THE GREAT BRITAIN

The country's full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The U.K. consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the name given to England, Scotland and Wales only.

THE BRITISH FLAG

The national flag of the U.K. is the Union Jack. The flag embodies the emblems of three countries (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) united under one Sovereign. Before the reign of King James I, these countries were separate and they had their own flags.

When King James of Scotland became king of England too, the two countries agreed to unit their flags into one to form what was called the Union Flag of Great Britain.

The Union Jack was adopted about two hundred years later, when the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland joined into a single Parliament. On that occasion the emblem of Ireland's flag was added to the Union Flag which became the flag of Great Britain and Ireland.

The flag of Wales does not appear in the Union Jack because when the first Union Flag was made in 1601 Wales was already united with England.

The British flag is made up of the red cross of St. George, for England on a white ground; the white diagonal cross of St. Andrew, for Scotland, on a blue ground, and the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick, for Ireland, on a white ground.

GEOGRAPHY

Britain is part of the continent of Europe , but it is separated from the mainland by the North Sea and the English Channel. At its narrowest the Channel is only twenty-one mile across..

The British Isles are situated in the North Temperate Zone between the hot lands of the south and the cold northern sea. The climate is temperate and this means that it is never very hot and never very cold. Winters are mild and the British do not suffer, for examples, the disastrous hurricanes which occur in tropical regions.

Lakes, Mountains, Rivers

The most important British lakes are situated in Scotland and in the Lake District.

Lock Lomond and Lock Katrine are considered the loveliest lakes of Scotland. Windermere and Derwentwater are the most famous lakes in the Lake District. Ireland is also full of picturesque lakes.

The highest mountain of the Great Britain is in Scotland and it is the Ben Nevis.

Northern England also has much highland like the Pennine range and the Cheviots on the Scottish border. England's highest mountain is the Sca Fell in the Lake District.

Snowdow is the highest peak of Wales.

The Thames is the most important river of the Great Britain and it flows into the North Sea. The Severn is the longest river and it flows into the Irish Sea.

The Regions of Britain

England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are the four countries which form the United Kingdom. Each country is divided into counties, the largest units of local government.

England 46 counties. Capital: London.

Scotland 33 counties. Capital: Edinburgh.

Wales 13 counties. Capital: Cardiff.

Northern Ireland 6 counties. Capital: Belfast.

THE POPULATION

The present population of the United Kingdom is about 55.000.000. The people who now live in Britain descend from people who inhabited the area nine centuries ago.

In the early days of her history, Britain was subject to frequent invasions, by Celts, Saxons, Danes, Norsemen and Romans. However, periods of peace divided these invasions, so the customs and the cultures of the invaders were assimilated. In the next years waves of emigrants from the Continent of Europe went to England. In recent years large numbers of coloured people, particularly from ex colonies, entered Britain. Now Great Britain is a multi-racial society.

Religion

Every person in Great Britain has complete religious freedom. In England and Wales the official religion is a form of Protestantism called Anglicanism and the Church of England is the established Church of the England nation. The Queen, its head, is the Protector or Defender of the Church, while the archbishop of Canterbury is its chief bishop.

In Scotland religion has to be considered apart. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian and it has got a different organization .

There are a lot of Protestant denomination in Great Britain such as Methodists, Baptists, etc.

In Great Britain the Roman Catholic Church  is a vigorous, compact and well-organized body.

Language

English is the language predominantly spoken in Great Britain. English, the language of the Angles and of the Saxons, belonged to the Low German group of languages. Modern English began to appear in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is basically Saxon with a strong French and Latin element in its vocabulary.

The old Celtic languages never died out completely. In Scotland a large number of people speaks Gaelic and in Wales a lot of people speak Welsh.

Manx is another antique languages and it is spoken only at the opening of the Manx Parliament. A few people in the Channel Islands still speak Norman French.

The best form of English is the language of educated English speakers everywhere. It is the language of the Government, of the B.B.C., of the universities and of the great public schools. The language of London is generally called the 'Queen English '.

Currency: English pounds.

LIFE IN BRITAIN

Village life

England has many thousand of villages, and though it is essentially an industrial country, a large area is still devoted to agriculture. Some people still continue to work on the land and to live in the villages. English villages are particular. There are usually not many hoses in the village, and the only other buildings are the church, the school and the village shop, which is often the post office, too. Here people can find what they want for their daily needs, from food to clothes.

The dream of a lot of Englishmen is to have a country house where they can relax after the tiring life of the city

Towns and cities

A town is bigger than a village and it has banks, good shops, offices, cinemas theatres, hotel restaurants and libraries. A city is an important town. A town calls its first citizen Mayor. The title of Lord Mayor is given to the Mayor of London and also of other large cities. In the towns and cities of England there is a sense of civic pride and so there is often a big number of voluntary organizations.

