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For other uses, see Falkland.
“Malvinas” redirects here. For other uses, see Malvinas (disambiguation).
Falkland Islands
Flag of Falkland Islands Coat of arms of Falkland Islands
Flag Coat of arms
Motto
"Desire the right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen"
Location of Falkland Islands
Capital
(and largest city) Stanley
[show location on an interactive map] 51°42′S, 57°51′W
Official languages English
Government British overseas territory
- Head of state Queen Elizabeth II
- Governor Alan Huckle
- Chief Executive Chris Simpkins
British overseas territory
- Liberation Day 14 June 1982
Area
- Total 12,173 km² (162nd)
4,700 sq mi
- Water (%) 0
Population
- July 2005 estimate 3,060 (226th)
- Density 0.25 /km² (229th)
0.65 /sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2005 estimate
- Total $75 million (223th)
- Per capita $25,000 (2002 estimate) (not ranked)
HDI (n/a) n/a (n/a) (n/a)
Currency Falkland pound1 (FKP)
Time zone (UTC-4)
- Summer (DST) (UTC-3)
Internet TLD .fk
Calling code +500
1Fixed to the Pound Sterling (GBP).
The Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas[1]) are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located 300 miles (483 km) from the coast of Argentina, 671 miles (1,080 km) west of the Shag Rocks (South Georgia), and 584 miles (940 km) north of Antarctica (Elephant Island). They consist of two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, together with 776 smaller islands.[2] Stanley, on East Falkland, is the capital city. The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, but have been the subject of a claim to sovereignty by Argentina since the British invasion of 1833.[3]
In pursuit of this claim in 1982, the islands were invaded by Argentina, precipitating the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, which resulted in the defeat and withdrawal of Argentine forces. Since the war there has been strong economic growth in both fisheries and tourism. The inhabitants of the islands are British citizens (since a 1983 Act) and under Argentine Law are eligible for Argentine citizenship.[4] Many trace their origins on the islands to early 19th-century Scottish immigration. The island's residents reject the Argentine sovereignty claim.[5]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Name
* 2 History
o 2.1 Argentine links
o 2.2 Falklands War
* 3 Politics
* 4 Geography
* 5 Economy
* 6 Demographics
* 7 Medical care
* 8 Broadcasting and telecommunications
o 8.1 Broadcasting
o 8.2 Telephone
* 9 Transport
* 10 Landmines and ordnance
* 11 See also
* 12 External links
* 13 References
[edit] Name
The islands are referred to in the English language as "[The] Falkland Islands". This name dates from an expedition led by John Strong in 1690, who named the islands after his patron, Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland. The Spanish name for the islands, "Islas Malvinas", is derived from the French name "Îles Malouines", bestowed in 1764 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville, after the mariners and fishermen from the Breton port of Saint-Malo who became the island's first known human settlers.
The ISO designation is "Falkland Islands (Malvinas)".
Due to the ongoing sovereignty dispute, the use of many Spanish names is considered offensive in the Falkland Islands, particularly those associated with the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands.[6] General Sir Jeremy Moore would not allow the use of Islas Malvinas in the surrender document, dismissing it as a propaganda term.[7]
See also: List of Falkland Islands placenames
[edit] History
Main article: History of the Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands have had a complex history since their discovery, with France, Britain, Spain, and Argentina all claiming possession, and establishing as well as abandoning settlements on the islands. The Falklands Crisis of 1770 was nearly the cause of a war between France, Spain and Britain. The Spanish government's claim was continued by Argentina after the latter's independence in 1816 and the independence war in 1817. The United Kingdom took control of the islands by force with the 1833 invasion of the Falkland Islands following the destruction of the Argentine settlement at Puerto Soledad by the American sloop USS Lexington (28 December 1831). Argentina has continued to claim sovereignty over the islands, and the dispute was used by the military junta as a reason to invade and briefly occupy the islands before being defeated in the two-month-long Falklands War in 1982 by a United Kingdom task force which returned the islands to British control.
Camp settlement.
Camp settlement.
The islands were uninhabited when they were first discovered by European explorers. There is disputed evidence of prior settlement by humans, based on:
* The existence of the Falkland Island fox, or Warrah (now extinct), on the islands. It is thought that humans brought it to the islands, but it may have reached the islands by itself via a land bridge when the sea level was much lower during the last ice age.
* A scattering of undated artifacts including arrowheads and the remains of a canoe.
The first European explorer to sight the islands is widely thought to be Sebald de Weert, a Dutch sailor, in 1600. Although several British and Spanish historians maintain their own explorers discovered the islands earlier, some older maps, particularly Dutch ones, used the name "Sebald Islands", after de Weert.
In January 1690, English sailor John Strong, captain of the Welfare, was heading for Puerto Deseado (in Argentina); but driven off course by contrary winds, he reached the Sebald Islands instead and landed at Bold Cove. He sailed between the two principal islands and called the passage "Falkland Channel" (now Falkland Sound), after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland (1659–1694), who as Commissioner of the Admiralty had financed the expedition, later becoming First Lord of the Admiralty. From this body of water the island group later took its collective English name.
The first settlement on the Falkland Islands, called Port Saint Louis, was founded by the French navigator and military commander Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1764 on Berkeley Sound, in present-day Port Louis, East Falkland.
Unaware of the French presence, in January 1765 British captain John Byron explored and claimed Saunders Island, at the western end of the group, where he named the harbour of Port Egmont, and sailed near other islands, which he also claimed for King George III. A British settlement was built at Port Egmont in 1766. Also in 1766, Spain acquired the French colony, and after assuming effective control in 1767, placed the islands under a governor subordinate to the Buenos Aires colonial administration. Spain attacked Port Egmont, ending the British presence there in 1770. The expulsion of the British settlement brought the two countries to the brink of war, but a peace treaty allowed the British to return in 1771 with neither side relinquishing sovereignty.[8]
As a result of economic pressures resulting from the upcoming American War of Independence, the United Kingdom unilaterally chose to withdraw from many of her overseas settlements in 1774.[9][10] Upon her withdrawal in 1776 the UK left behind a plaque asserting her claims. From then on, Spain alone maintained a settlement ruled from Buenos Aires under the control of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata until 1811. On leaving in 1811, Spain, too, left behind a plaque asserting her claims.
Upland.
Upland.
When Argentina declared its independence from Spain in 1816, it laid claim to the islands according to the uti possidetis juris principle, since they had been under the administrative jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. On 6 November 1820, Colonel David Jewett, an American sailor at the service of Buenos Aires and captain of the frigate Heroina, raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate (which later became Argentina) at Port Louis. He warned the British and American seal hunting ships present that they did not have authorisation to hunt seals in the area, and then returned to Buenos Aires; the sealers ignored his warning.
Occupation began in 1826 with the foundation of a settlement and a penal colony. The settlement was destroyed by United States warships in 1831 after the Argentinian governor of the islands Luis Vernet seized U.S. seal hunting ships during a dispute over fishing rights. They left behind escaped prisoners and pirates. In November 1832, Argentina sent another governor who was killed in a mutiny.
In January 1833, British forces returned and informed the Argentine commander that they intended to assert British sovereignty. The existing settlers were allowed to remain, with an Irish member of Vernet's settlement, William Dickson, appointed as the Islands' governor. Vernet's deputy, Matthew Brisbane, returned later that year and was informed that the British had no objections to the continuation of Vernet's business ventures provided there was no interference with British control.[11][12][13][14]
Road sign to the capital.
Road sign to the capital.
The Royal Navy built a base at Stanley, and the islands became a strategic point for navigation around Cape Horn. A World War I naval battle, the Battle of Falkland Islands, took place in December 1914, with a British victory over the Germans. During World War II, Stanley served as a Royal Navy station and serviced ships which took part in the Battle of the River Plate.
Sovereignty over the islands became an issue again in the latter half of the 20th century. Argentina, which had never renounced its claim to the islands, saw the creation of the United Nations as an opportunity to present its case before the rest of the world. In 1945, upon signing the UN Charter, Argentina stated that it reserved its right to sovereignty of the islands, as well as its right to recover them. The United Kingdom responded in turn by stating that, as an essential precondition for the fulfilment of UN Resolution 1514,[15] regarding the de-colonisation of all territories still under foreign occupation, the Falklanders first had to vote for the British withdrawal at a referendum to be held on the issue.
Stanley.
Stanley.
Talks between British and Argentine foreign missions took place in the 1960s, but failed to come to any meaningful conclusion. A major sticking point in all the negotiations was that the two thousand inhabitants of mainly British descent preferred that the islands remain British territory.
[edit] Argentine links
There were no air links to the islands until 1971, when the Argentine Air Force (FAA), which operates the state airline LADE, began amphibious flights between Comodoro Rivadavia and Stanley using Grumman HU-16 Albatross aircraft.[16]
Following a FAA request, the UK and Argentina reached an agreement for the FAA to construct the first runway. Flights began using Fokker F27 and continued with Fokker F28 aircraft twice a week until 1982. This was the only air link to the islands.
YPF, the Argentine national oil and gas company, now part of Repsol YPF, supplied the islands' energy needs.
[edit] Falklands War
Main article: Falklands War
On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and other British territories in the South Atlantic (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands). The military junta which had ruled Argentina since 1976 sought to maintain power by diverting public attention from the nation's poor economic performance. They attempted to do this by playing off long-standing feelings of the Argentines towards the islands.[17] British writers hold that the United Kingdom's reduction in military capacity in the South Atlantic also encouraged the invasion.[18][19][20]
The United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 502, calling on Argentina to withdraw forces from the Islands and to both parties to seek a diplomatic solution.[21] International reaction ranged from support in the Latin American countries (with the exception of Chile), to opposition in Europe (with the exception of Spain), the Commonwealth, and eventually the United States. The British sent an expeditionary force to retake the islands, leading to the Falklands War. After short but fierce naval and air battles, the British landed at San Carlos Water on 21 May, and a land campaign followed until the Argentine forces surrendered on 14 June.
Following the war, the British increased their military presence on the islands, constructing RAF Mount Pleasant and increasing the military garrison. Although the United Kingdom and Argentina resumed diplomatic relations in 1989, no further negotiations on sovereignty have taken place.
[edit] Politics
Main articles: Politics of the Falkland Islands and Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands
A Falkland stamp showing the British Royal Family
A Falkland stamp showing the British Royal Family
Executive authority is vested in the Queen and is exercised by the Governor on her behalf. The Governor is also responsible for the administration of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, as these islands have no native inhabitants. Defence and Foreign Affairs are the responsibility of the United Kingdom. The current Governor is Alan Huckle, appointed July 2006.
Under the constitution, the latest version of which came into force in 1985, there is an Executive Council and a Legislative Council. The Executive Council, which advises the Governor, is also chaired by the Governor. It consists of the Chief Executive, Financial Secretary and three Legislative Councillors, who are elected by the other Legislative Councillors. The Legislative Council consists of the Chief Executive, Financial Secretary and the eight Legislative Councillors, of whom five are elected from Stanley and three from Camp, for four-year terms. It is presided over by the Speaker, currently Darwin Lewis Clifton.
The loss of the war against the United Kingdom over control of the islands led to the collapse of the Argentine military dictatorship in 1983. Disputes over control of the islands continue. In 1992 Argentina and Britain resumed deplomatic relations and reopened their embassies in each other's countries. In 1998, in retaliation to former chilean president Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London, the Chilean government banned flights between Punta Arenas and Port Stanley, thus isolating the islands from the rest of the world. Uruguay and Brazil refused to authorise direct flights between their territories and Port Stanley, forcing the Islands' government to enter negotiations with the Argentine government which led to Argentina authorising direct flights between its territory and Stanley, on condition that Argentine citizens be allowed on the islands.[22] In 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair became the first Prime Minister to visit Argentina since the war. On the twenty-second anniversary of the war, Argentina's President Néstor Kirchner gave a speech insisting that the islands would once again be part of Argentina. Kirchner, campaigning for president in 2003, regarded the islands as a top priority. In June 2003 the issue was brought before a United Nations committee, and attempts have been made to open talks with the United Kingdom to resolve the issue of the islands. As far as the Falkland Islands Government and people are concerned, there is no issue to resolve. The Falkland Islanders themselves are almost entirely British and maintain their allegiance to the United Kingdom.[23]
On 2 April 2007 (exactly 25 years after the Argentine invasion), Argentina renewed its claim over the Falkland Islands, asking for the UK to resume talks on sovereignty.
Falkland Islanders were granted full British citizenship from 1 January 1983 under the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983.
[edit] Geography
Map of the Falkland Islands.
Map of the Falkland Islands.
See also: Geology of the Falkland Islands and Rivers of the Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands comprise two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland (in Spanish Isla Gran Malvina and Isla Soledad respectively), and about 776 small islands.[2] The total land area is 4,700 square miles (12,173 km²), approximately the same area as Connecticut or Northern Ireland, with a coastline estimated at 800 miles (1,288 km).
Much of the land is part of the two main islands separated by the Falkland Sound: East Falkland, home to the capital of Stanley and the majority of the population, and West Falkland. Both islands have mountain ranges, rising to 2,313 feet (705 m) at Mount Usborne on East Falkland. There are also some boggy plains, most notably Lafonia, on the southern half of East Falkland. Virtually the entire area of the islands is used as pasture for sheep.
Smaller islands surround the main two. They include Barren Island, Beaver Island, Bleaker Island, Carcass Island, George Island, Keppel Island, Lively Island, New Island, Pebble Island, Saunders Island, Sealion Island, Speedwell Island, Staats Island, Weddell Island, and West Point Island. The Jason Islands lie to the north west of the main archipelago, and Beauchene Island some distance to its south. Speedwell Island and George Island are split from East Falkland by Eagle Passage.
The islands claim a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km) and an exclusive fishing zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km), which has been a source of disagreement with Argentina.
Surrounded by cool South Atlantic waters, the Falkland Islands have a cold maritime climate with a narrow temperature range of about 19°C (66°F) in summer and 2°C (36°F) in winter. Rainfall is relatively low at about 24 inches. Humidity and winds, however, are constantly high. Snow is rare, but can occur at almost any time of year.
[edit] Economy
Main article: Economy of the Falkland Islands
Sheep farming (as of 2002, there were 583,000 sheep on the island[24]) was formerly the main source of income for the islands, and still plays an important part with high quality wool exports going to the UK, but efforts to diversify introduced in 1984 have made fishing the largest part of the economy and brought increasing income from tourism.
The government sale of fishing licences to foreign countries has brought in more than £40 million a year in revenues, and local fishing boats are also in operation. More than 75% of the fish taken are squid, and most exports are to Spain. Tourism has shown rapid growth, with more than 30,000 visitors in 2001. The islands have become a regular port of call for the growing market of cruise ships. Attractions include the scenery and wildlife conservation with penguins, seabirds, seals and sealions, as well as visits to battlefields, golf, fishing and wreck diving.
An agreement with Argentina has set the terms for exploitation of offshore resources including large oil reserves, but climatic conditions of the southern seas mean that exploitation will be a difficult task, though economically viable, and the continuing sovereignty dispute with Argentina is hampering progress. Defence is provided by the UK, and British military expenditures make a significant contribution to the economy. The islands are self sufficient except for defence; exports account for more than £125 million a year.
The largest company in the islands used to be the Falkland Islands Company (FIC), a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange which was responsible for the majority of the economic activity on the islands, though its farms were sold in 1991 to the Falkland Islands Government. The FIC now operates several retail outlets in Stanley and is involved in port services and shipping operation.
The currency in use is the Falkland Pound, which remains in parity with the pound sterling. Sterling notes and coins circulate interchangeably with the local currency. The Falkland Islands also mint their own coins, and issue stamps, which forms a source of revenue from overseas collectors.
[edit] Demographics
Christ Church Cathedral with whale bone arch, Stanley.
Christ Church Cathedral with whale bone arch, Stanley.
The population is 2,967 (July 2003 estimate), the majority of which are of British descent (approximately 70%). The native-born inhabitants call themselves "Islanders". Outsiders often call Islanders "Kelpers", from the kelp which grows profusely around the islands, but the name is no longer used in the Islands. Those people from the United Kingdom who have obtained Falkland Island status became what are known locally as 'belongers'. Many islanders are of Scottish and Welsh descent.[25] However, a few Islanders are of French, Gibraltar (such as the Pitalaugas), Portuguese and Scandinavian descent. Some are the descendants of whalers who reached the Islands during the last two centuries. Furthermore there is a small minority of South American, mainly Chilean origin, and in more recent times many people from Saint Helena have also come to work in the Islands. The Falkland Islands have been a centre of English language learning for South Americans.
The main religion is Christianity. The main denominations are Church of England, Roman Catholic, United Free Church, and Lutheran-based denominations. Other smaller numbers of Christian churches are active, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventist and Greek Orthodox; with the latter being due to Greek fishermen passing through.
There is also a tiny Bahai presence [5].
[edit] Medical care
The Falkland Islands Government Health and Social Services Department provides medical care for the islands. The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) is Stanley's only hospital. It was partially military operated in the past but is now under complete civilian control.[26] There are no ophthalmologists or opticians on the islands, although an optician from the United Kingdom visits about every six months and an ophthalmologist comes to do cataract surgery and eye exams on irregular intervals (once every few years). There are two dentists on the islands.
[edit] Broadcasting and telecommunications
[edit] Broadcasting
* PAL television, using the UK VHF and UHF allocations is standard.
* FM stereo broadcasting using the UK allocation is standard.
* MW broadcasting using 10 kHz steps (standard in ITU Zone I).
[edit] Telephone
The Falkland Islands has a modern telecommunications network providing fixed line telephone and DSL and dial-up internet services in Stanley.
Telephony is provided to outlying settlements using microwave radio.
A GSM mobile network was installed in 2005 which provided coverage of Stanley, Mount Pleasant and surrounding areas.
[edit] Transport
The Dash-7 of the British Antarctic Survey at Stanley.
The Dash-7 of the British Antarctic Survey at Stanley.
The Falkland Islands has two airports with paved runways. RAF Mount Pleasant, thirty miles west of Stanley, acts as the main international airport, with flights operated by the Royal Air Force to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England via a refueling stop at RAF Ascension Island. RAF flights are on TriStars although it is common for charter aircraft to be used if the TriStars are required for operational flights. At present (December 2006) the RAF air link is operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic, using 747s. Weekly flights are also available to/from Santiago, Chile, operated by LAN.
Port Stanley Airport is a smaller airport outside the city, and is used for internal flights. Most settlements have grass air strips which are served by Islander aircraft of the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS). The internal flight schedule is decided a day in advance according to passenger needs and an announcement made on the radio detailing arrival and departure times the night before. The British International (BRINTEL) company also operate two Sikorsky S61N helicopters for passenger flights between the islands. The British Antarctic Survey operates a transcontinental air link between the Falkland Islands and the Rothera base airfield, servicing also other British bases in the British Antarctic Territory using a de Havilland Canada Dash 7.
The road network has been improved in recent years. However, not too many paved roads exist outside Stanley and the RAF base.
[edit] Landmines and ordnance
Approximately twenty five thousand land mines remaining from the 1982 war are securely and clearly fenced off. Free maps are available from the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) office in Stanley. Care should still be taken as some beaches were mined, and there have been concerns the tides could have moved some mines. The same applies where mine fields are close to rivers. Care should be taken in case mines have been washed out of the marked area by flooding. There is also ordnance left over from the war, although finds of this type are becoming rarer with the passage of time.
In February 2005, the charity Landmine Action proposed a Kyoto-style credit scheme, which would see a commitment by the British government to clear an equivalent area of mined land to that currently existing in the Falklands in more seriously mine-affected countries by March 2009. This proposal was supported by Falkland Islanders, for whom landmines do not pose a serious threat in everyday life, but the British government is yet to declare its support or opposition to the idea.
[edit] See also
Penguins at Gypsy Cove.
Penguins at Gypsy Cove.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
CIA World Fact Book, 2004/Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
* British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983
* Communications in the Falkland Islands
* Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey
* Falklands War (1982)
* Geology of the Falkland Islands
* List of Falkland Islands-related topics
* List of Falkland Islands placenames
* Falkland Islands national football team
* List of settlements in the Falkland Islands
* Major Samuel Stransham
* Military of the Falkland Islands
* Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands
* Stamps and postal history of the Falkland Islands
* Transport in the Falkland Islands
* Battle of the Falkland Islands, a naval engagement during World War I
* Scouting in the Falkland Islands
[edit] External links
Find more information on Falkland Islands by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity
* Falkland Islands at the Open Directory Project
* Falkland Islands travel guide from Wikitravel
* Falkland Islands Government official site
* Falkland Islands Tourism official site
* Falkland Islands Development Corporation official site
* Falkland Islands News Network official site
* Falkland Islands Information Portal
* Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands by Samuel Johnson 1771
Tampilkan postingan dengan label United Kingdom. Tampilkan semua postingan
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Sabtu, 15 September 2007
British Army
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jump to: navigation, search
British Army
Components
British Army
Territorial Army
List of current regiments
Structure of the British Army
Administration
HQ Land Command
HQ Adjutant-General
HQ Northern Ireland
Overseas Deployments
British Forces Germany
British Forces Cyprus
British Forces Gibraltar
British Garrison Brunei
Equipment
British military rifles
Modern Equipment
History
History of the British Army
Timeline of the British Army
Personnel
List of senior officers
Officer rank insignia
Other ranks rank insignia
The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with unification of the governments and armed forces of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and was controlled by the War Office from London. As of April, 2007, the British Army includes roughly 110,580 regular personnel and 38,460 Territorial Army members. The full time element of the British Army has also been referred to as the Regular Army since the creation of the reservist Territorial Army. The British Army is deployed in many of the world's war zones as part of a fighting force and in United Nations peacekeeping forces.
