presentation on uk

8/7/2019 Presentation on UK

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-on-uk 1/16

Presentation

onUnited Kingdom

Flag Royal coat of arms



History of the United KingdomThe Battle of waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic wars and the start of Pax

Britannica.On 1 May 1707, the United Kingdom of Great Britain was created by

the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland.

This event was the result of the Treaty of Union that was agreed on 22 July

1706, and then ratified by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of

Scotland each passing an Act of Union in 1707.kingdoms of England and

Scotland, together with the kingdom of Ireland, had already been in

a personal union as a result of the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when JamesVI, King of Scots inherited the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and moved

his court from Edinburgh to London. However, until 1707, all three remained

separate political entities and retained their separate political institutions.Almost a century later the Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of

Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the

passing of the Act of Union 1800. In this way, the United Kingdom became theunion of the kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland. Disputes

within Ireland over the terms of Irish Home Rule led eventually to the partition

of the island in 1921,with Dominion status for the Irish Free State in 1922 and

Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK. As a result, in 1927, the formal title

of the UK was changed to its current form, the United Kingdom of Great

Britain and Northern Ireland.



Government and politics� The United Kingdom is a unitary state under

a constitutional monarchy Queen Elizabeth II ishead of state of the UK as well as of fifteen

other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK

in a personal union with those other states. The

United Kingdom has an uncodified constitution,

as do only three other countries in the world .

The Constitution of the United Kingdom thus

consists mostly of a collection of disparate

written sources, including statutes, judge-

made case law, and international treaties. As

there is no technical difference between ordinary

statutes and "constitutional law," the UKParliament can perform "constitutional reform"

simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has

the political 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.



Devolved administrations

� NorthernIreland, Scotland and Wales each has itsown government or Executive, led by aFirst Minister, anda devolved, unicameral legislature.

England, the largest country of theUnited Kingdom, has no devolvedexecutive or legislature and isadministered and legislated for directlyby the UK government and parliamenton all issues. This situation has given rise

to the so-called West Lothianquestion which concerns the fact thatMPs from Northern Ireland, Scotlandand Wales can vote, sometimesdecisively , on matters affecting Englandthat are handled by devolvedlegislatures for their own constituencies.



Law and criminal justice� The United Kingdom does not have a single legal

system since it was created by the political union

of previously independent countries, with Article

19 of the Treaty of Union guaranteeing the

continued existence of Scotland's separate legal

system. Today the UK has three distinct systems

of law: English law, Northern Irelandlaw and Scots law. Recent constitutional changes

saw a new Supreme Court of the United

Kingdom come into being in October 2009 to

take on the appellate functions of the Appellate

Committee of the House of Lords. The Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council, including the

same members as the Supreme Court, is the

highest court of appeal for several independent

Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas

territories, and the British crown dependencies.



Administrative geography� The structure of administrative divisions in

the United Kingdom is multi-layered andnon-uniform. The UK is made up of four constituent countries, England,Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Eachhas its own system of administrative andgeographic demarcation. These divisionsoften have origins that pre-date the

formation of the United Kingdom.Consequently, there is "no common stratumof administrative unit encompassing theUnited Kingdom. The 19th century therewas little change to those arrangements, butsince then there has been a constantevolution of role and function . Change did

not occur in England, Northern Ireland,Scotland and Wales in a uniform manner,and the devolution of power over localgovernment to Scotland, Wales andNorthern Ireland means that future changesare unlikely to be uniform either.



Dependencies

� The United Kingdom has

sovereignty over seventeen

territories which do not

form part of the United

Kingdom itself, 14 BritishOverseas Territories[92] and

three Crown Dependencies.



Foreign relations and armed

forces� The United Kingdom is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations,G8, G7, G2, NATO, OECD, WTO, Council of Europe, OSCE, and a member state of the European Union. The UK has placed aparticular emphasis on its "Special Relationship"with the United States . Britain's other close alliesinclude European Union and NATO members,Commonwealth nations and others such as Japan.Britain's global presence and influence is furtheramplified through its trading relations, official

development assistance, and its armed forces,which maintain approximately eighty militaryinstallations and other deployments around theglobe.



Cont.� The British Armed Forces are

charged with protecting the UnitedKingdom and its overseasterritories, promoting the UnitedKingdom's global security interests,and supporting international

peacekeeping efforts. They areactive and regular participants inNATO, including the Allied RapidReaction Corps, as well as the FivePower DefenceArrangements, RIMPAC, and other

worldwide coalition operations.Overseas garrisons and facilities aremaintained in AscensionIsland, Belize, Brunei, Canada, DiegoGarcia, the FalklandIslands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya,

Cyprus, and Qatar.



Geography

� The total area of the UnitedKingdom is approximately243,610 square kilometres (94,060sq mi) consisting of the island of Great Britain, the north easternone-sixth of the island of Ireland,and smaller surrounding islands .It lies between the North AtlanticOcean and the North Sea, comingwithin 35 kilometres (22 mi) of

the northwest coast of France,from which it is separated by theEnglish Channel. As of 1993 10%of the UK was forested, 46% usedfor pastures, and 25% used foragriculture.



Economy

�

The Industrial Revolution started inthe UK with an initial concentrationon heavy industries suchas shipbuilding, coal mining, steelproduction, and textiles. The empirecreated an overseas market forBritish products, allowing the UK to

dominate international trade in the19th century. However, as othernations industrialised, coupled witheconomic decline after two worldwars, the United Kingdom began tolose its competitive advantage and

heavy industry declined, by degrees,throughout the 20th century.Manufacturing remains a significantpart of the economy, but accountedfor only one-sixth of national outputin 2003.



Languages

�The UK does not de jure havean official language but thepredominant spokenlanguage is English, a WestGermanic language descendedfrom Old English which features

a large number of borrowingsfrom Old Norse ,Norman French and Latin.Largely because of the BritishEmpire, the English languagehas spread across the world,and become the internationallanguage of business as well asthe most widely taught secondlanguage.]



Religion� The Treaty of Union that led to the formation

of the United Kingdom ensured that therewould be a Protestant succession as well as alink between church and state that stillremains. Christianity is the largest religion,followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism andthen Judaism in terms of number of adherents.

In the 2001 Census 71.6% of respondents saidthat Christianity was their religion , however aTear fund survey showed only one in tenBritons actually attend church weekly.9.1 million (15% of the UK population)claimed no religion, with a further 4.3 million(7% of the UK population) not stating areligious preference . Between 2004 and 2008,the Office for National Statistics reported thatthe number of Christians in GreatBritain (rather than the UK as a whole) fell bymore than 2 million.



Culture

� The culture of the United KingdomBritishculture may be described as informed byits history as a developed island country, majorpower, and also as a political union of fourcountries, with each preserving elements of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism.As a result of the British Empire, Britishinfluence can be observed in

the language, culture and legal systems of manyof its former colonies,including Australia, Canada, India, SouthAfrica and the United States.



Media

� The prominence of the Englishlanguage gives the UK media awidespread internationaldimension. There are five majornationwide television channels in

the UK: BBC One, BBCTwo, ITV, Channel 4 and Fivecurrently transmitted by analogueand digital terrestrial, free-to-airsignals with the latter threechannels funded by commercial

advertising. In Wales, S4C, theWelsh Fourth Channel, replacesChannel 4, carrying Welsh languageprogrammes at peak times. It alsotransmits Channel 4 programmes atother times.

presentation on uk

Documents