THE CAPITALS

England and the U.K.

LONDON is the political, cultural and main tourist centre of Great Britain. It is the most important city of the British Commonwealth and one of the largest city in the world. London is a great urban complex with six million people It is not a city, but rather a county. It is situated on both banks of the River Thames. The Tower Bridge is the most important bridge that joins the two parts of the city. The name London comes from the Romans. They landed in AD 43 and they called the city Londinium.

Every year, more than nine million people come from all over the world to visit London. They go to the theatres, museums and they look at interesting buildings. Million people can visit St, Paul's cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Westminster abbey, the Tower of London, the Bank of England. St. Paul's Cathedral is in the middle of the city and the Bank of England has interesting museum to visit. In the city there is also a very tall building called The Monument and it stands on the place where the Fire of London began in 1666.

Tourists can also go to Oxford Street to look at the shops, or to Harrods. London is a very big and beautiful city with lots to see and do.

There are three ways to travel around London: the Underground or 'tube', the taxi and the bus. The tube goes to every part of London. It is cheap and quick, but perhaps a little too noisy for some.

If you do not like the crowds, taxis are reasonably cheap. The taxi driver will probably talk about the weather and the heavy traffic. London taxis are called black cabs.

One of the most famous English features is the double - decker bus. In London the buses are red, but the colours change in other towns. The bus service is well organized and buses run frequently.

Like many big cities London has got problems with pollution and the air is not very clean so the parks are considered the 'lungs' of the city. The most beautiful are Hyde Park, St. James's Park and Regent's Park.

Scotland

EDINBURGH is situated in the south-east of Scotland on the Firth of Forth. Some of its famous sights are Edinburgh Castle, which stands on a rock above the city, the Forth Bridge and Edinburgh University. The city is also famous for the Edinburgh Festival, an annual festival of music and drama.

Wales

CARDIFF is situated on the south coast of Wales on the Bristol Channel. Some interesting places to see are the new Cardiff Bay area, the City Centre with its museum and university, and Llandaff Cathedral.

Northern Ireland

BELFAST is situated on the north-east coast of Ireland. Some interesting places to see are Belfast Port, Queen's university and the parliament buildings.

GOVERNMENT IN THE UK

The United Kingdom is a democracy. The head of the state is a hereditary sovereign.

The Queen

The Queen is the head of the state. All new laws must have her signature. Each year she opens Parliament with a speech. She is also head of many Commonwealth countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Grenada and Jamaica.

In fact she has very little power. She has to do what the government wants her to do. She has to put her signature on new laws, even if she does not like them. The Prime Minister writes her speech at the opening of the Parliament. So the Queen is not a political force but she is only a symbol Britain's long history and tradition.

The present queen is Elisabeth II . She was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 2^nd June, 1953 when she was nearly twenty-six. Queen Elisabeth is married to Price Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and they have three sons and a daughter: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

Parliament

Britain is governed by a Parliament which is divided into two houses: the Houses of Commons and the Houses of Lords.

The House of Commons is elected. There are 650 MPs (Members of Parliament) in the House of Commons. These MPs come from different political parties. They debate possible new laws and they vote for or against them. The Commons are presided over by the Speaker who is elected by the House. They receive a salary for their work. The public can hear some of these debates on the radio or even watch them on television if they want to.

The House of Lords is not elected. It has 1,000 members and they do not receive a salary. They are people with titles like Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. Bishops and judges also belong to the House of Lords. It is presided over by the Lord Chancellor. Members of the House of Lords discuss new laws, too. They cannot change the laws themselves, but they can ask the House of Commons to change them. The House of Lords also has the function of acting as the supreme court of appeal.

The British political parties

There are three big political parties in Britain.

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY (on the right) consists of members of the middle class that work in private companies. They support authority both in politics and religion.

THE LABOUR PARTY (socialist, on the left) consists of members of the working class and from the Nationalised public services. They want more benefits for poor people and they are in favour of social and economy equality among classes.

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS (in the centre) consists of members of private industries. They receive support from voters who are unhappy with both the Labour and Conservative parties.

There are also some smaller parties like the Greens, the Scottish National Party and few others, but in the British election system it is very difficult for them to get into Parliament.

There are elections every five years. Everyone over the age of eighteen can vote.

The Prime Minister   

The Prime Minister is the leader of the party which has a majority in the House of Commons. He chooses about 20 MPs to be in the Cabinet. These are the Heads of the Departments of Employment, Defence, Industry, Health, etc. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The second largest party in the house of Commons forms the Opposition.