In contrast to the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, the British Army does not include "Royal" in its title, because of its roots as a collection of disparate units, many of which do bear the "Royal" prefix, such as the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
* 2 Recent and current conflicts
o 2.1 Persian Gulf War
o 2.2 Balkans conflicts
o 2.3 Afghanistan
o 2.4 Iraq War
o 2.5 Northern Ireland
* 3 Tommy Atkins and other nicknames
* 4 Today's Army
o 4.1 Statistics
o 4.2 Current deployments
+ 4.2.1 'High Intensity' Operations
+ 4.2.2 'Low-Intensity' Operations
+ 4.2.3 Training Operations
* 5 Equipment
* 6 Formation and structure
o 6.1 Aviation components
* 7 Special forces
* 8 Recruitment
* 9 Oath of allegiance
* 10 Training establishments
* 11 Flags and ensigns
* 12 Ranks, specialisms and insignia
* 13 Royal Navy and RAF infantry units
* 14 Overseas Territories Military Units
* 15 See also
* 16 External links
* 17 Footnotes
[edit] History
Main article: History of the British Army
The Battle of Waterloo, one of the greatest victories in British military history
The Battle of Waterloo, one of the greatest victories in British military history
The British Army came into being with the merger of the Scottish Army and the Welsh/English Army, following the unification of the two countries' parliaments and the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Although England had made many earlier claims to sovereignty in Scotland, there had been no unified British state prior to that time (other than a brief period during which the Roman province of Britain had achieved political independence-although even that had failed to establish complete control over the north of the island). The new British Army incorporated existing English and Scottish regiments, and was controlled from London.
From roughly 1763 until at least 1945, the United Kingdom was one of the leading military and economic powers of the world. The British Empire expanded in this time to include colonies, protectorates, and Dominions throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Although the Royal Navy is widely regarded as having been vital for the rise of Empire, and British dominance of the world, the British Army played important roles in colonisation. First, the British Army including garrisoning the colonies, capturing strategically important territories and participating in actions to pacify colonial borders, support allied governments, suppress Britain's rivals, and protect against foreign powers and hostile natives. Second, the troops also helped capture strategically important territories for the British, allowing the British Empire to expand throughout the globe. The Army also involved itself in numerous wars meant to pacify the borders, or to prop-up friendly governments, and thereby keep other, competitive, empires away from the British Empire's borders. Among these actions were the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars, the First and Second Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the New Zealand Wars, the Indian Mutiny, the First and Second Boer Wars, the Fenian raids, the Anglo-Irish War, its serial interventions into Afghanistan (which were meant to maintain a friendly buffer state between British India and the Russian Empire), and the Crimean War (to keep the Russian Empire at a safe distance by coming to Turkey's aid).
As had its predecessor, the English Army, in building the Empire, the British Army fought Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. It also battled many Native American nations and groups, including the many disgruntled former allies who launched Pontiac's War in response to the wave of British settlers that flooded over the Appalachians following the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. The British Government's attempt to mollify the Natives by delineating the Appalachians as the westward limit for European settlement was a significant motivator of the American colonies in launching the secessionist American War of Independence. The British Army fought American colonists and their Native and French allies in that war.
The British army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars in which the army served in Spain, across Europe, and in North Africa. The war between the British and French Empires stretched around the world. The British Army finally came to defeat Napoleon at one of Britain's greatest military victories at the battle of Waterloo.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift in which 11 VCs were awarded to British troops
The Battle of Rorke's Drift in which 11 VCs were awarded to British troops
Under Oliver Cromwell, the English Army had been active in the conquest, and the settlement, of Ireland since the 1650s. The Cromwellian campaign was characterised by its uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns (most notably Drogheda) that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War. It (and subsequently, the British Army) have been almost continuously involved in Ireland ever since, primarily in suppressing numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for self-determination. It was faced with the prospect of battling Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots settlers in Ireland, who alongside their Irish countrymen had raised their own volunteer army and threatened to emulate the American colonists if their conditions (primarily concerning home rule and freedom of trade) were not met. The British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster (Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen) in the 1798 rebellion.
In addition to battling the armies of other European Empires' (and of its former colonies, the United States, in the American War of 1812,) in the battle for global supremacy, the British Army fought the Chinese in the First and Second Opium Wars, and the Boxer Rebellion; Māori tribes in the first of the New Zealand Wars; Indian princely forces and British East India Company mutineers in the Indian Mutiny; the Boers in the First and Second Boer Wars; Irish Fenians in Canada during the Fenian raids; and Irish separatists in the Anglo-Irish War.
Following William and Mary's accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Mary's father, James II. Following the 1707 union of England and Scotland, and then the 1801 creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British foreign policy, on the continent, was to contain expansion by its competitor powers such as France and Spain. The territorial ambitions of the French led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. Russian activity led to the Crimean War.
The vastly increasing demands of imperial expansion, and the inadequacies and inefficiencies of the underfunded, post-Napoleonic Wars British Army, and of the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteer Force, led to the Cardwell Reforms of the late 19th century, which gave the British Army its modern shape, and redefined its regimental system.
British Mark One Tank during World War I
British Mark One Tank during World War I
Great Britain's dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, notably Germany. The UK was allied with France (by the Entente Cordiale) and Russia, and when the First World War broke out in 1914, the British Army sent the British Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium to prevent Germany from occupying these countries. The War would be the most devastating in British military history, with near 800,000 men killed and over 2 million wounded. In the early part of the war, the professional force of the BEF was decimated and, by turns, a volunteer (and then conscripted) force replaced it. Major battles included the Battle of the Somme. Advances in technology saw British advent of the tank and advances in aircraft design which were to be decisive in future battles. Trench warfare dominated strategy, and the use of chemical and poison gases added to the devastation.
In 1939, the Second World War broke out with the German invasion of Poland. British assurances to the Polish led the British Empire to declare war on Germany. Again an Expeditionary Force was sent to France, only to be hastily evacuated as the German forces swept through the Low Countries and across France in 1940. Only the Dunkirk evacuations saved the entire Expeditionary Force from capture. Later, however, the British would have success defeating the Italians and Germans at the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa, and in the D-Day invasions of Normandy. In the Far East, the British Army battled the Japanese in Burma. World War II saw the British army develop its Commando units including the Special Air Service. During the war the British army was one of the major fighting forces on the side of the allies.
After the end of World War II, the British Empire declined with the independence of India, and other colonies in Africa and Asia. Accordingly the strength of the British military was reduced, in recognition of Britain's reduced role in world affairs. However, a large deployment of British troops remained in Germany, facing the threat of Soviet invasion. The Cold War saw massive technological advances in warfare, and the Army saw more technologically advanced weapons systems installed.
Despite the decline of the British Empire, the Army was still deployed around the world, fighting in the Korean War, the Suez crisis of 1956, and colonial wars in Oman and Malaysia. In 1982 the British Army, alongside the Royal Marines, helped to recapture the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War against Argentina.
In the three decades following 1969, the Army was heavily deployed in Northern Ireland, to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (later the Police Service of Northern Ireland) in their conflict with loyalist and republican paramilitary groups, called Operation Banner. The locally-recruited Ulster Defence Regiment was formed, later becoming the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. Over 700 soldiers were killed during the Troubles. Following the IRA ceasefires between 1994 and 1996 and since 1997, demilitarisation has taken place as part of the peace process, much reducing the military presence in the area. On June 25th 2007, the Second Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment vacated the Army complex at Bessbrook Mill in Armagh. This is part of the 'normalisation' programme in Northern Ireland in response to the IRA's declared end to its activities.
As with its return to Afghanistan, following the 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in the USA, the British Army's current return to Iraq in Operation Telic reflects a tradition of interceding in the region which included the Mesopotamian Campaign of the Great War, the Anglo-Iraq War of 1941 (the first Gulf War), and the Gulf War fought to liberate Kuwait (referred to as Operation Granby).
[edit] Recent and current conflicts
[edit] Persian Gulf War
Main article: Operation Granby
The ending of the Cold War saw a 40% cut in manpower. Despite this, the Army has been deployed in an increasingly global role. In 1991, the United Kingdom was the second largest contributor (after the USA) to the coalition force that fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. The nation supplied just under 50,000 personnel and was the nation put in control of Kuwait after it was liberated.
[edit] Balkans conflicts
Main article: Yugoslav wars
The British Army was deployed to Yugoslavia in 1992. Initially this force formed part of the United Nations Protection Force. In 1995 command was transferred to IFOR and then to SFOR. Currently troops are under the command of EUFOR. Over 10,000 troops were sent. In 1999 British forces under the command of SFOR were sent to Kosovo during the conflict there. Command was subsequently transferred to KFOR.
[edit] Afghanistan
Main article: 2001-present war in Afghanistan
In 2001 The 3rd Division Signal Regiment were deployed in Kabul, Afghanistan to assist in the liberation of the troubled capital. The Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade also swept the Afghan mountains but this force is part of the Royal Navy. The British Armed forces are currently in charge of NATO forces in the nation. The British Army is today concentrating on fighting Taliban forces and bringing security to Helmand province under NATO control.
[edit] Iraq War
Main article: Iraq War
In 2003, the United Kingdom was the only other major contributor to the United States-led invasion of Iraq. There was great disagreement amongst the populace but the government voted for the conflict, with the result of sending over 45,000 army personnel to the region. The British Army is still the major coalition presence in the city of Basra and the Southern regions of Iraq. The British Army is not currently at war, but this is a conflict against groups acting within Iraq. The British Army's main duty in Iraq is peace-keeping.
[edit] Northern Ireland
Main article: Operation Banner
The British Army was initially deployed in Northern Ireland to prevent sectarian attacks on Catholic communities and keep order in the wake of Catholic rioting and was under Operation Banner between 1969 and 2007 in support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and its successor, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).[1] There has been a steady reduction in the number of troops deployed in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. In 2005, after the Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to armed conflict in Northern Ireland, it was revealed that the British Army would dismantle posts in the province and withdraw many troops and restore troop levels to that of a peace time garrison. Officially Operation Banner ended on 1 August 2007 after 38 years, making it the longest military operation in the history of the British Army.
[edit] Tommy Atkins and other nicknames
A long established nickname for a British soldier has been 'Tommy Atkins' or 'Tommy' for short. The origins are obscure but most probably derive from a specimen army form circulated by the Adjutant-General Sir Harry Calvert to all units in 1815 where the blanks had been filled in with the particulars of a Private Thomas Atkins, No 6 Company, 23rd Regiment of Foot. Present day English soldiers are often referred to as 'Toms' or just 'Tom' (The Scots equivalent being 'Jock'). Outside the services soldiers are generally known as 'Squaddies' by the British popular press. The British Army magazine Soldier has a regular cartoon strip, 'Tom', featuring the everyday life of a British soldier.
Junior officers in the army are generally known as 'Ruperts' by the Other ranks. This nickname is believed to be derived from the children's comic book character Rupert Bear who epitomises traditional public school values (see "Inside the British Army" by Antony Beevor ISBN 071134658)
The term 'Pongo' or 'Perce' is often used by Sailors and Royal Marines to refer to soldiers. It is not considered complimentary.
[edit] Today's Army
[edit] Statistics
The Challenger 2, the British Army's Main Battle Tank
The Challenger 2, the British Army's Main Battle Tank
British Army statistics[2]
Personnel (Regular Army) 107,730
Personnel (Territorial Army) 38,460
Main Battle Tanks 386 Challenger 2
Infantry fighting vehicles 667 Warrior (789 purchased)
APCs and CVR(T)s 3,230–4,000+
Land Rover Wolf 15,000
Pinzgauer 2,000
Utility Trucks 2,300
Artillery pieces and mortar 2,896
Air Defence 337
Aircraft 300+
[edit] Current deployments
[edit] 'High Intensity' Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Afghanistan 2001– 7,000 troops British troops have been based in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion there in 2001. Currently, under Operation Herrick, the Army maintains a battalion in Kabul and most of a brigade in the southern province of Helmand.
Iraq 2003– 5,000 troops As part of Operation Telic (Gulf War 2), the British Army participated in the invasion of Iraq. Following the decision for continued security operations, the UK commands the Multi-National Division (South-East) with a headquarters unit, National Support Element, and a combat brigade (at the moment 1 Mechanised Brigade), along with troops from Italy, Norway, Romania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Portugal and Lithuania. A large number of Territorial Army soldiers have been deployed for a variety of tasks, both as individuals serving and as formed units. Troop numbers are gradually decreasing, though the UK Government does not have a timetable for a full withdrawal.
[edit] 'Low-Intensity' Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Cyprus 1960– Two resident infantry battalions, Royal Engineers, 16 Flight Army Air Corps and Joint Service Signals Unit at Ayios Nikolaos as a part of British Forces Cyprus The UK retains two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus after the island's independence. The bases serve as forward bases for deployments in the Middle East. British forces are also deployed separately with UN peacekeeping forces on the island.
Falkland Islands 1982– An infantry company group and an Engineers Squadron Previously a platoon-sized Royal Marines Naval Party served as garrison. After 1982 the garrison was enlarged, and bolstered with an RAF base.
Gibraltar 1704– One infantry battalion, Joint Provost and Security Unit as a part of British Forces Gibraltar British Army garrison is provided by an indigenous regiment, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, which has been on the Army regular establishment since the last British regiment left in 1991.
Kosovo 1999 300 troops After the Kosovo War in 1999, the British Army led the NATO deployment in Kosovo to restore peace to the province. Since then, the UK has withdrawn some forces, as other nations provided troops.
Rest of the Middle East 1990 3,700 troops Since the Gulf War in 1991, the UK has had a considerable military presence in the Middle East. Besides Iraq, there are also an additional 3,500 troops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as regular training missions in Oman.
Sierra Leone 1999 About 100 troops The British Army were deployed to Sierra Leone, a former British colony, in 1999 to aid the government in quelling violent uprisings by militiamen, under United Nations resolutions. Troops ( Royal Marines ) remain in the region to provide military support and training to the Sierra Leone government.
[edit] Training Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Belize 1981– British Army Training and Support Unit Belize and 25 Flight Army Air Corps British troops have been based in Belize since the country gained independence from the UK in 1981. Until 1994 Belize's neighbour, Guatemala claimed the territory, and British troops were based in Belize to provide a deterrent force
Brunei 1962– One battalion from the Royal Gurkha Rifles, British Garrison, Training Team Brunei (TTB) and 7 Flight Army Air Corps A Gurkha battalion has been maintained in Brunei since the Brunei Revolt in 1962 at the request of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III. The Training Team Brunei (TTB) is the Army's jungle warfare school, while the small number of garrison troops support the battalion. 7 Flight Army Air Corps provides helicopter support to both the Gurkha battalion and the TTB.
Canada 1972– British Army Training Unit Suffield and 29 (BATUS) Flight Army Air Corps Training centre in the Alberta prairie. Conducts regular, major armoured training exercises every year with helicopter support provided by 29 (BATUS) Flight AAC.
Germany 1945– 1st (UK) Armoured Division as part of British Forces Germany and 12 Flight Army Air Corps British forces remained in Germany after the end of World War II. Forces declined considerably after the end of the Cold War, although the lack of accommodation in the UK means forces will continue to be based in Germany.
Kenya British Army Training and Liaison Staff Kenya The Army has a training centre in Kenya, under agreement with the Kenyan government. It provides training facilities for three infantry battalions per year
[edit] Equipment
Main article: Modern equipment of the British Army
Warrior IFV
Warrior IFV
The Land Rover Wolf, the backbone of the British Army
The Land Rover Wolf, the backbone of the British Army
The basic infantry weapons of the British Army are the SA-80 assault rifle family, with several variants such as the L86A2 Light Support Weapon and the short stock variant, issued to tank crews. The general issue sidearm is the Browning L9A1, though a search is currently underway to find a replacement for the L9A1. Support fire is provided by the Minimi light machine gun and the L7 GPMG; indirect fire by 51 and 81 mm Mortar, as well as the UGL, mounted under the barrel of the SA80 rifle. Sniper rifles used include the L96A1 7.62 mm, the L115A1 and the AW50F, all produced by Accuracy International. In addition, some units use the L82A1 .50 calibre Barrett sniper rifle.
The British Army commonly uses the Land Rover Wolf and Land Rover Defender; with the Challenger 2 as its Main Battle Tank. The Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle is the primary APC, although many variants of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) are used, as well as the Saxon APC and FV430 series.
The Army uses three main artillery systems; the MLRS, which debuted in Operation Granby and has a range of 30 km: the AS-90, a self-propelled howitzer, and the L118, a 105 mm towed gun-howitzer, used primarily by lighter units and in support of the Royal Marines
The Rapier FSC Missile System is the Army's primary battlefield air defence system, widely deployed since the Falklands War; and the Starstreak HVM is a surface-to-air missile, launched either by a single soldier or from a vehicle-mounted launcher. The Starstreak fills a similar role to the American FIM-92 Stinger
The Army Air Corps (AAC) provide direct aviation support for the Army, although the RAF also assist in this role. The primary attack helicopter is the Westland WAH-64 Apache; a license-built, modified version of the AH-64 Apache that will replace the Westland Lynx AH7 in the anti-tank role. The Westland Lynx performs several roles including tactical transport, armed escort, reconnaissance and evacuation. It used to also offer the anti-tank warfare roll; it could carry eight TOW anti-tank missiles. The Tow missile system fit, for the Lynx was withdrawn from service by the MOD in December 2005, after the coming in to service of the WAH-64 Apache.
The Bell 212 is used as a specialist utility and transport helicopter, with a crew of two and a transport capacity of twelve troops.
The Westland Gazelle helicopter is a light helicopter, primarily used for battlefield scouting and control of artillery and aircraft.
The Agusta A109 is used for Special Operations Aviation, along with the Gazelle.
The Britten-Norman Islander is a light aircraft used for airborne reconnaissance and command, primarily in Northern Ireland.
Firearms
L85A2 5.56 mm IW
L86A2 5.56 mm LSW
L110A1 5.56 mm LMG
L9A1 Browning
L7A2 7.62 mm GPMG
L96A1 7.62 mm
L115A1 8.6 mm LRR
Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV)
FV4043 Challenger 2 MBT
Warrior IFV
CVR(T)
FV432 APC
Artillery Systems
AS-90 155 mm Self-Propelled Gun
MLRS
L118 Light Gun
Rapier FSC Missile System
Starstreak HVM
L121 Field Howitzer
Cobra Artillery Location Radar
Aircraft
Apache AH.Mk.1
Gazelle AH.Mk.1
Lynx AH.Mk.7
Bell 212
Britten-Norman Islander
Agusta A109
Logistics Vehicles
DROPS
Land Rover (TUL/TUM)
ATMP
Information & Communication systems (ICS)
MSTAR
Bowman
Skynet 5
Spyglass Thermal Imager
[edit] Formation and structure
British Army Arms and Services
Combat Arms
Royal Armoured Corps
Infantry
Guards Division
Scottish Division
King's Division
Queen's Division
Prince of Wales' Division
Royal Irish Regiment
Parachute Regiment
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Rifles
Army Air Corps
Special Air Service Regiment
Combat Support Arms
Royal Regiment of Artillery
Corps of Royal Engineers
Royal Corps of Signals
Intelligence Corps
Combat Services
Royal Army Chaplains Department
Royal Logistic Corps
Army Medical Services
Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Dental Corps
Royal Army Veterinary Corps
Queen Alexandra's Royal
Army Nursing Corps
Corps of Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers
Adjutant General's Corps
Army Legal Services Branch
Royal Military Police
Military Provost Staff Corps
Small Arms School Corps
Army Physical Training Corps
General Service Corps
Corps of Army Music
See main article: Structure of the British Army
The structure of the British Army is complex, due to the different origins of its various constituent parts. It is broadly split into the Regular Army (full-time soldiers and units) and the Territorial Army (part-time soldiers and units).
In terms of its military structure it has two parallel organisations, one administrative and one operational.
Administrative:
Corps, which is a grouping by common function, such as Royal Corps of Signals.
* Divisions administrating all military units, both Regular and TA, within a geographical area.
o Brigade in a non fighting capacity
+ Regiment, which is a grouping of battalions most commonly found in the Infantry. It is also the correct name for the Corps sized grouping of Artillery regiments.
Operational: The three major commands are Land Command, Headquarters Adjutant General, and Headquarters Northern Ireland.
Corps made up of two or more Divisions (now unlikely to be deployed as a purely national formation due to the size of the British Army)
* Division made up of two or three Brigades with an HQ element and support troops. Commanded by a major-general
o Brigade made up of three Battalions an HQ element and associated support troops. Commanded by a brigadier
+ Battalion of about 700 soldiers, made up of five companies commanded by a lieutenant-colonel
or:
* Battlegroup. This is a mixed formation of armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and support units, and its structure is task specific. It is formed around the core of either an armoured regiment or infantry battalion, and has other units added or removed from it as necessary. A battlegroup will typically consist of between 600 and 700 soldiers under the command of a lt. colonel.
o Company of about 100 soldiers, typically in three platoons, commanded by a major.
