Lectures 1 15 Students Fundation of British Studies M. Rusieshvili Adn T.cartledge 1

Lecture 1 Great Britain and the UK
1.1
The UK versus Great Britain (Geographically versus Politically)
Two large islands and several much smaller ones lying off the northwest coast of Europe
are collectively known as the British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain, whereas
the other large one is called Ireland. Geographically speaking, Northern Island is not
included in Great Britain. However, politically speaking, it is and the group (GB plus
Northern Ireland) is often referred to as the United Kingdom. Also, Great Britain includes
several islands offshore from England, Scotland and Wales, such as the Scilly Islands, the
Isles of Wight, Anglesey, and the island groups of the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands.
However, it does not include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands that are not part of the
United Kingdom. Instead, they are self-governing territories with their own legislative and
taxation systems.
Great Britain lies to the northwest of Continental Europe and to the east of Ireland. It is
separated from the continent by the North Sea and by the English Channel. Great Britain is
connected to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel, completed in 1993. This tunnel
is considered to be the longest undersea rail tunnel in the world.
Great Britain is characterised by low, rolling countryside in the east and south, while hills and
mountains predominate in the western and northern regions. Historically, Great Britain was
first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. It is
believed that until about 10,000 years ago, Great Britain was joined to Ireland. As recently as
8,000 years ago, it was joined to the continent by the strip of low marshland, by what is now
known as the territories of Netherlands and Denmark.
According to several theories put forward by John T. Koch and others, Britain in the Late
Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze
which also included Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. These are the main regions where
Celtic languages developed and later widespread throughout the world.
Later, in the Iron Age, the inhabitants of Great Britain became known as Britons, and they
spoke a Celtic language.
When the Romans conquered most of the island, this became the Ancient Roman province of
Britannia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Britons inhabiting the south and east of the
island were assimilated or displaced by invading Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes),
often referred to collectively as Anglo-Saxons). At about the same time, Gaelic tribes from
Ireland invaded the northwest and eventually formed the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th
century. Later, the south-east of Scotland was colonised by the Angles and was included,
until the early XI century, as a part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. As a result of such
changes, the population of south-east Britain came to be referred to, after the Angles, as the
English people.
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Germanic speakers referred to Britons as Welsh. Cymru, a name the Britons used to describe
their territory (which is now restricted to Wales), and the language is Welsh or Cymreig. The
Britons living in the areas now known as Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall were not assimilated
by the Germanic tribes, a fact reflected in the survival of Celtic languages in these areas into
more recent times. In the 9th century, a series of Danish attacks on northern English
kingdoms led to the Briton’s coming under Danish control (an area known as the Danelaw).
In 1066, England was conquered by the Normans, who introduced a French ruling élite that
was, eventually, assimilated later. Wales came under Anglo-Norman control in 1282 and was
officially annexed to England in the 16th century.
On 20 October 1604, King James, who had succeeded separately to the two thrones of
England and Scotland, proclaimed himself as King of Great Britain, France and Ireland.
However, England and Scotland still existed legally as separate countries with their
parliaments until 1707, when each parliament passed an Act of Union to ratify the Treaty of
Union that had been agreed the previous year. This Act created the United Kingdom, with a
single, united parliament, from 1 May 1707. Though the Treaty of Union referred to the new
all-island state as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, many scholars regard the term-
United Kingdom- as being descriptive of the union rather than part of its formal name (which
the Treaty stated was to be "Great Britain" without further qualification.) However, the all-
island kingdom that existed between 1707 and 1800, is often described as the "Kingdom of
Great Britain".
By size, Great Britain is the ninth largest island in the world and also enjoys the status of the
largest island in Europe. Although a middle-sized island by world standards, it is considered
to be heavily populated. Currently, the population of Great Britain is about 59.8 million
people, which makes it the third most populated island on Earth.
The entire island is a territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Island.
Consequently, the term "Great Britain" (and the abbreviation 'GB') is the traditional ‘short
geographical form' of the country title 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and the
Northern Island. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales is situated on the island of Great
Britain, with their respective capital cities London, Edinburgh and Cardiff. The capital of
Northern Island is Belfast.
As was mentioned, historically, the union of England and Scotland began in 1603, when
under the Union of Crowns, Scotland and England was joined, yet informally. This was made
possible by the accession of James VI, king of Scots, to the throne of England, which
practically joined the two kingdoms, England and Scotland, under one monarch. However,
this was not a political union and, despite sharing the same monarch, the kingdoms remained
distinct and formally independent of each other.
These two countries finally made one political whole in 1707 by force of the Acts of Union,
which merged the parliaments of each of the above-mentioned nations thus forming the
Kingdom of Great Britain. This happened under the last monarch of the Stuart Dynasty,
Queen Anne.
1.2 In Text Activities
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1.2.1 State whether the following statements are True or False:
Statement True or
False
1 The British Isles consist of two large islands only.
2 Great Britain is larger in size than Ireland.
3 The Channel Islands are ruled absolutely by the United Kingdom.
4 Great Britain is separated from the continent just by the English Channel.
5 Great Britain is believed to be part of the “Atlantic Iron”.
6 In the Iron Age, British people spoke a Celtic Language.
7 The Vikings called Great Britain “Britania”.
8 Anglo-Saxons were Germanic Tribes.
9 The Kingdom of Scotland was formed in the X! Century.
10 Germanic speakers once called British Inhabitants and their language “Cymru”
1.2.2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, c
1. As well as Britain, the Atlantic Bronze also included:
a) Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal; b) Italy, France, Portugal and Spain;
c) Germany, France, Ireland and Spain.
