History UsefulNotes / BritishBusinesses

** Royal Bank of Scotland - not, as mentioned above, to be confused with plain old Bank of Scotland, to which it is wholly unrelated. Its branches in England (and NatWest's Scottish branches) are supposed to have been demerged from it in the same way TSB was from Lloyds TSB, but it's floundered repeatedly and now may not actually happen at all.
** NatWest (the National Westminster Bank), bought by the Royal Bank of Scotland in the early 2000s despite RBS being markedly smaller and almost wholly subsumed into the group.

* Lloyd's of London - not to be confused with the previous bank, this is a very famous insurance company and has been around in some form since c.1688. Not technically a company, but a society of underwriters,[[note]]Thus you will often find insurance law cases where one of the parties is called ''Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London,'' rather than, say, "Lloyd's of London, Ltd." (which is what it would be if it were a company).[[/note]] it has (apparently) insured some very interesting things, such as both Creator/BettyGrable and Music/TinaTurner's legs and [[Series/UglyBetty America Ferrera's smile]].

** John Lewis Financial Services, provides the John Lewis Partnership card.
* Nationwide Building Society, the UK's largest building society and the only one that clears its own cheques [[note]]All other building societies rely on one of the major clearing banks, often the Co-operative Bank, to feed their cheques into the UK clearing system. Nationwide is unique in being able to do this on its own account, and so having its own sort code range of 07. Before it demutualised, Abbey National also cleared its own cheques.[[/note]] In theory, a mutually owned organisation that exists for the benefit of its members; in practise, it offers mostly the same products with the same rates and charges as the big banks and is as such more or less indistinguishable from them. Was for a while i’m the 1980/90s called Nationwide Anglia and was originally the Co-operative Building Society.

* Booths – A small chain based in Lancashire and spreading into the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and the affluent Cheshire suburbs of Manchester. A kind of upmarket Waitrose, which surprises Southern folk who think OopNorth is all grime and poverty. Is i’m a buying agreement with Waitrose which explains why there are very few Waitrose branches in the North West of England.

* Wrightbus: Actually a Northern Irish company, based in Ballymena. Bus manufacturers like ADL, they pioneered the British version of low-floor buses preferred today for accessibility reasons, and make the double-deck [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Routemaster New Routemaster]], or "[[UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson Borismaster]]," as it is called.

* Royal Dutch Shell - One of the six oil "supermajors," Shell is a joint Anglo-Dutch affair with HQ in the Hague but certain major operations (including refining, marketing, finance, and HR) managed out Lambeth. Formed by a slow-motion merger of the Royal Dutch Oil Company and the British firm Shell Transport (or something),[[note]]Initially, it was a "dual-listed company" consisting of what amounted to a general partnership between two legally distinct companies, one British and one Dutch. Eventually, however, the business advantages of this arrangement ceased to outweigh the drawbacks, and in 2004, they adopted a simpler structure, with there just being one British corporation headquartered in the Netherlands.[[/note]] it was initially done just to stay in competition with John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. It is still the world's largest private-sector oil company and the largest energy company in Europe.
* BP - Formerly British Petroleum, and before that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It changed its name to "British Petroleum Company" in 1954, a year after the CIA and [=MI6=]-backed coup in Iran. It quickly diversified its operations, striking oil in Alaska and the North Sea--a good thing, given the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that deprived BP of its assets in Iran. After buying up several pieces of the former Standard Oil (most notably Amoco) in the US, British Petroleum decided to call itself simply "BP" without the letters meaning anything in 2001. Also a "supermajor," and also in very deep shit [[MemeticMutation IN AMERICA]]! thanks to that Deepwater Horizon thing.[[note]]And the British government isn't any too pleased with them either, because a wave of surprise safety inspections in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf spill turned up some equally egregious code violations on their North Sea rigs.[[/note]]

* [= FirstGroup =] - another Scottish-based bus, coach and rail firm. Runs the Greater Western franchise (i.e. the Westcountry and certain commuter and regional services west of London). Magazine/PrivateEye [[MaliciousMisnaming likes to call them]] "[=WorstGroup=]", which many of their more disgruntled customers like to use as well.

