1.

The UK ( briefly characterize England, Wales, Scotland and Norther Ireland) 424

The United Kingdom is actually made up of four different countries; England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
England is the leading country of the UK in that it is the political, economical and cultural centre.
As is known, England takes its name from the Angles- one of the Germanic tribes. England has
been a unified state since AD 927 and generally has had a significant cultural and legal impact on
the other parts of the UK as well as on the wider world. England is the home of the English
language, the Anglican Church and English law. It should be mentioned that the country's
parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations worldwide.
The official language of England is English which is rapidly becoming the world’s lingua franca.
The religion of England is mostly Protestant, but there are many other Christian denominations:
Roman Catholic, Church of Scotland, Baptist, Methodist and other free churches.
Wales borders England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea to its west. Wales has
a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual. Wales was incorporated into
England with the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535-1542 creating the legal entity known today as
England and Wales. Cardiff is the capital city of Wales and it should be said that Cardiff enjoys the
status of the largest media centre in the UK outside of London.
Scotland shares a border with England to its south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east,
the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and the Irish Sea to the
southwest. Scotland comes from the Latin word Scoti, which applied to Gaels, people who
originally came from the region what is now Scotland and Ireland. The capital city of Scotland is
Edinburgh, which also is Scotland’s largest financial centre. It’s important to point out that
Scotland’s legal system is historically close to those of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but
it operates a distinct jurisdiction in public and private law. Nowadays, Scotland possesses its
parliament which has some rights to govern the country.
Northern Ireland is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland and shares a border with
the Republic of Ireland to the south and west. Northern Ireland was created as a distinct part of
the UK on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 , though its independence was
formally over in 1800 by Act of Union. The capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast.

2. Four nations of the UK (lecture 2)

The United Kingdom is actually made up of four different countries; England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Each nation has its own culture, history and heritage. While differences in
everyday modes of sociality and consumer behaviour are not great from one part of the nation
to another, some aspects of culture are symbolic of national or local difference on the level of
everyday practice or on special occasions. Support for the monarchy, political parties, and soccer
teams are the most obvious expressions of contemporary localism; religious adherence and
ethnic differentiation are also significant. Support for the monarchy and the Conservative Party is
highest in England, especially in the south, while in Scotland and Wales it is substantially lower.
The Scottish National Party's political programme is dominated by economic issues, particularly
tax revenues from North Sea oil. The political agenda of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party,
is mainly concerned with linguistic and cultural matters. In both Scotland and Wales, the Labour
Party is dominant, drawing strength from its critique of the class privilege traditionally associated
with London and south-eastern England.

The idea of social class is much more powerful than that of ethnicity. People frequently
characterise themselves as working class or middle class. Although few admit to being upper
class, in principle there are three classes, with the highest one reserved for the aristocratic
inheritors of old, landed wealth. The term "social class" has complex meanings with social,
economic, and political dimensions.

In Britain a significant but falling gender divide persists in regard to suitable occupations for men
and women, access to occupations by women and men, pay levels for similar kinds of work, and
the allocation of domestic tasks. Although the ideal of gender equality is widely shared, social
behavior lags behind the ideal. For example, 75 percent of couples say that the preparation of
the evening meal should be shared equally, but only one-third of these couples live up to that
ideal.

Premarital sex and unmarried cohabitation are widely accepted even if they are not liked by
defenders of traditional family values. Single motherhood caused by unstable, cohabiting
relationships or marital breakdown is perceived as a major problem because of its impact on the
welfare budget rather than as a moral question.family relationships remain close. Roughly 70 per
cent of adults live within an hour's journey of their parents or grown- up children, and nearly half
see their mothers, fathers, and best friends at least once a week.

