The UK is a constitutional monarchy; it means that the head of state is a king or a queen. The present sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II.

The United Kingdom

The official name of the country which is situated on the British Isles is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its other names are Britain, Great Britain and the UK. It consists of 4 parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The capital of England is London; the capital of Wales is Cardiff; the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh and the capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast. Great Britain is separated from Ireland by the Irish Sea. The UK is washed be the Atlantic Ocean in the north and the North Sea in the east. The country is separated from the continent by the English Channel and the Strait of Dover. The UK is one of the smallest countries in the world. It occupied the area of 244 000 sq. km. The longest river is the Severn; the most important is the Thames. The highest mountain is situated in Scotland, it’s Ben Nevis, and the second highest mountain is in Wales, it’s Snowdon. Its population is over 57 mln people. The biggest cities of the UK are Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. Great Britain is a country of incomparable beauty. It is rich in rivers and lakes, mountains and hills, lowlands and highlands, waterfalls and hedges. The emblem of England is the red rose. Wales has two plants as its symbols – the leek and the daffodil. For Scotland it’s a thistle and for Northern Ireland it’s a shamrock.

The climate of G.B. is usually described as mild and humid. It’s mild because of the Gulf Stream. The waters of the Gulf Stream influence winter and summer’s temperatures of the country. So it’s never too cold in winter and never very hot in summer. It often rains in GB. That’s why Englishmen often speak about weather; everything in this country depends on the weather. Sometimes it rains so heavily that people say “It’s raining cats and dogs.” But it doesn’t often snow in the UK. Snow melts quickly and Englishmen seldom have white Christmas. This mild humid climate is good for plants and trees; they start blooming early in spring.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy; it means that the head of state is a king or a queen. The present sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II.

In practice, the sovereign reigns but doesn’t rule as she doesn’t have much power. The Queen is a symbol of the country, its history and tradi­tions. There are three branches of power in the state: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch is represented by the Parliament, the executive branch is represented by the Government and the judicial branch is represented by the Supreme Court. The British Parlia­ment has two houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords consists of 1,000 non-elected members but only 250 of them take an active part in the work of the Parliament. These members are permanent. They are often aristocrats, people of the church, lawyers and former politicians. The House of Lords doesn't have much power but it is very important as it can offer and change laws, it can de­lay laws too. The speaker of the House of Lords is Lord Chancellor. He sits on the Woolsack which is a symbol of the country’s prosperity.

The House of Commons has much more power than the House of Lords. It makes laws about the policy of the country, taxes and many other things. The British people elect 650 members of the House of Commons every five years. The speaker of the House of Commons is elected at the beginning of each Parliament. During the debates members are called to speak by the Speaker. The Prime Minister is the head of the Government: he is usually the leader of the party which has the majority in the House of Commons. Nowadays it is David Cameron, he is a Conservative Party leader. The Prime Minister is appointed by the queen at Buckingham Palace. He forms the Cabinet of Ministers (usually about 20 in number). They meet twice a week and are responsible for directing the national policy of the U.K.

The main political parties of the U.K. are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Most members of the House of Commons belong to one of these parties. Prime Minister Anthony Blair is the leader of the Labour Party.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1438