MrWeb's MR-a-thon

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, apart from being home to MrWeb and to the 2012 Olympics, can claim to be one of the great nations of history - birthplace of the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, home to the mother of Parliaments at Westminster and the great city of London around it, hub of possibly the largest Empire the world has ever seen, at its height in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and home to the inventors of the steam engine, post office, old age pension, jet propulsion, television and the WorldWideWeb - as well as to Shakespeare, Darwin, Isaac Newton, Crick and Watson, and Douglas Adams.

Two of Britain's great historical legacies came together in the London Olympics: the modern multicultural society which - partly thanks to our Empire and Commonwealth - is seen nowhere better than in London; and the introduction of several of the world's most popular sports. Cricket and rugby have spread via the Empire and Commonwealth nations and are increasingly pushing out beyond them to a wider audience, while association football is by a distance the world's favourite sport - Britain not only introduced it in its modern form, but has the decency to lose to a variety of other nations on a very regular basis, thus avoiding an embarrassing monopoly and furthering the sport's popularity. We've done the same with lawn tennis - given it to the world and then taken a gracious back seat. Britain also helped save the modern Olympics from an early grave - after the somewhat shambolic experiences of the 1900 and 1904 games, it was the success of the London 1908 Games along with an unofficial event held in Greece in 1906 - which helped to restore respect and start the movement back on the road to what it is today.Brits are often characterised as being reserved and formal; conversely but at least as undesirably our travelling sports fans have given us an association with yob culture; we perhaps worry and criticise too much, and do sarcasm like nobody else on earth, except perhaps the French; we're sometimes portrayed as jingoistic and backward-looking - it wouldnt be surprising given the above historical record, and indeed if you look at the 'A Little Knowledge' section to your left you'll see a whole lot of trumpet-blowing nostalgia; our economy is not escaping the prevailing gloom of the moment; and our fashion sense and our contribution to world cuisine are sometimes trashed, the latter quite unfairly given the sensational puddings available in another great British institution, the pub. However we are in fact a relaxed bunch, healthily cynical and with a self-deprecating sense of humour, inventive, independent in spirit, tolerant and compassionate, and we invite visitors to MrWeb to sample our famous hospitality and enjoy everything our great country has to offer.