2. The kingdom of Scotland was formed by------------------tribes:
a) Celtic; b) Gaelic; c) Anglo-Saxon.
3. Cymru, is now used to denote:
a) Ireland; b) Wales; c) Scotland.
4. Wales officially became part of England in the ------------------century:
a) XIII; b) XIV; c) XVI.
5. Scotland and England were officially united by force of the Acts of Union in:
a) 1707; b) 1710; c) 1709.
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6. The kingdom which existed between 1707 and 1800 was referred to as:
a) Kingdom of England and Scotland; b) Kingdom of Great Britain; c) Kingdom of Wales

and England
7. The capital of Scotland is
a) Cardiff; b) Glasgow; c) Edinburgh.
1.2.3 Answer the following questions separately:
1. What are the milestones in the history of Britain mentioned in the text?
2. What are the two aspects of GB and UK are discussed in the text?
3. Speak about the development of the meaning of the word Cymru
1.3 The countries comprising the UK
1.3.1 ENGLAND
England is the leading country of the UK in that it is the political, economic and cultural
centre. Being a part of Great Britain, it shares land borders with Scotland to the north, and
Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the North West, the Celtic Sea to the south-west and the
North Sea to the east, with the English Channel, which opens out into the Atlantic Ocean, to
the south separating it from continental Europe.
As is known, England takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes, who
settled the territory during the 5th and 6th centuries, together with Saxons and Jutes. 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 and the wider world. England is the home of the English
language, the Anglican Church and English law, which serves as the basis for the Common
law legal systems of many other countries in the world. Moreover, the country's
parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations worldwide. In
addition to this, England was the country where the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th
century and quickly transformed its society into the world's first industrialized nation.
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The Kingdom of England, which, after 1284 also included Wales, lost its absolute
sovereignty on the 1st of May, 1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in a political union
with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1800, Great
Britain was united with Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, the Irish Free State was established as a separate
dominion. However, the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act in 1927 reincorporated into the
kingdom the six Irish counties (of Ulster) to officially create the current United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The official language of England is English which is rapidly becoming the world’s lingua
franca. However, in many larger cities, mainly London, there are many communities, who do
not speak English as a first language. This adds yet more variety to the English language.
However, such communities are encouraged to maintain their cultural roots and are also
given the opportunities to integrate into society.
As for the religion of England, it is mostly Protestant (Church of England), but there are
many other Christian denominations: Roman Catholic, Church of Scotland, Baptist,
Methodist and other free churches. There is a sizeable representation of Hindu, Jewish and
Muslim minorities as well. This lingual and religious variety doubtlessly makes England an
interesting country.
1.3.2 SCOTLAND
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.
The word Scotland comes from the Latin word Scoti, which applied to Gaels, or the people
who originally came from the region of what is now Scotland and Ireland. By the 11th
century, at the latest, the word Scotia was used to refer to (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland
alongside Albania or Albany, both derived from the Gaelic Alba, meaning white. The use of
the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in
the Late Middle Ages.
The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the country's largest financial centre. On
the other hand, Glasgow, which is Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading
industrial cities. However, closeness to the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in
Europe, has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.
Although Scotland’s legal system is historically close to the legal systems of England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, it operates a distinct jurisdiction in public and private law. Nowadays,
Scotland possesses its parliament, which has some rights to govern the country.
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1.3.3 WALES
Wales, for which the Welsh term is Cymru [kumri], 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. Currently, the indigenous Welsh language is less spoken than
English though they both have equal status. However, there is a rising tendency to use Welsh
more over recent years, particularly in the younger generation, with fluent Welsh speakers
currently estimated to be around 20% of the population.
Initially, Wales was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. Nowadays, Wales is regarded as one of
the modern Celtic nations. Wales was incorporated into England with the Laws in Wales
Acts of 1535-1542, creating the legal entity known today as England and Wales. In 1999, the
National Assembly for Wales was created, which, although being devolved, holds
responsibility for a range of devolved matters.
Cardiff (Welsh, Caerdydd) is the capital city of Wales with a population of around
362,310 people.
Cardiff enjoys the status of the largest media centre in the UK outside of London.
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1.3.4 Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland and shares a border with
the Republic of Ireland (which is not a part of the UK) 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 the
Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. For over 50 years, it had its devolved
government and parliament. Both of these institutions were finally abolished in 1973.
As a result of vigorous repeated attempts to restore self-government, the present-day

Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly were created, both of which take
an active part in the government of Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland has been a site of severe ethnopolitical conflict between nationalists (Roman
Catholic population) and unionists (Protestants). The nationalists want Northern Ireland to be
a part of the Eire, while the unionists wish it to remain part of the UK. Since the signing of
the "Good Friday Agreement” in 1998, most military groups stopped their armed campaigns.
In general, Unionists consider themselves British, and Nationalists see themselves as Irish,
though these identities are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
1.4.1 Speaking:
1. In pairs, characterise one of the countries of the UK. Report to the group
2. In pairs, follow the way of establishment of the Union Jack. Report to the group
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1.4.2 Project
In pairs find additional relevant information and make brief presentations on:
a) National flags of the UK;
b) National plants and symbols of the UK;
Lecture 2 National Identity 1The Four nations of

the United Kingdom
2. 1 Cultural and Linguistic Patterns
At present, the population of Great Britain is approximately 67,771,315. 1 The nation’s

cultural diversity has been increased by migration within the British Isles and by immigration
from Europe and overseas.