+ Platoon of about 30 soldiers, commanded by a second lieutenant or lieutenant.
# Section of about 8 to 10 soldiers, commanded by a corporal.
A number of elements of the British Army use alternative terms for Battalion, Company and Platoon. These include the Royal Armoured Corps,Corps of Royal Engineers, Royal Logistics Corps, and the Royal Corps of Signals who use Regiment(Battalion), Squadron(Company) and Troop(Platoon). The Royal Artillery are unique in using the term Regiment in place of both Corps and Battalion, they also replace Company with Battery and Platoon with Troop.
[edit] Aviation components
The British Army co-operates heavily with the Royal Air Force for air support but the army also has its own Army Air Corps.
The AAC has in its arsenal:
* Westland Apache Helicopters
* Westland Lynx Helicopters
* Westland Gazelle Helicopters
* Bell 212 Helicopters
* Britten-Norman Islander Aircraft
* Agusta A109
[edit] Special forces
Main article: United Kingdom Special Forces
The British army contributes two of the three special forces formations within the United Kingdom Special Forces Command; the Special Air Service Regiment and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.
The most famous formation is the Special Air Service Regiment. Formed in 1941, the SAS is considered the role model for many other special force regiments in the world [citation needed].
The SAS comprises one regular Regiment and two Territorial Army Regiments and is headquartered at Duke of York Barracks, London.
The regular regiment, 22 SAS Regiment has its headquarters and depot located in Hereford and consists of five squadrons: A, B, D, G and Reserve and a training wing. The regiment has battlespace roles in deep reconnaissance, target identification and indication and target destruction and denial. In its Counter Terrorism role it is seen as one of the prime anti-terrorist, hostage rescue and target capture units in the world.
The two reserve SAS regiments; 21 SAS Regiment and 23 SAS Regiment have a more limited role, focusing on the battlespace, with tasks including Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols and Combat Search and Rescue; rather than Counter-Terrorism.
The Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) which was formed in 2005, from existing assets, undertakes close reconnaissance and special surveillance tasks.
Formed around 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment, with attached Royal Marines and RAF Regiment assets, the Special Forces Support Group are under the Operational Control of Director Special Forces to provide Infantry support to the elements of United Kingdom Special Forces
[edit] Recruitment
The Army mainly recruits within the United Kingdom, and normally has a recruitment target of around 25,000 soldiers per year.
Low unemployment in Britain has resulted in the Army having difficulty in meeting its target, and in the early years of the 21st century there has been a marked increase in the number of recruits from other (mostly Commonwealth) countries, who as of mid-2004 comprised approximately 7.5% of the Army's total strength. By 2005 this number had risen to almost 10%.
There were 6,460 foreign soldiers from 54 countries in the Army (not counting over 3,000 Nepalese Gurkhas). After Nepal, the nation with most citizens in the British Army is Fiji, with 1,965, followed by Jamaica with 975; soldiers also come from more prosperous countries such as Australia and South Africa (650) (However, recent proposals by the South African government may in future bar South African citizens from serving within the militaries of foreign states. The British government has appealed against this move). The Caribbean island of St Lucia, which has a population of just over 150,000, provides 220 soldiers.[3]
The minimum recruitment age is 16 years (but only after the end of GCSEs), although soldiers may not serve on operations below 18 years; the maximum recruitment age was raised in January 2007 from 26 to 33 years. The normal term of engagement is 22 years.[4]
There has been a strong and continuing tradition of recruiting from Ireland including what is now the Republic of Ireland. Almost 150,000 Irish soldiers fought in the First World War; 49,000 died. More than 60,000 Irishmen, more than from Northern Ireland, also saw action in the Second World War; like their compatriots in the Great War, all were volunteers. There were more than 400 men serving from the Republic in 2003.[5]
[edit] Oath of allegiance
Troops of the Grenadier Guards on guard at Buckingham Palace, Various army regiments supply troops to guard the Royal residences
Troops of the Grenadier Guards on guard at Buckingham Palace, Various army regiments supply troops to guard the Royal residences
All soldiers must take an oath of allegiance upon joining the Army, a process known as "attestation". Those who believe in God use the following words:
“ I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors and that I will as in duty bound honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, her heirs and successors in person, crown and dignity against all enemies and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors and of the generals and officers set over me. [1] ”
Others replace the words "swear by Almighty God" with "solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm".
[edit] Training establishments
[[2]]
ATR Bassingbourn
ATR Winchester
ATR Pirbright
ITC Catterick
ATR Lichfield
AFC Harrogate
Regional Training Centres
Tri Service Police College
Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS)
[edit] Flags and ensigns
Flag Ratio: 3:5. The official flag of the Army.
Flag Ratio: 3:5. The official flag of the Army.
The non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Sometimes the word "Army" in gold letters appears below the badge.
The non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Sometimes the word "Army" in gold letters appears below the badge.
The British Army does not have its own specific ensign, unlike the Royal Navy, which uses the White Ensign, and the RAF, which uses the Royal Air Force Ensign. Instead, the Army has different flags and ensigns, for the entire army and the different regiments and corps. The official flag of the Army as a whole is the Union Flag, flown in ratio 3:5. A non-ceremonial flag also exists, which is used at recruiting events, military events and exhibitions. Whilst at war, the Union Flag is always used, and this flag represents the Army on the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London (the UK's memorial to war dead). A British Army ensign also exists for vessels commanded by a commissioned officer, the Blue Ensign defaced with the Army badge. Army Vessels are operated by the Maritime element of the RLC.
Each line regiment (which does not include the Rifle Regiments) also has its own flags, known as the Colours - the Regimental Colour and the Queen's Colour. These colours have been taken into battle in the past and give pride to the regiment. There is great variation in the designs of different regimental colours. Typically the colour has the regiment's badge in the centre.
[edit] Ranks, specialisms and insignia
NATO Code OF-10 OF-9 OF-8 OF-7 OF-6 OF-5 OF-4 OF-3 OF-2 OF-1 OF-D- Student Officer
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Edit No Equivalent
Field Marshal1 General Lieutenant General Major General Brigadier Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Major Captain Lieutenant Second Lieutenant Officer Cadet
Abbreviation FM Gen. Lt-Gen. Maj-Gen. Brig. Col. Lt-Col. Maj. Capt. Lt. 2nd Lt.
* 1 Now an honorary or wartime rank only.
NATO Code OR-9 OR-8 OR-7 OR-6 OR-5 OR-4 OR-3 OR-2 OR-1
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Edit No
Insignia
Warrant Officer Class One (Conductor) Warrant Officer Class One Warrant Officer Class Two (Quartermaster Sergeant) Warrant Officer Class Two (Sergeant Major) Staff Sergeant/
Colour Sergeant Sergeant Corporal/
Bombardier Lance-Corporal/
Lance-Bombardier Private/regimental equivalent
Every regiment and corps has its own distinctive insignia, such as cap badge, beret and stable belt.
Throughout the army there are many official specialisms. They do not affect rank, but they do affect pay bands.
Band 2 Specialisms: Band 3 Specialisms:
Bandsman Survey Technician
Farrier Lab Technician
Driver Tank Transporter Registered General Nurse
Radar Operator Telcom Op (Special)
Meteorologist Aircraft Technician
Bomb Disposal Engineer SAS Soldier
Telcom Op (Linguist)
Operator Special Intelligence
Construction Materials Technician
Gun Fitter
Driver Specialist
Vehicle Electrician
Armoured Engineer
[edit] Royal Navy and RAF infantry units
The other armed services have their own infantry units which are not part of the British Army. The Royal Marines are amphibious light infantry forming part of the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force has the RAF Regiment used for airfield defence, force protection duties and Forward Air Control.
[edit] Overseas Territories Military Units
Numerous military units were raised historically in British territories, including self-governing and Crown colonies, and protectorates. Few of these have appeared on the Army List, and their relationship to the British Army has been ambiguous. Whereas Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, raised their own armies, Crown possessions (like the Channel Islands), and colonies (now called Overseas Territories) were, and are, legally part of the UK, and their defence remains the responsibility of the National (i.e., United Kingdom) government. All military forces of overseas territories are, therefore, under the direct command of the UK Government, via the local Governor and Commander-In-Chief. Many of the units in colonies, or former colonies, were also actually formed at the behest of the UK Government as it sought to reduce the deployment of the British Army on garrison around the world at the latter end of the 19th century. Today, three overseas territories retain locally-raised military units, Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands. The units are patterned on the British Army, are subject to review by the Ministry of Defence, and are ultimately under the control of the British government, not the local governments of the territories (though day-to-day control may be delegated to Ministers of the territorial governments). Despite this, the units may have no tasking or funding from the MOD, and are generally raised under acts of the territorial assemblies.
* Bermuda Regiment
* Royal Gibraltar Regiment
* Falkland Islands Defence Force
[edit] See also
British Army Portal
* List of British Army Regiments (2008)
* Ministry of Defence
* Redcoat
* Territorial Army
* Volunteer Army
* British military history
* British Army Casualties during Operation TELIC
* Royal Navy
* Royal Air Force
* United Kingdom Special Forces
* Modern equipment and uniform of the British Army
* UK topics
* Army Rugby Union
* Eastbourne Redoubt Holds collections of The Royal Sussex Regiment, The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (see also The Queen's Royal Hussars) and the Sussex Combined Services.
* Victoria Cross
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
British Army
* British Army Website
* The British War Memorial Project
* The National Archives of Scotland: Doing research. Guides. Military records.
* Regiments and Corps of the British Army: An Introductory Overview Regiments.Org.
* British Armed Forces
* British Light Infantry Regiments
* The British Army in the Great War
* The British Army Rumour Service - an unofficial site for news, gossip and discussion.
* UK Military News & Information Portal
* British Army during the Napoleonic Wars
* Tom Wall, New Statesman, 6 December 2004, "Our boy soldiers"
* Royal Engineers Museum - Royal Engineers History
* Britain's Small Wars The History of British Military Conflicts since 1945
* Redoubt Fortress MuseumHolds collections of The Royal Sussex Regiment, The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (see also The Queen's Royal Hussars) and the Sussex Combined Services.
* Eastbourne Redoubt
* Women in the british armed forces
* The Royal Sussex Regimental Association [3]
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British Army
Components
British Army
Territorial Army
List of current regiments
Structure of the British Army
Administration
HQ Land Command
HQ Adjutant-General
HQ Northern Ireland
Overseas Deployments
British Forces Germany
British Forces Cyprus
British Forces Gibraltar
British Garrison Brunei
Equipment
British military rifles
Modern Equipment
History
History of the British Army
Timeline of the British Army
Personnel
List of senior officers
Officer rank insignia
Other ranks rank insignia
The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with unification of the governments and armed forces of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and was controlled by the War Office from London. As of April, 2007, the British Army includes roughly 110,580 regular personnel and 38,460 Territorial Army members. The full time element of the British Army has also been referred to as the Regular Army since the creation of the reservist Territorial Army. The British Army is deployed in many of the world's war zones as part of a fighting force and in United Nations peacekeeping forces.
In contrast to the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, the British Army does not include "Royal" in its title, because of its roots as a collection of disparate units, many of which do bear the "Royal" prefix, such as the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
* 2 Recent and current conflicts
o 2.1 Persian Gulf War
o 2.2 Balkans conflicts
o 2.3 Afghanistan
o 2.4 Iraq War
o 2.5 Northern Ireland
* 3 Tommy Atkins and other nicknames
* 4 Today's Army
o 4.1 Statistics
o 4.2 Current deployments
+ 4.2.1 'High Intensity' Operations
+ 4.2.2 'Low-Intensity' Operations
+ 4.2.3 Training Operations
* 5 Equipment
* 6 Formation and structure
o 6.1 Aviation components
* 7 Special forces
* 8 Recruitment
* 9 Oath of allegiance
* 10 Training establishments
* 11 Flags and ensigns
* 12 Ranks, specialisms and insignia
* 13 Royal Navy and RAF infantry units
* 14 Overseas Territories Military Units
* 15 See also
* 16 External links
* 17 Footnotes
[edit] History
Main article: History of the British Army
The Battle of Waterloo, one of the greatest victories in British military history
The Battle of Waterloo, one of the greatest victories in British military history
The British Army came into being with the merger of the Scottish Army and the Welsh/English Army, following the unification of the two countries' parliaments and the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Although England had made many earlier claims to sovereignty in Scotland, there had been no unified British state prior to that time (other than a brief period during which the Roman province of Britain had achieved political independence-although even that had failed to establish complete control over the north of the island). The new British Army incorporated existing English and Scottish regiments, and was controlled from London.
From roughly 1763 until at least 1945, the United Kingdom was one of the leading military and economic powers of the world. The British Empire expanded in this time to include colonies, protectorates, and Dominions throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Although the Royal Navy is widely regarded as having been vital for the rise of Empire, and British dominance of the world, the British Army played important roles in colonisation. First, the British Army including garrisoning the colonies, capturing strategically important territories and participating in actions to pacify colonial borders, support allied governments, suppress Britain's rivals, and protect against foreign powers and hostile natives. Second, the troops also helped capture strategically important territories for the British, allowing the British Empire to expand throughout the globe. The Army also involved itself in numerous wars meant to pacify the borders, or to prop-up friendly governments, and thereby keep other, competitive, empires away from the British Empire's borders. Among these actions were the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars, the First and Second Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the New Zealand Wars, the Indian Mutiny, the First and Second Boer Wars, the Fenian raids, the Anglo-Irish War, its serial interventions into Afghanistan (which were meant to maintain a friendly buffer state between British India and the Russian Empire), and the Crimean War (to keep the Russian Empire at a safe distance by coming to Turkey's aid).
As had its predecessor, the English Army, in building the Empire, the British Army fought Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. It also battled many Native American nations and groups, including the many disgruntled former allies who launched Pontiac's War in response to the wave of British settlers that flooded over the Appalachians following the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. The British Government's attempt to mollify the Natives by delineating the Appalachians as the westward limit for European settlement was a significant motivator of the American colonies in launching the secessionist American War of Independence. The British Army fought American colonists and their Native and French allies in that war.
The British army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars in which the army served in Spain, across Europe, and in North Africa. The war between the British and French Empires stretched around the world. The British Army finally came to defeat Napoleon at one of Britain's greatest military victories at the battle of Waterloo.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift in which 11 VCs were awarded to British troops
The Battle of Rorke's Drift in which 11 VCs were awarded to British troops
Under Oliver Cromwell, the English Army had been active in the conquest, and the settlement, of Ireland since the 1650s. The Cromwellian campaign was characterised by its uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns (most notably Drogheda) that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War. It (and subsequently, the British Army) have been almost continuously involved in Ireland ever since, primarily in suppressing numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for self-determination. It was faced with the prospect of battling Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots settlers in Ireland, who alongside their Irish countrymen had raised their own volunteer army and threatened to emulate the American colonists if their conditions (primarily concerning home rule and freedom of trade) were not met. The British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster (Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen) in the 1798 rebellion.
In addition to battling the armies of other European Empires' (and of its former colonies, the United States, in the American War of 1812,) in the battle for global supremacy, the British Army fought the Chinese in the First and Second Opium Wars, and the Boxer Rebellion; Māori tribes in the first of the New Zealand Wars; Indian princely forces and British East India Company mutineers in the Indian Mutiny; the Boers in the First and Second Boer Wars; Irish Fenians in Canada during the Fenian raids; and Irish separatists in the Anglo-Irish War.
Following William and Mary's accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Mary's father, James II. Following the 1707 union of England and Scotland, and then the 1801 creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British foreign policy, on the continent, was to contain expansion by its competitor powers such as France and Spain. The territorial ambitions of the French led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. Russian activity led to the Crimean War.
The vastly increasing demands of imperial expansion, and the inadequacies and inefficiencies of the underfunded, post-Napoleonic Wars British Army, and of the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteer Force, led to the Cardwell Reforms of the late 19th century, which gave the British Army its modern shape, and redefined its regimental system.
British Mark One Tank during World War I
British Mark One Tank during World War I
Great Britain's dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, notably Germany. The UK was allied with France (by the Entente Cordiale) and Russia, and when the First World War broke out in 1914, the British Army sent the British Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium to prevent Germany from occupying these countries. The War would be the most devastating in British military history, with near 800,000 men killed and over 2 million wounded. In the early part of the war, the professional force of the BEF was decimated and, by turns, a volunteer (and then conscripted) force replaced it. Major battles included the Battle of the Somme. Advances in technology saw British advent of the tank and advances in aircraft design which were to be decisive in future battles. Trench warfare dominated strategy, and the use of chemical and poison gases added to the devastation.
In 1939, the Second World War broke out with the German invasion of Poland. British assurances to the Polish led the British Empire to declare war on Germany. Again an Expeditionary Force was sent to France, only to be hastily evacuated as the German forces swept through the Low Countries and across France in 1940. Only the Dunkirk evacuations saved the entire Expeditionary Force from capture. Later, however, the British would have success defeating the Italians and Germans at the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa, and in the D-Day invasions of Normandy. In the Far East, the British Army battled the Japanese in Burma. World War II saw the British army develop its Commando units including the Special Air Service. During the war the British army was one of the major fighting forces on the side of the allies.
After the end of World War II, the British Empire declined with the independence of India, and other colonies in Africa and Asia. Accordingly the strength of the British military was reduced, in recognition of Britain's reduced role in world affairs. However, a large deployment of British troops remained in Germany, facing the threat of Soviet invasion. The Cold War saw massive technological advances in warfare, and the Army saw more technologically advanced weapons systems installed.
Despite the decline of the British Empire, the Army was still deployed around the world, fighting in the Korean War, the Suez crisis of 1956, and colonial wars in Oman and Malaysia. In 1982 the British Army, alongside the Royal Marines, helped to recapture the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War against Argentina.
In the three decades following 1969, the Army was heavily deployed in Northern Ireland, to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (later the Police Service of Northern Ireland) in their conflict with loyalist and republican paramilitary groups, called Operation Banner. The locally-recruited Ulster Defence Regiment was formed, later becoming the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. Over 700 soldiers were killed during the Troubles. Following the IRA ceasefires between 1994 and 1996 and since 1997, demilitarisation has taken place as part of the peace process, much reducing the military presence in the area. On June 25th 2007, the Second Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment vacated the Army complex at Bessbrook Mill in Armagh. This is part of the 'normalisation' programme in Northern Ireland in response to the IRA's declared end to its activities.
As with its return to Afghanistan, following the 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in the USA, the British Army's current return to Iraq in Operation Telic reflects a tradition of interceding in the region which included the Mesopotamian Campaign of the Great War, the Anglo-Iraq War of 1941 (the first Gulf War), and the Gulf War fought to liberate Kuwait (referred to as Operation Granby).
[edit] Recent and current conflicts
[edit] Persian Gulf War
Main article: Operation Granby
The ending of the Cold War saw a 40% cut in manpower. Despite this, the Army has been deployed in an increasingly global role. In 1991, the United Kingdom was the second largest contributor (after the USA) to the coalition force that fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. The nation supplied just under 50,000 personnel and was the nation put in control of Kuwait after it was liberated.
[edit] Balkans conflicts
Main article: Yugoslav wars
The British Army was deployed to Yugoslavia in 1992. Initially this force formed part of the United Nations Protection Force. In 1995 command was transferred to IFOR and then to SFOR. Currently troops are under the command of EUFOR. Over 10,000 troops were sent. In 1999 British forces under the command of SFOR were sent to Kosovo during the conflict there. Command was subsequently transferred to KFOR.
[edit] Afghanistan
Main article: 2001-present war in Afghanistan
In 2001 The 3rd Division Signal Regiment were deployed in Kabul, Afghanistan to assist in the liberation of the troubled capital. The Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade also swept the Afghan mountains but this force is part of the Royal Navy. The British Armed forces are currently in charge of NATO forces in the nation. The British Army is today concentrating on fighting Taliban forces and bringing security to Helmand province under NATO control.
[edit] Iraq War
Main article: Iraq War
In 2003, the United Kingdom was the only other major contributor to the United States-led invasion of Iraq. There was great disagreement amongst the populace but the government voted for the conflict, with the result of sending over 45,000 army personnel to the region. The British Army is still the major coalition presence in the city of Basra and the Southern regions of Iraq. The British Army is not currently at war, but this is a conflict against groups acting within Iraq. The British Army's main duty in Iraq is peace-keeping.
[edit] Northern Ireland
Main article: Operation Banner
The British Army was initially deployed in Northern Ireland to prevent sectarian attacks on Catholic communities and keep order in the wake of Catholic rioting and was under Operation Banner between 1969 and 2007 in support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and its successor, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).[1] There has been a steady reduction in the number of troops deployed in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. In 2005, after the Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to armed conflict in Northern Ireland, it was revealed that the British Army would dismantle posts in the province and withdraw many troops and restore troop levels to that of a peace time garrison. Officially Operation Banner ended on 1 August 2007 after 38 years, making it the longest military operation in the history of the British Army.
[edit] Tommy Atkins and other nicknames
A long established nickname for a British soldier has been 'Tommy Atkins' or 'Tommy' for short. The origins are obscure but most probably derive from a specimen army form circulated by the Adjutant-General Sir Harry Calvert to all units in 1815 where the blanks had been filled in with the particulars of a Private Thomas Atkins, No 6 Company, 23rd Regiment of Foot. Present day English soldiers are often referred to as 'Toms' or just 'Tom' (The Scots equivalent being 'Jock'). Outside the services soldiers are generally known as 'Squaddies' by the British popular press. The British Army magazine Soldier has a regular cartoon strip, 'Tom', featuring the everyday life of a British soldier.