3. Religion in the UK ( Reformation and current situation)

The first evidence of Christianity in England is from the late 2nd century AD. It is not known
exactly, who first introduced Christianity to England, but it is still believed that it was St.
Augustus, who introduced Christianity to Britain.
When talking about religion in the UK, it’s important to pay attention on the English reformation.
The English Reformation was a gradual process begun by King Henry VIII (1509-1547) and
continued, in various ways, by his three children and successors Edward VI, Mary Tudor and
Elizabeth I. Based on Henry VIII's desire for an annulment of his marriage the English Reformation began
as more of a political affair. Henry wished to annul his marriage to Catherine and marry Anne with the
obvious hope of producing a male heir for the English throne. But the Pope refused his request. Henry
decided: if the pope does not grant the annulment, then split the English church off from the Roman
church. This would make the King the spiritual head of the English church rather than the Pope. In 1529,
the English Parliament began to debate this question; which occupied them for seven years. In 1531, the
clergy of England recognised Henry as the head of the church, and in 1533, Parliament passed the
"Submission of the Clergy," a law which placed the clergy completely under Henry's control. In that same
year, Henry married Ann Boleyn. Despite this, the English church didn't change. It was still for all practical
purposes a Catholic Church. The theology and liturgy of the Church of England became markedly
Protestant during the reign of Henry's son Edward VI. Under Mary the Church of England was again placed
under papal jurisdiction. Then Elizabeth reintroduced the Protestant religion but in a more moderate
manner. The structure and theology of the church was a matter of fierce dispute for generations
and the violent aspect of these disputes, manifested in the English Civil Wars, ended when the
last Roman Catholic monarch, James II, was deposed.
It’s worth mentioning that nowadays the largest religious group in England is Christianity, with
the Church of England (Anglican Church) the major established church. This church retains a
representation in the UK Parliament and also retains the right to draft legislative measures. The
Roman Catholic Church is the second largest Christian church with around five million members,
mainly in England as well as in Ireland and Wales. There are also growing Orthodox and
Pentecostal churches in England. The largest religious group is also Christianity, though the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, is recognised as the National church. Also, it’s worth
mentioning that at the 2011 census, there were 1,536,015 Muslims in England and Wales,
forming 3% of the population. Over 1 million people follow religions of Indian origin: Hindus,
Sikhs and Buddhists.
Geographically, the Church of England is represented as the Church of England, the Church of
Scotland, the Church of Ireland, and the Church in Wales, but Anglicanism is the predominant
church mainly in England. In Wales, there was a strong nonconformist presence of Methodist and
Baptist chapels; in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Presbyterianism is strongly represented; and
Roman Catholicism is significant in Northern Ireland. Only in Northern Ireland is religion strongly
identified with political aspirations.

4. Banking system in the UK

Britain’s financial services industry is responsible for around 7 % of its gross domestic product
(GDP), contributing some £450,000 million a year. Historically, the heart of the financial services
sector in Britain has been located in the “Square Mile” in the City of London, and this remains
broadly the case. Because of many facts (accounts 60 % of the global turnover, is the second
largest fund management centre, one of the world’s biggest markets in financial futures and
options, efficient worldwide communications links and so on) the comparative study of four
world cities – London, Paris, New York and Tokyo confirmed many strengths of London and
described it as probably the most international and pre-eminent financial centres, with
advantages over other financial centres of the world.
Traditional banking services include current accounts, deposit accounts and various kinds of loan
arrangements. Retail banks now offer many more services with credit and debit cards being
widely available as are mortgages, insurance, offshore accounts and share-dealing services.
Competition among the banks and other financial institutions remains intense. HSBC and Lloyds
TSB Group are the two largest banks in Europe, in terms of market capitalisation. Four other
banks are in Britain’s top 20 companies: Barclays, Halifax, National Westminster and the Abbey
National. Other examples of major British Banks are the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of
Scotland, Standard Chartered.
It’s worth mentioning that London is a major centre for international banking. But on the other
hand, it doesn’t mean that success is always guaranteed. For example, there were problems in
the development of the economic system of the UK in 2007 when the 2007–2012 global
recession began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September
2008. A global recession has resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment
and slumping commodity prices. The UK also experienced a downturn from which recovery is not
complete.
Also, it’s important to point out that according to the Nationwide, the average UK house price
has now fallen over several successive years whilst, in local property supplements, the 'reduced
price' labels have been multiplying for over 6 months.