One of Britain' thriving industries, the second or third largest in the world depending on standard of measurement. Wiki/TheOtherWiki has an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_industry_in_the_United_Kingdom article]] on the subject. Should be brought up whenever people in the pub moan that Britain doesn't make things. The British aerospace industry has made many important contributions to the history of aircraft, and was solely or jointly responsible for the development and production of the first aircraft with an enclosed cabin (the Avro Type F), the first jet aircraft to enter service for the Allies in the Second World War (the Gloster Meteor), the first commercial jet airliner to enter service (the de Havilland Comet) the first aircraft capable of supercruise (the English Electric Lightning), the first supersonic commercial jet airliner to enter service (the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde), the first fixed-wing V/STOL combat aircraft to enter service (the Hawker Siddeley Harrier), the first twin-engined widebody commercial jet airliner (the Airbus A300), the first fly-by-wire commercial aircraft (the Airbus A320), and the largest commercial aircraft to enter service to date (the Airbus A380). Britain would also have been the first to break the sound barrier had the United States kept its post-war technology sharing agreements, instead of letting the British share their engine and aerodynamic designs with them and then pulling an ILied.

'''Travel Booking And Information Firms'''

* Asda - now owned by UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}}, suffice to say the name of the MMO "Asda Story" amuses Britons who see their ads. Has an ArtifactTitle - it was originally an abbreviation for Associated Dairies.

* BP - Formerly British Petroleum, and before that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It changed its name to "British Petroleum Company" in 1954, a year after the CIA and MI6-backed coup in Iran. It quickly diversified its operations, striking oil in Alaska and the North Sea--a good thing, given the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that deprived BP of its assets in Iran. After buying up several pieces of the former Standard Oil (most notably Amoco) in the US, British Petroleum decided to call itself simply "BP" without the letters meaning anything in 2001. Also a "supermajor," and also in very deep shit [[MemeticMutation IN AMERICA]]! thanks to that Deepwater Horizon thing.[[note]]And the British government isn't any too pleased with them either, because a wave of surprise safety inspections in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf spill turned up some equally egregious code violations on their North Sea rigs.[[/note]]

* House of Fraser (who once owned Harrods), Debenhams, and Selfridges (yes, [[Series/MrSelfridge that one]]) are other common high street department stores.

* Nationwide Building Society, the UK's largest building society and the only one that clears its own cheques [[note]]All other building societies rely on one of the major clearing banks, often the Co-operative Bank, to feed their cheques into the UK clearing system. Nationwide is unique in being able to do this on its own account, and so having its own sort code range of 07. Before it demutualised, Abbey National also cleared its own cheques.[[/note]] In theory, a mutually owned organisation that exists for the benefit of its members; in practise, it offers mostly the same products with the same rates and charges as the big banks and is as such more or less indistinguishable from them.

* The Co-operative Group (the Co-operative, or just the Co-op) is the world's largest and oldest co-operative, run along ethical lines including a strong support of fair trade. Most often seen and used as small convenience stores - some cities have an extensive network of them (Portsmouth alone has at least twenty). Not all Co-operative or Co-op stores are owned by the Co-operative Group - there are about 20 independent Co-operative societies still around such as [=ScotMid=], Midlands, Penrith and Southern. Bought smaller chain Somerfield in 2009. Now advertises itself, essentially, as the place you go when you've forgotten to buy things from somewhere else, which is an interesting strategy if nothing else. It's wholly owned by its customers; having one of its loyalty cards is actually part-ownership of it and entitles you to a profit share each year based on how much you've spent with it. This dividend is sometimes referred to as "divi" in slang.

* Booths – A small chain based in Lancashire and spreading into the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and the affluent Cheshire suburbs of Manchester. A kind of upmarket Waitrose, which surprises Southern folk who think OopNorth is all grime and poverty.

* Irn-Bru, Scotland's "other national drink". Bright orange, tastes like bubblegum. Outsells Coca-Cola, but only in Scotland. "Made from girders", according to the adverts.

During the late sixties and seventies, British car manufacturing was dominated by the British Leyland group, which was formed from the mergers of such companies as Jaguar, Austin, Morris, Rover and Triumph. British Leyland had serious difficulty as a company due to repeated labor strikes, inept management, poor design, and horrible build quality. It underwent nationalization and eventually was forced to sell off its more successful lines to competitors. The company reorganized as MG-Rover, which would go though its own troubles (see below). In British programs [[Series/FawltyTowers set in the 1970s]] or [[Series/TopGear focusing on cars]], expect jokes about British Leyland's poor performance, frequent strikes and the poor quality of its mass-market cars.

* Thomas Cook Group - One of the oldest such firms in the world, with the main component founded in 1841, organising rail excursions to the 1851 Great Exhibition.