Junior officers in the army are generally known as 'Ruperts' by the Other ranks. This nickname is believed to be derived from the children's comic book character Rupert Bear who epitomises traditional public school values (see "Inside the British Army" by Antony Beevor ISBN 071134658)
The term 'Pongo' or 'Perce' is often used by Sailors and Royal Marines to refer to soldiers. It is not considered complimentary.
[edit] Today's Army
[edit] Statistics
The Challenger 2, the British Army's Main Battle Tank
The Challenger 2, the British Army's Main Battle Tank
British Army statistics[2]
Personnel (Regular Army) 107,730
Personnel (Territorial Army) 38,460
Main Battle Tanks 386 Challenger 2
Infantry fighting vehicles 667 Warrior (789 purchased)
APCs and CVR(T)s 3,230–4,000+
Land Rover Wolf 15,000
Pinzgauer 2,000
Utility Trucks 2,300
Artillery pieces and mortar 2,896
Air Defence 337
Aircraft 300+
[edit] Current deployments
[edit] 'High Intensity' Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Afghanistan 2001– 7,000 troops British troops have been based in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion there in 2001. Currently, under Operation Herrick, the Army maintains a battalion in Kabul and most of a brigade in the southern province of Helmand.
Iraq 2003– 5,000 troops As part of Operation Telic (Gulf War 2), the British Army participated in the invasion of Iraq. Following the decision for continued security operations, the UK commands the Multi-National Division (South-East) with a headquarters unit, National Support Element, and a combat brigade (at the moment 1 Mechanised Brigade), along with troops from Italy, Norway, Romania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Portugal and Lithuania. A large number of Territorial Army soldiers have been deployed for a variety of tasks, both as individuals serving and as formed units. Troop numbers are gradually decreasing, though the UK Government does not have a timetable for a full withdrawal.
[edit] 'Low-Intensity' Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Cyprus 1960– Two resident infantry battalions, Royal Engineers, 16 Flight Army Air Corps and Joint Service Signals Unit at Ayios Nikolaos as a part of British Forces Cyprus The UK retains two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus after the island's independence. The bases serve as forward bases for deployments in the Middle East. British forces are also deployed separately with UN peacekeeping forces on the island.
Falkland Islands 1982– An infantry company group and an Engineers Squadron Previously a platoon-sized Royal Marines Naval Party served as garrison. After 1982 the garrison was enlarged, and bolstered with an RAF base.
Gibraltar 1704– One infantry battalion, Joint Provost and Security Unit as a part of British Forces Gibraltar British Army garrison is provided by an indigenous regiment, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, which has been on the Army regular establishment since the last British regiment left in 1991.
Kosovo 1999 300 troops After the Kosovo War in 1999, the British Army led the NATO deployment in Kosovo to restore peace to the province. Since then, the UK has withdrawn some forces, as other nations provided troops.
Rest of the Middle East 1990 3,700 troops Since the Gulf War in 1991, the UK has had a considerable military presence in the Middle East. Besides Iraq, there are also an additional 3,500 troops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as regular training missions in Oman.
Sierra Leone 1999 About 100 troops The British Army were deployed to Sierra Leone, a former British colony, in 1999 to aid the government in quelling violent uprisings by militiamen, under United Nations resolutions. Troops ( Royal Marines ) remain in the region to provide military support and training to the Sierra Leone government.
[edit] Training Operations
Country Dates Deployment Details
Belize 1981– British Army Training and Support Unit Belize and 25 Flight Army Air Corps British troops have been based in Belize since the country gained independence from the UK in 1981. Until 1994 Belize's neighbour, Guatemala claimed the territory, and British troops were based in Belize to provide a deterrent force
Brunei 1962– One battalion from the Royal Gurkha Rifles, British Garrison, Training Team Brunei (TTB) and 7 Flight Army Air Corps A Gurkha battalion has been maintained in Brunei since the Brunei Revolt in 1962 at the request of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III. The Training Team Brunei (TTB) is the Army's jungle warfare school, while the small number of garrison troops support the battalion. 7 Flight Army Air Corps provides helicopter support to both the Gurkha battalion and the TTB.
Canada 1972– British Army Training Unit Suffield and 29 (BATUS) Flight Army Air Corps Training centre in the Alberta prairie. Conducts regular, major armoured training exercises every year with helicopter support provided by 29 (BATUS) Flight AAC.
Germany 1945– 1st (UK) Armoured Division as part of British Forces Germany and 12 Flight Army Air Corps British forces remained in Germany after the end of World War II. Forces declined considerably after the end of the Cold War, although the lack of accommodation in the UK means forces will continue to be based in Germany.
Kenya British Army Training and Liaison Staff Kenya The Army has a training centre in Kenya, under agreement with the Kenyan government. It provides training facilities for three infantry battalions per year
[edit] Equipment
Main article: Modern equipment of the British Army
Warrior IFV
Warrior IFV
The Land Rover Wolf, the backbone of the British Army
The Land Rover Wolf, the backbone of the British Army
The basic infantry weapons of the British Army are the SA-80 assault rifle family, with several variants such as the L86A2 Light Support Weapon and the short stock variant, issued to tank crews. The general issue sidearm is the Browning L9A1, though a search is currently underway to find a replacement for the L9A1. Support fire is provided by the Minimi light machine gun and the L7 GPMG; indirect fire by 51 and 81 mm Mortar, as well as the UGL, mounted under the barrel of the SA80 rifle. Sniper rifles used include the L96A1 7.62 mm, the L115A1 and the AW50F, all produced by Accuracy International. In addition, some units use the L82A1 .50 calibre Barrett sniper rifle.
The British Army commonly uses the Land Rover Wolf and Land Rover Defender; with the Challenger 2 as its Main Battle Tank. The Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle is the primary APC, although many variants of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) are used, as well as the Saxon APC and FV430 series.
The Army uses three main artillery systems; the MLRS, which debuted in Operation Granby and has a range of 30 km: the AS-90, a self-propelled howitzer, and the L118, a 105 mm towed gun-howitzer, used primarily by lighter units and in support of the Royal Marines
The Rapier FSC Missile System is the Army's primary battlefield air defence system, widely deployed since the Falklands War; and the Starstreak HVM is a surface-to-air missile, launched either by a single soldier or from a vehicle-mounted launcher. The Starstreak fills a similar role to the American FIM-92 Stinger
The Army Air Corps (AAC) provide direct aviation support for the Army, although the RAF also assist in this role. The primary attack helicopter is the Westland WAH-64 Apache; a license-built, modified version of the AH-64 Apache that will replace the Westland Lynx AH7 in the anti-tank role. The Westland Lynx performs several roles including tactical transport, armed escort, reconnaissance and evacuation. It used to also offer the anti-tank warfare roll; it could carry eight TOW anti-tank missiles. The Tow missile system fit, for the Lynx was withdrawn from service by the MOD in December 2005, after the coming in to service of the WAH-64 Apache.
The Bell 212 is used as a specialist utility and transport helicopter, with a crew of two and a transport capacity of twelve troops.
The Westland Gazelle helicopter is a light helicopter, primarily used for battlefield scouting and control of artillery and aircraft.
The Agusta A109 is used for Special Operations Aviation, along with the Gazelle.
The Britten-Norman Islander is a light aircraft used for airborne reconnaissance and command, primarily in Northern Ireland.
Firearms
L85A2 5.56 mm IW
L86A2 5.56 mm LSW
L110A1 5.56 mm LMG
L9A1 Browning
L7A2 7.62 mm GPMG
L96A1 7.62 mm
L115A1 8.6 mm LRR
Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV)
FV4043 Challenger 2 MBT
Warrior IFV
CVR(T)
FV432 APC
Artillery Systems
AS-90 155 mm Self-Propelled Gun
MLRS
L118 Light Gun
Rapier FSC Missile System
Starstreak HVM
L121 Field Howitzer
Cobra Artillery Location Radar
Aircraft
Apache AH.Mk.1
Gazelle AH.Mk.1
Lynx AH.Mk.7
Bell 212
Britten-Norman Islander
Agusta A109
Logistics Vehicles
DROPS
Land Rover (TUL/TUM)
ATMP
Information & Communication systems (ICS)
MSTAR
Bowman
Skynet 5
Spyglass Thermal Imager
[edit] Formation and structure
British Army Arms and Services
Combat Arms
Royal Armoured Corps
Infantry
Guards Division
Scottish Division
King's Division
Queen's Division
Prince of Wales' Division
Royal Irish Regiment
Parachute Regiment
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Rifles
Army Air Corps
Special Air Service Regiment
Combat Support Arms
Royal Regiment of Artillery
Corps of Royal Engineers
Royal Corps of Signals
Intelligence Corps
Combat Services
Royal Army Chaplains Department
Royal Logistic Corps
Army Medical Services
Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Dental Corps
Royal Army Veterinary Corps
Queen Alexandra's Royal
Army Nursing Corps
Corps of Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers
Adjutant General's Corps
Army Legal Services Branch
Royal Military Police
Military Provost Staff Corps
Small Arms School Corps
Army Physical Training Corps
General Service Corps
Corps of Army Music
See main article: Structure of the British Army
The structure of the British Army is complex, due to the different origins of its various constituent parts. It is broadly split into the Regular Army (full-time soldiers and units) and the Territorial Army (part-time soldiers and units).
In terms of its military structure it has two parallel organisations, one administrative and one operational.
Administrative:
Corps, which is a grouping by common function, such as Royal Corps of Signals.
* Divisions administrating all military units, both Regular and TA, within a geographical area.
o Brigade in a non fighting capacity
+ Regiment, which is a grouping of battalions most commonly found in the Infantry. It is also the correct name for the Corps sized grouping of Artillery regiments.
Operational: The three major commands are Land Command, Headquarters Adjutant General, and Headquarters Northern Ireland.
Corps made up of two or more Divisions (now unlikely to be deployed as a purely national formation due to the size of the British Army)
* Division made up of two or three Brigades with an HQ element and support troops. Commanded by a major-general
o Brigade made up of three Battalions an HQ element and associated support troops. Commanded by a brigadier
+ Battalion of about 700 soldiers, made up of five companies commanded by a lieutenant-colonel
or:
* Battlegroup. This is a mixed formation of armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and support units, and its structure is task specific. It is formed around the core of either an armoured regiment or infantry battalion, and has other units added or removed from it as necessary. A battlegroup will typically consist of between 600 and 700 soldiers under the command of a lt. colonel.
o Company of about 100 soldiers, typically in three platoons, commanded by a major.
+ Platoon of about 30 soldiers, commanded by a second lieutenant or lieutenant.
# Section of about 8 to 10 soldiers, commanded by a corporal.
A number of elements of the British Army use alternative terms for Battalion, Company and Platoon. These include the Royal Armoured Corps,Corps of Royal Engineers, Royal Logistics Corps, and the Royal Corps of Signals who use Regiment(Battalion), Squadron(Company) and Troop(Platoon). The Royal Artillery are unique in using the term Regiment in place of both Corps and Battalion, they also replace Company with Battery and Platoon with Troop.
[edit] Aviation components
The British Army co-operates heavily with the Royal Air Force for air support but the army also has its own Army Air Corps.
The AAC has in its arsenal:
* Westland Apache Helicopters
* Westland Lynx Helicopters
* Westland Gazelle Helicopters
* Bell 212 Helicopters
* Britten-Norman Islander Aircraft
* Agusta A109
[edit] Special forces
Main article: United Kingdom Special Forces
The British army contributes two of the three special forces formations within the United Kingdom Special Forces Command; the Special Air Service Regiment and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.
The most famous formation is the Special Air Service Regiment. Formed in 1941, the SAS is considered the role model for many other special force regiments in the world [citation needed].
The SAS comprises one regular Regiment and two Territorial Army Regiments and is headquartered at Duke of York Barracks, London.
The regular regiment, 22 SAS Regiment has its headquarters and depot located in Hereford and consists of five squadrons: A, B, D, G and Reserve and a training wing. The regiment has battlespace roles in deep reconnaissance, target identification and indication and target destruction and denial. In its Counter Terrorism role it is seen as one of the prime anti-terrorist, hostage rescue and target capture units in the world.
The two reserve SAS regiments; 21 SAS Regiment and 23 SAS Regiment have a more limited role, focusing on the battlespace, with tasks including Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols and Combat Search and Rescue; rather than Counter-Terrorism.
The Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) which was formed in 2005, from existing assets, undertakes close reconnaissance and special surveillance tasks.
Formed around 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment, with attached Royal Marines and RAF Regiment assets, the Special Forces Support Group are under the Operational Control of Director Special Forces to provide Infantry support to the elements of United Kingdom Special Forces
[edit] Recruitment
The Army mainly recruits within the United Kingdom, and normally has a recruitment target of around 25,000 soldiers per year.
Low unemployment in Britain has resulted in the Army having difficulty in meeting its target, and in the early years of the 21st century there has been a marked increase in the number of recruits from other (mostly Commonwealth) countries, who as of mid-2004 comprised approximately 7.5% of the Army's total strength. By 2005 this number had risen to almost 10%.
There were 6,460 foreign soldiers from 54 countries in the Army (not counting over 3,000 Nepalese Gurkhas). After Nepal, the nation with most citizens in the British Army is Fiji, with 1,965, followed by Jamaica with 975; soldiers also come from more prosperous countries such as Australia and South Africa (650) (However, recent proposals by the South African government may in future bar South African citizens from serving within the militaries of foreign states. The British government has appealed against this move). The Caribbean island of St Lucia, which has a population of just over 150,000, provides 220 soldiers.[3]
The minimum recruitment age is 16 years (but only after the end of GCSEs), although soldiers may not serve on operations below 18 years; the maximum recruitment age was raised in January 2007 from 26 to 33 years. The normal term of engagement is 22 years.[4]
There has been a strong and continuing tradition of recruiting from Ireland including what is now the Republic of Ireland. Almost 150,000 Irish soldiers fought in the First World War; 49,000 died. More than 60,000 Irishmen, more than from Northern Ireland, also saw action in the Second World War; like their compatriots in the Great War, all were volunteers. There were more than 400 men serving from the Republic in 2003.[5]
[edit] Oath of allegiance
Troops of the Grenadier Guards on guard at Buckingham Palace, Various army regiments supply troops to guard the Royal residences
Troops of the Grenadier Guards on guard at Buckingham Palace, Various army regiments supply troops to guard the Royal residences
All soldiers must take an oath of allegiance upon joining the Army, a process known as "attestation". Those who believe in God use the following words:
“ I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors and that I will as in duty bound honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, her heirs and successors in person, crown and dignity against all enemies and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors and of the generals and officers set over me. [1] ”
Others replace the words "swear by Almighty God" with "solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm".
[edit] Training establishments
[[2]]
ATR Bassingbourn
ATR Winchester
ATR Pirbright
ITC Catterick
ATR Lichfield
AFC Harrogate
Regional Training Centres
Tri Service Police College
Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS)
[edit] Flags and ensigns
Flag Ratio: 3:5. The official flag of the Army.
Flag Ratio: 3:5. The official flag of the Army.
The non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Sometimes the word "Army" in gold letters appears below the badge.
The non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Sometimes the word "Army" in gold letters appears below the badge.
The British Army does not have its own specific ensign, unlike the Royal Navy, which uses the White Ensign, and the RAF, which uses the Royal Air Force Ensign. Instead, the Army has different flags and ensigns, for the entire army and the different regiments and corps. The official flag of the Army as a whole is the Union Flag, flown in ratio 3:5. A non-ceremonial flag also exists, which is used at recruiting events, military events and exhibitions. Whilst at war, the Union Flag is always used, and this flag represents the Army on the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London (the UK's memorial to war dead). A British Army ensign also exists for vessels commanded by a commissioned officer, the Blue Ensign defaced with the Army badge. Army Vessels are operated by the Maritime element of the RLC.
Each line regiment (which does not include the Rifle Regiments) also has its own flags, known as the Colours - the Regimental Colour and the Queen's Colour. These colours have been taken into battle in the past and give pride to the regiment. There is great variation in the designs of different regimental colours. Typically the colour has the regiment's badge in the centre.
[edit] Ranks, specialisms and insignia
NATO Code OF-10 OF-9 OF-8 OF-7 OF-6 OF-5 OF-4 OF-3 OF-2 OF-1 OF-D- Student Officer
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Edit No Equivalent
Field Marshal1 General Lieutenant General Major General Brigadier Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Major Captain Lieutenant Second Lieutenant Officer Cadet
Abbreviation FM Gen. Lt-Gen. Maj-Gen. Brig. Col. Lt-Col. Maj. Capt. Lt. 2nd Lt.
* 1 Now an honorary or wartime rank only.
NATO Code OR-9 OR-8 OR-7 OR-6 OR-5 OR-4 OR-3 OR-2 OR-1
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Edit No
Insignia
Warrant Officer Class One (Conductor) Warrant Officer Class One Warrant Officer Class Two (Quartermaster Sergeant) Warrant Officer Class Two (Sergeant Major) Staff Sergeant/
Colour Sergeant Sergeant Corporal/
Bombardier Lance-Corporal/
Lance-Bombardier Private/regimental equivalent
Every regiment and corps has its own distinctive insignia, such as cap badge, beret and stable belt.
Throughout the army there are many official specialisms. They do not affect rank, but they do affect pay bands.
Band 2 Specialisms: Band 3 Specialisms:
Bandsman Survey Technician
Farrier Lab Technician
Driver Tank Transporter Registered General Nurse
Radar Operator Telcom Op (Special)
Meteorologist Aircraft Technician
Bomb Disposal Engineer SAS Soldier
Telcom Op (Linguist)
Operator Special Intelligence
Construction Materials Technician
Gun Fitter
Driver Specialist
Vehicle Electrician
Armoured Engineer
[edit] Royal Navy and RAF infantry units
The other armed services have their own infantry units which are not part of the British Army. The Royal Marines are amphibious light infantry forming part of the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force has the RAF Regiment used for airfield defence, force protection duties and Forward Air Control.
[edit] Overseas Territories Military Units
Numerous military units were raised historically in British territories, including self-governing and Crown colonies, and protectorates. Few of these have appeared on the Army List, and their relationship to the British Army has been ambiguous. Whereas Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, raised their own armies, Crown possessions (like the Channel Islands), and colonies (now called Overseas Territories) were, and are, legally part of the UK, and their defence remains the responsibility of the National (i.e., United Kingdom) government. All military forces of overseas territories are, therefore, under the direct command of the UK Government, via the local Governor and Commander-In-Chief. Many of the units in colonies, or former colonies, were also actually formed at the behest of the UK Government as it sought to reduce the deployment of the British Army on garrison around the world at the latter end of the 19th century. Today, three overseas territories retain locally-raised military units, Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands. The units are patterned on the British Army, are subject to review by the Ministry of Defence, and are ultimately under the control of the British government, not the local governments of the territories (though day-to-day control may be delegated to Ministers of the territorial governments). Despite this, the units may have no tasking or funding from the MOD, and are generally raised under acts of the territorial assemblies.
* Bermuda Regiment
* Royal Gibraltar Regiment
* Falkland Islands Defence Force
[edit] See also
British Army Portal
* List of British Army Regiments (2008)
* Ministry of Defence
* Redcoat
* Territorial Army
* Volunteer Army
* British military history
* British Army Casualties during Operation TELIC
* Royal Navy
* Royal Air Force
* United Kingdom Special Forces
* Modern equipment and uniform of the British Army
* UK topics
* Army Rugby Union
* Eastbourne Redoubt Holds collections of The Royal Sussex Regiment, The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (see also The Queen's Royal Hussars) and the Sussex Combined Services.
* Victoria Cross
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
British Army
* British Army Website
* The British War Memorial Project
* The National Archives of Scotland: Doing research. Guides. Military records.
* Regiments and Corps of the British Army: An Introductory Overview Regiments.Org.
* British Armed Forces
* British Light Infantry Regiments
* The British Army in the Great War
* The British Army Rumour Service - an unofficial site for news, gossip and discussion.
* UK Military News & Information Portal
* British Army during the Napoleonic Wars
* Tom Wall, New Statesman, 6 December 2004, "Our boy soldiers"
* Royal Engineers Museum - Royal Engineers History
* Britain's Small Wars The History of British Military Conflicts since 1945
* Redoubt Fortress MuseumHolds collections of The Royal Sussex Regiment, The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (see also The Queen's Royal Hussars) and the Sussex Combined Services.
* Eastbourne Redoubt
* Women in the british armed forces
* The Royal Sussex Regimental Association [3]
Sport
Main article: Sport in the United Kingdom
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every July.
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every July.
A number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, rugby, cricket, tennis and golf.
The most popular sport in the UK is football. The UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Because of this four-team arrangement that the UK does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, there are proposals for a united team taking part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which are to be held in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate, fearing that it would undermine their independent status.
The UK is home to many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. British teams have been successful in European Competitions including some who have become European Cup/UEFA Champions League winners: Liverpool (five times), Manchester United (twice), Nottingham Forest (twice), Aston Villa, and Celtic. More clubs from England have won the European Cup than any other country (four compared to three from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands). Moreover, England ranks second in the all time list of European club trophies won with 35, one behind Italy's 36. The European Cup competition itself was brought about due to the success of another UK club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, against top European sides[94] in the 1950s. The English Premier League is also the most-watched football league in the world and is particularly popular in Asia: in the People's Republic of China, matches attract television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreign sport.[95][96]
The new Wembley Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built costing £793 million ($1.6 billion).
