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GOVERNMENT
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Country
Name:
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conventional
long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
conventional short form: United Kingdom
abbreviation: UK |
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Government
Type:
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constitutional
monarchy |
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Capital:
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London
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Administrative
Divisions:
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47
counties, 7 metropolitan counties, 26 districts, 9 regions, and
3 islands areas; England?39 counties, 7 metropolitan counties*;
Avon, Bedford, Berkshire, Buckingham, Cambridge, Cheshire, Cleveland,
Cornwall, Cumbria, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex,
Essex, Gloucester, Greater London*, Greater Manchester*, Hampshire,
Hereford and Worcester, Hertford, Humberside, Isle of Wight, Kent,
Lancashire, Leicester, Lincoln, Merseyside*, Norfolk, Northampton,
Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottingham, Oxford, Shropshire,
Somerset, South Yorkshire*, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and
Wear*, Warwick, West Midlands*, West Sussex, West Yorkshire*,
Wiltshire; Northern Ireland?26 districts; Antrim, Ards, Armagh,
Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh,
Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne,
Limavady, Lisburn, Londonderry, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and
Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane; Scotland?9
regions, 3 islands areas*; Borders, Central, Dumfries and Galloway,
Fife, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Orkney*, Shetland*, Strathclyde,
Tayside, Western Isles*; Wales?8 counties; Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent,
Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan
note: England may now have 35 counties and Wales 9 counties |
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Independence:
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England
has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union
between England and Wales was enacted under the Statute of Rhuddlan
in 1284; in the Act of Union of 1707, England and Scotland agreed
to permanent union as Great Britain; the legislative union of
Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption
of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the
Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland;
six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom
as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in
1927 |
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National
Holiday:
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Celebration
of the Birthday of the Queen (second Saturday in June) |
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Constitution:
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unwritten;
partly statutes, partly common law and practice |
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Legal
System :
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common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences;
no judicial review of Acts of Parliament; accepts compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction, with reservations; British courts and legislation
are increasingly subject to review by European Union courts |
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Suffrage:
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18 years of age; universal |
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Executive
Branch:
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chief
of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Heir
Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948)
head of government: Prime Minister Anthony C. L. (Tony) BLAIR
(since 2 May 1997)
cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the prime minister
is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons (assuming
there is no majority party, a prime minister would have a majority
coalition or at least a coalition that was not rejected by the
majority) |
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Legislative
Branch:
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bicameral Parliament consists of House of Lords (1,200 seats;
four-fifths of the members are hereditary peers, two archbishops,
24 other senior bishops, serving and retired Lords of Appeal in
Ordinary, other life peers, Scottish peers) and House of Commons
(659 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
terms unless the House is dissolved earlier)
elections: House of Lords?no elections; House of Commons?last
held 1 May 1997 (next to be held by NA May 2002); note?in 1998
elections were held for a Northern Ireland Parliament; in 1999
there will be elections for a new Scottish parliament and a new
Welsh Assembly
election results: House of Commons?percent of vote by party?Labor
44.5%, Conservative 31%, Liberal Democratic 17%, other 7.5%; seats
by party?Labor 418, Conservative 165, Liberal Democrat 46, other
30 |
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Judicial
Branch:
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House of Lords, several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are appointed
by the monarch for life |
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Political
Parties and Leaders:
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Conservative
and Unionist Party [William HAGUE]; Labor Party [Anthony (Tony)
Blair]; Liberal Democrats [Jeremy (Paddy) ASHDOWN]; Scottish National
Party [Alex SALMOND]; Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru) [Dafydd
Iwan WIGLEY]; Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [David
TRIMBLE]; Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Rev. Ian
PAISLEY]; Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern
Ireland) [John HUME]; Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Gerry ADAMS];
Alliance Party (Northern Ireland) [Seamus CLOSE] |
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International
Organization Participation:
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AfDB,
AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, C, CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE, CERN,
CP, EAPC, EBRD, ECA (associate), ECE, ECLAC, EIB, ESA, ESCAP,
EU, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU,
ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,
Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MTCR, NATO,
NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UN Security
Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMIBH,
UNOMIG, UNOMSIL, UNRWA, UNU, UPU, WCL, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO,
ZC |
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Flag
Description:
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blue with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England)
edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint
Patrick (patron saint of Ireland) which is superimposed on the
diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland);
known as the Union Flag or Union Jack; the design and colors (especially
the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags
including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states
or provinces, as well as British overseas territories |
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