United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [1] |
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Motto: "Dieu et mon droit"[2] (French)
"God and my right" |
Anthem: "God Save the Queen"[3]
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Capital
(and largest city)
| London
51°30â˛N, 0°7â˛W
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| Official languages |
English[4] (de facto) |
| Recognised regional languages |
Welsh, Irish, Ulster Scots, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish [5] |
| Ethnic groups (2001) |
85.67% White British, 6.47% White Other (inc. Irish), 4.00% South Asian, 2.00% Black, 1.20% Mixed Race, 0.80% East Asian and Other |
| Demonym |
British Britannic
|
| Government |
Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy |
| - |
Monarch |
HM Queen Elizabeth II |
| - |
Prime Minister |
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP |
| Formation |
|---|
| - |
Acts of Union |
1 May 1707 |
| - |
Act of Union |
1 January 1801 |
| - |
Anglo-Irish Treaty |
12 April 1922 |
| EU accession |
1 January 1973 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
244,820 km² (79th)
94,526 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
1.34 |
| Population |
| - |
mid-2006 estimate |
60,587,300[UK population grows to 60.6 million. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved on August 22, [].] (22nd) |
| - |
2001 census |
58,789,194[6] |
| - |
Density |
246/km² (48th)
637/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2006 estimate |
| - |
Total |
US$2.270 trillion (6th) |
| - |
Per capita |
US$37,328 (13th) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2007 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$2.398 trillion (5th) |
| - |
Per capita |
US$45,301 (9th) |
| Gini (2005) |
34[CIA World Factbook[Gini rankings]] |
| HDI (2005) |
Ⲡ0.946 (high) (16th) |
| Currency |
Pound sterling (ÂŁ) (GBP) |
| Time zone |
GMT (UTC+0) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
BST (UTC+1) |
| Internet TLD |
.uk and .eu[7] |
| Calling code |
+44
|
^ In the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous (regional) languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, the UK\'s official name is as follows:
Cornish: Rywvaneth Unys Breten Veur ha Kledhbarth Iwerdhon; Irish: RĂocht Aontaithe na Breataine MĂłire agus Thuaisceart Ăireann; Scots: Unitit Kinrick o Graet Breetain an Northren Irland; Scottish Gaelic: RĂŹoghachd Aonaichte Bhreatainn Mhòir agus Ăireann a Tuath; Welsh: Teyrnas Unedig Prydain Fawr a Gogledd Iwerddon.
^ This is the royal motto. In Scotland, the royal motto is the Latin phrase Nemo Me Impune Lacessit ("No-one provokes me with impunity"). There is a variant form of the coat-of-arms for use in Scotland; see Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.
^ See #Symbols below. It serves as the Royal anthem.
^ English is established by de facto usage. In Wales, the Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg is tasked with ensuring that, "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality".[Welsh Language. Welsh Assembly. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.][Welsh Language Act 1993. Office of Public Sector Information. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.] Bòrd na Gà idhlig is tasked with "securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language".[Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. Office of Public Sector Information. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.]
^ Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages the Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Irish, Ulster Scots and Scots languages are officially recognised as Regional or Minority languages by the UK Government.[Scottish Executive "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" Updated 13/06/06 retrieved 23/08/07] See also Languages in the United Kingdom.
^ CIA Factbook. Official estimate provided by the UK Office for National Statistics.[Population Estimates. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.]
^ ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 is GB, but .gb is practically unused. The .eu domain is shared with other European Union member states. |
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Great Britain,[See British Isles (terminology) for further explanation of the usage of the term "Britain" in geographical and political contexts.]
is a sovereign island country[Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. âIsland country located off the north-western coast of mainland Europeâ][www.number-10.gov.uk. Countries within a country. Retrieved on 2007-06-13. âCountries within a countryâ] located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe comprising of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It includes the island of Great Britain, the northeast part of the island of Ireland and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.[Member States: United Kingdom. UK Presidency of the EU 2005. Retrieved on May 29, [].] Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.