The new Wembley Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built costing £793 million ($1.6 billion).
The 90,000 capacity Wembley Stadium is the main sporting stadium of the UK. Between the demolition of the former 'twin towers' stadium and construction of the new one (completed in March 2007), Cardiff's 73,000 seater Millennium Stadium served in this role.
The early reference to the separate national identities in the UK is perhaps best illustrated by the game of cricket. Cricket was invented in England. There are league championships but the English national team dominates the game in Britain. There is no UK team. Some Irish and Scottish players have played for England because neither Scotland nor Ireland have Test status and only play in One Day Internationals.
The UK has proved successful in the international sporting arena in rowing. It is widely considered that the sport's most successful rower is Steven Redgrave who won five gold medals and one bronze medal at five consecutive Olympic Games as well as numerous wins at the World Rowing Championships and Henley Royal Regatta.
Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby league originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played predominantly in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Southern England. Having supposedly originated from the actions of William Webb Ellis at the School at Rugby, it is considered the national sport of Wales. In rugby league the UK plays as one nation — Great Britain — though in union it is represented by four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (which consists of players from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). England is the holder of the Rugby World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions tour either Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. Here, rugby football differs internationally to association football, as the England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (including the Republic of Ireland) teams combine to form the British and Irish Lions although they compete separately in all other international competitions.
The game of tennis first originated from the UK's second city of Birmingham between 1859 and 1865. The Wimbledon Championships are international tennis events held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are regarded as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar.
Thoroughbred racing is also very popular throughout the UK. It originated under Charles II of England as the "Sport of Kings" and is a royal pastime to this day. World-famous horse races include the Grand National, the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot. The town of Newmarket is considered to be the centre of English racing[citation needed].
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, generally regarded as the world's "Home of Golf".
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, generally regarded as the world's "Home of Golf".
Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK, with St Andrews in Scotland being the sport's home course. Cricket is also popular, although the popularity of the game is dramatically greater in England than in other parts of the UK, all four constituent nations as of 2006 compete at the One-Day International level — Scotland independently, Wales as part of the English team, and Northern Ireland as part of all-Ireland.
Shinty (or camanachd) (a sport derived from the same root as the Irish hurling and similar to bandy) is popular in the Scottish Highlands, sometimes attracting crowds numbering thousands in the most sparsely populated region of the UK.
The country is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One (F1) are based in the UK and drivers from Britain have won more world titles than any other country. The country also hosts legs of the F1 and World Rally Championship and has its own Touring Car Racing championship, the BTCC. The British Grand Prix takes place at Silverstone each July.
[edit] Visual art
Main article: Art of the United Kingdom
Flint Castle, by J. M. W. Turner (c.1775 – 1851).
Flint Castle, by J. M. W. Turner (c.1775 – 1851).
The Royal Academy is located in London. Other major schools of art include the Slade School of Art; the six-school University of the Arts, London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design; the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths, University of London. This commercial venture is one of Britain's foremost visual arts organisations. Major British artists include Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, William Morris, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Gilbert and George, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, Howard Hodgkin, Antony Gormley, and Anish Kapoor. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Saatchi Gallery in London brought to public attention a group of multigenre artists who would become known as the Young British Artists. Damian Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracy Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood, and the Chapman Brothers are among the better known members of this loosely affiliated movement.
[edit] Symbols
The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth.
The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth.
* The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag commonly known as the "Union Jack", though this is technically only correct when flown from a Jack Mast at sea. Some people dispute this and claim that the name originated from King James VI who designed the first Union Flag, hence the name "Union Jack" or Jac's Union, Jac being short for Jacobus, a Latinised name commonly used when speaking of the King. Created from the superimposition of the flags of England (St George's Cross) and Scotland (Saint Andrew's Cross), with the Saint Patrick's cross, representing Ireland, being added to this in 1801.
Flag Country Patron saint Flower
Flag of England England St. George Red and White rose
Flag of Scotland Scotland St. Andrew Cotton thistle
Flag of Wales Wales St. David Leek/Daffodil
Flag of Northern Ireland1 Northern Ireland St. Patrick Shamrock/Flax
'^1' There is no official flag of Northern Ireland following the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. However, the Ulster Banner is often used for sporting events. See Northern Ireland flags issue.
* The national anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the King", with "King" replaced with "Queen" whenever the monarch is female. The anthem's name, however, remains "God Save the King".[97]
Flags of the United Kingdom, (England, Scotland, Flag of Wales and the unofficial Northern Irish flag).
Flags of the United Kingdom, (England, Scotland, Flag of Wales and the unofficial Northern Irish flag).
* Britannia is a personification of the United Kingdom, originating from the Roman occupation of southern and central Great Britain.[98] Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding the back of a lion. At and since the height of the British Empire, Britannia has often associated with maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song Rule Britannia.
* The lion has also been used as a symbol of the United Kingdom; one is depicted behind Britannia on the 50 pence piece and one is shown crowned on the back of the 10 pence piece. It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Lions have been used as heraldic devices many times, including in the royal arms of both the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Kingdom of Gwynedd in Wales. The lion is featured on the emblem of the England national football team, giving rise to the popular football anthem Three Lions, and the England national cricket team. The "three lions" on the English coat of arms were originally two leopards. An extra leopard was added by Richard the Lionheart and with the help of his name, they became known as three lions. They are now drawn to look more like lions. Leopards are traditionally depicted lying down whereas lions were drawn standing on all fours or up on their hind legs attacking, as in the Scottish Lion Rampant.
* The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of Great Britain, and is often associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.
* Britain (especially England) has been personified as the character John Bull, although this character is rarely used in modern times.
* The ancient British landscape, and especially some of its distinctive flora such as the oak tree and the rose, have long been a widely used proxy for the visual representation of British identity. The red rose is the emblem of the Labour Party, the England national rugby union team, the Rugby Football Union and Lancashire.
[edit] Miscellaneous data
* Cellular frequency: GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS 2100
* Cellular technology: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
* Date format: DD/MM/YY (example: 22/12/05) or 22 December 2005 (22nd December 2005 widely used also if date is written in words)
* Time format: Generally 12-hour format when spoken or in writing (example: 5:15 pm), 24-hour format is used in some official documentation, timetables and by the military (example: 17:15 or 1715). A full stop may also be used instead of the colon when writing the time; for instance, 5.15 pm.
* Decimal separator is a full stop: 123.45
* Thousands are separated by a comma - 10,000 - or with a space - 10 000.
* In Britain, a billion used to be represented as 1,000,000,000,000 (or one million million) but this has fallen into disuse and a billion is now commonly seen as 1,000,000,000 (or a thousand million).
* Voltage: 230V (+10% / -6%), 50 Hz; British 3-pin power plugs and sockets
* Postal code: UK postcodes
* Driving is on the left.
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every July.
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every July.
A number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, rugby, cricket, tennis and golf.
The most popular sport in the UK is football. The UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Because of this four-team arrangement that the UK does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, there are proposals for a united team taking part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which are to be held in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate, fearing that it would undermine their independent status.
The UK is home to many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. British teams have been successful in European Competitions including some who have become European Cup/UEFA Champions League winners: Liverpool (five times), Manchester United (twice), Nottingham Forest (twice), Aston Villa, and Celtic. More clubs from England have won the European Cup than any other country (four compared to three from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands). Moreover, England ranks second in the all time list of European club trophies won with 35, one behind Italy's 36. The European Cup competition itself was brought about due to the success of another UK club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, against top European sides[94] in the 1950s. The English Premier League is also the most-watched football league in the world and is particularly popular in Asia: in the People's Republic of China, matches attract television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreign sport.[95][96]
The new Wembley Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built costing £793 million ($1.6 billion).
The new Wembley Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built costing £793 million ($1.6 billion).
The 90,000 capacity Wembley Stadium is the main sporting stadium of the UK. Between the demolition of the former 'twin towers' stadium and construction of the new one (completed in March 2007), Cardiff's 73,000 seater Millennium Stadium served in this role.
The early reference to the separate national identities in the UK is perhaps best illustrated by the game of cricket. Cricket was invented in England. There are league championships but the English national team dominates the game in Britain. There is no UK team. Some Irish and Scottish players have played for England because neither Scotland nor Ireland have Test status and only play in One Day Internationals.
The UK has proved successful in the international sporting arena in rowing. It is widely considered that the sport's most successful rower is Steven Redgrave who won five gold medals and one bronze medal at five consecutive Olympic Games as well as numerous wins at the World Rowing Championships and Henley Royal Regatta.
Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby league originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played predominantly in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Southern England. Having supposedly originated from the actions of William Webb Ellis at the School at Rugby, it is considered the national sport of Wales. In rugby league the UK plays as one nation — Great Britain — though in union it is represented by four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (which consists of players from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). England is the holder of the Rugby World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions tour either Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. Here, rugby football differs internationally to association football, as the England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (including the Republic of Ireland) teams combine to form the British and Irish Lions although they compete separately in all other international competitions.
The game of tennis first originated from the UK's second city of Birmingham between 1859 and 1865. The Wimbledon Championships are international tennis events held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are regarded as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar.
Thoroughbred racing is also very popular throughout the UK. It originated under Charles II of England as the "Sport of Kings" and is a royal pastime to this day. World-famous horse races include the Grand National, the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot. The town of Newmarket is considered to be the centre of English racing[citation needed].
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, generally regarded as the world's "Home of Golf".
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, generally regarded as the world's "Home of Golf".
Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK, with St Andrews in Scotland being the sport's home course. Cricket is also popular, although the popularity of the game is dramatically greater in England than in other parts of the UK, all four constituent nations as of 2006 compete at the One-Day International level — Scotland independently, Wales as part of the English team, and Northern Ireland as part of all-Ireland.
Shinty (or camanachd) (a sport derived from the same root as the Irish hurling and similar to bandy) is popular in the Scottish Highlands, sometimes attracting crowds numbering thousands in the most sparsely populated region of the UK.
The country is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One (F1) are based in the UK and drivers from Britain have won more world titles than any other country. The country also hosts legs of the F1 and World Rally Championship and has its own Touring Car Racing championship, the BTCC. The British Grand Prix takes place at Silverstone each July.
[edit] Visual art
Main article: Art of the United Kingdom
Flint Castle, by J. M. W. Turner (c.1775 – 1851).
Flint Castle, by J. M. W. Turner (c.1775 – 1851).
The Royal Academy is located in London. Other major schools of art include the Slade School of Art; the six-school University of the Arts, London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design; the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths, University of London. This commercial venture is one of Britain's foremost visual arts organisations. Major British artists include Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, William Morris, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Gilbert and George, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, Howard Hodgkin, Antony Gormley, and Anish Kapoor. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Saatchi Gallery in London brought to public attention a group of multigenre artists who would become known as the Young British Artists. Damian Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracy Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood, and the Chapman Brothers are among the better known members of this loosely affiliated movement.
[edit] Symbols
The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth.
The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth.
* The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag commonly known as the "Union Jack", though this is technically only correct when flown from a Jack Mast at sea. Some people dispute this and claim that the name originated from King James VI who designed the first Union Flag, hence the name "Union Jack" or Jac's Union, Jac being short for Jacobus, a Latinised name commonly used when speaking of the King. Created from the superimposition of the flags of England (St George's Cross) and Scotland (Saint Andrew's Cross), with the Saint Patrick's cross, representing Ireland, being added to this in 1801.
Flag Country Patron saint Flower
Flag of England England St. George Red and White rose
Flag of Scotland Scotland St. Andrew Cotton thistle
Flag of Wales Wales St. David Leek/Daffodil
Flag of Northern Ireland1 Northern Ireland St. Patrick Shamrock/Flax
'^1' There is no official flag of Northern Ireland following the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. However, the Ulster Banner is often used for sporting events. See Northern Ireland flags issue.
* The national anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the King", with "King" replaced with "Queen" whenever the monarch is female. The anthem's name, however, remains "God Save the King".[97]
Flags of the United Kingdom, (England, Scotland, Flag of Wales and the unofficial Northern Irish flag).
Flags of the United Kingdom, (England, Scotland, Flag of Wales and the unofficial Northern Irish flag).
* Britannia is a personification of the United Kingdom, originating from the Roman occupation of southern and central Great Britain.[98] Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding the back of a lion. At and since the height of the British Empire, Britannia has often associated with maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song Rule Britannia.
* The lion has also been used as a symbol of the United Kingdom; one is depicted behind Britannia on the 50 pence piece and one is shown crowned on the back of the 10 pence piece. It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Lions have been used as heraldic devices many times, including in the royal arms of both the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Kingdom of Gwynedd in Wales. The lion is featured on the emblem of the England national football team, giving rise to the popular football anthem Three Lions, and the England national cricket team. The "three lions" on the English coat of arms were originally two leopards. An extra leopard was added by Richard the Lionheart and with the help of his name, they became known as three lions. They are now drawn to look more like lions. Leopards are traditionally depicted lying down whereas lions were drawn standing on all fours or up on their hind legs attacking, as in the Scottish Lion Rampant.
* The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of Great Britain, and is often associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.
* Britain (especially England) has been personified as the character John Bull, although this character is rarely used in modern times.
* The ancient British landscape, and especially some of its distinctive flora such as the oak tree and the rose, have long been a widely used proxy for the visual representation of British identity. The red rose is the emblem of the Labour Party, the England national rugby union team, the Rugby Football Union and Lancashire.
[edit] Miscellaneous data
* Cellular frequency: GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS 2100
* Cellular technology: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
* Date format: DD/MM/YY (example: 22/12/05) or 22 December 2005 (22nd December 2005 widely used also if date is written in words)
* Time format: Generally 12-hour format when spoken or in writing (example: 5:15 pm), 24-hour format is used in some official documentation, timetables and by the military (example: 17:15 or 1715). A full stop may also be used instead of the colon when writing the time; for instance, 5.15 pm.
* Decimal separator is a full stop: 123.45
* Thousands are separated by a comma - 10,000 - or with a space - 10 000.
* In Britain, a billion used to be represented as 1,000,000,000,000 (or one million million) but this has fallen into disuse and a billion is now commonly seen as 1,000,000,000 (or a thousand million).
* Voltage: 230V (+10% / -6%), 50 Hz; British 3-pin power plugs and sockets
* Postal code: UK postcodes
* Driving is on the left.
United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Ten things you didn't know about Wikipedia •
Jump to: navigation, search
“UK” redirects here. For other uses, see UK (disambiguation).
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[10]
Flag of the United Kingdom Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
Flag Royal coat of arms
Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [11] (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen"[12]
Location of the United Kingdom
Location of the United Kingdom (dark green)
– on the European continent (light green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (light green)
Capital
(and largest city) London
[show location on an interactive map] 51°30′N, 0°7′W
Official languages English[13] (de facto)
Recognised regional languages Irish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish[14]
Demonym British, Briton
Government Constitutional monarchy (Parliamentary democracy)
- Monarch HM Queen Elizabeth II
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Formation
- Acts of Union May 1, 1707
- Act of Union January 1, 1801
- Anglo-Irish Treaty April 12, 1922
Accession to
the European Union January 1, 1973
Area
- Total 244,820 km² (79th)
94,526 sq mi
- Water (%) 1.34
Population
- mid-2006 estimate 60,587,300[1] (22nd)
- 2001 census 58,789,194[15]
- Density 246 /km² (48th)
637 /sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.006 trillion (6th)
- Per capita $35,051 (11th)
GDP (nominal) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.373 trillion[16] (5th)
- Per capita $38,624 (13th)
Gini? (1999) 36.8 (medium)
HDI (2006) 0.940 (high) (18th)
Currency Pound sterling (£) (GBP)
Time zone GMT (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST) BST (UTC+1)
Internet TLD .uk[17]
Calling code +44
^ In the United Kingdom and Dependencies, some 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: Ríocht Aontaithe na Breataine Móire agus Thuaisceart Éireann; Scots: Unitit Kinrick o Graet Breetain an Northren Irland; Scottish Gaelic: An Rìoghachd Aonaichte na Breatainn Mhòr agus Eirinn 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 also 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 also 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".[2][3] The Bòrd na Gàidhlig is tasked with "securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language".[4]
^ 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[5]. See also Languages in the United Kingdom.
^ CIA Factbook. Official estimate provided by the UK Office for National Statistics.[6]
^ ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 is GB, but .gb is practically unused. The .eu domain is also shared with other European Union member states.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (also known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain)[7] is a country[8] and sovereign state to the north-west of mainland Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain, the north-east part of the island of Ireland and many small local islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.[9][10][11] Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain, its largest island is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.
The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy comprising four constituent countries — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales — with Elizabeth II as 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.[12] The UK has fourteen overseas territories,[13] all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface. It is a developed country, with the fifth-largest economy in the world.
Britain was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th century,[14] but the economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished its role and status in global affairs. The UK nevertheless retains major economic, cultural, military and political influence today and is a nuclear power, with the second 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.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
* 2 Government and politics
o 2.1 Administrative subdivisions
o 2.2 Law
o 2.3 Foreign relations
* 3 Geography
o 3.1 Topography
o 3.2 Climate
o 3.3 Cities and urban areas
+ 3.3.1 Largest cities
+ 3.3.2 Urban areas
* 4 Demography
o 4.1 Population
o 4.2 Migration and ethnicity
o 4.3 Language
o 4.4 Religion
+ 4.4.1 Christianity
+ 4.4.2 Islam
+ 4.4.3 Other religions
* 5 Economy
o 5.1 Currency
* 6 Infrastructure
* 7 Armed forces
* 8 Culture
o 8.1 Cinema
o 8.2 Education
o 8.3 Literature
o 8.4 Media
+ 8.4.1 Broadcasting
+ 8.4.2 Print
o 8.5 Music
o 8.6 Philosophy
o 8.7 Science, engineering and innovation
o 8.8 Sport
o 8.9 Visual art
* 9 Symbols
* 10 Miscellaneous data
* 11 References
* 12 External links
[edit] History
Main article: History of the United Kingdom
The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
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.[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.[16] Independence for the Irish Free State in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[17]
Britain was an important part of the Age of Enlightenment with philosophical and scientific input and a literary and theatrical tradition. 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.[18] 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, while the passing of the 1807 Slave Trade Act also made the UK the first nation to prohibit trade in slaves.
The British Empire in 1897. The largest in history, the British Empire led to the spread of the English language.
The British Empire in 1897. The largest in history, the British Empire led to the spread of the English language.
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.
In the 19th century the country played an important role in the development of parliamentary democracy, partly through the emergence of a multi-party system. 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.
After the Great War, 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. 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 and physically 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 health services, while the demands of a recovering economy brought people from all over 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 currency 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 the mid-1990s onward these trends of growth largely continued under the leadership of Tony Blair.
The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The attitude of the present Labour government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed,[19] with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state,[20] and the Liberal Democrats supportive of current engagement.
[edit] Government and politics
Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom
Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as head of state; the monarch of the UK also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The UK uses a parliamentary government based on strong democratic traditions, a system that has been emulated around the world — 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.[21] 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).[22]
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, 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 Prime Minister exercises vast political power, especially in the appointment of other officials within the government and civil service. Gordon Brown, 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 is the national legislature of the United Kingdom; housed in the Palace of Westminster, it is the ultimate legislative authority in the UK, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. However, questions over sovereignty have been brought forward due to the UK's membership within the European Union.[23] The parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a constituency; general elections are called by the Monarch when the Prime Minister so advises. There is no minimum term for a Parliament, but a new election must be called within five years of the last general election.
The Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster
The UK's three major political parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats. Other parties such as the Scottish National Party and Sinn Féin hold the remainder of seats in the House.
[edit] Administrative subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is divided into four home nations or constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The latter three each has a unicameral legislature, devolved from the United Kingdom Parliament, which relates specifically to each constituent country: the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Each also has its own Executive, led by a First Minister, which controls separate law making and constitutional powers devolved from Westminster. However, despite being the largest of the United Kingdom's four constituent countries, England, (with the exception of the Greater London Authority), has no devolved executive; it is ruled directly by the UK government.
Each nation is further subdivided for the purposes of local government. The Queen appoints a Lord-Lieutenant as her personal representative in lieutenancy areas across the UK; this is little more than a ceremonial role. The following table highlights the arrangements for local government, lieutenancy areas and cities across the home nations:
Manchester Town Hall. Many towns and cities reflect their "civic pride" with public buildings.
Manchester Town Hall. Many towns and cities reflect their "civic pride" with public buildings.
Country Status[24] Population Subdivisions Cities
England Kingdom 50,431,700
Regions
Metropolitan and
non-metropolitan counties
Lieutenancy areas
English cities
Scotland Kingdom 5,094,800
Council areas
Lieutenancy areas
Scottish cities
Wales Principality 2,958,600
Unitary authorities
Lieutenancy areas
Welsh cities
Northern Ireland Province 1,724,400
Districts
Traditional counties
Northern Ireland cities
Historically, the four nations were divided into counties as areas for local government administration. Although these are still used to some extent for this purpose and as geographical areas, they are no longer the sole basis for local government administration.
