"Those who know nothing of foreign languages,
know nothing of their own”.
J. Goethe
Welcome!
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Do you want to know more about Great Britain?
Here is a short video that shows the difference between the Unitad Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Crown dependencies and British Overseas.
Geography
The British Isles is the name for a collection of about 4000 islands, including Great Britain and Ireland. The name, the British Isles, is usually only seen on maps.
Great Britain, known as Britain or GB, is the name for the largest of the islands in the British Isles. It includes England, Scotland and Wales. It does not include Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. You see the abbreviation GB on driving licences of people who live in England, Scotland and Wales.
The United Kingdom or UK is a political term which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All of these countries are represented in Parliament in London and the abbreviation UK is used on most official documents produced by Parliament.
Everybody from the UK is British, but be careful: only people from England are English. People from Wales think of themselves as Welsh; people from Scotland as Scottish; people from the Republic of Ireland as Irish and people from the Northern Ireland as either British or Irish.
Highest mountain:
Ben Nevis, in the Highlands of Scotland, 4,406 ft (1,343 m)
Longest river:
the Severn, 200 miles (322 km) long, which rises in central Wales and flows through Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester in England to the Bristol Channel
Largest lake:
Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, 153 sq miles (396 sq km)
Deepest lake:
Loch Morar in the Highlands of Scotland, 1,017 ft (310 m) deep
Highest waterfall:
Eas a'Chual Aluinn, from Glas Bheinn, also in the Highlands of Scotland, with a drop of 660 ft (200 m)
The Channel Tunnel, near Dover in Kent, links England and France. It is 30 miles (48 km) long, of which nearly 23 miles (37 km) are actually under the English Channel.
Climate:
It is said that the British are always talking about the weather! The climate in the United Kingdom is generally mild and temperate. There are few extremes of temperature, which rarely rises above 32°C or falls below -10°C.
Rainfall is greatest in western and upland parts of the country, where the annual average exceeds 1,100 mm; the higher mountain areas receive more than 2,000 mm.
During May, June and July (the months of longest daylight) the amount of sunshine varies from five hours in northern Scotland to eight hours in the Isle of Wight. During the months of shortest daylight (November, December and January) sunshine is at a minimum, with an average of an hour a day in northern Scotland and two hours a day on the south coast of England.
Population
Britain ranks 20th in the world in terms of population size. In mid-2000, the population of Britain was 59.8 million, an increase of 21.6 million since 1901.
The total population of England is estimated at 50 million, Wales is estimated at 2.95 million, Scotland at 5.1 million and Northern Ireland at 1.7 million people. England has the highest population density and Scotland has the lowest.
Government
Parliament
The British Parliament has two houses, or chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is the most poweful and decides national policy, but the House of Lords can ask the House of Commons to rewrite certain parts of a bill before it becomes a new law.
The House of Commons consists of Members of Parliament, MPs. Each MP is elected by voters in one constituency (region). There are 651 MPs, or seats, in the House of Commons (524 for England, 72 for Scotland, 38 for Wales and 17 for Northern Ireland). In 1994, there were only 59 women MPs.
The 1203 members of the House of Lords are not elected. some are life peers: they are members of the House of Lords, but their sons or daughters cannot be members. Life peers are usually former members of the House of Commons. There are also a number of judges or bishops. The majority (774), however, are hereditary peers, the heads of aristocratic families. This means that most members of the House of Lords are there because of something their ancestors did. The head of the both House of Parliament is the Queen, but she has very little power.
Forming a government
The party with most MPs forms the government. The leader of the winning party automatically becomes Prime Minister and appoints the Cabinet. The members of the Cabinet are the leading government ministers. The Prime Minister is the most important person in Parliament (Britain does not have a President). The party who comes second is the Opposition and forms its own Shadow Cabinet.
British Prime Minister have lived at 10 Downing Street since 1731. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (responsible for money and finance) lives next door at number 11. People often talk about "Downing Street" when they mean the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet.
Two-party politics
Every five years, British people over the age of 18 can vote in a general election. People vote for the candidate they want in their constituency (region). The candidate who wins becomes the MP in the House of Commons, even if he or she gets only one vote more than the candidate who is second. This is called the first past the post system.
The first past the post electoral system in Britain promotes the two most poweful parties at the expense of the smaller parties. Since the 1920s, the two main parties have been the left-wing Labour Party and the right-wing Conservative Party.
The Liberal Democrats, a centre party, are not happy with the current first past the post electoral system. This is because it is a party which does not win many seats in Parliament, but comes second in many constituencies. It would prefer a system of proportional representation, in which the number of MPs is based on the number of people who vote for a party in the whole of the country.
The Monarchy. What does the Queen do?
Britain is a constitutional monarchy. This means that the monarch, at the moment Queen Elizabeth II, is the Head of State. The Queen is also head of the judiciary (all the judges) and of the Church of England, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Her face is on all British bank notes, coins and postage stamps.
