The united Kingdom

The United Kingdom

Part I

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy with the constitutional Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as Head of State. The Queen appoints all the Ministers and the Prime Minister, but she takes no part in the decision-making process. The real power in the United Kingdom belongs to the British Parliament and the British Government. The Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons together with the Queen in her constitutional role.

The House of Commons plays the major part in law making, it has true power. The 650 members of the House of Commons are elected every five years.

The House of Lords doesn't have much power but it is  very important as it can offer and change laws, it may delay¹ certain Bills² but cannot finally veto them. The members of the House of Lords are aristocrats, churchmen, lawyers and former politicians. They are not elected.

The British parliamentary system mostly depends on political parties. The Government is formed by the politi­cal party, which has the majority support in the House of Commons. Its leader becomes the Prime Minister, who chooses members of Parliament (MPs) from his/her party to become the Cabinet of Ministers. The second largest party becomes the official opposition with its leader and "Shadow cabinet". Nowadays the Conservative Party is in power. Its leader David Cameron is Prime Minister in Britain now.

Part II

The United Kingdom is situated on the British Isles which comprise two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and some 5,500 small and large islands. Their total area is 244,100 square kilometres (94,250 sq. miles).The largest island is Great Britain. It consists of three main parts: England (the southern and middle part of the island), Wales (a mountainous peninsula in the west) and Scotland (the northern part of the island). The second in size is the island of Ireland in which Northern Ireland occupies one-third of the territory. It borders on the Republic of Ireland in the south.

The British Isles are separated from the European Continent by the North Sea, the English Channel and the Strait of Dover³. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. The warm currents of the Atlantic Ocean influence the climate of Great Britain. Winters are not severely cold and summers are rarely hot.

There are not very many rivers in Britain. Most of the rivers flow into the North Sea. The deepest and longest river is the Thames, it is over 300 km long. The Thames is the busiest and most important river in the country. British greatest ports are associated with such rivers as the Thames, the Mersey, the Tyne and the Clyde.

Great Britain is not very rich in mineral resources. There are some deposits of coal and iron ore and vast deposits of oil and gas that were discovered in the North Sea.

The United Kingdom is a highly industrialized country. The main industries are engineering, ship-building, fishing, machinery, sheep breeding, woolen, textile and some others. New industries have been developed in the last three or four decades. The main industrial centres are London (Greater London), Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, Sheffield, Edinburgh.

Part III

The capital of the United Kingdom and England is London. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. The capital of Wales is Cardiff. Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland.

The main nationalities are: English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish. When we keep in mind⁴ the people from the UK, Great Britain or the British Isles, we call them "the British". There are a great number of immigrants (black and coloured) from British Asian and African colonies.

English is the official language of the United Kingdom. But English is not the only language of the country. Some people living in Western and Northern Scotland speak Gaelic⁵, others living in northern and central Wales speak Welsh.

The national flag of the United Kingdom, approved in 1801, is known as the Union Jack⁶. It is a combination of the banners of England (St. George's flag is a red cross on a white field), Scotland (St. Andrew's flag - a white cross on a blue field) and Ireland (St. Patrick's flag - a red cross on a white field).

Britain was being founded for many centuries long. It was conquered by the Romans, but they were unable to subdue the independent tribes in the West and in the North. Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings and Normans also invaded Britain. For many centuries the country was known as England. It had a strong army and navy. The country waged numerous colonial wars. In the modern world England became the first country where capitalism was established.

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¹     to delay - задерживать, откладывать

²     bill - законопроект, билль

³    the Strait of Dover - Пa-де- кале (букв. Дуврский пролив)

⁴     to keep in mind - иметь в виду

⁵    Gaelic ['geilik] - гэльский язык

⁶     the Union Jack - государственный флаг Соединённого Королевства