In recent years, England has, for some purposes, been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, 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 referendum, of a proposed assembly in the North East region.
City status is governed by Royal Charter. There are sixty-six British cities: fifty in England; six in Scotland; five in Wales; and five in Northern Ireland.
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 also 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 also has fourteen overseas territories around the world, the last remaining territories of the British Empire. The overseas territories are also not considered part of the UK, but in most cases the local populations have British citizenship and the right to abode in the UK. This has been the case since 2002.
[edit] Law
Main article: Law of the United Kingdom
Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland.
Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland.
The United Kingdom has three distinct systems of law. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles. Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The Act of Union 1707 guarantees the continued existence of a separate law system for Scotland.
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 all criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for all 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.[25]
In England and Wales, 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). 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 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.
[edit] Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is also a member state of the European Union, and is one of the three 'big powers' of the EU, along with Germany and France. The United Kingdom also enjoys a "Special Relationship" with the United States. Britain's close allies outside of Europe include members of the Anglosphere and Commonwealth of Nations, a legacy of the British Empire. With its membership of the G8 and NATO, Britain has influence in international institutions. Britain's global presence is amplified through its trading relations and its armed forces, which maintains approximately eighty military installations and other deployments around the globe.[26]
[edit] Geography
Main article: Geography of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is in Western Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain (most of England, Scotland and Wales) and the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland), together with many smaller islands. The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49° and 59° N (the Shetland Islands reach to nearly 61° N), and longitudes 8° W to 2° E. The Royal Greenwich Observatory, near London, is the defining point of the Prime Meridian. The United Kingdom has a total area of approximately 245,000 square kilometres (94,600 sq mi). The UK lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and comes within 35 kilometres (22 mi) of the north-west coast of France, from which it is separated by the English Channel. Northern Ireland shares a 360 kilometres (224 mi) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The Channel Tunnel ("Chunnel") now links the UK with France beneath the English Channel.
[edit] Topography
Map of the United Kingdom.
Map of the United Kingdom.
Ben Nevis in the Grampian Mountains, is the highest point in the British Isles
Ben Nevis in the Grampian Mountains, is the highest point in the British Isles
Most of England consists of lowland terrain, with some mountainous terrain in the north-west (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District), north (the upland moors of the Pennines and limestone hills of the Peak District) and south-west (Exmoor and Dartmoor) by the Tees-Exe line. Lower ranges include the limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds and Lincolnshire Wolds, and the chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike, which is in the Lake District 978 metres (3,209 ft).
Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). There are many long and deep sea arms, firths, and lochs. There are nearly eight hundred islands in Scotland, mainly west and north of the mainland, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. In total, it is estimated that the UK includes around one thousand islands.[27]
Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, however South Wales is less mountainous than North and Mid Wales. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn).
Three Cliffs Bay, Gower Peninsula.
Three Cliffs Bay, Gower Peninsula.
Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. It includes Lough Neagh, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi), the largest body of water in the UK and Ireland.[28] The highest peak is Slieve Donard at 849 metres (2,785 ft) in the province's Mourne Mountains.
The greatest distance between two points on the UK mainland of Great Britain is 1,350 kilometres (840 mi) between Land's End in Cornwall (near Penzance) and John O'Groats in Caithness (near Thurso), a two day journey by car. When measured directly north-south it is a little over 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) in length and is a fraction under 500 kilometres (300 mi) at its widest.
[edit] Climate
Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom
All parts of the United Kingdom have a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons but seldom drops below −10 °C or rises above 32 °C. The prevailing wind is from the south-west, bearing frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean. Eastern parts are most sheltered from this wind and are therefore the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters, especially in the west, where winters are also wet, especially over high ground. Summers are warmest in the south east of England, being closest to the European mainland, and coolest in the north. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, though it rarely settles to any great depth away from high ground.
Absolute temperature ranges:
* England: 38.5 °C on 10 August 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, Kent, to −26.1 °C on 10 January 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire.
* Wales: 35.2 °C in Hawarden Bridge, Flintshire on 2 August 1990, to -23.3 °C in Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940.
* Scotland: 32.9 °C at Greycrook, Scottish Borders on 9 August 2003 to -27.2 °C recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982 and also at Altnaharra, Sutherland, on 30 December 1995.
* Northern Ireland: 30.8 °C at Knockarevan, near Belleek, County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 and at Belfast on 12 July 1983, to -17.5 °C at Magherally, near Banbridge, County Down on 1 January 1979.
[edit] Cities and urban areas
Main article: City status in the United Kingdom
The four capitals of the United Kingdom's constituent countries are London (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). London is also the capital of the UK.
[edit] Largest cities
Main article: List of United Kingdom cities by population
* above 7 million: London
* above 1 million: Birmingham
* above 500,000: Glasgow
* 400,000 – 500,000: Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Bristol
* 300,000 – 400,000: Manchester, Leicester, Coventry, Hull
* 250,000 – 300,000: Bradford, Cardiff, Belfast, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton
* 200,000 – 250,000: Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Reading, Derby
The term "second city" has been disputed in several ways. Birmingham is typically accepted as the second city, although many view Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool to be the second city.
[edit] Urban areas
Main article: List of conurbations in the United Kingdom
* Greater London Urban Area (8.5 million) (Metropolitan area: 12 - 14 million)
* West Midlands conurbation (2.28 million)
* Greater Manchester Urban Area (2.24 million)
* West Yorkshire Urban Area (1.5 million)
* Greater Glasgow (1.16 million)
[edit] Demography
Main article: Demography of the United Kingdom
The populations and percentage of total population in the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The populations and percentage of total population in the four nations of the United Kingdom.
[edit] Population
At the April 2001 UK Census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. This had been estimated up to 59,834,300 by the Office for National Statistics in 2004.[29] Two years later it had increased to 60.2 million, largely from net immigration, but also because of a rising birth rate and increasing life expectancy.[30]
The UK's overall population density is one of the highest in the world. About a quarter of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban,[31] with an estimated 7,517,700 in the capital of London.[32]
[edit] Migration and ethnicity
Main article: Ethnic groups of the United Kingdom
Located as they are on a group of islands close to Continental Europe, the lands now constituting the United Kingdom have historically been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent - including Roman occupation for several centuries. Present day Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in northern France (Normandy). Since 1945, international ties forged by the British Empire have contributed to substantial immigration, especially from Africa and South Asia, and, most recently, the accession of new EU members in 2004 has fuelled more immigration from continental Europe. As of 2001, 13.1% (5.2% white, 7.9% non-white[33] ) of the UK population identified themselves as an ethnic minority.[34]
Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom.
Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom.
Ethnic group ↓ Population ↓ % of total* ↓
White British &&&&&&&050366497.&&&&&050,366,497 85.7%
White Irish &&&&&&&&&0691232.&&&&&0691,232 1.2%
White (other) &&&&&&&&03096169.&&&&&03,096,169 5.3%
Mixed race &&&&&&&&&0677117.&&&&&0677,117 1.2%
Indian &&&&&&&&01053411.&&&&&01,053,411 1.8%
Pakistani &&&&&&&&&0747285.&&&&&0747,285 1.3%
Bengali &&&&&&&&&0283063.&&&&&0283,063 0.5%
Other Asian (non-Chinese) &&&&&&&&&0247644.&&&&&0247,644 0.4%
Black Caribbean &&&&&&&&&0565876.&&&&&0565,876 1.0%
Black African &&&&&&&&&0485277.&&&&&0485,277 0.8%
Black (others) &&&&&&&&&&097585.&&&&&097,585 0.2%
Chinese &&&&&&&&&0247403.&&&&&0247,403 0.4%
Other &&&&&&&&&0230615.&&&&&0230,615 0.4%
* Percentage of total UK population
In contrast with some other European countries, high foreign-born immigration is contributing to a rising population[35], accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. The latest official figures (2005) show net immigration to the UK of 185,000, 565,000 immigrants and 380,000 emigrants, down from a record high of 223,000 in 2004.[36][37] Immigration from the Indian subcontinent, mainly fuelled by family reunion, accounted for two-thirds of net immigration.[38] High minority group percentages are found in London (40.1%),[39] Birmingham (34.4%),[40] and Leicester (39.5%).[41] By contrast, at least 5.5 million British-born people are living abroad.[42][43][44][45] The most popular emigrant destinations were Australia, Spain and France.[46][47]
A study by a city forecaster, however, contends that the above immigration figures are unreliable and that net immigration for 2005 was circa 400,000.[48] Nonetheless, the proportion of foreign-born people in the UK population remains slightly below that of some other European countries.[49]
In 2004 the number of people who became British citizens rose to a record 140,795 - a rise of 12% on the previous year. This number had risen dramatically since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest three groups being people from Pakistan, India and Somalia.[50] One in five babies in the UK are born to immigrant mothers, according to official statistics released in 2007 that also show the highest birth rates in Britain for 26 years.[51]
Figures published in August 2007 indicate that 682,940 people applied to the Worker Registration Scheme (for nationals of the central and eastern European states that joined the EU in May 2004) between 1 May 2004 and 31 June 2007, of whom 656,395 were accepted.[52] Self-employed workers and people who are not working (including students) are not required to register under the scheme so this figure represents a lower limit on immigration inflow. These figures do not indicate the number of immigrants who have since returned home, but 56 per cent of applicants in the 12 months ending 30 June 2007 reported planning to stay for a maximum of three months. Of the 2.5million foreign workers who moved to the UK to work, the majority were from EU countries[53], but net migration in 2005 from the new EU states stood at 64,000.[36]
[edit] Language
Main article: Languages of the United Kingdom
Countries where English has de facto official or official language status.
Countries where English has de facto official or official language status.
Though the UK does not have a de jure official language, the predominant spoken language is English, a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large number of borrowings from Old Norse and Norman. The other indigenous languages are Scots (which is closely related to English) and the Insular Celtic languages (which are not). The latter fall into two groups: the P-Celtic languages (Welsh and the Cornish language); and the Q-Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep (see Yan Tan Tethera).
The English language has spread to all corners of the world (largely due to the British Empire) and has thus become the business language of the world. Worldwide, it is taught as a second language more than any other.[54] The United Kingdom's Celtic languages are also spoken by small groups around the globe, mainly Gaelic in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.
Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi speakers outside of Asia.[citation needed]It has recently acquired many speakers of Eastern European languages, notably Polish.
[edit] Religion
Main article: Religion in the United Kingdom
Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England, which itself is the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England, which itself is the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
The UK is primarily Christian; the Church of England is officially established, and 71.6% of people identified themselves as Christian in the 2001 UK Census.[55]. But the population has become more secular; only 38%[56] of the population believe in a God and 66% have no church connections.[57]. For cultural reasons, some non believers still identify themselves with a religion.
[edit] Christianity
Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of all British Monarchs, who are also made the head of the Church of England.
Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of all British Monarchs, who are also made the head of the Church of England.
Christianity is the majority religion, and there is a wide variety of Christian churches, denominations, and sects. Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has distinctive churches.
Scotland and northern England were evangelised first, by Celtic missionaries from Ireland, such as Ninian, Columba and Aidan. Augustine was subsequently sent to southern England by Pope Gregory I in 597.
The English Church split from Rome in 1534, during the reign of Henry VIII of England (see English Reformation). Today, the Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The British monarch is required to be a member of the Church of England under the Act of Settlement 1701 and is the Supreme Governor. The senior bishop of the Church of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Church of Scotland (known informally as the Kirk) broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1560 (see Calvinism and Scottish Reformation). Today it is a Presbyterian church, recognised as the national church of Scotland, and not subject to state control. The British monarch is an ordinary member, and is required to swear an oath to "defend the security" of the Church at the coronation. The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion, dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690. Further splits in the Church of Scotland, especially in the nineteenth century, led to the creation of various other Presbyterian churches in Scotland, including the Free Church of Scotland.
In the 1920s, the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and became disestablished (lost its status as the state religion). However the Church in Wales remains in the Anglican Communion. Methodism and other independent churches are traditionally strong in Wales.
The Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in the nineteenth century. It covers the entire island of Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). In Northern Ireland the Catholic Church in Ireland is the largest single denomination, although Protestants are in the majority overall. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the largest Protestant denomination and is in terms of theology and history closely linked to the Church of Scotland
The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest denomination of Christianity in the UK. After the Protestant Reformation, strict laws were passed against Catholics; these were removed by the Catholic Emancipation laws in 1829. There are separate Catholic hierarchies for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Other large Christian groups include the Methodists (founded by John Wesley in London) and the Baptists. There are also growing Evangelical or Pentecostal churches, many of which have flourished with immigration from around the Commonwealth and beyond.
After some years of decline in the UK Christianity, a Tearfund Survey[57] in 2007 suggests that numbers identifying themselves as Christian have stabilised at 53%, whereas in the 2001 census the proportion was 71% - note these numbers are not comparable because the phrasing of the question was different in each survey. According to the Tear Fund survey, 15% of people in the UK attend "church" at least once a month.
[edit] Islam
Muslims in the United Kingdom are believed to number 1.8 million ,[58]. Mosques are present in most regions: The biggest groups are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. More recently, refugees from Somalia, Northern Cyprus, the Balkans and Arab countries have increased Britain's Muslim population. The 2006 controversy over the burqa, brought up in comments by politician Jack Straw, reflects a split between some Britons questioning the extent to which traditionalist forms of Islam are compatible with British society, and others who believe that wearing the veil is compatible with Muslim integration in Britain.[59]
[edit] Other religions
Religions of Indian origin, such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism are followed in Britain. As of the 2001 census, there are about 560,000 Hindus and 340,000 Sikhs. Buddhism is practised by about 150,000[60] It is likely that these figures have increased since 2001. One non-governmental organisation estimates that there are 800,000 Hindus in the UK.[61] Leicester houses one of the world's few Jain temples that are outside of India. There are approximately 260,000 Jews in England and Wales, according to the 2001 census. 390,127 individuals proclaimed themselves as "Jedi Knight" in the 2001 census, though this is likely to have coincided with the Star Wars film on release at the time.
[edit] Economy
Main article: Economy of the United Kingdom
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre and leading centre of global finance.
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre and leading centre of global finance.[62]
London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is the leader of the three "command centres" for the global economy (along with New York City and Tokyo).[63] For over twenty-five years, the British economy has corresponded with what has been described by some since the 1980s as the Anglo-Saxon model, focusing on the principles of liberalisation, the free market, and low taxation and regulation. Based on market exchange rates, the United Kingdom is the fifth largest economy in the world,[64] and the second largest in Europe after Germany.
The British started the Industrial Revolution, and, like most industrialising countries at the time, initially concentrated on heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining, steel production, and textiles. The empire created an overseas market for British products, allowing the United Kingdom to dominate international trade in the 19th century. However, as other nations industrialised and surplus labour from agriculture began to dry up coupled with economic decline after two world wars, the United Kingdom began to lose its economic advantage. As a result, heavy industry declined, by degrees, throughout the 20th century. The British service sector, however, has grown substantially, and now makes up about 73% of GDP.[65]
The Bank of England; the central bank of the United Kingdom.
The Bank of England; the central bank of the United Kingdom.
The service sector of the United Kingdom is dominated by financial services, especially in banking and insurance. London is the world's largest financial centre with the London Stock Exchange, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, and the Lloyd's of London insurance market all based in The City. It also has the largest concentration of foreign bank branches in the world. In the past decade, a rival financial centre in London has grown in the Docklands area, with HSBC and Barclays Bank relocating their head offices there. Many multinational companies that are not primarily UK-based have chosen to site their European or rest-of-world headquarters in London: an example is the US financial services firm Citigroup. The Scottish capital, Edinburgh, also has one of the large financial centres of Europe.[66]
Tourism is very important to the British economy. With over 27 million tourists a year, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world.[67]
The British manufacturing sector, however, has greatly diminished, relative to the economy as a whole, since World War II. It is still a significant part of the economy, but only accounted for one-sixth of national output in 2003.[68] The British motor industry is a significant part of this sector, although it has diminished with the collapse of MG Rover and most of the industry is foreign owned. Civil and defence aircraft production is led by the United Kingdom's largest aerospace firm, BAE Systems, and the continental European firm EADS, the owners of Airbus. Rolls-Royce holds a major share of the global aerospace engines market. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry is also strong in the UK, with the world's second and sixth largest pharmaceutical firms (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, respectively)[69] being based in the UK.
The creative industries accounted for 7.3% GVA in 2004 and grew at an average of 5% per annum between 1997 and 2004.[70]
The United Kingdom's agriculture sector accounts for only 0.9% of the country's GDP.[71]
The UK has a small coal reserve along with significant natural gas, and oil reserves, although the natural gas and oil reserves are diminishing.
Government involvement throughout the economy is exercised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (currently Alistair Darling) who heads HM Treasury, but the Prime Minister (currently Gordon Brown), is First Lord of the Treasury; the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the Second Lord of the Treasury. However since 1997, the Bank of England, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has control of interest rates and other monetary policy.
[edit] Currency
New Bank of England £20 note.
New Bank of England £20 note.
The currency of the UK is the pound sterling, represented by the symbol £. The Bank of England is the central bank, responsible for issuing currency. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover the issue. The UK chose not to join the Euro at the currency's launch, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ruled out membership for the foreseeable future, saying that the decision not to join had been right for Britain and for Europe.[72] The government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair had pledged to hold a public referendum for deciding membership should "five economic tests" be met. In 2005, more than half (55%) of the UK were against adopting the currency, whilst 30% were in favour.[73]
[edit] Infrastructure
Main articles: Transport in the United Kingdom and Telecommunications in the United Kingdom
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of international passengers.
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of international passengers.
The government's Department for Transport oversees the well-developed transport system in the United Kingdom. A radial road network of 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads is centred on London, Edinburgh and Belfast, whilst, in Great Britain, a motorway network of 2,173 miles (3,497 km) is centred on Birmingham, Manchester and London. There are a further 213,750 kilometers
(132,818 mi) of paved roads.
The National Rail network of 10,072 route miles (16,116 route km) in Great Britain and 189 route miles (303 route km) in Northern Ireland carries over 18,000 passenger trains and 1,000 freight trains daily. Urban rail networks are also well developed in London and several other cities. There was once over 30,000 route miles of rail network in the UK, however most of this was reduced over a time period from 1955 to 1975, much of it after a report by a government advisor Richard Beeching in the mid 1960s (known as the Beeching Axe).
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest international airport, and being an island nation the UK has a considerable network of sea ports, which received over 558 million tonnes of goods in 2003 – 04.
[edit] Armed forces
Main article: British Armed Forces
HMS Invincible. Two Invincible class aircraft carriers are currently in service. A third carrier is in reserve.
HMS Invincible. Two Invincible class aircraft carriers are currently in service. A third carrier is in reserve.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are collectively known as the British Armed Forces (or Her Majesty's Armed Forces) and officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. The commander-in-chief is the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. The armed forces are controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Chief of the Defence Staff.
The United Kingdom fields one of the most technologically advanced and best trained armed forces in the world. According to various sources, including the Ministry of Defence, the UK has the second highest military expenditure in the world,[74][75] despite only having the 28th largest military in terms of manpower. Total defence spending currently accounts for 2.2% of total national GDP, compared to 4.4% at the end of the Cold War.[76] It is also the second largest spender on military science, engineering and technology.[77] The Royal Navy is considered to be the only other blue-water navy along with those of France and the United States.[78] The British Armed Forces are equipped with many advanced weapons systems, including the Challenger 2 tank and the Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighter. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed the acquisition of two new Aircraft Carriers on 25 July 2007.
A Trident II SLBM being launched from one of the Royal Navy's 4 Vanguard class submarines as a test launch.
A Trident II SLBM being launched from one of the Royal Navy's 4 Vanguard class submarines as a test launch.
The United Kingdom is one of the five recognised countries possessing nuclear weapons, utilising the Vanguard class submarine-based Trident II ballistic missile system.
The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's global security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, as well as the Five Power Defence Arrangements and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained at Ascension Island, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya, and Cyprus.[79][80]
The British Army had a reported strength of 102,440 in 2005,[81] the Royal Air Force a strength of 49,210 and the 36,320-strong Royal Navy, which includes the Royal Marines, who provide commando units specialising in amphibious warfare.
The United Kingdom Special Forces, provide troops trained for quick, mobile, military responses in counter-terrorism, land, maritime and amphibious operations, often where secrecy or covert tactics are required.
There are also reserve forces supporting the regular military. These include the Territorial Army, the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marines Reserve and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. This puts total active and reserve duty military personnel at approximately 429,500, deployed in over eighty countries.
Despite the United Kingdom's military capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that "the most demanding operations" would be undertaken as part of a coalition.[82] Setting aside the intervention in Sierra Leone, operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq may all be taken as precedent. Indeed the last war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982.
[edit] Culture
Main article: Culture of the United Kingdom
[edit] Cinema
Main article: Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has been influential in the development of cinema, with the Ealing Studios claiming to be the oldest studios in the world. Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity, and the influences of American and European cinema. Famous films include the Harry Potter and Ian Fleming's James Bond series which, although now made by American studios, used British source materials, locations, actors and filming crew.
[edit] Education
Further information: Education in the United Kingdom
Pembroke College, part of the University of Cambridge, England.
Pembroke College, part of the University of Cambridge, England.
The United Kingdom's official literacy rate (99%) is normal by developed country standards. Universal state education was introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696, see Education in Scotland).[83] Education is mandatory from ages five to sixteen (15 if born in late July or August).
