Please read the Posting Rules and look at the Site FAQ, these should answer most questions on posting and site features you may have.

The rules specific to the UK Chat Forum can be seen here.

Other points:-

•This forum is for discussing everything about UK and to have fun and serious discussions about things that affect the UK and those that live within it.

•The forum is open to one and all so you don't need to have been born in the UK!

•Anyone is welcome to join in on the discussions!

•Please keep it respectful, responsible and considerate

This board is for discussing everything about the UK and the various countries within it.

You may not be from the UK however you are much welcomed here, us Brits are a friendly bunch!

You may post your birthday here. The birthday list can be viewed here.

All birthdays will be added to the list as soon as possible.

If you discover that your birthday has been removed and wish to be re-added to the list, simply post back into the birthday list thread. Errors do happen and they will be corrected as soon as possible.

The photo album for the UK board can be found here. Individual pictures as well as pictures of UK are welcome to be posted.

Please note that the gallery is moderated and therefore material is subject to removal.

Feel free to IM laffalot if you want a picture removed.

News items are not posted within the UK Chat Forum using the sites news submission format.

Alternatively if an item is of interest it is posted as a forum topic using the [NEWS] radio button. This allows the item to be discussed topically within the forum.

Yep there sure is! If you want to add yourself to the DSLR/BBR map click here.

Then just find your area and stick your pin in.

In the UK the Emergency Services can all be contacted by calling 999 from any telephone or mobile.

This provides access to

•Police
•Fire Brigade
•Ambulance
•Coastguard

It should be noted that the above should only be contacted on 999 if the incident is an emergency. If the situation is a minor incident then the respective service should be contacted on their local number, which can be found here.

A good resource for finding hotel rooms at a reasonable price is laterooms.

The following post contains stores which have been recommended by members of dslreports.com

»Recommended Online Stores

*Please note that dslreports has no connection with any of the sites listed*

You can check on the weather forecast by going to the Met-Office.

You can keep abreast of what is happening in the UK by looking at the following news sites:-

•BBC News
•Sky News
•Google News
•Ananova
•The Times
•The Telegraph
•The Independent
•Guardian

Have a look at the various stations transmitted by BBC Radio all of which can be listened to online.

The UK is split into 4 individual countries, which are (in alphabetical order):-

•England
•Northern Ireland
•Scotland
•Wales

You can find out about each individual countries statistics by going to the National Statistics website.

Free visit Britain tourist literature can be obtained here

Publications are available in a wide choice of languages, with free postage worldwide

From the English Tourist Board

Most literature is free, but is not posted overseas.

There are nine Regional Tourist Boards in England who will normally send their free literature overseas.

Contact details for the English regions can be accessed on this page: »www.enjoyengland.com/destination···dex.aspx under the heading "Regions in England"

Free tourist information and literature for Northern Ireland can be obtained from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board

As with the rest of the UK the main language is English. Though, as with anywhere distinct regional variations will be found.

However Gaelic is spoken in parts of the western Highlands and in the Western Isles, with English as a second language.

Scotland issues it's own banknotes for all of the current denominations though these are legal tender throughout the UK.

It should however be noted that on occasions places in England still refuse to accept Scottish banknotes!

Scotland is however the only home country that still issues a £1 note - though less common these days - and therefore it is suggested that if you are to visit elsewhere in the UK these are exchanged for £1 coins at a local bank.

To make you aware a smoking ban in all public places is to come into force in Scotland on 26th March 2006.

From this date onwards you will not be allowed to smoke in any public place eg. Public Houses, Restaurants etc.

For more information check out the official site here.

Scotland has it's own parliament which has powers to make decisions on a number of things like education, health and the environment.

More detailed information can be found at the official website.

Did you know you can visit the Scottish Parliament building, click here for more information.

There are many airports located over the UK both on the mainland and the various islands.

The three main Scottish airports are operated by BAA and can be found in:-

•Glasgow
•Edinburgh
•Aberdeen

The other main airport operator in Scotland is the Highlands and Islands Airport Ltd who operate 10 smaller airport terminals in various locations and of which can be found here.

You can go to Traveline Scotland which is where you can plan any public transport journey within Scotland and from Scotland to main points in the UK.

Traveline Scotland also provides links to contact information for all the transport service providers within Scotland should you require to contact them direct.

Check out the Scottish Tourist Board where you can book your accommodation through their network of approved hotels, B&B's and guest houses all over Scotland.

Another good resource is Late Rooms.

Tourist literature and information for Scotland can be obtained from the Scottish Tourist Board.

The free "Holidays in Scotland" brochure is available postage free worldwide.

In addition, there are eight different tourist regions in Scotland, each offering free literature. Each region can be accessed on the excellent "Discover Scotland" interactive map, an example of which is shown here

If you are looking to find out the latest traffic jam or roadworks go to Traffic Scotland.

You can also find a number of motorway traffic cameras that are available to view to provide an indication of the current traffic levels - please note that these are not live feeds.

You can keep upto date with what is happening in Scotland by looking at the following news sites:-

•BBC News
•The Scotsman

You can also look at a number of local area news websites through Online Newspapers

There are plenty on both FM and MW, too many to list down individually. Best bet is to do a quick scan of your radio to see if you can find something that you like.

You can check out the Historic-Scotland website which informs you of the 300+ properties that you are able to visit all over Scotland.

The majority of the sites are free to visit however there are some sites which charge an admission fee.

If you are planning to visit a number of sites which do charge an admission fee you may save money by looking at the various passes that Historic-Scotland offer.

Visit Scotland have an excellent website which details just about anything you could ever want to do.

If you visit Scotland you really have to take the chance to visit some of the most fantastic countryside and views that you will come across.

Check out the Forestry Commissions website were a whole host of places to go, cycle/walking routes, visitor centres etc are listed.

Scotland is the home of golf and has over 500 golf courses to offer to it's many tourists and inhabitants.

To have a look at what is available check out Golf in Scotland which is run by the tourist board.

Check out the official tourist boards website Eat Scotland which lists a large number of restaurants for areas throughout Scotland.

For a list of some of the best Glasgow Restaurants click here.

English is the main language however Welsh is also spoken by a number of residents.

According to VisitWales in the 1997 census 20.5% of the population could speak Welsh.

You can obtain this from Traveline of which the site is available in both English and Welsh.

You can obtain various amounts of information from the specific Welsh content contained on the BBC site.

Tourist literature and information for Wales can be obtained from the Welsh Tourist Board.

Local news can be found at the following lists of sites:

•BBC News