Notes from London

Some things the UK gets right but doesn’t get much credit for.

Food in London — and in England really is pretty darn good. Yes, 30 years ago, the British had little idea what to eat outside of canned peas and mashed potatoes, but those days are long over. Supermarkets are less expensive than they are in the United States — and farmer’s markets are cheaper still. The British take pride in creating produce and meat that is up to the very high standards of the European Union. I haven’t had a bad meal here yet.

Why the sudden change in UK food culture? Most likely, immigration to the UK has brought at-home and professional chefs from around the world here, and now that more Brits can afford to travel, they’ve been able to taste the good life abroad. (Economist Paul Krugman provides more details on this topic.) Don’t worry: If you were coming to the UK for a full English breakfast that includes fried bread and black pudding, those still exist.

You can park your car facing any direction you please. In America, we park our cars in the direction that traffic flows on any street. You will never see a car parked in the opposite direction, because it is illegal. In the UK, such laws don’t exist — and, remarkably, accidents don’t occur here because of this. Now, if someone would only tell the folks down in Washington…

London is startup-crazy and crowd-funding mad. UK laws have liberalized crowd-funding: Anyone can now invest in startups, and crowdfunding companies advertise everywhere. Yes, there’s some very small print on the advertisements that acknowledge this is risky business, but that’s the only caveat you’ll get.

As in America, any small business is now referred to as a startup. “Need a bank loan for your startup? Come to us at startuploans.co.uk!”