The majority of children in the UK are educated in state-sector schools, only a small proportion of which select on the grounds of academic ability. Around 7% of children in the UK are educated privately, the vast majority at the anachronistically named public schools. The products of public schools make up about 50% of students at the leading universities of Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the majority of doctors, judges and business leaders. State schools which are allowed to select pupils according to intelligence and academic ability can achieve comparable results to public schools: out of the top ten performing schools in terms of GCSE results in 2006 two were state-run grammar schools.
Some of the UK's 138 university level institutions are internationally renowned, especially those of Cambridge, Oxford, and London.[84] In the 2006 THES - QS World University Rankings,[85] 30 UK institutions were ranked amongst the top 200 universities in the world.
[edit] Literature
Main article: British literature
The Chandos portrait, believed to depict the famed playwright William Shakespeare.
The Chandos portrait, believed to depict the famed playwright William Shakespeare.
The countries that make up the United Kingdom have provided some of the world's most notable and popular authors, poets and literary figures. The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.[86][87][88]
In the history of the novel England is particularly well represented. Early English writers included Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the 18th century, Samuel Richardson (often credited with inventing the modern novel), and subsequently Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and Jane Austen all innovated in the novel form, followed by Thackeray, the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Anthony Trollope. In the twentieth century, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, the Modernists Virginia Woolf and Henry Green, E. M. Forster, George Orwell and Graham Greene were prominent. More recently, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Alan Hollinghurst, Ben Okri, Will Self, Monica Ali, and Zadie Smith were among those gaining recognition, while children's author J. K. Rowling has seen immense popularity, recalling that of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Scotland has also contributed many notable writers to the UK’s literary tradition with writers including Arthur Conan Doyle, Kenneth Grahame and Lewis Grassic Gibbon and has a particularly strong heritage in poetry.
In Romantic literature, Scotland saw Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson's epic adventures and one of the world's most celebrated poets , Robert Burns. Modern Scottish writers like Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn helped develop a distinct modernist and nationalist Scottish voice, sometimes termed the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's stories and the psychological horror-comedy of Iain Banks. Other notable authors from Scotland include Muriel Spark, Alasdair Gray, Alan Warner, and Irvine Welsh.
Scotland is also home to UNESCO's first worldwide city of literature - Edinburgh.
In the early medieval period, Welsh writers composed the Mabinogion. In modern times, the poets R.S. Thomas and Dylan Thomas have brought Welsh culture to an international audience.
Many authors from other nationalities, particularly from Ireland, or from Commonwealth countries, have also lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and more recently British authors born abroad such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Sir Salman Rushdie.
There have been many British poets; the best known include Robert Burns, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and John Betjeman.
The history of the theatre in the United Kingdom is particularly vivid. Shakespeare's contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson add depth to the early theatre. More recently Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism; with successful recent playwrights also including John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Alan Bennett and David Hare.
Further information: English literature, Scottish literature and Welsh literature
[edit] Media
Main article: Media of the United Kingdom
The prominence of the English language gives the UK media a widespread international dimension.
[edit] Broadcasting
The BBC is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world. It operates several television channels and radio stations both in the UK and abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World, is broadcast throughout the world and the BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in thirty-three languages globally.
The domestic services of the BBC are funded by the television licence, a legal requirement for any British household with a television receiver that is in use to receive broadcasts, regardless of whether or not the householders watch BBC channels. Households which are the principal residence of any person over 75 are exempt[89] and the requirement does not extend to radio listeners. The BBC World Service Radio is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the television stations are operated by BBC Worldwide on a commercial subscription basis over cable and satellite services. It is also this commercial arm of the BBC that forms half of UKTV along with Virgin Media.
There are five major nationwide television channels in the UK: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five - all currently transmitted by analogue terrestrial, free-to-air signals with the latter three channels funded by commercial advertising.
The UK now also has a large number of digital terrestrial channels including a further six from the BBC, five from ITV and three from Channel 4 among a variety of others.
The vast majority of digital cable services are provided by Virgin Media with satellite being provided by BSkyB and free-to-air digital terrestrial television by Freeview. The entire country will switch to digital by 2012.
Radio in the UK is dominated by BBC Radio, which operates ten national networks and over forty local radio stations. The most popular radio station, by number of listeners, is BBC Radio 2, closely followed by BBC Radio 1. There are also many hundreds of mainly local commercial radio stations across the country offering a variety of music or talk formats.
[edit] Print
Traditionally, British newspapers could be split into quality, serious-minded newspaper (usually referred to as "broadsheets" due to their large size) and the more populist, tabloid varieties. For convenience of reading, many traditional broadsheets have switched to a more compact-sized format, traditionally used by tabloids. The Sun has the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the UK, with approximately a quarter of the market; its sister paper, The News of The World similarly leads the Sunday newspaper market,[90] and traditionally focuses on celebrity-led stories. The Daily Telegraph, a right-of-centre broadsheet paper, has overtaken The Times (tabloid size format) as the highest-selling of the "quality" newspapers .[91] The Guardian is a more liberal (left-wing) "quality" broadsheet. The Financial Times is the main business paper, printed on distinctive salmon-pink broadsheet paper. Scotland has a distinct tradition of newspaper readership (see List of newspapers in Scotland). First printed in 1737, the Belfast News Letter is the oldest known English-speaking daily newspaper still in publication today. One of its fellow Northern Irish competitors, The Irish News, has been twice ranked as the best regional newspaper in the United Kingdom, in 2006 and 2007.[92] Aside from newspapers, a number of British magazines and journals have achieved world-wide circulation including The Economist and Nature.
[edit] Music
Main article: British Music
Classical music: Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, pioneer of modern British opera. London remains one of the major classical music capitals of the world.
Popular music: Prominent among the UK contibutors to the development of rock music in the 1960s were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Heavy metal, hard rock, punk rock and New Wave were among the variations that followed. In the early 1980s UK bands from the New Romantic scene were prominent. In the 1990s, Britpop bands and electronica music also attained international success. More recent pop acts, including Take That, McFly and the Spice Girls, have ensured the continuation of the UK's contribution to popular music.
[edit] Philosophy
David Hume (1711 – 1776).
David Hume (1711 – 1776).
Eminent philosophers from the UK include William of Ockham, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Adam Smith and Alfred Ayer. Foreign born philosophers who settled in the UK include Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx, Karl Popper, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
[edit] Science, engineering and innovation
See also: Category:British inventors and Category:British inventions
The scientific method was promoted by the English philosopher Francis Bacon in the early seventeenth century. Subsequent advances credited to British scientists and engineers and include:
* Turing Machine Alan Turing
* The laws of motion and illumination of gravity, by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 17th century
* The unification of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell
* The discovery of hydrogen, by Henry Cavendish
* The steam locomotive, by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian
* The telephone, by Alexander Graham Bell
* Evolution by natural selection, by Charles Darwin
* The structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others
* The development of the World Wide Web, largely attributed to Tim Berners-Lee
Notable civil engineering projects, whose pioneers included Isambard Kingdom Brunel, contributed to the world's first national railway transport system. Other advances pioneered in the UK include the marine chronometer, television, the jet engine, the modern bicycle, electric lighting, the electric motor, the screw propeller, the internal combustion engine, military radar, the electronic computer, vaccination and antibiotics.
Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet. In 2006, it was reported that the UK provided 9% of the world's scientific research papers and a 12% share of citations, second only to the USA.[93]
• Ten things you didn't know about Wikipedia •
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“UK” redirects here. For other uses, see UK (disambiguation).
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[10]
Flag of the United Kingdom Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
Flag Royal coat of arms
Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [11] (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen"[12]
Location of the United Kingdom
Location of the United Kingdom (dark green)
– on the European continent (light green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (light green)
Capital
(and largest city) London
[show location on an interactive map] 51°30′N, 0°7′W
Official languages English[13] (de facto)
Recognised regional languages Irish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish[14]
Demonym British, Briton
Government Constitutional monarchy (Parliamentary democracy)
- Monarch HM Queen Elizabeth II
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Formation
- Acts of Union May 1, 1707
- Act of Union January 1, 1801
- Anglo-Irish Treaty April 12, 1922
Accession to
the European Union January 1, 1973
Area
- Total 244,820 km² (79th)
94,526 sq mi
- Water (%) 1.34
Population
- mid-2006 estimate 60,587,300[1] (22nd)
- 2001 census 58,789,194[15]
- Density 246 /km² (48th)
637 /sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.006 trillion (6th)
- Per capita $35,051 (11th)
GDP (nominal) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.373 trillion[16] (5th)
- Per capita $38,624 (13th)
Gini? (1999) 36.8 (medium)
HDI (2006) 0.940 (high) (18th)
Currency Pound sterling (£) (GBP)
Time zone GMT (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST) BST (UTC+1)
Internet TLD .uk[17]
Calling code +44
^ In the United Kingdom and Dependencies, some 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: Ríocht Aontaithe na Breataine Móire agus Thuaisceart Éireann; Scots: Unitit Kinrick o Graet Breetain an Northren Irland; Scottish Gaelic: An Rìoghachd Aonaichte na Breatainn Mhòr agus Eirinn 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 also 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 also 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".[2][3] The Bòrd na Gàidhlig is tasked with "securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language".[4]
^ 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[5]. See also Languages in the United Kingdom.
^ CIA Factbook. Official estimate provided by the UK Office for National Statistics.[6]
^ ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 is GB, but .gb is practically unused. The .eu domain is also shared with other European Union member states.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (also known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain)[7] is a country[8] and sovereign state to the north-west of mainland Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain, the north-east part of the island of Ireland and many small local islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.[9][10][11] Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain, its largest island is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.
The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy comprising four constituent countries — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales — with Elizabeth II as 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.[12] The UK has fourteen overseas territories,[13] all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface. It is a developed country, with the fifth-largest economy in the world.
Britain was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th century,[14] but the economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished its role and status in global affairs. The UK nevertheless retains major economic, cultural, military and political influence today and is a nuclear power, with the second 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.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
* 2 Government and politics
o 2.1 Administrative subdivisions
o 2.2 Law
o 2.3 Foreign relations
* 3 Geography
o 3.1 Topography
o 3.2 Climate
o 3.3 Cities and urban areas
+ 3.3.1 Largest cities
+ 3.3.2 Urban areas
* 4 Demography
o 4.1 Population
o 4.2 Migration and ethnicity
o 4.3 Language
o 4.4 Religion
+ 4.4.1 Christianity
+ 4.4.2 Islam
+ 4.4.3 Other religions
* 5 Economy
o 5.1 Currency
* 6 Infrastructure
* 7 Armed forces
* 8 Culture
o 8.1 Cinema
o 8.2 Education
o 8.3 Literature
o 8.4 Media
+ 8.4.1 Broadcasting
+ 8.4.2 Print
o 8.5 Music
o 8.6 Philosophy
o 8.7 Science, engineering and innovation
o 8.8 Sport
o 8.9 Visual art
* 9 Symbols
* 10 Miscellaneous data
* 11 References
* 12 External links
[edit] History
Main article: History of the United Kingdom
The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
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.[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.[16] Independence for the Irish Free State in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[17]
Britain was an important part of the Age of Enlightenment with philosophical and scientific input and a literary and theatrical tradition. 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.[18] 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, while the passing of the 1807 Slave Trade Act also made the UK the first nation to prohibit trade in slaves.
The British Empire in 1897. The largest in history, the British Empire led to the spread of the English language.
The British Empire in 1897. The largest in history, the British Empire led to the spread of the English language.
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.
In the 19th century the country played an important role in the development of parliamentary democracy, partly through the emergence of a multi-party system. 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.
After the Great War, 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. 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 and physically 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 health services, while the demands of a recovering economy brought people from all over 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 currency 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 the mid-1990s onward these trends of growth largely continued under the leadership of Tony Blair.
The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The attitude of the present Labour government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed,[19] with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state,[20] and the Liberal Democrats supportive of current engagement.
[edit] Government and politics
Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom
Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as head of state; the monarch of the UK also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The UK uses a parliamentary government based on strong democratic traditions, a system that has been emulated around the world — 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.[21] 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).[22]
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, 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 Prime Minister exercises vast political power, especially in the appointment of other officials within the government and civil service. Gordon Brown, 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 is the national legislature of the United Kingdom; housed in the Palace of Westminster, it is the ultimate legislative authority in the UK, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. However, questions over sovereignty have been brought forward due to the UK's membership within the European Union.[23] The parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a constituency; general elections are called by the Monarch when the Prime Minister so advises. There is no minimum term for a Parliament, but a new election must be called within five years of the last general election.
The Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster
The UK's three major political parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats. Other parties such as the Scottish National Party and Sinn Féin hold the remainder of seats in the House.
[edit] Administrative subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is divided into four home nations or constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The latter three each has a unicameral legislature, devolved from the United Kingdom Parliament, which relates specifically to each constituent country: the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Each also has its own Executive, led by a First Minister, which controls separate law making and constitutional powers devolved from Westminster. However, despite being the largest of the United Kingdom's four constituent countries, England, (with the exception of the Greater London Authority), has no devolved executive; it is ruled directly by the UK government.
Each nation is further subdivided for the purposes of local government. The Queen appoints a Lord-Lieutenant as her personal representative in lieutenancy areas across the UK; this is little more than a ceremonial role. The following table highlights the arrangements for local government, lieutenancy areas and cities across the home nations:
Manchester Town Hall. Many towns and cities reflect their "civic pride" with public buildings.
Manchester Town Hall. Many towns and cities reflect their "civic pride" with public buildings.
Country Status[24] Population Subdivisions Cities
England Kingdom 50,431,700
Regions
Metropolitan and
non-metropolitan counties
Lieutenancy areas
English cities
Scotland Kingdom 5,094,800
Council areas
Lieutenancy areas
Scottish cities
Wales Principality 2,958,600
Unitary authorities
Lieutenancy areas
Welsh cities
Northern Ireland Province 1,724,400
Districts
Traditional counties
Northern Ireland cities
Historically, the four nations were divided into counties as areas for local government administration. Although these are still used to some extent for this purpose and as geographical areas, they are no longer the sole basis for local government administration.
In recent years, England has, for some purposes, been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, 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 referendum, of a proposed assembly in the North East region.
City status is governed by Royal Charter. There are sixty-six British cities: fifty in England; six in Scotland; five in Wales; and five in Northern Ireland.
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 also 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 also has fourteen overseas territories around the world, the last remaining territories of the British Empire. The overseas territories are also not considered part of the UK, but in most cases the local populations have British citizenship and the right to abode in the UK. This has been the case since 2002.
[edit] Law
Main article: Law of the United Kingdom
Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland.
Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland.
The United Kingdom has three distinct systems of law. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles. Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The Act of Union 1707 guarantees the continued existence of a separate law system for Scotland.
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 all criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for all 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.[25]
In England and Wales, 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). 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 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.
[edit] Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is also a member state of the European Union, and is one of the three 'big powers' of the EU, along with Germany and France. The United Kingdom also enjoys a "Special Relationship" with the United States. Britain's close allies outside of Europe include members of the Anglosphere and Commonwealth of Nations, a legacy of the British Empire. With its membership of the G8 and NATO, Britain has influence in international institutions. Britain's global presence is amplified through its trading relations and its armed forces, which maintains approximately eighty military installations and other deployments around the globe.[26]
[edit] Geography
Main article: Geography of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is in Western Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain (most of England, Scotland and Wales) and the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland), together with many smaller islands. The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49° and 59° N (the Shetland Islands reach to nearly 61° N), and longitudes 8° W to 2° E. The Royal Greenwich Observatory, near London, is the defining point of the Prime Meridian. The United Kingdom has a total area of approximately 245,000 square kilometres (94,600 sq mi). The UK lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and comes within 35 kilometres (22 mi) of the north-west coast of France, from which it is separated by the English Channel. Northern Ireland shares a 360 kilometres (224 mi) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The Channel Tunnel ("Chunnel") now links the UK with France beneath the English Channel.
[edit] Topography
Map of the United Kingdom.
Map of the United Kingdom.
Ben Nevis in the Grampian Mountains, is the highest point in the British Isles
Ben Nevis in the Grampian Mountains, is the highest point in the British Isles
Most of England consists of lowland terrain, with some mountainous terrain in the north-west (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District), north (the upland moors of the Pennines and limestone hills of the Peak District) and south-west (Exmoor and Dartmoor) by the Tees-Exe line. Lower ranges include the limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds and Lincolnshire Wolds, and the chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike, which is in the Lake District 978 metres (3,209 ft).
Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). There are many long and deep sea arms, firths, and lochs. There are nearly eight hundred islands in Scotland, mainly west and north of the mainland, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. In total, it is estimated that the UK includes around one thousand islands.[27]
Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, however South Wales is less mountainous than North and Mid Wales. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn).
Three Cliffs Bay, Gower Peninsula.
Three Cliffs Bay, Gower Peninsula.
Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. It includes Lough Neagh, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi), the largest body of water in the UK and Ireland.[28] The highest peak is Slieve Donard at 849 metres (2,785 ft) in the province's Mourne Mountains.
The greatest distance between two points on the UK mainland of Great Britain is 1,350 kilometres (840 mi) between Land's End in Cornwall (near Penzance) and John O'Groats in Caithness (near Thurso), a two day journey by car. When measured directly north-south it is a little over 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) in length and is a fraction under 500 kilometres (300 mi) at its widest.
[edit] Climate
Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom
All parts of the United Kingdom have a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons but seldom drops below −10 °C or rises above 32 °C. The prevailing wind is from the south-west, bearing frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean. Eastern parts are most sheltered from this wind and are therefore the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters, especially in the west, where winters are also wet, especially over high ground. Summers are warmest in the south east of England, being closest to the European mainland, and coolest in the north. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, though it rarely settles to any great depth away from high ground.
Absolute temperature ranges:
* England: 38.5 °C on 10 August 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, Kent, to −26.1 °C on 10 January 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire.
* Wales: 35.2 °C in Hawarden Bridge, Flintshire on 2 August 1990, to -23.3 °C in Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940.
* Scotland: 32.9 °C at Greycrook, Scottish Borders on 9 August 2003 to -27.2 °C recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982 and also at Altnaharra, Sutherland, on 30 December 1995.
* Northern Ireland: 30.8 °C at Knockarevan, near Belleek, County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 and at Belfast on 12 July 1983, to -17.5 °C at Magherally, near Banbridge, County Down on 1 January 1979.
[edit] Cities and urban areas
Main article: City status in the United Kingdom
The four capitals of the United Kingdom's constituent countries are London (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). London is also the capital of the UK.
[edit] Largest cities
Main article: List of United Kingdom cities by population
* above 7 million: London
* above 1 million: Birmingham
* above 500,000: Glasgow
* 400,000 – 500,000: Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Bristol
* 300,000 – 400,000: Manchester, Leicester, Coventry, Hull
* 250,000 – 300,000: Bradford, Cardiff, Belfast, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton
* 200,000 – 250,000: Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Reading, Derby
The term "second city" has been disputed in several ways. Birmingham is typically accepted as the second city, although many view Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool to be the second city.
[edit] Urban areas
Main article: List of conurbations in the United Kingdom
* Greater London Urban Area (8.5 million) (Metropolitan area: 12 - 14 million)
* West Midlands conurbation (2.28 million)
* Greater Manchester Urban Area (2.24 million)
* West Yorkshire Urban Area (1.5 million)
* Greater Glasgow (1.16 million)
[edit] Demography
Main article: Demography of the United Kingdom
The populations and percentage of total population in the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The populations and percentage of total population in the four nations of the United Kingdom.
[edit] Population
At the April 2001 UK Census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. This had been estimated up to 59,834,300 by the Office for National Statistics in 2004.[29] Two years later it had increased to 60.2 million, largely from net immigration, but also because of a rising birth rate and increasing life expectancy.[30]
The UK's overall population density is one of the highest in the world. About a quarter of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban,[31] with an estimated 7,517,700 in the capital of London.[32]
[edit] Migration and ethnicity
Main article: Ethnic groups of the United Kingdom
Located as they are on a group of islands close to Continental Europe, the lands now constituting the United Kingdom have historically been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent - including Roman occupation for several centuries. Present day Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in northern France (Normandy). Since 1945, international ties forged by the British Empire have contributed to substantial immigration, especially from Africa and South Asia, and, most recently, the accession of new EU members in 2004 has fuelled more immigration from continental Europe. As of 2001, 13.1% (5.2% white, 7.9% non-white[33] ) of the UK population identified themselves as an ethnic minority.[34]
Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom.
Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom.