The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy with its seat of government in London, the capital. It is a constitutional monarchy with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II the head of state. The Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, formally possessions of the Crown, are not part of the UK but form a federacy with it.[UK gov explanation of names.] The UK has fourteen overseas territories,[UK Overseas Territories. Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.] all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height encompassed almost a quarter of the world\'s land surface, making it the largest empire in history. As a direct result of the empire, British influence can be observed in the infrastructure, culture, sporting preferences and language of other leading countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the United States of America as well as in less globally influential independent states. HM Queen Elizabeth II remains the head of the Commonwealth of Nations and head of state of the Commonwealth realms. The UK is a developed country, with the fifth or sixth largest economy depending on source.[UK slips behind France on economy.]
The UK was the world\'s foremost power during the 19th and early 20th century,[Ferguson, Niall (2004). Empire, The rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power. Basic Books. ISBN 0465023282. ] but the economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished its leading role in global affairs. The UK nevertheless retains significant economic, cultural, military and political influence and is a nuclear power, with the third highest defence spending in the world. It holds a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, and is a member of the G8, NATO, the European Union and the Commonwealth of Nations.
History
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England and Scotland had existed as separate sovereign and independent states with their own monarchs and political structures since the 9th century. The once independent Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Under the Acts of Union 1707, England (including Wales) and Scotland, which had been in personal union since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, agreed to a political union in the form of a unified Kingdom of Great Britain.[The Treaty (or Act) of Union, 1707. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.]
The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.[The Act of Union. Act of Union Virtual Library. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.]
Over the next century the United Kingdom played an important role in developing Western ideas of parliamentary democracy with significant contributions to literature, the arts and science.[Ferguson, Niall (2003). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02328-2. ] The UK-led Industrial Revolution transformed the country and fuelled the British Empire. During this time, like other Great Powers, the UK was involved in colonial exploitation, including the slave trade, though the passing of the 1807 Slave Trade Act made the UK the first country to prohibit trade in slaves.
After the defeat of Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars, Britain became the principal naval power of the 19th century. At its peak the British Empire controlled large amounts of territory in Asia, Africa, Oceania and America.
At the end of the Victorian era the United Kingdom lost its industrial leadership, particularly to the German Empire, which surpassed the UK in industrial production and trade in the 1890s, and to the United States. Britain remained an eminent power and its empire expanded to its maximum size by 1921, gaining the League of Nations mandate over former German and Ottoman colonies after World War I.
Long simmering tensions in Ireland led to the partition of the island in 1920, followed by independence for the Irish Free State in 1922. Six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remained within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[The Anglo-Irish Treaty, 6 December 1921. CAIN. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.]
After World War I, the world\'s first large-scale international broadcasting network, the BBC, was created. In 1924 the country\'s Labour movement, which had been gaining strength since the late 1890s, formed the first Labour government. Britain fought Nazi Germany in World War II, with its Commonwealth allies including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, later to be joined by further allies such as the United States. Wartime leader Winston Churchill and his peacetime successor Clement Atlee helped create the post-war world as part of the "Big Three". World War II left the United Kingdom financially damaged. Loans taken out during and after World War II from both Canada and the United States were economically costly but, along with post-war Marshall aid, the UK began the road to recovery.
The immediate post-war years saw the establishment of the British Welfare State and one of the world\'s first and most comprehensive public health services, while the demands of a recovering economy brought people from the Commonwealth to create a multi-ethnic Britain. Although the new post-war limits of Britain\'s political role were confirmed by the Suez Crisis of 1956, the international spread of the language meant the continuing impact of its literature and culture, while at the same time from the 1960s its popular culture found influence abroad. Following a period of economic stagnation and industrial strife in the 1970s after a global economic downturn, the 1980s saw the inflow of substantial oil revenues, and the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, under whom there was a marked break with the post-war political and economic consensus. Her supporters credit her with economic success, but her critics blame her for greater social division. From 1997 onward, these trends of growth largely continued under the leadership of Tony Blair.
