his favourite menu as mutton broth, fresh herring or salmon, haggis, roast mutton, grouse, apple tart and strawberries, and he finished every meal with gingerbread and butter.
David McKie Guardian 20 March 2003

Shaw on barbarism
He is a barbarian and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
George Bernard Shaw

Quoted by Christopher Ross Tunnel Visions: Journeys of an Underground Philosopher (2001)

Traditional British food
Britain's first Indian restaurant was pre-Victorian: the Hindostanee Coffee house opened in 1809 at 34 George Street, Portman Square (over fifty years before the first fish and chip shop began trading in the market square at Mossley, Lancashire, in 1863).

Matthew Sweet Inventing the Victorians (2001)