Ethnic group ↓ Population ↓ % of total* ↓
White British &&&&&&&050366497.&&&&&050,366,497 85.7%
White Irish &&&&&&&&&0691232.&&&&&0691,232 1.2%
White (other) &&&&&&&&03096169.&&&&&03,096,169 5.3%
Mixed race &&&&&&&&&0677117.&&&&&0677,117 1.2%
Indian &&&&&&&&01053411.&&&&&01,053,411 1.8%
Pakistani &&&&&&&&&0747285.&&&&&0747,285 1.3%
Bengali &&&&&&&&&0283063.&&&&&0283,063 0.5%
Other Asian (non-Chinese) &&&&&&&&&0247644.&&&&&0247,644 0.4%
Black Caribbean &&&&&&&&&0565876.&&&&&0565,876 1.0%
Black African &&&&&&&&&0485277.&&&&&0485,277 0.8%
Black (others) &&&&&&&&&&097585.&&&&&097,585 0.2%
Chinese &&&&&&&&&0247403.&&&&&0247,403 0.4%
Other &&&&&&&&&0230615.&&&&&0230,615 0.4%
* Percentage of total UK population
In contrast with some other European countries, high foreign-born immigration is contributing to a rising population[35], accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. The latest official figures (2005) show net immigration to the UK of 185,000, 565,000 immigrants and 380,000 emigrants, down from a record high of 223,000 in 2004.[36][37] Immigration from the Indian subcontinent, mainly fuelled by family reunion, accounted for two-thirds of net immigration.[38] High minority group percentages are found in London (40.1%),[39] Birmingham (34.4%),[40] and Leicester (39.5%).[41] By contrast, at least 5.5 million British-born people are living abroad.[42][43][44][45] The most popular emigrant destinations were Australia, Spain and France.[46][47]
A study by a city forecaster, however, contends that the above immigration figures are unreliable and that net immigration for 2005 was circa 400,000.[48] Nonetheless, the proportion of foreign-born people in the UK population remains slightly below that of some other European countries.[49]
In 2004 the number of people who became British citizens rose to a record 140,795 - a rise of 12% on the previous year. This number had risen dramatically since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest three groups being people from Pakistan, India and Somalia.[50] One in five babies in the UK are born to immigrant mothers, according to official statistics released in 2007 that also show the highest birth rates in Britain for 26 years.[51]
Figures published in August 2007 indicate that 682,940 people applied to the Worker Registration Scheme (for nationals of the central and eastern European states that joined the EU in May 2004) between 1 May 2004 and 31 June 2007, of whom 656,395 were accepted.[52] Self-employed workers and people who are not working (including students) are not required to register under the scheme so this figure represents a lower limit on immigration inflow. These figures do not indicate the number of immigrants who have since returned home, but 56 per cent of applicants in the 12 months ending 30 June 2007 reported planning to stay for a maximum of three months. Of the 2.5million foreign workers who moved to the UK to work, the majority were from EU countries[53], but net migration in 2005 from the new EU states stood at 64,000.[36]
[edit] Language
Main article: Languages of the United Kingdom
Countries where English has de facto official or official language status.
Countries where English has de facto official or official language status.
Though the UK does not have a de jure official language, the predominant spoken language is English, a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large number of borrowings from Old Norse and Norman. The other indigenous languages are Scots (which is closely related to English) and the Insular Celtic languages (which are not). The latter fall into two groups: the P-Celtic languages (Welsh and the Cornish language); and the Q-Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep (see Yan Tan Tethera).
The English language has spread to all corners of the world (largely due to the British Empire) and has thus become the business language of the world. Worldwide, it is taught as a second language more than any other.[54] The United Kingdom's Celtic languages are also spoken by small groups around the globe, mainly Gaelic in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.
Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi speakers outside of Asia.[citation needed]It has recently acquired many speakers of Eastern European languages, notably Polish.
[edit] Religion
Main article: Religion in the United Kingdom
Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England, which itself is the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England, which itself is the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
The UK is primarily Christian; the Church of England is officially established, and 71.6% of people identified themselves as Christian in the 2001 UK Census.[55]. But the population has become more secular; only 38%[56] of the population believe in a God and 66% have no church connections.[57]. For cultural reasons, some non believers still identify themselves with a religion.
[edit] Christianity
Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of all British Monarchs, who are also made the head of the Church of England.
Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of all British Monarchs, who are also made the head of the Church of England.
Christianity is the majority religion, and there is a wide variety of Christian churches, denominations, and sects. Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has distinctive churches.
Scotland and northern England were evangelised first, by Celtic missionaries from Ireland, such as Ninian, Columba and Aidan. Augustine was subsequently sent to southern England by Pope Gregory I in 597.
The English Church split from Rome in 1534, during the reign of Henry VIII of England (see English Reformation). Today, the Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The British monarch is required to be a member of the Church of England under the Act of Settlement 1701 and is the Supreme Governor. The senior bishop of the Church of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Church of Scotland (known informally as the Kirk) broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1560 (see Calvinism and Scottish Reformation). Today it is a Presbyterian church, recognised as the national church of Scotland, and not subject to state control. The British monarch is an ordinary member, and is required to swear an oath to "defend the security" of the Church at the coronation. The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion, dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690. Further splits in the Church of Scotland, especially in the nineteenth century, led to the creation of various other Presbyterian churches in Scotland, including the Free Church of Scotland.
In the 1920s, the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and became disestablished (lost its status as the state religion). However the Church in Wales remains in the Anglican Communion. Methodism and other independent churches are traditionally strong in Wales.
The Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in the nineteenth century. It covers the entire island of Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). In Northern Ireland the Catholic Church in Ireland is the largest single denomination, although Protestants are in the majority overall. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the largest Protestant denomination and is in terms of theology and history closely linked to the Church of Scotland
The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest denomination of Christianity in the UK. After the Protestant Reformation, strict laws were passed against Catholics; these were removed by the Catholic Emancipation laws in 1829. There are separate Catholic hierarchies for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Other large Christian groups include the Methodists (founded by John Wesley in London) and the Baptists. There are also growing Evangelical or Pentecostal churches, many of which have flourished with immigration from around the Commonwealth and beyond.
After some years of decline in the UK Christianity, a Tearfund Survey[57] in 2007 suggests that numbers identifying themselves as Christian have stabilised at 53%, whereas in the 2001 census the proportion was 71% - note these numbers are not comparable because the phrasing of the question was different in each survey. According to the Tear Fund survey, 15% of people in the UK attend "church" at least once a month.
[edit] Islam
Muslims in the United Kingdom are believed to number 1.8 million ,[58]. Mosques are present in most regions: The biggest groups are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. More recently, refugees from Somalia, Northern Cyprus, the Balkans and Arab countries have increased Britain's Muslim population. The 2006 controversy over the burqa, brought up in comments by politician Jack Straw, reflects a split between some Britons questioning the extent to which traditionalist forms of Islam are compatible with British society, and others who believe that wearing the veil is compatible with Muslim integration in Britain.[59]
[edit] Other religions
Religions of Indian origin, such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism are followed in Britain. As of the 2001 census, there are about 560,000 Hindus and 340,000 Sikhs. Buddhism is practised by about 150,000[60] It is likely that these figures have increased since 2001. One non-governmental organisation estimates that there are 800,000 Hindus in the UK.[61] Leicester houses one of the world's few Jain temples that are outside of India. There are approximately 260,000 Jews in England and Wales, according to the 2001 census. 390,127 individuals proclaimed themselves as "Jedi Knight" in the 2001 census, though this is likely to have coincided with the Star Wars film on release at the time.
[edit] Economy
Main article: Economy of the United Kingdom
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre and leading centre of global finance.
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre and leading centre of global finance.[62]
London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is the leader of the three "command centres" for the global economy (along with New York City and Tokyo).[63] For over twenty-five years, the British economy has corresponded with what has been described by some since the 1980s as the Anglo-Saxon model, focusing on the principles of liberalisation, the free market, and low taxation and regulation. Based on market exchange rates, the United Kingdom is the fifth largest economy in the world,[64] and the second largest in Europe after Germany.
The British started the Industrial Revolution, and, like most industrialising countries at the time, initially concentrated on heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining, steel production, and textiles. The empire created an overseas market for British products, allowing the United Kingdom to dominate international trade in the 19th century. However, as other nations industrialised and surplus labour from agriculture began to dry up coupled with economic decline after two world wars, the United Kingdom began to lose its economic advantage. As a result, heavy industry declined, by degrees, throughout the 20th century. The British service sector, however, has grown substantially, and now makes up about 73% of GDP.[65]
The Bank of England; the central bank of the United Kingdom.
The Bank of England; the central bank of the United Kingdom.
The service sector of the United Kingdom is dominated by financial services, especially in banking and insurance. London is the world's largest financial centre with the London Stock Exchange, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, and the Lloyd's of London insurance market all based in The City. It also has the largest concentration of foreign bank branches in the world. In the past decade, a rival financial centre in London has grown in the Docklands area, with HSBC and Barclays Bank relocating their head offices there. Many multinational companies that are not primarily UK-based have chosen to site their European or rest-of-world headquarters in London: an example is the US financial services firm Citigroup. The Scottish capital, Edinburgh, also has one of the large financial centres of Europe.[66]
Tourism is very important to the British economy. With over 27 million tourists a year, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world.[67]
The British manufacturing sector, however, has greatly diminished, relative to the economy as a whole, since World War II. It is still a significant part of the economy, but only accounted for one-sixth of national output in 2003.[68] The British motor industry is a significant part of this sector, although it has diminished with the collapse of MG Rover and most of the industry is foreign owned. Civil and defence aircraft production is led by the United Kingdom's largest aerospace firm, BAE Systems, and the continental European firm EADS, the owners of Airbus. Rolls-Royce holds a major share of the global aerospace engines market. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry is also strong in the UK, with the world's second and sixth largest pharmaceutical firms (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, respectively)[69] being based in the UK.
The creative industries accounted for 7.3% GVA in 2004 and grew at an average of 5% per annum between 1997 and 2004.[70]
The United Kingdom's agriculture sector accounts for only 0.9% of the country's GDP.[71]
The UK has a small coal reserve along with significant natural gas, and oil reserves, although the natural gas and oil reserves are diminishing.
Government involvement throughout the economy is exercised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (currently Alistair Darling) who heads HM Treasury, but the Prime Minister (currently Gordon Brown), is First Lord of the Treasury; the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the Second Lord of the Treasury. However since 1997, the Bank of England, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has control of interest rates and other monetary policy.
[edit] Currency
New Bank of England £20 note.
New Bank of England £20 note.
The currency of the UK is the pound sterling, represented by the symbol £. The Bank of England is the central bank, responsible for issuing currency. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover the issue. The UK chose not to join the Euro at the currency's launch, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ruled out membership for the foreseeable future, saying that the decision not to join had been right for Britain and for Europe.[72] The government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair had pledged to hold a public referendum for deciding membership should "five economic tests" be met. In 2005, more than half (55%) of the UK were against adopting the currency, whilst 30% were in favour.[73]
[edit] Infrastructure
Main articles: Transport in the United Kingdom and Telecommunications in the United Kingdom
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of international passengers.
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of international passengers.
The government's Department for Transport oversees the well-developed transport system in the United Kingdom. A radial road network of 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads is centred on London, Edinburgh and Belfast, whilst, in Great Britain, a motorway network of 2,173 miles (3,497 km) is centred on Birmingham, Manchester and London. There are a further 213,750 kilometers
(132,818 mi) of paved roads.
The National Rail network of 10,072 route miles (16,116 route km) in Great Britain and 189 route miles (303 route km) in Northern Ireland carries over 18,000 passenger trains and 1,000 freight trains daily. Urban rail networks are also well developed in London and several other cities. There was once over 30,000 route miles of rail network in the UK, however most of this was reduced over a time period from 1955 to 1975, much of it after a report by a government advisor Richard Beeching in the mid 1960s (known as the Beeching Axe).
Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest international airport, and being an island nation the UK has a considerable network of sea ports, which received over 558 million tonnes of goods in 2003 – 04.
[edit] Armed forces
Main article: British Armed Forces
HMS Invincible. Two Invincible class aircraft carriers are currently in service. A third carrier is in reserve.
HMS Invincible. Two Invincible class aircraft carriers are currently in service. A third carrier is in reserve.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are collectively known as the British Armed Forces (or Her Majesty's Armed Forces) and officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. The commander-in-chief is the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. The armed forces are controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Chief of the Defence Staff.
The United Kingdom fields one of the most technologically advanced and best trained armed forces in the world. According to various sources, including the Ministry of Defence, the UK has the second highest military expenditure in the world,[74][75] despite only having the 28th largest military in terms of manpower. Total defence spending currently accounts for 2.2% of total national GDP, compared to 4.4% at the end of the Cold War.[76] It is also the second largest spender on military science, engineering and technology.[77] The Royal Navy is considered to be the only other blue-water navy along with those of France and the United States.[78] The British Armed Forces are equipped with many advanced weapons systems, including the Challenger 2 tank and the Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighter. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed the acquisition of two new Aircraft Carriers on 25 July 2007.
A Trident II SLBM being launched from one of the Royal Navy's 4 Vanguard class submarines as a test launch.
A Trident II SLBM being launched from one of the Royal Navy's 4 Vanguard class submarines as a test launch.
The United Kingdom is one of the five recognised countries possessing nuclear weapons, utilising the Vanguard class submarine-based Trident II ballistic missile system.
The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's global security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, as well as the Five Power Defence Arrangements and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained at Ascension Island, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya, and Cyprus.[79][80]
The British Army had a reported strength of 102,440 in 2005,[81] the Royal Air Force a strength of 49,210 and the 36,320-strong Royal Navy, which includes the Royal Marines, who provide commando units specialising in amphibious warfare.
The United Kingdom Special Forces, provide troops trained for quick, mobile, military responses in counter-terrorism, land, maritime and amphibious operations, often where secrecy or covert tactics are required.
There are also reserve forces supporting the regular military. These include the Territorial Army, the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marines Reserve and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. This puts total active and reserve duty military personnel at approximately 429,500, deployed in over eighty countries.
Despite the United Kingdom's military capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that "the most demanding operations" would be undertaken as part of a coalition.[82] Setting aside the intervention in Sierra Leone, operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq may all be taken as precedent. Indeed the last war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982.
[edit] Culture
Main article: Culture of the United Kingdom
[edit] Cinema
Main article: Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has been influential in the development of cinema, with the Ealing Studios claiming to be the oldest studios in the world. Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity, and the influences of American and European cinema. Famous films include the Harry Potter and Ian Fleming's James Bond series which, although now made by American studios, used British source materials, locations, actors and filming crew.
[edit] Education
Further information: Education in the United Kingdom
Pembroke College, part of the University of Cambridge, England.
Pembroke College, part of the University of Cambridge, England.
The United Kingdom's official literacy rate (99%) is normal by developed country standards. Universal state education was introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696, see Education in Scotland).[83] Education is mandatory from ages five to sixteen (15 if born in late July or August).
The majority of children in the UK are educated in state-sector schools, only a small proportion of which select on the grounds of academic ability. Around 7% of children in the UK are educated privately, the vast majority at the anachronistically named public schools. The products of public schools make up about 50% of students at the leading universities of Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the majority of doctors, judges and business leaders. State schools which are allowed to select pupils according to intelligence and academic ability can achieve comparable results to public schools: out of the top ten performing schools in terms of GCSE results in 2006 two were state-run grammar schools.
Some of the UK's 138 university level institutions are internationally renowned, especially those of Cambridge, Oxford, and London.[84] In the 2006 THES - QS World University Rankings,[85] 30 UK institutions were ranked amongst the top 200 universities in the world.
[edit] Literature
Main article: British literature
The Chandos portrait, believed to depict the famed playwright William Shakespeare.
The Chandos portrait, believed to depict the famed playwright William Shakespeare.
The countries that make up the United Kingdom have provided some of the world's most notable and popular authors, poets and literary figures. The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.[86][87][88]
In the history of the novel England is particularly well represented. Early English writers included Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the 18th century, Samuel Richardson (often credited with inventing the modern novel), and subsequently Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and Jane Austen all innovated in the novel form, followed by Thackeray, the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Anthony Trollope. In the twentieth century, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, the Modernists Virginia Woolf and Henry Green, E. M. Forster, George Orwell and Graham Greene were prominent. More recently, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Alan Hollinghurst, Ben Okri, Will Self, Monica Ali, and Zadie Smith were among those gaining recognition, while children's author J. K. Rowling has seen immense popularity, recalling that of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Scotland has also contributed many notable writers to the UK’s literary tradition with writers including Arthur Conan Doyle, Kenneth Grahame and Lewis Grassic Gibbon and has a particularly strong heritage in poetry.
In Romantic literature, Scotland saw Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson's epic adventures and one of the world's most celebrated poets , Robert Burns. Modern Scottish writers like Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn helped develop a distinct modernist and nationalist Scottish voice, sometimes termed the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's stories and the psychological horror-comedy of Iain Banks. Other notable authors from Scotland include Muriel Spark, Alasdair Gray, Alan Warner, and Irvine Welsh.
Scotland is also home to UNESCO's first worldwide city of literature - Edinburgh.
In the early medieval period, Welsh writers composed the Mabinogion. In modern times, the poets R.S. Thomas and Dylan Thomas have brought Welsh culture to an international audience.
Many authors from other nationalities, particularly from Ireland, or from Commonwealth countries, have also lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and more recently British authors born abroad such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Sir Salman Rushdie.
There have been many British poets; the best known include Robert Burns, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and John Betjeman.
The history of the theatre in the United Kingdom is particularly vivid. Shakespeare's contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson add depth to the early theatre. More recently Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism; with successful recent playwrights also including John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Alan Bennett and David Hare.
Further information: English literature, Scottish literature and Welsh literature
[edit] Media
Main article: Media of the United Kingdom
The prominence of the English language gives the UK media a widespread international dimension.
[edit] Broadcasting
The BBC is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world. It operates several television channels and radio stations both in the UK and abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World, is broadcast throughout the world and the BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in thirty-three languages globally.
The domestic services of the BBC are funded by the television licence, a legal requirement for any British household with a television receiver that is in use to receive broadcasts, regardless of whether or not the householders watch BBC channels. Households which are the principal residence of any person over 75 are exempt[89] and the requirement does not extend to radio listeners. The BBC World Service Radio is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the television stations are operated by BBC Worldwide on a commercial subscription basis over cable and satellite services. It is also this commercial arm of the BBC that forms half of UKTV along with Virgin Media.
There are five major nationwide television channels in the UK: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five - all currently transmitted by analogue terrestrial, free-to-air signals with the latter three channels funded by commercial advertising.
The UK now also has a large number of digital terrestrial channels including a further six from the BBC, five from ITV and three from Channel 4 among a variety of others.
The vast majority of digital cable services are provided by Virgin Media with satellite being provided by BSkyB and free-to-air digital terrestrial television by Freeview. The entire country will switch to digital by 2012.
Radio in the UK is dominated by BBC Radio, which operates ten national networks and over forty local radio stations. The most popular radio station, by number of listeners, is BBC Radio 2, closely followed by BBC Radio 1. There are also many hundreds of mainly local commercial radio stations across the country offering a variety of music or talk formats.
[edit] Print
Traditionally, British newspapers could be split into quality, serious-minded newspaper (usually referred to as "broadsheets" due to their large size) and the more populist, tabloid varieties. For convenience of reading, many traditional broadsheets have switched to a more compact-sized format, traditionally used by tabloids. The Sun has the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the UK, with approximately a quarter of the market; its sister paper, The News of The World similarly leads the Sunday newspaper market,[90] and traditionally focuses on celebrity-led stories. The Daily Telegraph, a right-of-centre broadsheet paper, has overtaken The Times (tabloid size format) as the highest-selling of the "quality" newspapers .[91] The Guardian is a more liberal (left-wing) "quality" broadsheet. The Financial Times is the main business paper, printed on distinctive salmon-pink broadsheet paper. Scotland has a distinct tradition of newspaper readership (see List of newspapers in Scotland). First printed in 1737, the Belfast News Letter is the oldest known English-speaking daily newspaper still in publication today. One of its fellow Northern Irish competitors, The Irish News, has been twice ranked as the best regional newspaper in the United Kingdom, in 2006 and 2007.[92] Aside from newspapers, a number of British magazines and journals have achieved world-wide circulation including The Economist and Nature.
[edit] Music
Main article: British Music
Classical music: Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, pioneer of modern British opera. London remains one of the major classical music capitals of the world.
Popular music: Prominent among the UK contibutors to the development of rock music in the 1960s were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Heavy metal, hard rock, punk rock and New Wave were among the variations that followed. In the early 1980s UK bands from the New Romantic scene were prominent. In the 1990s, Britpop bands and electronica music also attained international success. More recent pop acts, including Take That, McFly and the Spice Girls, have ensured the continuation of the UK's contribution to popular music.
[edit] Philosophy
David Hume (1711 – 1776).
David Hume (1711 – 1776).
Eminent philosophers from the UK include William of Ockham, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Adam Smith and Alfred Ayer. Foreign born philosophers who settled in the UK include Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx, Karl Popper, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
[edit] Science, engineering and innovation
See also: Category:British inventors and Category:British inventions
The scientific method was promoted by the English philosopher Francis Bacon in the early seventeenth century. Subsequent advances credited to British scientists and engineers and include:
* Turing Machine Alan Turing
* The laws of motion and illumination of gravity, by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 17th century
* The unification of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell
* The discovery of hydrogen, by Henry Cavendish
* The steam locomotive, by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian
* The telephone, by Alexander Graham Bell
* Evolution by natural selection, by Charles Darwin
* The structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others
* The development of the World Wide Web, largely attributed to Tim Berners-Lee
Notable civil engineering projects, whose pioneers included Isambard Kingdom Brunel, contributed to the world's first national railway transport system. Other advances pioneered in the UK include the marine chronometer, television, the jet engine, the modern bicycle, electric lighting, the electric motor, the screw propeller, the internal combustion engine, military radar, the electronic computer, vaccination and antibiotics.
Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet. In 2006, it was reported that the UK provided 9% of the world's scientific research papers and a 12% share of citations, second only to the USA.[93]
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