The United Kingdom was one of the 12 founding members of the European Union at its launch in 1992 with the signing of the Treaty on European Union. Prior to that, it had been a member of the EU\'s forerunner, the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1973. The attitude of the present Labour government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed,[Modest progress but always on back foot. Times Online (2005-12-21). Retrieved on 2006-05-16.] with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state,[European Constitution: bad for Britain, bad for Europe. Conservative Party. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.] and the Liberal Democrats supportive of current engagement.
The end of the 20th century witnessed a major change to the government of the United Kingdom with devolution to Scotland and Wales taking effect in 1999. The creation of the devolved Scottish parliament in particular, with powers to legislate over a wide range of issues, is beginning to add to differences between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. It has brought to the fore the so-called West Lothian question which is a complaint that devolution for Scotland and Wales but not England has created a situation where MPs in the UK parliament can vote on matters affecting England alone but on those same matters Scotland and Wales can make their own decisions. In 2007, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the Scottish parliament elections and formed a minority government. New First Minister, Alex Salmond, hopes to hold a referendum on Scottish Independence before 2011, though the SNP may be unable to get a Bill to hold such a referendum approved by the Scottish parliament due to the minority position of the SNP government. If a referendum is held, an opinion poll in late 2007 suggested the result could be close as support for independence had reached 40% with just 44% supporting retention of the Union.[Sunday Herald, December 2007, 40% of Scots now support Independence] The response of the unionist parties has been to call for the establishment of a Commission to examine further devolution of powers,[MSPs back devolution review body BBC News, 6th December 2007]a position that has the support of the Prime Minister.[PM backs Scottish powers review BBC News, 17th February 2008]
Government and politics
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The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as head of state; the monarch of the UK serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The Crown has sovereignty over the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. Collectively, these three territories are known as the Crown dependencies, lands owned by the British monarch but not part of the United Kingdom. They are not part of the European Union. However, the Parliament of the United Kingdom has the authority to legislate for the dependencies, and the British government manages their foreign affairs and defence.
The UK has fourteen overseas territories around the world, the last remaining territories of the British Empire. The overseas territories are not considered part of the UK, but in most cases, the local populations have British citizenship and the right of abode in the UK. This has been the case since 2002.
The UK has a parliamentary government based on strong democratic traditions: the Westminster system has been emulated around the world â a legacy of the British Empire.
The UK\'s constitution governs the legal framework of the country and consists mostly of written sources, including statutes, judge made case law, and international treaties. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and law considered to be "constitutional law," the British Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has the power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.[Official UK Parliament web page on parliamentary sovereignty.] The United Kingdom is one of the three countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution (the other two being New Zealand and Israel).[Sarah Carter. A Guide To the UK Legal System. University of Kent at Canterbury. Retrieved on 2006-05-16.]
The position of Prime Minister, the UK\'s head of government, belongs to the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister and their Cabinet are formally appointed by the Monarch to form Her Majesty\'s Government. However, the Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, HM The Queen respects the Prime Minister\'s choices. The Cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the Prime Minister\'s party in both legislative houses, and mostly from the House of Commons, to which they are responsible. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, all of whom are sworn into Her Majesty\'s Most Honourable Privy Council, and become Ministers of the Crown. The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, leader of the Labour Party, has been Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service since 27 June 2007.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom that meets in the Palace of Westminster, is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom. Devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, were established following public approval as expressed in referenda, but according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, these could be abolished by the UK parliament. The UK parliament is made up of HM The Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is divided into 646 constituencies, with 529 in England, 59 in Scotland, 40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament by simple plurality. General Elections are called by the Monarch when the Prime Minister so advises. Though there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the previous general election.
Questions over sovereignty have been brought forward due to the UK\'s membership of the European Union.[Europe Wins The Power To Jail British Citizens. The Times (2005-09-14).]