The Police

There is no National Police Force in Britain, but each County has its own police force. They all wear the same dark blue uniform.

In London the Metropolitan Police, the largest force in the country, is responsible for the Greater London area. Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police. Detectives of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D.) help members of police forces in important investigations.

In Britain policemen prevent crime, give information, control traffic and so on. English policemen are nicknamed 'Bobbies' after the name of their founder Sir Robert (Bobby) Peel, the Prime Minister of the time, who created the London Police Force in 1825.

ENGLISH HISTORY

The earliest inhabitants of Britain were probably the Celts. We usually call them Ancient Britons. About 2000 BC, in the Bronze Age they built a temple for their God, the Sun. It is a great circle of massive stones and it still stands at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire.

Then Julius Caesar attacked the Britons in 54 BC. The Romans came back in 43 AD and stayed for 400 years.

So the Romans went home, but Angles from Denmark and Saxons from Germany, invaded Britain. Together they are called the Anglo-Saxons.

Vikings from Norway and Danes invaded many times. In the 9^th and 10^th centuries, most of Britain was in the hands of these Scandinavian invaders.

In 1066 AD William the Conqueror and the French-speaking Normans invaded Britain. The Anglo-Saxon King Harold died with an arrow in his eye. King William set up a feudal system. He gave land to Norman barons. For this they had to be in his army. The Saxons had nothing, and had to do all the work. In time Norman and Saxons mixed and they became English.

In 1215 the Church and the nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. This limited the King's power. It was a very small first step to democracy.

In the second half of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth, a long war was fought against France, called the Hundred Year's War. The Kings of England said that France was part of their Kingdom. Each new king sent an army to France and won or lost a little territory. At the end English left France.

In 1485 Henry Tudor landed in Wales and he Became King Henry VII.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THE ENGLISH HISTORY

King Henry VIII (1509-1547)

Henry VIII, the second king of the Hose of Tudor, was only eighteen when he ascended the throne. As a young man, Henry VII was strong and handsome, interested in music and in all kind of sports. As a young king, he defended the Church against Martin Luther's attacks and the Pope gave him the tile of Defender of the Faith.

Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. He wanted a son but his wife had one daughter. The Pope refused to gave him a divorce, so Henry privately married Anne Boleyn and made himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.

His reign was one of terror and cruelty.

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, was queen of England for 45 years. She never got married, and she is sometimes called the Virgin Queen. She was clever, successful and popular. In a war against Spain, she told her soldiers and sailors: 'I have the body of a weak woman, but I have the hearth and the stomach of a king.' During her reign English sailors went to many far-away places. Sir Francis Drake sailed all the way round the world. Sir Walter Raleigh brought potatoes and tobacco from America. It was the beginning of the British Empire. During her long reign England prospered and literature produced its greatest genius, William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare(1564-1616)

William Shakespeare was born in 1564in Stratford-upon-Avon, an old town in the centre of England. He was the sun of a glove-maker. He sent William to school until he was fourteen. Then his father lost all his money so William left school and started work. At the age of eighteen he married a local girl, Anne Hathaway and they soon had three children. Then in 1586 Shakespeare left his family in Stratford and went to London to make money for his new family . He was a famous poet and actor in London, but he was also a good businessman. He spent most of his money on land and houses in Stratford.

Shakespeare worked very hard. He wrote thirty-seven plays. Some were comedies like A Midsummer Night's Dream, others were tragedies like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Machbeth. He also wrote a lot of beautiful poems.

Shakespeare retired in 1611 and he returned to Stratford. He died there in 1616 at the age of fifty-two.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

During the years 1760 to 1830, Britain began to change from an agricultural country of villages and fields into an industrial nation of large towns and factories. This big change, which is called the Industrial Revolution, was completed during the reign of Queen Victoria, the longest and one of the most glorious in British history. She was Queen of the United Kingdom for nearly sixty-four years. She became Queen at the age of eighteen, from 1837 to 1901. He married Prince Albert in 1940 and they have nine children.

By the end of her reign, all men had the right to vote in elections and sit in Parliament.

Under the reign of Queen Victoria, called Victorian Age, England made great progress in industry and became the richest and most powerful country in the world.

Great novelists like Charles Dickens lived and worked in this period.  

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Charles Dickens was born near Portsmouth in 1812. Two years later his family moved to London. Charles was a very clever boy. He went to school and he began reading novels. But when his father fell into debt and went to prison, he had to leave school. He went to work in a factory and he washed bottles. It was a terrible experience and he did not forget it.

When his father was finally able to leave the prison, Charles was sent back to school again for two years.

At the age of sixteen he started working for a newspaper and soon he became one of the most important journalists of the Morning Chronicle's. Then he began making novels. He wrote about poor and simple people he met every day. His most important novels are: Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.      

