What general knowledge facts would you expect someone who is British should know?

[jennymanara]

What facts of general knowledge do you think all adults who are British should know?

The Holocaust and what it is
Basic facts about the first and second world war
Basic facts about each of the main religions in the world
Basic grasp of geography worldwide and in Britain

@jennymanara you went to private school didn't you?

Religion is not important to a great many people in the UK other than to know the basics about all the major religions represented by people in the UK. I'm not sure why the monastery reference is of more value than eg knowing the name of the founder of the Glastonbury Festival and other popular culture references.

Religion also plays less and less of a role in modern life aside from a ceremonial one.

I absolutely feel that people should know the basics about the different factions within Christianity and about Christian beliefs but details about the dissolution of the monasteries is a bit much imo.

@newmomof1 I went to an incredibly rough state school.

@findingmyfeet12 dissolution of monasteries is part of our history. Okay maybe I am a lone voice in this. But I do think do people have no curiosity about why we have so many ruined monasteries in our countryside, most of which fell into disrepair about the same time? Because honestly that lack of curiosity astounds me.

why our official religion is the Church of England

Oh so this is a thread about what English People should know NOT British?

No I don't stay awake at night worrying about monasteries.

A lot of things are part of our history. You seem particularly interested in something that really wouldn't bother most.

Culture evolves and I think that as this particular issue impacts very little on modern day brits, it's not very important.

I'd expect people to know what haggis is made from before they knew about monasteries.

@StoorieHoose I am not English

why our official religion is the Church of England not if you are Scottish.

Church of Scotland as well.

Neither am I and that's why my official religion is not the fecking Church of England nor is it the official religion of the whole of the UK. just the English bit

Why is it important to know why our official religion is what it is?

I'd be more astounded if someone couldn't name Christian festivals, didn't know a bit about Christian ideology and the way that Christians worship.

I don't know anything about the dissolution of monasteries.

I thought the church of England took precedence because Henry the eighth wasn't allowed to divorce one of his many wives. But my English history isn't great because I don't really give a shit. I'm not English.

Blimey, that's asking a lot obviously you all have higher expectations than me.

I was going to say, how to use a pedestrian crossing as a pedestrian or a driver, would be a good starting point for general knowledge.

How to make a decent cup of tea
Queue etiquette

Erm, seriously....
where the main roads and motorways go -A1, M1, etc and that the M6 and the M74 is the sane road on either side of the Scottish border.

That Wales is actually quite big, and You can get to it via both Runcorn/Liverpool and Bristol and various places in between (I once overheard a conversation where our local football team had an away match in Cardiff, and the speaker couldn’t understand wfh satnav said it was going to take 5 hours to get there, because he went to Wales once and it only took an hour and a half).

But I do think do people have no curiosity about why we have so many ruined monasteries in our countryside, most of which fell into disrepair about the same time?

Off the top of my head:

Live in a city
Travel between cities, not driving around the countryside
Think ruined stuff is ruined because it's old
Don't care
Have other things to think about

I mean a lot of the young people I've worked with could tell you all about Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X and that's a little more relevant to them than the monasteries.

I -while a history geek, knowing a lot about English/British history even before moving to the UK, think that history is often the answer for today’s problems and explains the way we live today.

In Germany, my home country, you have a big north/south split between catholics and lutherans. The reason lies in the way the Thirty year war in the 17th century was fought and solved. The same in a way is why the CoE exist and why we nowadays don’t have monestries and the Queen as head of the church.

I think it may go a bit too much for general knowledge but the prejudice of our way we think about Islam is a lot based on the crusades of the Middle Ages.

Similar, why do the Hanoverian ones became Kings of Great Britain? That’s all thanks to the offsprings of Charles I.

Bu I think anyone trying for British citizenships has to live year for a minimum of 6 years. By then you should have learned a out cream tea (Devon or Cornwall way?), how to queue and how to talk about the weather.

I know about Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey as well. You can know a little about a lot of subjects.
But I see I am alone in thinking very basic of dissolutions of monasteries are important general knowledge.

@reluctantbrit I totally agree that some understanding of history explains where we are today.
So why does Scotland have a different legal system to England and Wales?
Why did the IRA and the Troubles exist?
Why do the Highlands have large areas with no trees?
Why did London become the capital city of England?
Why is there an active movement for Scottish independence?
Why are so many stately homes open to visitors?
Why do tenements exist in Scotland?
Why do poor cities like Liverpool have some very grand buildings?

So many questions that you need to have some understanding of history to understand. I don't understand when people don't care what happens round about them and have no sense of curiosity.

There are some things that I would consider vital. NI and Irish history with England/the rUK, British colonialism, the world wars including the holocaust, Scottish and Welsh relationships historically with England, the industrial revolution, suffragettes and so on.

The monasteries, not so much.

It might shock you to know that there are whole swathes of the population that spend no time in the countryside looking at monasteries at all.

Is this heading towards history teacher bashing?

I have had it before that someone on the internet thought I must be posh because of some of the things that I know about. She did not tell me this until she actually met me and realised I was common as muck. In real life I am channelling Mo in Eastenders and no one would ever think I had been privately educated or had a privileged background.

@MrsTerryPretchett - it took me years to understand the reason behind th Orange Order in Ireland . And then the reason why William of Orange, a guy from the Netherlands, had anything to do with Orange in the south of France. Widepedia made my life a lot easier than even the Encyclopaedia Britannia did.

I married into a family who jumped up during dinner to get the encyclopaedia out when someone didn’t know the answer to a question.

What King Arthur´s wife was called?

I live in a different country and that question came up in a quiz here and everyone was massively impressed that I knew it. I think it is common knowledge for anyone growing up in the UK, is it not?

I married into a family who jumped up during dinner to get the encyclopaedia out when someone didn’t know the answer to a question.

I was raised in that family. And the bloody massive dictionary. And we weren't posh either. My mill worker grandfather was the worse with a book-waving.