5. British Parliament ( Houses and politics) 454

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly referred
to as the Westminster Parliament) is the supreme legislative body in the UK and British Oversees
territories. Parliament alone possesses ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK
and its territories. At its head is the Sovereign. The British Parliament is bicameral, with an
“upper” house, the House of Lords and a “lower” house, the House of Commons. The Functions
of Parliament are: to pass laws, to scrutinise the government policy and administration including
proposals for expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day. The parliament is elected
for five years, but also Parliament can be dissolved and elections can be ordered by the Queen
on the advice of the Prime Minister. The life of the Parliament is divided into sessions.
So, Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons and the Lords. The House of
Lords, like the House of Commons, assembles in the Palace of Westminster. The House of Lords
is the upper house of the Parliament of the UK. The House of Lords includes two different types
of members: the Lords Spirituals and the Lords Temporal, whose members are not elected by the
people, but are hereditary or appointed by the Sovereign on advice of the Prime Minister. The
Lords Spiritual are 26 senior bishops of the Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of
the membership; of these, many are life peers who are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the
Prime Ministers.
The House of Lords consists of: all hereditary peers and peeresses of England, Scotland, Great
Britain and the UK, life peers created to assist the House in its judicial duties, all other life peers,
and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester
and the 21 senior bishops of the Church of England.
The House of Commons consists of 659 MPs directly elected by voters in each of Britain’s 659
parliamentary constituencies. The Chief Officer of the House of Commons is the Speaker, elected
by MPs to preside over the House. Other officers include the three Deputy Speakers.
The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster. All governmental
ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or, less often,
the House of Lords, and are thereby accountable to the respective branches of the legislature.
In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen; in practice in modern times, real
power is vested in the House of Commons, as the Sovereign generally acts on the advice of the
Prime Minister and the powers of the House of Lords have been limited.

6. Devolved Parliaments ( Scottish, Irish and Welsh), their rights 427

The members of England are ruled by the British Parliament, but also Scotland, Wales and the
Northern Ireland have their own governing bodies.

Scotland has its own legal and church systems. It also has wide administrative autonomy. The
Secretary of State for Scotland, a Cabinet Minister at Westminster, has responsibility for
Scotland. The current Parliament was established by the Scotland Act of 1998, which sets out its
powers as a devolved legislature. The British Parliament retains the ability to amend the terms of
reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can extend or reduce the areas in which it can make
laws. The specific devolved matters include agriculture, fisheries and forestry, economic
development, education, environment, food standards, health, home affairs, Scottish law courts,
police and fire services, local government, sport and the arts, transport, training, tourism,
research and statistics and social work.

Initially, the Welsh Government had no independent executive powers in law. The Government
of Wales Act 2006 formally separated the legislature (National Assembly for Wales) and the
Welsh Government, giving Welsh Ministers independent executive authority. After this change,
the role of Welsh Ministers become: to make decisions, develop and implement policy, exercise
executive functions and make statutory instruments. The 60 Assembly Members in the National
Assembly scrutinise the Government’s decisions and policies; hold Ministers to account; approve
budgets for the Welsh Government’s programmes; and enact Assembly Acts on subjects within
devolved legislative competence. The Welsh Government’s functions now include being able to
propose Bills to the National Assembly for Wales on subjects within twenty fields of policy,
namely: culture, economic development, education and training, sport and recreation, tourism
and so on.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to
legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United
Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at
Stormont in Belfast. Although the fact that Northern Ireland Assembly has the history of development,
it’s more important to mention only the latest version of the Assembly that was established under
the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and is based on the principle of power-sharing to ensure
that Northern Ireland's largest political communities, the unionist (largely protestant) and
nationalist (largely Catholic) communities both participate in governing the region. The Assembly
is a unicameral, democratically elected body currently comprising 108 members known as
Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. The modern Northern Ireland Assembly was first
elected on 25 June 1998 and first met on 1 July 1998.

7. Culture ( painting + music) 441a

John Constable (1776-1837) belonged to an English tradition of Romanticism that rejected

compositions marked by a heightened idealisation of nature, such as those of Caspar David
Friedrich, in favour of the naturalism of 17th century Dutch Baroque art, and also that of Claude
Lorrain (1604-82). This tradition sought a balance between a deep sensitivity to nature and
advances in the science of painting and drawing. Another talented painter is William Turner. The
mood of his paintings is created less by what he painted than by how he painted, especially how
he employed colour and his paint-brush. Many of his canvases are painted with rapid slashes. It
often takes a while for the depicted object to emerge from this whirling impression of colour and
material. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Turner’s art had a huge impact on the Impressionists,
who, unlike Romantic painters, were realists - they were not interested in visions of light that
heightened expressiveness but in real light effects in nature. This movement towards realism
appeared around 1850. At this point, a widening gulf opened up between emotion and reality.
The Romantics, including groups like the Pre-Raphaelites, focused on emotion, fantasy and
artistically created worlds - a style very much in tune with the era of Victorian art (1840-1900) -
an excellent example being the highly popular sentimental portraits of dogs by Sir Edwin
Landseer (1802-73). By comparison, the Realists adhered to a more naturalistic idiom,
encompassing such diverse styles as French Realism (with socially-aware themes) and
Impressionism.

