What has happened in England recently?

Answer 1

Two teenagers shot in McDonald's Two teenagers have been shot in front of families with young children in a McDonald's restaurant. The friends, both believed to be 17, were in the queue on Thursday afternoon when a gunman shot one in the chest and the other in the arm. The victim hit in the chest is said to be in a critical condition and the other youth is described as stable. The Met Police's Operation Trident team is investigating the incident which happened in Brixton, south London.

Answer 2

Depends upon how recently you're talking about, but I'll assume it's over the past couple of months:

The main two events have been Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee in June, and the run-up to the start of the Olympic Games in London on 26th July. The Queen's Jubilee was celebrated by a four-day public holiday, with special events taking place up and down the country, street parties, a big rock concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, and a tour of the UK by the Queen, during which she met and shook hands with former IRA leader Martin MacGuinness, which was criticised by some people.

The Olympic torch has been carried around the United Kingdom in relays involving hundreds of people, usually individuals chosen by their local communities as having made an outstanding contribution to the areas where they live but also sometimes by celebrities or past British Olympians. London has seen an enormous security operation put in place for the Games, with huge numbers of extra police drafted in as well as sections of the British Army being involved, and surface-to-air missiles mounted on rooftops to guard against airborne terrorist attacks. Parts of London's roads have been closed to all but Olympic traffic, which has caused much inconvenience to ordinary working members of the public and created some anger.

In other recent events, the British economy has shrunk by more than has been expected, the biggest peacetime contraction for a Century, although unemployment has also fallen slightly. Domestic gas prices are continuing to rise (by this I mean household gas for cooking and heating, not motor fuel, which we call 'petrol').

The Leveson Enquiry has continued to hear evidence- this was a public enquiry set up last year chaired by Lord leveson, to investigate the intrusion into people's private lives by Rupert Murdoch's media empire. It was found that journalists working for his 'News Of The World' newspaper had been hacking into the mobile 'phones of many people in the news, usually celebrities but also the families of the victims of crime. This led to the closure of the newspaper last year, but the enquiry is continuing as it has emerged that Murdoch's activities were known to certain high-ranking individuals within the police, the civil service and the military, who may have accepted bribes to provide News International with information that they wanted.

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships ended in mid-July, with Serena Williams winning the Women's Singles and Roger Fedora winning for the men.

June was one of the wettest on record, with flash-flooding across Yorkshire, parts of Scotland and mid-Wales, though fortunately nobody was killed.

Dairy farmers have been protesting about the low amount of money they are paid by supermarkets for their produce, which is making it difficult for them to make a living.

Three Royal Marines have been killed whilst on service in Afghanistan.

Two RAF Tornado jet fighters have collided and crashed into the sea over the Moray Firth in Scotland, killing all but one of those on board- the flight was a training excercise.

A cliff-face has partially collapsed in Dorset near to a holiday camp-site, killing a young woman of 22.

Home Secretary Teresa May is involved in an ongoing wrangle with the European Parliament over the expulsion of al-Qaeda sympathiser Abu Qatada. Qatada is an extremist British Muslim who preaches violence and endorses terrorism- May wants to deport him to Jordan, but the European Parliament says that she cannot do this under EU Human Rights law because he could face torture if sent there.

The Scottish Parliament has proposed to legalise gay marriage, but is facing huge opposition from the Presbyterian Church.

Various proposals have been made to give Wales more devolved Governmental powers, including some financial autonomy and criminal justice powers.

There are plans to give all British schoolchildren anti-flu vaccines as of this coming Winter.

The actors Philip Madoc, Angharad Rees and Simon Ward have died- also a British comedian called Eric Sykes (probably not known outside the UK- he was popular on TV between the late '50s and early '80s) and a TV newsreader called Alistair Burnet, who read the news on Britain's ITV network in the late '70s and 1980s.

The tallest building in Europe has opened in London- known as 'The Shard', it is an ugly pointed skyscraper which is exclusively given over to luxury apartments and leisure facilities for the super-rich. It was built and funded by the Qatari Government, mostly for expatriot wealthy Arabs- it is very near to the deprived London borough of Hackney, and has caused anger over the blatant flaunting of wealth in the face of some of London's poorest inhabitants.

The car company Jaguar are soon set to unveil their newest models.

....If you want to know of events further back than this, be a bit more specific about how long you're talking about and I'll do what I can to help.