* [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky]], UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch's UK telecoms outpost. Formerly (officially) BSkyB, a legacy of the very brief competition in satellite services between Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, who wound up merging basically to put BSB out of their misery. Operates the Sky satellite service, the most popular paid-for TV service in the country, as well as offering telephone and broadband services (using Openreach infrastructure). Also a broadcaster and programme maker in its own right.

* Vodafone, for a number of years the biggest mobile phone network and one famed for its reliability, which has sadly gone somewhat downhill as of late[[note]]mainly due to EE being a merger of two already fairly comprehensive networks and therefore providing virtually unbeatable coverage[[/note]]. Still a corporate behemoth, now rather more well known for having a rather interesting approach to paying its taxes which has led to it becoming a target for protests.

** The famous Lutine Bell is based at Lloyd's. The bell is the ship's bell of HMS ''Lutine'', an 18th-century French warship captured by the Royal Navy during the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Siege of Toulon of 1793]]; the ''Lutine'' sank while carrying a large sum of gold insured by Lloyd's, and when the underwriters paid out in full they gained a claim on the wreck. When they managed to pull the bell up from the wreck in 1858, Lloyd's claimed it, and started to use it as a signal to its underwriters: it would be rung once if a ship was lost, and twice if a ship feared lost had returned to port safely. This had a practical aspect to it; ringing a bell made sure that everyone heard the news at the same time, thus ensuring that nobody had any unfair advantages. However, back in TheSeventies, it developed a crack, and so to make sure it doesn't fall to pieces it is only rung on ceremonial occasions now--once for bad news, twice for good news.[[note]]By that point, of course, there were many other ways of ensuring that nobody had an unfair information advantage about the status of ships, so its informational purpose was no longer useful.[[/note]] The last time it rang once upon receiving bad news was the 2005 London Bombings; however, it also rings once annually at the end of the two minutes' silence on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Armistice Day]]. The Lutine Bell has rung twice a few times in recent years on the occasion of good royal news, including the birth of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Prince George]] in 2013 and a visit by UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen and Prince Philip in 2014.

* Tesco (not, in fact, "Tesco's")- controlling about 30% of the grocery market, it's the biggest British retailer and third largest in the world (only Wal-Mart and Carrefour beat it). It's a somewhat controversial firm, being accused of labour exploitation, planning violations, being too big, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking grammar errors]]. Tried to expand into the US with fresh&easy, which promptly died on its arse. Has expanded into an incredible array of different markets, from financial products to mobile phones - it is quite possible, if somewhat inadvisable, to live while using only its products and services.

* Asda - now owned by Wal-Mart, suffice to say the name of the MMO "Asda Story" amuses Britons who see their ads. Has an ArtifactTitle - it was originally an abbreviation for Associated Dairies.

* The Co-operative Group (the Co-operative, or just the Co-op) is the worlds largest and oldest co-operative, run along ethical lines including a strong support of fair trade. Most often seen and used as small convenience stores - some cities have an extensive network of them (Portsmouth alone has at least twenty). Not all Co-operative or Co-op stores are owned by the Co-operative Group - there are about 20 independent Co-operative societies still around such as [=ScotMid=], Midlands, Penrith and Southern. Bought smaller chain Somerfield in 2009. Now advertises itself, essentially, as the place you go when you've forgotten to buy things from somewhere else, which is an interesting strategy if nothing else. It's wholly owned by its customers; having one of its loyalty cards is actually part-ownership of it and entitles you to a profit share each year based on how much you've spent with it. This dividend is sometimes referred to as "divi" in slang.

* Marks and Spencer (not, in fact, "Marks and Spencer's") - known as "Marks and Sparks" (or just M&S), it aims for the upper middle class market. High quality but tends not to worry too much about being the cheapest. For this reason, it experiences a big boost in numbers around December when people start stocking up for Christmas dinner. Had a famous advertising campaign that used a high-class version of SexSells, employing literal FoodPorn with a seductive voiceover by Dervla Kirwan: "This is not just X, this is M&S X".

* Lidl and Aldi - The two German supermarkets have quickly become known in Britain for cheap, non-brand stock. As a result, they're kind of the opposite of Waitrose in British fiction.[[note]]Aldi has much the same reputation in America, generally only being found in the ghetto.[[/note]] Following the 2008 recession, these two supermarkets have gradually gained traction amongst the middle class market which has seen its income squeezed.

