A Brief Introduction of the United Kingdom
The full name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is a complicated name for what is in many ways a complicated country. There’re four parts, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which complete to the set.
Here, as follows, are a few aspects of the United Kingdom.
1. Politics
The Government of the United Kingdom
(1) The Monarchy
The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy cruel by the king. This dates back to the Saxon who ruled from the 5th century AD until the Norman Conguest in 1066.
The power of the monarchy was largely derived form the ancient doctrine of the ‘divine right of kings”. It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects.
While the king in theory had God on his side, in practice even in medieval times it was thought that he should not exercise absolute power.
(2) The Parliament
The word “parliament” comes from the verb “the parley”, that is to discuss or talk. The term was first used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from countries and towns which the occasionally summoned if he wanted to raise money.
The Great Council came to include both those who were summoned “by name” (the House of Lords) and representatives of communities (the House of Commons). These two houses exist today and collectively we call them the parliament. The Commons quickly gained in political strength. They were willing to help the king by raising taxes and passing laws, but in return they wanted an increasing say in what the king was doing.
The parliament became the most powerful institute in Britain was after the Revolutional War.
Parliament has a number of different functions. First and foremost, it passes laws. Another important function is that it provides the means of carrying on the work of government by voting for taxation. Its other roles are to scrutinize government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the majority issues of the day.
Parliament is supreme in the British state because it alone has the power to change the terms of the constitution.
There are no legal restraints upon parliament. It can make or change laws. Change or overturn established conventions or even prolong its own life without consulting the electorate. However, it does not assert its supremacy, but bears the common law in mind and acts according to precedent..
Each Parliament lasts for 5 years.
The Upper house has no right to decide, it only has the right to pass the bills passed by the Lower House.
The party which holds a majority of those “seats” in parliament forms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister. After a government has been in power for 5 years it has to resign and hold a “general election”, in which al British adults are give the chance to vote again for their constituency’s MP. A government cannot stand for longer than 5years except in exceptional circumstances. However, the Prime Minister can call an election sooner than 5years. This can happen when the government loses a “vote of no confidence” in the House of Commons. That is, an MP puts forward a statement for the MPs to vote on saying that “This house no longer ha confidence in the government.”
(3) The Political Parties
There are three major national parties: The conservative party and the Labour party are the two biggest, and any general election is really about which of those two is going to govern. But there’s a third important party, the Liberal Democrats, who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes: not enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of the other two parties does so.
The Labour party is the newest of these three, created by the growing trade union movement at the end of nineteenth century. It quickly replaced the Laberal party as one of the two biggest parties. Labour is a socialist party. That is to say that they believe a society should be relatively equal in economic terms, and the part of the role of government is to act as a “redistributive” agent. The Conservative party is the party that spent most time in power, basically the Conservative are seen as the party of the individual, protecting the individual’s right to acquire wealth and to spend it how they choose , and so favouring economic policies which businessmen prefer, such as low taxes. They receive a lot of their party funding from big companies.
2. Religion
(1) Queen or king is the leader as well as the bishop of the High Church.
(2) 20% of British citizen claims to be Roman Catholics.
(3) 40% of Scotland citizen believe in Roman Catholic.
(4) Two established churches: Church of London; Church of Scotland.
(5) Roman Catholic churches.
(6) Free Churches.
3. Culture
Here, I will emphasis on one aspect of Britain’s artistic output, that for which it is perhaps best known: Literature.
⑴ Early Writing
Much early British writing was concerned with Christianity: Anglo-Saxons produced beautifully illustrated versions of the Bible: the most famous of these is the book of keels, party written on the Scottish island of lona.
⑵ Elizabethan Drama
There was a general flowering of cultural and intellectual life in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries which is known as “The Renaissance”, in British culture one of the most successful and long-lasting expressions of this development lay in drama.
3 18th –century English literature is marked by a rather large shift from the mood and tone of 17th –century literature.
4 The Romantic Period
Roughly the first third of the 19th century makes up English literature’s romantic period. Writers of romantic literature are more concerned with imagination and feeling than the power of reason, which marked the 18th century.
5 20th Century Literature
The 20th Century marked the end of the British Europe, which was replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations. Yet English civilization and culture continue to have a strong influence on the rest of the world. The heritage of English literature forms an outstanding part of that culture.
20th Century literature can be broadly divided into two stylistic periods: Modernism, and Postmodernism. These periods roughly correspond to literature written after it. Both are characterized by a high degree of experimentation.
4. Economy
National economies can be broken down into three main areas: “primary” industries, such as agriculture, fishing and mining, “Secondary” industries, which manufacture complex goods from those primary products; and tertiary industries, often described as services, such as banking, insurance, tourism, and the selling of goods.
Britain’s agricultural sector is small but efficient, producing 58% of the UK’s food needs with only 2% of its workforce. Three quarters of Britain’s land is used for agriculture, with about a quarter of that under crops-wheat and barley are the two commonest. The rest is grazing for animals.
The fishing industry provides 55% of the UK demand for fish. Scottish ports land the majority of the fish caught.
Energy production is an important part of the UK economy, accounting for 5% of the national wealth.
In the secondary sector of the economy, manufacturing industry remains important, producing 22% of national wealth.
The service sector of the United Kingdom is dominated by financial services, especially in banking and insurance. London is one of the world’s largest financial centers 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.
5．British diplomatic affairs
（1）Britain’s foreign policies:
The contemporary foreign policy of the UK is greatly influenced by its imperial history and also by its geopolitical traits. Perhaps the most important single factor which influences British policy-makers is its history.
A second decisive influence upon the way Britain conducts its external affairs is geopolitical. Britain is an island state, and this is considered an important psychological factor as well as one which has influenced Britain’s economic and military development as a nation of seafarers who roamed the globe looking for territory and economic opportunities.
How these foreign policies made:
The general direction of Britain’s foreign policy is mainly decided by the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The main government department is of course the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but many other government ministers also play a part in formulating and executing the government’s decisions.
The Ministry of Defence is responsible for ensuring Britain’s defence and managing Britain’s involvement in its military treaty commitments. And the Department of Trade and Industry is for the international trade policy and British commercial relations with other countries.
（2）Britain and International Institutions:
Nowadays its foreign policy is largely shaped by its participation in a number of important international institutions.
Britain is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, along with Russia, China, the Us and France. It is also the sixth largest contributor to the UN’s budget. As a Security Council member, Britain retains the ability to have a large influence on world affairs. And the more important to Britain today in running of its affairs is its membership in the EU. Britain is also a member of the Commonwealth. Even though Britain granted its colonial territories independence, it continued to feel close to these new countries and wanted to continue to work with them.
（3）Security and Defence Policy:
Britain depends more on defence than most other advanced industrial countries and maintains larger professional forces. The keystone of British defence policy is its participation in NATO, which is commonly known as the North Atlantic Treaty Orgnasition. In addition to its NATO commitments, Britain retains an independent nuclear weapons capability but it is highly unlikely for it to use, or need to use the capability.
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