Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About the UK

I found some crazy facts about the UK If you already knew about these, I wonder how you do.
The Top Ten
1 It is effectively legal to clone humans in the UK

Perhaps we could get Donald Trump cloned there.

2 The Queen has to ask for permission to get into The City of London

You heard that right. The monarch herself has to get permission from the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London to enter its area. Although it's not required by law, it is a tradition followed to this day, which originated because of the City of London's wealth way back when.

3 It’s home to the Lake District… which is only home to one lake

Pretty ironic name there. The Lake District is the most well-known national park in the UK. Situated in the county of Cumbria, there is only one body of water inside the Lake District officially designated as a lake. The other water bodies are "meres," "tarns," and "waters." The lake in question is Bassenthwaite Lake.

It's a joke. There are several bodies of water, but only one is officially called a lake. The others are meres, waters, etc. Brilliant hills and scenery.

4 There are volcanoes in the UK

Many people don't think that there are any volcanoes in the UK, but they'd be wrong. There are no active volcanoes, but there are volcanoes there. For example, there is Arthur's Seat, a hill near Edinburgh, which is an extinct volcano. There's also Dundee Law, an extinct volcano in Dundee (obviously).

5 The first word in the British anthem is "God" however it is one of the most irreligious countries in the world

According to a survey from Gallup, 76% of people asked the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" responded with "no." This ranks the UK as the sixth least religious country in the world. In contrast, only 36% of Americans responded with "no."

6 It takes 88p to make the Shield

This consists of a penny, a two pence, a five pence, a ten pence, a twenty pence, and a fifty pence. All together, they add up to 88p. The pound coin can have the full shield printed on its tails side as well.

7 There's 3 Londons in the UK

The first one is the capital city, London. The second one is the City of London, a city within London. The third is in Northern Ireland and is known as Londonderry.

That is hilarious! I didn't know there was more than one London!

8 You can never be more than 70 miles (114 km) from the sea anywhere in the UK

The Pole of Inaccessibility for the UK is in Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire. This village is 70 miles from any coast.

9 The Big Ben has only ever stopped chiming 3 times in its 152-year life

Once when a flock of birds landed on its minute hand in 1947, the second time was in 2005 because of hot weather, and the third time was in 2007 for cleaning.

10 The UK has an organization which tracks weird laws

The UK's Law Commission has within it a unit called the Law Revision Team. These people have the less-than-enviable job of sifting diligently through historic legal paperwork to find outdated and ridiculous laws. This means it isn't legal to shoot Welshmen with a longbow inside the Chester city walls at midnight. I don't know what they'll say about the law that says you can't die in the Houses of Parliament, though.

The Contenders
11 The UK once had a train for the dead
12 1209 London had a bridge with houses people lived in and then the bridge was demolished in 1762
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