The Queen's constitutional role, however, is mainly symbolic. true power lies in the hands of the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet. It is the Queen who formally opens Parliament every autumn, but the speech she makes from the throne, giving details of the government's future plans, is written for her by politicians. Nothing becomes British law without the monarch's signature, but the Queen would never refuse to sign a bill which has been passed by Parliament. It is the Queen who officially appoints the Prime Minister, but traditionally she always asks the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Commons.
The Queen: representing Britain.
The most important function of the Queen is ceremonial. On great occasions, such as the State Opening of Parliament, She is driven through the streets in a golden carriage, guarded by soldiers. She gives a state banquet, usually in her home Buckingham Palace, when foreign monarchs or Heads of State visit Britain and soldiers dressed in eighteenth-century uniforms help her welcome them.
The Queen is head of the Commonwealth (a group of former and present-day British colonies). As head of the Commonwealth, she meets and entertains prime ministers of the member states.
Since Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, she has represented Britain in visits to most parts of the world. Prime Ministers come and go, but she carries on above politics, a symbol of British traditions.
The Royal Family
Queen Elizabeth II is the 40th monarch (King or Queen) since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England in 1066. Her full title is Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne since 6 February, 1952, celebrating her Golden Jubilee (50 years since her accession) in 2002. Over the Golden Jubilee weekend (1-4 June, 2002) 25,000 people attended two concerts in the Buckingham Palace grounds and about a million people came to watch the Queen parade through London in the gold State Coach (built in 1762).
Only five other kings and queens in British history have reigned for 50 years or more:
- Queen Victoria 1837-1901 (63 years)
- King George III 1760-1820 (59 years)
- James VI of Scotland, 1567-1625, James I of England 1603-25 (58 years)
- Edward III 1327-1377 (50 years)
- King Henry III 1216-1272 (56 years)
The Queen is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the son of Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark.
Succession and Coronation
The Queen succeeded her father, George VI, when he died in 1952, because she was his eldest child. The sovereign is normally succeeded by their eldest son, or, if there is no son, by their eldest daughter.The right to succeed to the throne comes partly from Acts of Parliament and partly from common law. By law, the sovereign cannot be, or marry, a Roman Catholic, and must be in communion with the Church of England and promise to uphold both the Churches of England and of Scotland and the Protestant succession. Elizabeth II was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 following her accession on 6 February 1952. For 900 years, all coronations of British monarchs have taken place in the Abbey.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain
The United Kingdom consists of four countrie: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, on the other hand, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. It is the largest island of the British Isles. Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic form the second largest island.
England
England is the largest country of the UK, occupying well over half of its geographical area. Whilst its identity is bound up with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in many ways, it is at the same time a separate country with its own distinct features, history, characteristics and culture.
England's population is estimated to reach 52.5 million by 2021. England has a diverse population. For centuries, immigrants have arrived in England from abroad and from other parts of the British Isles, bringing with them their cultures, religious beliefs, customs and languages. Many aspects of English life have been greatly enriched as a result of this diversity.
One of the defining features of England is its 'green and pleasant' countryside. The vast majority of England's land is rural, and, while most people live in cities, many travel to the countryside for recreation and holidays, where they can enjoy the peace and beauty of the English countryside.
Scotland
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the northern part of the island of Britain. Scotland is bounded west and north by the Atlantic Ocean and by the North Sea to the east. In the south the border with England stretches for 60 miles, roughly along the line of the Cheviot Hills.
Scotland has three natural divisions. The fertile plains of the Lowlands in the south merge into the industrial heartland of central Scotland which in turn gives way to the fast rivers, quiet lochs and picturesque mountains of the Highlands in the north.
It is the third of the land mass of Britain and accounts for 10 percent of the British population.
Wales
Wales is essentially an upland country, about a quarter being more than 300m above sea level. The longest rivers are the Dee, Severn and Wye, which fall to the lowlands of the English border. The land area represents nine percent of the area of Britain.
The total population of Wales is estimated at more than 2.9 million representing about five percent of the total British population.
Welsh is a language belonging to the Celtic family, its nearest cousins being Cornish (now almost extinct) and Breton. The oldest living language of Britain and among the oldest in Europe, Welsh has a rich and varied literature, stretching from medieval times to the present day, particularly distinguished by the poetic tradition. The Welsh language is used widely in everyday speech and also in education, the media, public administration and culture. The Welsh name for Wales in Cymru.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland, with a population of more than 1.6 million, consists of six of the nine counties of the old Irish Province of Ulster. Just over 50 percent of the people regard themselves as Protestants and just under 40 percent as Roman Catholics.
Most Protestants are descendants of Scots or English settlers who crossed to north-eastern Ireland, mainly in the 17th century; they are mostly British by culture and tradition and committed to maintaining the Union with Great Britain. The Roman Catholic population is mainly Irish by culture and history, the majority favouring a united Ireland.
Nature has been generous to Northern Ireland. Although compact in size, it has a rich variety of scenery and cultural attractions, a rapidly growing economy and a first class environment for living as well as doing business.
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