Until 1920, Ireland was incorporated within the United Kingdom. Movement across the Irish
Sea had existed since the 18th century, even among Ireland's poorest people. In the 19th
century, there was a regular pattern regarding the seasonal migration of farmworkers from
1
The current population of the United Kingdom is as of Thursday, March 5, 2020, based on Worldometer
elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
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Ireland to Britain. Irishmen volunteered for the Royal Navy and British Army regiments in
the18th and 19th centuries and saw service in all parts of the empire. Some Irish people spent
periods in Britain, which had ( and has) a more highly developed economy than Ireland.
From 1841 onward, the censuses of Scotland, England, and Wales have enumerated Irish-
born people in every part of the country. Similarly, Scottish and Welsh people have settled in
England. Quite a few British people have ancestries that are mixtures of the four nationalities
of the British Isles.
Before and after World War II, political and religious refugees and displaced persons from
the Baltic countries, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, were offered shelter in Britain
and remained there, along with some prisoners of war. Other immigrants of European
ancestry, who were born in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South and East Africa,
along with Greek and Turkish Cypriots, also settled in Britain. After the late 1940s, many
non-European overseas immigrants arrived, predominantly from the colonies, including
people of Indian and African ancestry from the West Indies and Guyana; In addition, people
from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and Chinese from Hong Kong and Singapore also
arrived here. The 1991 census, the first to include ethnic background, enumerated three
million Britons of non-European birth or ancestry.
Regional and cultural relationships are expressed in marked linguistic differences. The
English language has been modified, by a gradual convergence, toward "estuary English," a
less formal variety of southeastern speech. Through some educational and socioeconomic
factors, it is possible to determine people's geographical origins by the way they speak. In
some areas, there are significant differences regarding speech patterns from one city or
county to its neighbour. These differences are associated with loyalties to one's place of birth
or residence, and for many people, are significant aspects of self-identity. Non-English native
languages are little spoken but in recent years have gained significance as cultural and
political symbols. These languages include Scots Gallic, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish Gaelic
(commonly referred to as the Celtic languages). Also, there is the Old Norse language of the
Northern Isles (Orkney and especially Shetland) and the Norman-French patois of the
Channel Islands.
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Affiliao
The United Kingdom

In Wales, 80 per cent of the people speak English as their first or only language. Those who
speak Welsh as their first language are considered to be bilingual. Gallic is not a national
language in Scotland because it has never been spoken in some parts of the country. People in
the Northern Isles are bilingual in English and an unwritten, creolised form of Old Norse. In
the Channel Islands, the Norman-French patois is nearly extinct; and in Cornwall, there are
no natural speakers of Cornish, although the language has been reconstructed. In Northern
Ireland, the Irish language has been reintroduced as a means of re-vitalising Celtic pride
among Belfast Catholics.
Symbolic attachment may reinforce localism or take the form of personal commitments that
extend across socioeconomic strata. Support for soccer and rugby teams became significant
during the twentieth century and teams now command fierce local loyalties as the sport has
come to symbolise male pride and self-image in a society where mining and manufacturing
have declined. Forms of personal commitment that transcend locality include vegetarianism
and environmentalism. The first is predominantly middle class and female, and the second is
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identified less with gender and socioeconomic status. On the fringes of society, especially
among the young, there has been significant growth in new religious movements, which
include radical environmentalist cults, New Age paganism, social-political movements, such
as anarchism, anti-capitalist and anti-nuclear groups, and adopted Far Eastern and South
Asian religions and belief systems, including martial arts cults. Cults based on popular music
and performers engender personal commitment in culturally patterned ways.
Statement True or
False
1 Regional and cultural differences do not cause linguistic differences.
2 It is impossible to detect people’s background from their accent.
3 Accent is a socio-cultural category.
4 80% of the Welsh generation speak Welsh as their first language.
5 Gallic is not frequently spoken in Scotland any more.
6 Old Norse has a richly published and preserved history.
7 Cornish is not spoken routinely any more.
8 The Irish language is currently used to restore national pride in Belfast
9 Symbolic attachment does not play a significant role in the UK.
10 Vegetarianism is most commonly the preference of lower class females.
2. 3 Significant moments from the History and Society of the UK.