Dickens died on 9^th June, 1870 and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in Poets' Corner.

Sir Winston Churchill

The greatest political leader of the second World War was born in 1874. He was educated at Harrow. After leaving school he joined a famous cavalry regiment. He spent some time in England and then in Sudan. In 1899 he left the Army and he turned to politics. In 1900, at the age of twenty-six, he was elected Member of Parliament. In the Second World War he became Prime Minister. For the next five years, he inspired the British and Britain was a completely united nation.

Sir Winston Churchill was also an author and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

He died on 24^th January 1965 and he was mourned by the whole world.       

EDUCATION IN ENGLAND

In the United Kingdom education is both compulsory and free from the age of five to sixteen. Compulsory education is in two main stages: primary and secondary.

Primary. From the age of five to eleven, children go to a primary school.

Secondary. At the age of eleven, children pass from primary to secondary school. The public or State system of education aims to give all children an education suitable to their abilities.

At the age of sixteen, the majority of students take an examination called GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) in different subjects.

Students can leave school at the age of sixteen if they want to. However they can stay at school until they are eighteen and take 'A' level (Advanced Level) exams. Students who do well in their 'A' level exams usually go on to university or a college or further education, but only 2 per cent of the population do this.

Education in Britain is divided between state schools and private or independent schools.                                                                              

THE PRESS

The English are great newspaper readers and most British families buy more than one paper everyday, both national and regional.

Today 10 morning daily papers circulate throughout the country, and are known as national newspapers.

Daily British papers are often classified as quality or popular. Quality papers such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, aim to give a full, serious coverage of all aspects of the news. Popular papers, like the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express, the Daily Mail and the Morning Star, aim to appeal to the general public. For this reason, they are smaller and cheaper, and use more pictures, cartoons and human interest stories.

British newspapers can also be classified according to their political attitudes. Some support the views of the Conservative Party; some of the Labour Party, some the views of the Liberal Democrats. The Times is independent.

EATING IN BRITAIN

The English have a bad reputation for food and although they produce meat, milk, cheese and eggs of good quality, foreigners often say that English cooking is unimaginative.

Before Britain became an industrial nation, more people lived in the country and produced the food they ate. There was also more time for cooking. But when people moved to cities and worked long hours in factories, things changed. Fresh food was not so easily available and there was not time to prepare meals.

However, today, British meals consist also of food from other countries. Immigrants have, in many cases, opened restaurants where thy serve the food of their country of origin. In London especially, you can try the cooking of a lot of countries, but if you want a traditional British meal, you will not go hungry. A joint of roast beef, pork and lamb, with roast potatoes and other vegetables is what the British often eat for their Sunday lunch and these dishes are on the menu in a lot of restaurants. You can complete your meal with one of the famous English puddings.

All around the Great Britain there are a lot of fast foods and pubs which serve quick and cheap food like fish and chips.

SPORT IN BRITAIN

Sport in Britain is a form of physical and mental recreation. It is a form of moral training. It is an occasion for social intercourse. Many sports which nowadays are played all over the world, grew up to the present-day form in Britain and football is perhaps the best examples. For centuries sport has played an important role in English life.

Many people, both foreigners and British, consider cricket the most typically English sport. It is true that cricket, unlike football remain a specifically British sport, but it is wrong to say that cricket is the most popular English sport: that is without doubts football. Although cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Britain, there are many others such as golf, tennis, swimming, rowing, horse racing.

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION

Rail travel

British Rail provides fast, frequent service all over the country and British trains are very comfortable. Restaurants, sleeping cars and cars with couchettes run on all the longer services, while all trains have a buffet car where there are snacks and drinks.

British Rail has two classes, first and second. There is a different in comfort between the two classes.

Boating Travel

There is a frequent service of steamers, ferry-boats and hovercraft from the south-east of England to the continent.

A tunnel across the Channel

On 6^th May, 1994, Franēois Mitterrand and Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the new Eurotunnel linking France and Great Britain. The rail tunnel consists of two tubes, each 7,315 metres in diameter , through which trains shuttles passengers and vehicles. A third tunnel provides ventilation and access for service personnel. The crossing takes 30/35 minutes, against the 75 minutes by ferries. However the speed of the trains, which travel 40 metres below sea-level , cannot exceed 160km/hour.

Airports

The most important airports in Britain are Gatwick airport and Heathrow airport.

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WORLD

Britain is not a large country , but there are English-speaking people all over the world. Many of them live in countries which were British colonies. In fact British built great Empires in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and Africa.

Great Britain is a member of the United Nations Organization since it was founded and a member of the European Community since January, 1973.