Politically speaking

PART I

UNIT I

BRITAIN IN BRIEF

Lesson 1

UK BASIC FACTS

What exactly is Britain? And who are the British?

Geographically speaking

Lying off the north-west coast of Europe, there are two large islands and several much smaller ones. Collectively, they are known as the British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The other large one is called Ireland.

The British Isles consist of about five thousand small islands, the main of which are the Isle of Wightin the English Channel, Angleseaand the Isle of Manin the Irish Sea, the Hebrides –a group of islands off the north-western coast of Scotland, and two groups of islands lying to the north of Scotland: the Orkney Islandsand the Shetland Islands.But the United Kingdom doesn’t include the Isle of Manand the Channel Islands, which are Crown dependencies¹.

The total area of the United Kingdom is over 244,035 square kilometres. The United Kingdom is made of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.The capital of the UK is London.

The British Isles are separated from the Continent by the North Sea, the English Channeland the Strait of Dover.The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Oceanand the Irish Sea.

Politically speaking

Great Britainis, strictly, a geographical area consisting of the large island. It’s often called Britain.The name Great Britain was first used in a political sense after the “Act of Union of Scotland with England and Wales” in 1707. Its official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandalthough it’s usually known by a shorter name the United Kingdom.In everyday speech this is often shortened to “the UK”. The stickers on cars “GB” are another example of the use of this name. The normal adjective, when talking about something to do with the UK, is “British”.

The United Kingdom was formed in 1801 when the Irish parliament was joined with the parliament for England, Wales and Scotland in London, and the whole of the British Isles became a single state. However, In 1921 Ireland was divided into two parts. In 1922 the larger southern part formed the independent Republic of Ireland and became the Irish Free Stateand in 1949 a completely independent republic, while Northern Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

The Scottish and Welsh are proud and independent people. In recent years there have been attempts at devolution in the two countries, particularly in Scotland where the Scottish Nationalist Party was very strong for a while. However, in a referendum in 1978 the majority of the Welsh people rejected devolution, and in 1979 the Scots did the same. Nevertheless, most Welsh and Scots sometimes complain that they are dominated by England, and of course they don’t like to be referred to as English.

There are older names for parts of the United Kingdom, but these are found mostly in literature. “Albion”was the original Roman name for Britain. It may come from the Latin word “albus”, meaning “white”. The white chalk cliffs around Dover on the south coast are the first part of England to be seen when crossing the sea from the European mainland.

“Britannia”is the name that the Romans gave to their southern British province (which covered, approximately, the area of present-day England ). It is also the name given to the female embodiment of Britain, always shown wearing a helmet and holding a trident (the symbol of power over the sea). In the period of Roman occupation the symbolic figure of Britannia was seated on the globe with spear and round shield. In the reign of Elizabeth I the spear was replaced by Neptune’s trident. The figure of Britannia has been on the reverse side of many British coins for more than 300 years.

The White cliffs of Dover²are the tall chalk cliffs on the south-eastern coast of England. When you travel to Britain by sea or air, it is very likely that you will arrive in the Southeast, for this is where the main passenger ports and airports are located.

The Southeast is the most densely populated region of England. It’s only 11 per cent of the land area of the country, but a third of the total population lives here. Because of this, a large part of the region is affected by urban development: housing, factories, offices and a complex network of roads and motorways. However, there is still attractive countryside to be found in all counties outside the influence of London. The south coast has a mild and sunny climate which makes it popular with both holiday-makers and the elderly, who find it a comfortable area to retire to.

Forming the Nation

About 2 000 years ago the British Isles were inhabited by the Celts³, who had originally come from continental Europe. During the next 1 000 years there were many invasions.

The Romanscame from Italy in AD 43. The Anglesand the Saxonscame from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in the 5^th century and gave the country the name England (Angle-land). The Vikingskept coming from Denmark and Norway throughout the 9^th century. In 1066 (the date in history which every British school child knows) the Normansinvaded from France.

All these invasions drove the Celts into Wales and Scotland, and of course they also remained in Ireland. The present-day English are the descendants of all the invaders, although they are more Anglo-Saxon than anything else. These various origins explain many of the differences which exist between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – differences in education, religion, legal systems and in language.

The people who live in England are English, the people who live in Scotland are Scots, the people who live in Wales are Welsh. At the same time all these people are British because they live in Britain. As to the word “Great” in the name of the island, it was first introduced by the French to distinguish the island from the area in the north of France called Britanny (the French language has the same word for “Britain” and “Britanny”).

The four nations

People often refer to Britain by another name. They call it “England”. But this is not strictly correct, and it can make some people angry. England is only one of the four nations of the British Isles. Their political unification was a gradual process that took several hundred years.

At one time the four nations were distinct from each other in almost every aspect of life. In the first place, they were different racially. The people in Ireland, Wales and highland Scotland belonged to the Celtic race; those in England and lowland Scotland were mainly of Germanic origin. This difference was reflected in the languages they spoke. People in the Celtic areas spoke Celtic languages: Irish, Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. People in the Germanic areas spoke Germanic dialects (including the one which has developed into modern English). All the invading peoples, particularly the Norman-French, influenced the English language, and we can find many words in English which are French in origin. Nowadays all the Welsh, Scottish and Irish people speak English, but they have their own special accents and dialects, so you can tell what part of Britain a person is from as soon as they begin to speak. Sometimes the differences in accents are so great that people from different parts of the UK have difficulty in understanding one another. The southern accent is generally accepted as Standard English. The nations also tended to have different economic, social and legal systems.

Today these differences have become blurred. But they haven’t completely disappeared. Although there is only one government for the whole of Britain, and people have the same passport regardless of where in Britain they live, some aspects of government are organized separately in the four parts of the United Kingdom. Moreover, Welsh, Scottish and Irish people feel their identity very strongly.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1976