The United Kingdom was formed by Acts of Union between England and Wales (1536) and
England, Wales, and Scotland (1707), uniting the three nations under a single monarchy and
legislative council (Parliament in London). After 1169, the island of Ireland came under
British influence, and it became a colonial dependency in 1690. The British and Irish
parliaments were united in 1801. A separatist movement led to the dissolution of the Union of
Great Britain and Ireland in 1920, after which twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties
became the independent Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland), with six of the nine
counties of Ulster remaining within the United Kingdom. The present-day nation also
includes the Channel Islands off the coast of France and the Isle of Man between Britain and
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Ireland, which are substantially self-governing. Northern Ireland and Scotland have separate
legal and educational systems and issue their currency. Wales is incorporated within the
English legal, educational, and banking systems. Recent referendums in Scotland and Wales
have resulted in the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, which is still under the general
jurisdiction of London but has limited local tax-raising powers, and the Welsh Assembly,
which does not have tax-raising powers. The native tribes in the central and eastern parts of
England were conquered by the Romans in 55 BC, and permanent Roman settlements were
established in 43 BC and continued for four hundred years. The numbers of Romans were
never great, but the indigenous upper classes became ‘romanised’ and spoke Latin. The
principal Roman towns had baths, temples, amphitheatres, and forums, and some of the roads
designed to connect Roman towns are still in use. With the departure of the Romans, the
British Isles were invaded by a succession of warlike peoples from the European mainland,
including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Also, there were persistent Danish raids. All
migrations influenced the native Britons, as can be seen in the English language, which is an
amalgam of the languages spoken by the waves of colonists. This turbulence ended with the
Norman Conquest in 1066. A new line of kings attempted to extend control into the farthest
reaches of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and struggles for supremacy between rival chieftains
and princes culminated in the Magna Carta of 1215, which eventually led to the
establishment of Parliament and representative democracy. A period of consensus and
stability followed the accession to the throne of the Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1495. His
successor, Henry VIII, broke with the Catholic Church in Rome and declared himself the
head of the Church of England. The dissolution of the monasteries and the confiscation of the
property of the Roman Catholic Churches occurred during the Reformation, leading to
challenges to the monarchy by rivals who supported Catholicism. Instability, civil unrest, and
competition with other European powers over claims to overseas territory continued for much
of the seventeenth century.
Commerce and manufacturing (principally the domestic woolen and Newfoundland and
Boston salt-fish trades) developed rapidly, and the authority of Parliament over the monarchy
was consolidated by the beginning of the 18th century. Capitalism existed before the
Industrial Revolution, but its development was hampered by technologies limited to water
power and a lack of surplus labour. During the period of the Enclosures (1740–1789),
landlords cleared the peasantry from the rural landscape to create fields enclosed by
hedgerows and fences and began to derive profit from new, scientific methods of intensive
agricultural production rather than relying upon the meagre tithes and rents paid by peasant
smallholders. This displaced large numbers of rural people, who were forced to emigrate to
the overseas colonies or migrate to the new sites of industrial production.
The impetus for the Industrial Revolution came from trade with the expanding colonies by a
growing middle class of entrepreneurs and investors whose wealth was not derived from land
but commerce. The entrepreneurs reinvested their wealth in new forms of manufacturing and
trade rather than in ways that imitated the consumption patterns of the landed gentry. The
Industrial Revolution began at the end of the 17th century, specifically in the machine-driven
manufacturing processes made possible by the steam engine first used in 1698 to draw water
from an underground tin mine and then was adapted to drive power looms in textile mills.
Overseas colonisation and wars with other European powers stimulated the further
development of mining and metallurgy, precision machine tools, navigational instruments,
cartography, and managerial and logistical organisation, which were exploited for
commercial gain by private entrepreneurs. By 1815, Britain had the world's largest and most
powerful navy and within twenty years, steam railways and steam-powered ships designed by
British engineers were carrying passengers and cargo for profit, allowing British shipping
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companies to dominate world trade. By midcentury, the country had become the world's
leading power in business and finance, engineering, science, and medicine.
The Industrial Revolution created a new social order as entrepreneurship and factory
production resulted in new forms of wealth and work that were added to the agrarian social
order dominated by aristocratic landowners. The 1832 Reform Act ended the political
privileges of landed wealth by extending the vote to middle-class, male, heads of household.
The country was governed by the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the middle class rather
than by those of the landed aristocracy. One dimension of this new social order was
urbanisation: as dispersed cottage industries such as weaving were replaced by mills in
central locations, nearby housing was needed for the workers; that housing frequently was
built by the mill owner and rented to the workers. The populations of Glasgow, Manchester,
Liverpool, and Birmingham doubled or tripled between 1801 and 1841, and many major
towns and cities grew up around mines, mills, smelting works, ports and railway junctions.
Work in the "dark, satanic mills" brought new levels of exploitation and hardship. Rapid
industrialisation caused overcrowding and disease; cholera epidemics between the 1830s and
1860s provoking public unrest and forcing the government to improve public health. Another
consequence of Victorian working conditions was the rise of trade unionism.
Until the middle of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom was one of the world's
wealthiest and most influential nations. Machine tools, locomotives, and steamships built in
Scotland and the industrial Midlands and South of England were exported worldwide; textile
products from Lancashire, china and pottery from Staffordshire, Welsh anthracite coal, and
finished steel products from Sheffield, dominated world markets for a century. British
mining, manufacturing, transportation technology; legal, banking and parliamentary systems;
and scientific discoveries and advances were exported worldwide. The nation's wealth was
further underwritten by its position as the chief European colonial power, with captive
markets and extensive sources of cheap labour and raw materials in Australasia, Asia, Africa,
and the Americas. The country's position as a world power was reduced in the second half of
the twentieth century by two world wars and the gradual decline of its advantages in
manufacturing and business, the loss of the empire, and expensive experiments with state
socialism. By the late 1970s, the nation was in debt to the International Monetary Fund. The
discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1970s saved the country from bankruptcy and
stimulated economic recovery. Tax revenues from the oil industry provided the means to
restructure the economy away from an obsolescent manufacturing base and toward a base
dominated by service and knowledge-based industries.