Also it’s important to talk about the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites was a group of English
painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were soon joined by William Michael Rossetti, James
Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form a seven- member
"brotherhood". The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what they considered to be
the mechanistic approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and
Michelangelo.

Also I want to talk about Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is an English composer of musical theatre.
He has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as "the most
commercially successful composer in history." Webber has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle,
a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of
honours. His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in
London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours,
of Webber's musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group.

8. Women writers 427….

Charlotte (b.1816), Emily (b.1818) and Anne (b.1820) were the three youngest three daughters
born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. They are well known as poets and novelists.
Charlotte is the best-known of the Bronte sisters. Charlotte did not start as a successful writer;
her first novel didn’t secure a publisher, but she sent a second manuscript in August 1847, and
six weeks later Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, was published. She wrote under the pen name
“Currer Bell”. Following the success of Jane Eyre, in 1848 Charlotte began work on the
manuscript of her second novel, Shirley and it was published in October 1849. But Shirley was
less popular than Jane Eyre. Charlotte's third published novel, and the last to be published during
her lifetime, was Villete which came out in 1853.
Emily was a talented writer too, but her style was unique and often critics condemned her works.
At seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls' school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but
soon she returned home and Anne took her place. At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain
sufficient education to open a small school of their own. In the autumn of 1845, Charlotte
discovered the notebooks with Emily’s poems; she read it and was dazzled by the beauty of the
poems and insisted that the poems be published. Emily at first refused, but in 1846, the sisters'
poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell- the pen names of
Charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively. In 1847, Emily published her novel Wuthering Heights. In
1850, Charlotte edited and published Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under
Emily's real name. Emily died of tuberculosis, on 19 December 1848.
Ann was as talented as her sisters were and had original style. One year before her death in May
1849, Anne published “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”. This novel was a great success and rapidly
outsold Emily's Wuthering Heights.
Also, it is important to talk about Jane Austen- an English novelist and one of the most famous
writers in English literature. She began to write poems, stories, and plays for her own and her
family's amusement and later compiled "fair copies" of 29 of these early works into three bound
notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia. With the publication of Sense and Sensibility, Pride
and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma, in her lifetime she achieved modest success. Also she
wrote “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion”, both published posthumously in 1818. Austen
gained far more status after her death.

9. Education system in the UK (School and Higher education)

The UK education system is worldwide reputed for its high quality and standards. In England and
Wales, children between the ages of 5 and 16 must receive a full-time education, but in Northern
Ireland children must begin at age 4. It’s also worth mentioning that publicly-funded nurseries
and pre-schools are available for a limited number of hours each week. After the age of 16,
students can make a choice and they can either remain at School for two further years, attend
sixth form colleges or other further education institutions.
The UK introduced a National Curriculum in 1992 and state schools are required to adhere to it
until students reach age 16. National Curriculum main subjects are: English, mathematics,
science, design and technology, information and communication technology, history, geography,
modern foreign languages, music, art and design, physical education, and citizenship. Also, there
are other compulsory courses, such as religious education.
Northern Ireland has* a similar structure, but schools can also develop additional curriculum
elements and in Irish-speaking schools in the curriculum is included the Irish language.
After five years of secondary education, students take examinations in a range of subjects at the
level of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). After taking GCSEs, students may
leave secondary schooling; alternatively, they may choose to continue their education at
vocational or technical colleges, or they may take a higher level of secondary school
examinations- AS-Levels, after an additional year of study.
Following two years of study, students may take A-Level examinations, which are required for
university entrance in the UK.
There are two types of schools in the UK, state-funded and independent (privately-funded)
schools. State schools follow the “National Curriculum” (the independent schools set their own
curricula) and it should be said that approximately 90% of British students attend state-funded
schools. State schools (and some independent schools) are inspected by the Office for Standards
in Education, Child Services and Skills (ofsted) every three years and ofsted publishes the results
online.
Higher education is the stage of learning that occurs at Universities, academies, colleges,
seminaries, and Institutes of Technology. In contrast, the vocational higher education and
training that takes place at some universities, FE colleges and schools usually concentrates on
practical applications, with less theory. In addition, professional-level education is always
included within Higher Education, and usually in graduate schools. A basic requirement for entry
into these graduate-level programmes is almost always a bachelor's degree.