* Boots (sometimes suffixed "the Chemist", especially by older people - it was known as this and is now simply "Boots", but definitely NOT "Boot's"), a huge chain of chemists (read: pharmacies) that as well as dispensing medicines does most of its trade selling beauty and health products, along with a range of somewhat decent lunch foods and other such things (for reasons nobody quite understands). Extremely abundant - a reasonably sized city will likely have multiple within walking distance of each other and most towns will have one (e.g. Norwich has three in its city centre alone within five minutes' walk of each other, Portsmouth has five, Manchester at least ten) - although many of these stores are quite old and therefore fairly grotty and tatty. Now owned by Walgreens, it's the retail segment of a large and well-respected pharmaceutical business that invented ibuprofen, amongst many other household names. Their No 7 own brand make-up range is internationally known and is even sold on QVC in the US.

** Bank of Scotland - Not to be confused with the similarly-named ''Royal'' Bank of Scotland, which is an entirely separate group to which it has never been related. [[CaptainObvious It's a bank for Scots.]]

* Three (or "3"), the UK's first 3G network launched in a blaze of glory in 2004 by, as mentioned, Hutchison Whampoa (their second crack at the mobile market, having sold off Orange some years ago.) Brands itself as "the network built for the Internet", and made a big play of offering "all you can eat data" on its plans right up until that proved financially unviable. Intriguingly, Three are the last company that's purely a mobile network[[note:as in, one that owns its own infrastructure, not virtual networks like Tesco Mobile]] left in the UK, with the other companies having interests in other things too. It's not clear at this point as to whether Hutch will merge it into O2 or leave it as is, as they tend to target different markets. Used to use EE networks as a 2G fallback, now does not offer 2G at all.
* Vodafone, for a number of years the biggest mobile phone network and one famed for its reliability, which has sadly gone somewhat downhill as of late[[note:mainly due to EE being a merger of two already fairly comprehensive networks and therefore providing virtually unbeatable coverage]]. Still a corporate behemoth, now rather more well known for having a rather interesting approach to paying its taxes which has led to it becoming a target for protests.

* BT (British Telecommunications plc), the privatised former monopoly telephone provider floated on the stock market by UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher in The80s. Still owns the core trunk telephone network, operated somewhat at arms' length and with access by [=ISPs=] and other telephone companies resold through its subsidiary Openreach - the subject of some resentment, as if you're in an area that isn't served by cable your choices are, almost literally, either using Openreach (and therefore, ultimately, giving money to BT) or going without Internet access or a phone line; not helped by Openreach being notoriously inflexible and literally ''impossible'' for end users to contact[[note]]The "literally" here is meant 100%, well, literally. You, as the person who is the person with the broadband connection, are not Openreach's customer - your ISP is, and your ISP is expected to be a go-between, and also organise fixes for any screw-ups Openreach make. Fun![[/note]]. The side you'd use to get services in your house (BT Retail) doesn't have a very good reputation, to put it mildly; often extortionate and with poor service to boot. Also offers TV and mobile services and runs a [[BTSport sports channel]]. BT now also owns...

A note before we begin -- "Royal warrant" means, in essence, official supplier of the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoylidlalFamily Royal Family]], or one of them. Holders of royal warrants are permitted to advertise this fact and to use some element of royal symbolism in their branding to bolster their reputations.[[note]]The British monarchy isn't the only one that does this--for instance, Toyota has an Imperial Warrant to supply automobiles to the Emperor of Japan--but the British monarchs have been doing it for a long time and there are quite a lot of British royal warrants out there.[[/note]]

A note before we begin -- "Royal warrant" means, in essence, official supplier of the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Royal Family]], or one of them. Holders of royal warrants are permitted to advertise this fact and to use some element of royal symbolism in their branding to bolster their reputations.[[note]]The British monarchy isn't the only one that does this--for instance, Toyota has an Imperial Warrant to supply automobiles to the Emperor of Japan--but the British monarchs have been doing it for a long time and there are quite a lot of British royal warrants out there.[[/note]]

* Lidl and Aldi - The two German supermarkets have quickly become known in Britain for cheap, non-brand stock. As a result, they're kind of the opposite of Waitrose in British fiction.[[note]]Aldi has much the same reputation in America, generally only being found in the ghetto.[[/note]]

* Irn Bru, Scotland's "other national drink". Bright orange, tastes like bubblegum. Outsells Coca-Cola, but only in Scotland. "Made from girders", according to the adverts.