Further reading: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/unpublished/econinvent-3.pdf
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Statement True or
False
1 Scotland was the first country to join England as part of the United Kingdom.
2 Scotland joined England in 1707.
3 The British and Irish parliaments were united in the nineteenth century.
4 The Union of Great Britain and Ireland was separated in 1934.
5 All the countries of the UK have independent, fully functional parliaments.
6 Permanent Roman settlements were established in Britain in 43 BC.
7 The upper classes of Britain spoke Roman in the Roman era.
8 After the Romans, Great Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxons.
9 Jutes were Viking tribes.
10 Magna Carta led to the creation of the Parliament.
2.5 Four nations of the United Kingdom: class, gender and family issues
The United Kingdom is made up of four interdependent nations with many common
institutions. 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 differences 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. In Scotland and
Wales, there are minority nationalist parties. 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 dominance of the Labour Party in much of Wales and
Scotland provides conditions for patronage-style politics.
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Non-European immigration in Britain has not moved toward a pattern of sharply defined
urban ethnic ghettoes. Nevertheless, many non-European immigrants continue to be subject
to discriminatory practices in employment and other spheres, even if systematic
marginalization cannot be inferred from their spatial distribution within the towns and cities
of the nation. Space Rights to land development were in effect nationalised in 1947 by an Act
of Parliament that removed the right of the owner of a piece of property to change its use and
transferred that power to the state. By the end of the twentieth century, 80 per cent of the land
area was reserved for agricultural use but was responsible for less than 5 per cent of the gross
national product and less than 2 per cent of employment, yet the land-use planning system
has continued to grow in size and power. Speculating inland is big business, and the amount
of land available for housing is so restricted that any house within the commuting range of a
job will command a high price.
The United Kingdom has one of the largest economies in the world, with a Gross National
Product estimate in 2,825.934 bn2 USD (U.S.). Finance, manufacturing, and trade form the
basis of the economy. The pound sterling is the currency, and it is still being debated whether
the nation will join with its European Union partners and adopt the Euro. Banking and
finance, including insurance, are the mainstays of the economy.
The United Kingdom is one of the most industrialised nations on earth and still has a strong
manufacturing base though this is less significant than in the past. Major products include
machine tools, aircraft and ships, motor vehicles, electronics, chemicals, coal, petroleum,
textiles, and food processing. Chief exports include manufactured goods, food, chemicals,
and fuels. Manufactured goods, machinery, fuel, and food products are imported. Primary
trading partners are the European Union and the United States.
. 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. People who describe themselves as working-class
perceive themselves to have respectable but unprivileged origins and typically are born into a
family supported by wages from industrial or agricultural labour paid in cash at the end of the
week. In these families, neither parent has a college degree and the housing that the family
occupies is often rented. There is a strong association between the idea of being working
class and supportive of the trade union movement and Labour Party; the identification thus is
with a set of corporate or collective economic, social, and political interests and aspirations.
A self-described middle-class person has a social background and political attitudes that
suggest parents with white-collar jobs whose salaries are paid monthly by check and who are
likely to have professional or advanced education, to live in an owner-occupied suburban
house, and to have made strategic choices about their children's education. They are likely to
use their education and social skills for upward economic mobility and to support the
Conservative Party, which stresses self-sufficiency and individualism. These differences have
never been as clear-cut as the rhetoric of the main political parties and professional critics of
the social order have asserted.
In the 1970s, there were national debates on the changing role of women in society and their
women's employment prospects. By the 1980s, the debate had shifted to the implications of
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the increasing participation of women as the economy was restructured and the balance
changed from manufacturing to service occupations. In the 1990s, national debates
concentrated on the relationship between work, family life, consumption levels, and the
socialisation and education of the next generation. Approximately half of the British women
work; of these, half are part-time workers. Nevertheless, 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 idea of gender equality is widely shared, social behaviour lags behind the
ideal. For example, 75 per cent 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. Nonetheless, 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, adult children, and best friends at least
once a week. While newspaper and television reports claim that the nuclear family is in
decline because of increased rates of unmarried cohabitation and divorce, personal
commitment to kinship ties has not changed much. 70 per cent of adults think that people
should keep in touch with close family members; 55 per cent think that they should keep in
touch with relatives such as uncles, aunts, and cousins; 60 per cent say that they would rather
spend time with relatives than with friends, and nearly 80 per cent think relatives are more
important than friends. These attitudes vary with age and gender - people over age forty-five
tend to be more family-centred than are younger people.
Family life is changing, and there are tensions between kinship ties and some contemporary
social values. However, the great majority of people perceive themselves to be part of
multigenerational families and regard these relationships as very important.
The United Kingdom is a crowded country. People cope with this situation by being reserved
and diffident in public, politely ignoring strangers, quietly minding their own business, and
marking out and defending their private spaces, homes, and gardens. They expect others to do
the same.
Statement True or
False
1 English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people differ from each other in their
lifestyle and mentality.
2 The Conservative Party is most popular in England.
3 England has the largest, popular minority nationalist parties.
4 The Welsh National Party is concerned with North Sea Oil.
16
5 The Irish Nationalist Party is only concerned with cultural and linguistic
matters.
