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Expand the UK (II)

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Now that we've asked the rest of Europe to leave the EU, it's perhaps a good time to look at our own borders now that we're regaining control over them.

Knocking-through into adjoining countries is, nowadays, frowned upon (Germany, for instance, was severely frowned at a few decades ago). We therefore need to be more imaginative.

This brings to mind a rather small office which I once had to use. The desk-space was minute, but it did have two pull-out sections, rather like drawers, which could be used to provide additional workspace.

Clearly, these pull-out sections could be used with advantage to increase the size of the UK. Much of the southern end of England is composed of chalk, which exists in more-or-less horizontal strata. It should not be beyond the wit of man to dig out horizontal spaces above and below one suitably thick stratum, and then to cut around the edges. The result would be a large area of land which could be slid out, over the English channel, whenever we have guests over or if we need a little additional space.

MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 14 2016

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       Or, right, how about we build dams across the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain - from the north to the Mull of Kintyre, and from the south, to Anglesey (and its small channel to the mainland).   

       A spot of pumping, and we'd have... a big hole, which would solve our landfill shortage problems for years to come.
As it fills, cap it off, make good...
  

       Boom, extension!
Loris, Jul 14 2016
  

       Better as a tidal barrage for power generation.   

       // solve our landfill shortage problems //   

       Don't be silly. There are no "landfill shortage problems". That's what wales is for.
8th of 7, Jul 14 2016
  

       // fracking //   

       ^ "That's what wales is for."
8th of 7, Jul 14 2016
  

       I've had the MaxCo. engineers working on this one.   

       We've made a 1:1 scale model that seems to work pretty well. We've used the Isle of Wight as a release button - when you push it down, the whole 250-mile-wide slab slides out from the White Cliffs. We've got dampers on it, so it feels really smooth instead of going badoing. For retract, you just push the whole slab back in until it clicks, and the Isle of Wight pops up again. Apparently there's a bit of sloshing on the French side, but fortunately we don't care.   

       One of our engineers wanted to turn it into a giant CD platter, but we stopped him just in time.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 14 2016
  

       Could we not iron the country flat and put it on stilts to make it huge while avoiding flooding? I suggested something like that a while back on here.
nineteenthly, Jul 15 2016
  

       //iron the country flat// No no no. The existing textured surface looks much classier, even if it does tend to trap dust in the crevices. It's like the difference between real leather and artificial.   

       Obviously, the effect can be overdone. Parts of Nepal and Switzerland, for example, just look like they're trying too hard.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 15 2016
  

       Nothing says you cannot create your own themed additional land. China has created an island that looks like a bottle opener, while Qatar has long been creating palm tree- and modern art- land.
whatrock, Jul 15 2016
  

       Baked! China and the mideast spring to mind; why not the UK?
Steamboat, Jul 18 2016
  

       //Could we not iron the country flat and//   

       This would make a mockery of the hill start component of the driving test. If you start removing irrelevant or unnecessary activities that remain only to irritate teenagers and the foreign, you really start to degrade what Britain is all about.
bs0u0155, Jul 18 2016
  

       // the hill start component of the driving test //   

       How do they do that in the Netherlands, then ?
8th of 7, Jul 18 2016
  

       They don't. This is why the Netherlands is so populated; they've never been able to climb out once inside. Something about negotiating non-horizontal surfaces when you're on one of the many legal drugs there.
RayfordSteele, Jul 18 2016
  

       Oh, please someone calculate the area of the UK if we bulldozed it to 5m above sea level.   

       [MaxwellBuchanan] Norway won an award for it's fjords.   

       [8th of 7] They have a dyke start...
marklar, Aug 23 2024
  

       I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you [marklar].
Neither of those halfbakers are with us anymore.
  
      
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