** The West of Scotland also has a fondness for Red Kola, a drink that makes Irn Bru seem like an all-natural health supplement.
** Tizer - a fruit flavoured drink popular in the North of England, owned by Barr's (Irn Bru and Red Kola) since 1972.
** Irn Bru [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff is apparently also popular in Russia]], where it is marketed with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aREzT50HjIA blue and orange ostriches]], for some reason.

* John Lewis claims to be "Never Knowingly Undersold"[[note]]What this means in practise is that if you find the exact same product on sale somewhere else for less money then they will match that price, with certain exceptions such as not matching against online retailers[[/note]] and yet is quite expensive (not Harrods-expensive though) to the extent that a "John Lewis list" of how much in second home expenses [=MPs=] were allowed to claim for various items was considered an example of excess. Also notable for being owned by its staff,[[note]]Or more precisely, owned by a trust whose beneficiaries are the firm's employees[[/note]] who are thus all known as "Partners". Since 2008, it has had a Royal Warrant as "suppliers of haberdashery and household goods." Its supermarket chain is Waitrose.

* Liberty in London is another famed store, noted for their fabrics as well as funky fashion after a makeover. Located in a very old Tudor-style building. Is probably unique among department stores in naming a major artistic style (albeit not in English): UsefulNotes/ArtNouveau is known as the "Liberty Style" (''stile Liberty'') in Italy because of the colourful Art Nouveau textiles Italians used to buy from the store during that time.

* [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky]], Creator/RupertMurdoch's UK telecoms outpost. Formerly (officially) BSkyB, a legacy of the very brief competition in satellite services between Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, who wound up merging basically to put BSB out of their misery. Operates the Sky satellite service, the most popular paid-for TV service in the country, as well as offering telephone and broadband services (using Openreach infrastructure). Also a broadcaster and programme maker in its own right.

** Americans: RBS owns Charter One Bank and Citizens Bank through Citizens Financial Group. There's a good chance that you keep your dollars with them if you live in UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and UsefulNotes/NewYorkState (upstate only).

** On a corporate note: Ribena was originally marketed as a health product and thus produced by the pharmaceutical company Beecham Group, which merged with UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}-based Smith, Kline, & French to become [=SmithKline=] Beecham, which in turn merged with another large pharmaceutical company, Glaxo Wellcome,[[note]]Glaxo Wellcome's history is extremely bizarre; Glaxo was originally a New Zealand company, from the charmingly-named town of Bunnythorpe in a rural area on the North Island northwest of Wellington, which originally made only baby formula, marketed with the charming slogan "Glaxo makes bonnie babies." This company--which, remember, started making baby formula in ''rural New Zealand'' of all places--gradually acquired various British and American pharmaceutical companies before merging with Burroughs Wellcome, a British pharmaceutical manufacturer originally founded by two American expatriate pharmacists in London.[[/note]] to form [=GlaxoSmithKline=] (GSK to its friends; HQ in London with a strong American presence). In 2013, GSK divested itself of most of its drinks business, including Ribena, to the Japanese drinks company Suntory (as in "Suntory Whisky makes you happy faster").

** On a corporate note: Ribena was originally marketed as a health product and thus produced by the pharmaceutical company Beecham Group, which merged with UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}-based Smith, Kline, & French to become [=SmithKline=] Beecham, which in turn merged with another large pharmaceutical company, Glaxo Wellcome,[[note]]Glaxo Wellcome's history is extremely bizarre; Glaxo was originally a New Zealand company, from the charmingly-named town of Bunnythorpe in a rural area on the North Island northwest of Wellington, which acquired various British and American pharmaceutical companies before merging with Burroughs Wellcome, a British pharmaceutical manufacturer originally founded by two American expatriate pharmacists in London.[[/note]] to form [=GlaxoSmithKline=] (GSK to its friends; HQ in London with a strong American presence). In 2013, GSK divested itself of most of its drinks business, including Ribena, to the Japanese drinks company Suntory (as in "Suntory Whisky makes you happy faster").

* Liberty in London is another famed store, noted for their fabrics as well as funky fashion after a makeover. Located in a very old Tudor-style building.

* House of Fraser (who once owned Harrods), Debenhams, and Selfridges are other common high street department stores.

* Lloyd's of London - not to be confused with the previous bank, this is a very famous insurance company and has been around in some form since c.1688. Not technically a company, but a society of underwriters,[[note]]Thus you will often find insurance law cases where one of the parties is called ''Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London,'' rather than, say, "Lloyd's of London, Ltd." (which is what it would be if it were a company).[[/note]] it has (apparently) insured some very interesting things, such as both Betty Grable and Tina Turner's legs and [[Series/UglyBetty America Ferrera's smile]].