6 Ethnic minorities live in ethnic ghettos in the UK.
7 Ethnic minorities face a problem of integration into British Society.
8 Houses are expensive because of the price of land.
9 The concept of the social class is less important than ethnic background.
10 The term “social class” is connected only to the wealth of the social group
2.6.2 Choose the correct answer from a, b and c:
1. The first census to include ethnic background of the population was held in:
a) 1985; b) 1991; c) 1993.
2. A separatist movement led to the dissolution of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland
in:
a) 1923; b) 1946. c) 1920.
3. -------------------------------is fully incorporated into the English institutions:
a) Wales; b) Scotland; c) Ireland.
4. The governing system of Wales is by:
a) Parliament; b) Assembly; c) Governance.
5. The Industrial Revolution began:
a) at the end of the XVI c; b) at the end of the XVII c; c) at the end of the XVII c.
6. The political privileges of landowners ended by:
a) The 1832 Reform Act; b) The 1835 Reform Act; c) The 1735 Reform Act.
7. Trade Unionism started in the period of:
a) King George VI; b) Queen Elizabeth II; c) Queen Victoria.
8. The national currency of the UK is:
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a) Euro b) Pound c) British dollar
9. The most important trading partners of the UK are:
a) The EU and USA; b) Russia and China; c) EU and China.
10. The roots of the Labour party are associated with the:
a) middle class b) upper class c) working class
2.6.3 Project - Speaking:
1. Speak about Ireland and the UK’s relationship in the XVIII-XIX cc.
2. Describe the patterns of immigration to the UK.
3. Speak about the linguistic differences in the UK.
4. Speak about the role of symbolic group and personal attachments in the UK.
5. Speak about the English/Scottish/Welsh Union and its relationships with Ireland.
6. According to the text, why was the Norman Context a positive event?
7. Describe the changes brought by the development of Capitalism. Why did this process
lead to the increase of emigration?
8. Speak about the state of the UK in XX century
9. Speak about the class and gender system of the UK society
10. Speak about the concept of the family in the UK
Choose one of the topics from the section on speaking activities above (1-10) and make a
presentation on it. Pay particular attention to the similarities and differences between British
and Georgian cultures.
Lecture 3 National Identity 2The Peoples and

Population of Britain
3.1 The Peoples of Britain
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Early British history has traditionally been retold in terms of waves of invaders displacing or
annihilating their predecessors. However, archaeological data suggest that this picture is
fundamentally wrong. For over 10,000 years, people have been moving into and out of
Britain, sometimes in substantial numbers, yet there has always been a basic continuity of
population which, despite everything, remained attached to their original places of dwelling.
Before Roman times, Britain was just a geographical entity and had neither any political
meaning nor a single cultural identity. It was just a collection of settlements that occasionally
tried to conquer each other. This naturally caused a lot of small scale wars and battles.
Millions of people since Roman times have thought of themselves as British; for example, yet
this identity was only created in 1707 with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland.
Therefore, the first Britons were an ethnically mixed group.
From the arrival of the first modern humans, who were hunter-gatherers, following the
retreating ice of the Ice Age northwards - to the beginning of recorded history is a period of
about 100 centuries which is a vast time span, and scientists know very little about what went
on through those years. It is hard even to fully answer the question 'Who were the early
peoples of Britain?' because they have left no accounts of themselves.
We can, however, say that biologically the earliest settlers of Britain were part of the
Caucasoid population of Europe. The regional physical stereotypes, familiar to us today, are
thought to have come from the post-Roman invasions of the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings.
For example, red-headed people in Scotland, small, dark-haired people in Wales and lanky
blondes in southern England, already existed in Roman times. Insofar as they still represent
reality, they perhaps attest to the post-Ice Age population of Britain or the first farmers of
6,000 years ago.
From an early stage, the islands of Britain encouraged a great regional diversity of culture.
Throughout prehistory, there were myriad small-scale societies, and many small 'tribal'
identities, typically lasting perhaps no more than a few generations before splitting, merging
or dying out. These groups were in contact and conflict with their neighbours, and sometimes
with more distant groups. This is attested by exotic imported objects that lead us to believe
that there were exchanges, alliance and kinship links, and of course, was at that period of
Britain’s history.
From around 750 BC to 12 BC, the Celts were the most powerful people in central and
northern Europe. There were many groups (tribes) of Celts, speaking a vaguely common
language.
The word Celt comes from the Greek word, Keltoi, which means barbarians and is properly
pronounced as "Kelt".
No one called the people living in Britain during the Iron Age, Celts until the eighteenth
century. The Romans called these people Britons, not Celts. The name Celts is a 'modern'
name and is used to collectively describe all the many tribes of people living during the Iron
19
Age. The Iron Age Celts lived here 750 years before Jesus was born. The Iron Age ended in
AD 43 (43 years after Jesus was born).
The period in Britain immediately before the Roman period is known as the Iron Age. The
name 'Iron Age' comes from the discovery of a new metal called iron. The Celts found out
how to make iron tools and weapons. Before the Iron Age,
the only metal used in Britain to make tools was bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin
(hence the Bronze Age). The Celts lived across most of Europe during the Iron Age. Several
hundred years before Julius Caesar, they occupied many parts of central and Western Europe,
especially what are now Austria, Switzerland, southern France and Spain.
