Government and politics

Royal Badge of Wales, used by the National Assembly

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. In the House of Commons – the lower house of the UK government – Wales is represented by 40 MPs (of 650) from Welsh constituencies. A Secretary of State for Wales sits in the UK cabinet and is responsible for representing matters pertaining to Wales. The Wales Office is a department of the United Kingdom government, responsible for Wales. Cheryl Gillan has been Secretary of State for Wales since 12 May 2010, replacing Peter Hain.

Education

St. David's Building, University of Wales, Lampeter

The University College of Wales opened in Aberystwyth in 1872. Cardiff and Bangor followed, and the three colleges came together in 1893 to form the University of Wales. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 created 95 secondary schools.

Languages

The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the English and Welsh languages be treated on a basis of equality. English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is the de facto main language. "Wenglish" is the Welsh English language dialect. The 2011 Census showed 56,016 people, 19.0% of the Welsh population, were able to speak Welsh.

Although Wales shares a close political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, and almost everyone speaks English, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is officially bilingual. Over 580,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, where it is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west.

Religion

St. David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire

The largest religion in Wales is Christianity, with 57.6% of the population describing themselves as Christian .

The Presbyterian Church of Wales was born out of the Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century and seceded from the Church of England in 1811.

The second largest attending faith in Wales is Roman Catholic, with an estimated 43,000 adherents. Non-Christian religions are small in Wales, making up approximately 2.7% of the population. The 2011 census recorded 32.1% of people declaring no religion.

Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in Wales, with more than 0.8% .

Famous people

William Frost (1848 - 1935), amateur aviator.

Daniel Jones (1912-1993), composer

Donna Lewis (born 1973), singer, musician

Christian Malcolm (born 1979) Sprinter

Jan Morris (born 1926), historian, author and travel writer

David Jones (poet) (1895-1974), poet

Media

BBC Cymru Wales is the national broadcaster. Based in Llandaff, Cardiff, it produces Welsh-oriented English and Welsh-language television for BBC ONE Wales, BBC TWO Wales and S4C channels.

BBC Cymru Wales is Wales' only national radio broadcaster

The Western Mail is Wales' only national daily newspaper. daily newspapers include: Daily Post (which covers north Wales); South Wales Evening Post (Swansea); South Wales Echo (Cardiff); and South Wales Argus (Newport). Y Cymro is a Welsh-language newspaper, published weekly. Wales on Sunday is the only Welsh Sunday newspaper to cover the whole of Wales.

Cuisine

Traditional dishes include laverbread (made from laver (porphyra umbilicalis), an edible seaweed); bara brith (fruit bread); Cawl (a lamb stew); cawl cennin (leek soup); Welsh cakes; and Welsh lamb. Cockles are sometimes served as a traditional breakfast with bacon and laverbread.

Music

Traditional Welsh folk singer and harpist Siân James, live on stage at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient

Traditional instruments of Wales include ten desires (triple harp), fiddle, pibgorn (hornpipe) and other instruments.

Wales has a tradition for producing notable singing artists including Sir Geraint Evans, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Dame Anne Evans, Dame Margaret Price, Sir Tom Jones, Bonnie Tyler, Bryn Terfel, Mary Hopkin, Charlotte Church, Katherine Jenkins, Meic Stevens, Dame Shirley Bassey and Duffy.

The Welsh National Opera is based at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, while the National Youth Orchestra of Wales was the first of its type in the world.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 756