The UK\'s three major political parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats, winning between them 616 out of the 646 seats available in the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that only contest elections in one part of the UK such as the Scottish National Party (Scotland only), Plaid Cymru (Wales only), and the Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Ulster Unionist Party, and Sinn FĂŠin (Northern Ireland only, though Sinn FĂŠin also contests elections in Ireland). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn FĂŠin Member of Parliament has ever attended the House of Commons to speak in the House on behalf of their constituents as Members of Parliament are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Monarch. However, the current five Sinn FĂŠin MPs have since 2002 made use of the offices and other facilities available at Westminster.[news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1771635.stm.]
Devolved administrations
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Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each has a devolved, unicameral legislature and its own government or Executive, led by a First Minister. England, despite being the largest country of the United Kingdom, has no devolved executive or legislature and is ruled and legislated for directly by the UK government and parliament. This situation has given rise to the so-called West Lothian question which concerns the fact that MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland help decide laws that apply to England alone.
The Scottish Parliament has wide ranging legislative powers over any matter that has not been specifically \'reserved\' to the UK parliament, including education, healthcare, Scots law and local government. Following the 2007 elections, Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, became First Minister of Scotland.
The National Assembly for Wales has more limited devolved powers than those devolved to Scotland[Structure and powers of the Assembly BBC News April 8th, 1999] though it may move towards additional powers in the near future.[What powers does the Welsh Assembly have? Guardian July 16th, 2007] The Northern Ireland Assembly has powers closer to those already devolved to Scotland.
Subdivisions and local government
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Each country of the United Kingdom is subdivided for the purposes of local government.
The upper-tier subdivisions of England, are the nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authority areas, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that these regions would be given their own elected regional assemblies, the plan\'s future is uncertain following a rejection, by a referendum in 2004, of a proposed assembly in the North East region.["The Government is now expected to tear up its twelve-year-old plan to create eight or nine regional assemblies in England to mirror devolution in Scotland and Wales."Prescott\'s dream in tatters as North East rejects assembly. The Times. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.]
Scotland is divided into 32 council areas with wide variation in both size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas as also is Highland Council which includes a third of Scotland\'s area but just over 200,000 people.
Local government in Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities, including the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport which are separate unitary authorities in their own right.
Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for local government purposes though these councils do not carry out the same range of functions as would be the case in the rest of the United Kingdom.
For more ceremonial purposes, HM The Queen appoints a Lord-Lieutenant as her personal representative in lieutenancy areas across the UK. City status, which is governed by Royal Charter, can also be conferred separate from local government arrangements. Though there are sixty-six cities in the UK - fifty in England; six in Scotland; five in Wales; and five in Northern Ireland - a number of these do not form separate local government units.
The following table highlights the arrangements for local government and lieutenancy areas in each country:
Law
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The United Kingdom has three distinct systems of law. English law and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles. Scots law, is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles.
English law applies in England and Wales. The essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent (stare decisis) to the facts before them. The court system is headed by the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (usually just referred to, as "The House of Lords") is the highest court in the land for criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for civil cases in Scots law. Recent constitutional changes will see the powers of the House of Lords transfer to a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.[Constitutional reform: A Supreme Court for the United KingdomPDF (252 KiB), Department for Constitutional Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-05-22] A decision of the highest appeal court in England and Wales, the House of Lords, is binding on every other court in the hierarchy, and they will follow its directions.
The Treaty of Union guaranteed the continued existence of Scotland\'s separate legal system and therefore Scots law continues to apply in Scotland. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases, while the sheriff court is the Scottish equivalent of the county court. The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal with no possibility of retrial.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, (comprising the same members as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords), is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas territories, and the British crown dependencies.
Foreign relations
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The United Kingdom is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8 and NATO, and a member state of the European Union. The UK has a "Special Relationship" with the United States. Apart from the US and Europe, Britain\'s close allies include Commonwealth nations, Ireland and other English speaking countries. Britain\'s global presence and influence is further amplified through its trading relations and its armed forces, which maintain approxima