Statement True or
False
1 Before the Romans, Britain possessed a highly developed State system.
2 In pre-Roman times tribes living in Britain were friendly and lived peacefully.
3 Britain has a certain number of its original population roots.
4 The Romans started Britain as a political entity.
5 British Identity was really created in the 1800s.
6 The earliest Britons left a lot of information about themselves.
7 The genotype of the population has largely remained unchanged.
8 The tribes in the pre-Roman lived in isolation from one another.
9 The Romans referred to Celts as Britons.
10 AD43 marks the end of the Bronze Age.
3.2.2 Speaking
In pairs: comment on the impressions written by the people visiting Britain about the
native people and things they saw.
1. "Most of the inland inhabitants [of Britain] do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and
are clad with skins. All the Britons indeed, dye themselves with woad, which occasions a
bluish colour, and thereby have a more terrible appearance in a fight. They wear their hair
long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip. "
20
Julius Caesar (A Roman Emperor)
2. "They [inhabitants of Britain] are very tall in stature, with rippling muscles under clear white
skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it
in lime and combing it back from their foreheads. They look like wood-demons, their hair
thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are clean-shaven, but others - especially
those of high rank - shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth"
Diodorus Siculus (A Roman historian)
3.2.3 Project:
In groups of two find more information about Celts and earliest Britons and make a brief
presentation about them.
3.3 The Population of Britain
As shown by the most recent census (2011), the total population of the UK is around 59
million people. This makes Britain the third-largest in the European Union (EU) and the
twenty-second largest in the world regarding the number of people living there.
According to the latest data, England is one of the most densely populated countries in the
world, with 383 people per square km. Its population is largely concentrated in London, the
south-east and the north-west of the country. The population of Scotland is about 5 million,
that of Wales is about 3 million, and of Northern Ireland, it is about 2 million people. These
countries are characterised by much lower densities of the population compared to England.
However, currently, Northern Ireland has the fastest-growing population in percentage terms
of all of the four constituent countries of the UK in 2014.
In 2008, the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was around 2 children per
woman, which is lower than in 1964, when the rates were around 3 children per woman.
Again, Northern Ireland had the highest at 2.11 children in 2014, whereas Scotland had the
lowest birthrate.
21
As early as the reign of William the Conqueror, Jewish communities were formed in Britain
after they were encouraged to settle there. However, small numbers of the African population
lived there during Henry VIII's reign. Having been driven by post-Second World War labour
shortages, Britain saw a significant amount of immigrants from the colonies of the British
Empire, namely from the West Indies.
Nowadays immigration is contributing to a rising population accounting for about half of the
population increase between 1991 and 2001. In addition to this, the latest provisional official
figures show that in 2011, 567,000 people arrived to live in the UK whilst 371,000 left,
meaning that net inward migration was 196,000.
Conversely, there is an increasing number of British born people (5.5 million) living
overseas. Australia, Spain, the USA and Canada are the top four destinations. Moreover,
despite the Brexit, citizens of the European Union have the right to live and work in the UK,
including Romanians and Bulgarians, whose countries have recently joined the EU.
Research suggests that between 2004 and 2009, as many as 1.5 million workers migrated
from the new EU member states to the UK, with two-thirds being Polish, although many have
now returned home, with the result that the number of nationals of the new member states in
the UK increased by some 700,000 over the same period. The UK government is currently
introducing a different immigration system for immigrants, which will replace existing
schemes
Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be descended from the varied ethnic
groups, that settled there before the 11th century, such as the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons,
Norse and the Normans. However, recent genetic analysis indicates that "about 75 per cent
of the traceable ancestors of the modern British population had arrived in the British isles by
about 6,200 years ago, at the start of the British Neolithic or Stone Age", and that the British
broadly share a common ancestry with the Basque people.
It can be argued that Britain has a history of small scale non-white immigration, with
Liverpool having the oldest Black population in the country, and the oldest Chinese
community in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the nineteenth century. At
the same time, London has the largest Muslim population in the country.
In addition to this, since 1945, substantial immigration from Africa, the Caribbean and South
Asia has been a legacy of the British Empire. As are the findings of 92.1% of the population
22
identified themselves as White, leaving 7.9% f the UK population identifying themselves as
mixed race or ethnic minority.
Recently, the UK government has proposed a Syrian resettlement scheme, according to which
about 20 000 Syrian refugees have been accepted to the country and assisted to resettle.
Largely because of the British Empire, the English language, which is the language spoken in
the UK, has spread across the world, and become the international language of business. It is
also the most widely taught second language. There are also four Celtic languages in use in
the UK: Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gallic and Cornish.
In the 2011 Census over a fifth (21%) of the population of Wales said they could speak
Welsh, an increase from the 1991 Census (18%). In addition, it is estimated that about
200,000 Welsh speakers live in England.
The 2011 census in Northern Ireland showed that 167,487 (10.4%) people "had some
knowledge of Irish" almost exclusively in the Catholic/nationalist population.
Currently, the number of schoolchildren taught in Welsh, Gaelic and Irish is increasing.
Welsh and Scottish Gaelic are also spoken by small numbers of people in Canada. Welsh is
spoken in Patagonia, situated in Argentina.
Statement True or
False
1 Jewish people were encouraged to settle in Britain.
2 British people do not usually go to live in other countries.
3 Citizens of only some of the EU countries have the right to work in the UK.
4 Rumanians cannot work in the EU countries.
5 It is believed that the British may be related to the Basque people.
6 Birmingham has the largest Chinese population in the UK.
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7 The Chinese settlers first arrived in Britain by sea.