* [[Creator/Sky Sky]], RupertMurdoch's UK telecoms outpost. Formerly (officially) BSkyB, a legacy of the very brief competition in satellite services between Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, who wound up merging basically to put BSB out of their misery. Operates the Sky satellite service, the most popular paid-for TV service in the country, as well as offering telephone and broadband services (using Openreach infrastructure). Also a broadcaster and programme maker in its own right.

** The famous Lutine Bell is based at Lloyd's. The bell is the ship's bell of HMS ''Lutine'', an 18th-century French warship captured by the Royal Navy during the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Siege of Toulon of 1793]]; the ''Lutine'' sank while carrying a large sum of gold insured by Lloyd's, and when the underwriters paid out in full they gained a claim on the wreck. When they managed to pull the bell up from the wreck in 1858, Lloyd's claimed it, and started to use it as a signal to its underwriters: it would be rung once if a ship was lost, and twice if a ship feared lost had returned to port safely. This had a practical aspect to it; ringing a bell made sure that everyone heard the news at the same time, thus ensuring that nobody had any unfair advantages. However, back in TheSeventies, it developed a crack, and so to make sure it doesn't fall to pieces it is only rung on ceremonial occasions now--once for bad news, twice for good news.[[note]]By that point, of course, there were many other ways of ensuring that nobody had an unfair information advantage about the status of ships, so its informational purpose was no longer useful.[[/note]] The last time it rang once upon receiving bad news was the 2005 London Bombings; however, it also rings once annually at the end of the two minutes' silence on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Armistice Day]]. The Lutine Bell has rung twice a few times in recent years on the occasion of good royal news, including the birth of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Prince George]] in 2013 and a visit by HMTheQueen and Prince Philip in 2014.

* BAE Systems- Combining a ''lot'' of defence companies (Avro, English Electric and Vickers to name but three), they have been accused of unethical practices quite a bit. Makes the Typhoon and Hawk aircraft, as well as submarines, aircraft carriers, missile systems and... everything else, much of it bleeding-edge (BAE was under contract with the [[YanksWithTanks US Navy]] to develop the first operational [[MagneticWeapons railguns]]). They periodically trade off between Lockheed Martin and Boeing to be the largest defence contractor in the world (BAE was number 1 in 2008). It also supplies the US and French armed forces (the M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and iconic [=M113=] APC are both produced by BAE today). It also inherited its predecessor British Aerospace's stake in the Airbus Indusrie consortium; when Airbus incorporated itself, BAE got a 20% stake, which it then sold off in 2006.

* BT (British Telecommunications plc), the privatised former monopoly telephone provider floated on the stock market by UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher in The80s. Still owns the core trunk telephone network, operated somewhat at arms' length and with access by [=ISPs=] and other telephone companies resold through its subsidiary Openreach - the subject of some resentment, as if you're in an area that isn't served by cable your choices are, almost literally, either using Openreach (and therefore, ultimately, giving money to BT) or going without Internet access or a phone line; not helped by Openreach being notoriously inflexible and literally ''impossible'' for end users to contact[[note:The "literally" here is meant 100%, well, literally. You, as the person who is the person with the broadband connection, are not Openreach's customer - your ISP is, and your ISP is expected to be a go-between, and also organise fixes for any screw-ups Openreach make. Fun!]]. The side you'd use to get services in your house (BT Retail) doesn't have a very good reputation, to put it mildly; often extortionate and with poor service to boot. Also offers TV and mobile services and runs a [[BTSport sports channel]]. BT now also owns...

* BT (British Telecommunications plc), the privatised former monopoly telephone provider floated on the stock market by UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher in The80s. Still owns the core trunk telephone network, operated somewhat at arms' length and with access by [=ISPs=] and other telephone companies resold through its subsidiary Openreach - the subject of some resentment, as if you're in an area that isn't served by cable your choices are, almost literally, either using Openreach (and therefore, ultimately, giving money to BT) or going without Internet access or a phone line; not helped by Openreach being notoriously inflexible and literally ''impossible'' for end users to contact. The side you'd use to get services in your house (BT Retail) doesn't have a very good reputation, to put it mildly; often extortionate and with poor service to boot. Also offers TV and mobile services and runs a [[BTSport sports channel]]. BT now also owns...