8 The British Empire brought to Britain many people from Eastern Europe.
9 The spread of English across the world is connected to the British Empire.
10 Currently indigenous languages are increasingly spoken in Britain.
3.5 Famous Britons
3.5.1 Winston Churchill
3.5.2 In Text Activitiies
3.5.2.1 Fill in the blanks with the words from the box:
aristocratic; cabinet; fame; funeral; opposition;

politically; resignation; received; state; wartime
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British Conservative politician and (1)
________________ figure known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the
Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest (2) ________________ leaders of
the century, he served as Prime Minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman
and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an
artist. He is the only British Prime minister to have (3) _______________ the Nobel Prize in
literature and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the USA.
Churchill was born into the (4) ________________ family of the Dukes of Marlborough. As
a young army officer, he saw action in India, the Sudan and the Second Boer War. He gained
(5) _______________ as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.
At the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and (6) ________________
positions. Before the First World War, he served as Home Secretary, and First Lord of the
Admiralty. After the War, Churchill served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. . He was
opposed to increased home rule for India and resistant to the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII.
Out of office and (7) ________________ "in the wilderness" during the 1930s, Churchill
took the lead in warning about Nazi Germany and in campaigning for rearmament. On the
outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
Following the (8) ________________ of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill
became Prime Minister. His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender, or a compromise
peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War
when Britain stood alone in its active (9) ________________ to Hitler. Churchill was
particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the British
people. He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured.
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After the Conservative Party lost the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition. In
1951, he again became Prime Minister, before retiring in 1955. Upon his
death, Elizabeth granted him the honour of a state (10) ________________ which saw one of
the largest assemblies of world statesmen in history. Named the Greatest Briton of all time in
a 2002 poll, Churchill is widely regarded as being among the most influential persons in
British history.
3.5.2.2 Circle the correct answer from a, b and c:
. 1. The British identity was first created in:
a) 1709; b) 1710; c) 1812.
2. The first settlers of Britain were genetically close to:
a) Africans; b) Asians; c) Caucasians.
3. The word ‘Keltoi’ means:
a) wild; b) handsome; c) barbarian.
4. The most densely populated country in the UK is:
a) England; b) Ireland; c) Wales.
5. The first ethnic minority group to settle in Britain was:
a) Jews; b) Afro-Americans; c) Chinese.
6. The Jews first settled in Britain during the reign of :
a) Alfred the Great; b) William the Conqueror; c)Henry VIII.
7. Which city had the oldest African population?
a) Manchester; b) Liverpool; c) Birmingham.
8. Besides Wales, the Welsh is spoken in:
a) Argentina; b) France; c) Sweden.
9. Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize in
a) politics; b) Literature; c) science.
10. Which of these occupations was Churchill not involved in:
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a) a writer; b) an artist; c) a musician.
Lecture 4 Religion in Britain

4.1 A brief time line of Christianity
The first evidence of Christianity in England is from the late 2nd century AD. However, there
may have been Christians in Britain before then, but there is no evidence to prove this.
It is known that Roman Britain was a cosmopolitan place. Merchants from all over the
Empire settled there, and soldiers from many countries served there. We will never know
who first introduced Christianity to England. However, it is still believed that it was St.
Augustus, who introduced Christianity to Britain.
At that time, England and Wales were ruled by the Romans. The native people were Celts.
They were polytheists, which means that they worshipped many gods. The Romans also were
polytheists, and they were willing to allow the Celts to worship their gods.
However, the Romans were not tolerant of Christianity. At times waves of persecution
crossed the Empire. St Alban, the first British Christian martyr, was executed in a town called
Verulamium in 304 AD. Much later, an abbey was built there dedicated to St Alban, and it
gave its name to the town of St Albans.
In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine granted Christians freedom of worship. So persecution

ended, and during the 4th century, Christianity became widespread in England. In 314, three
British bishops attended a church council in Arles in France, Eborius bishop of York,
Restitutus bishop of London and Adelius bishop of Caerleon (Gwent). So by that time, there
was a flourishing and organised church in England.
In Hinton St Mary, Dorset, a 4th-century mosaic was found with the face of Jesus and the
Greek letters chi-rho, which stand for Christos (Greek for Christ), showing Christianity was
an established religion in England at that time.
In 407, the last Roman soldiers left Britain. Over the following decades, Roman civilisation
broke down. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Saxons, Angles and Jutes from Germany and
Denmark invaded southern and eastern England and gradually conquered most of England.
However, Christianity continued to thrive in Wales, and by the early 5th century, it spread to
Ireland. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Scotland was also converted. Cut off from the Church in
Rome, Celtic Christians formed a distinctive Celtic Church.
According to the legend, Pope Gregory saw boys on sale in the slave market in Rome. He is
supposed to have asked about them and, when told that they were Angles, he replied: not
Angles but angels. When Gregory became Pope, he was keen to convert the Anglo-Saxons.
In 596, he sent a party of about 40 men led by Augustine to Kent. They arrived in 597.
26
Aethelberht permitted the monks to preach in Kent, and in time he was converted. (The king
of Kent was married to a Christian princess named Berta. It may have been partly due to her
influence that Kent was converted to Christianity). Furthermore, his nephew, Saeberht, the
king of Essex, was also converted. Meanwhile, in 627, King Edwin of Northumbria (the
North of England) and his nobles were baptised. (He may have been influenced by his wife,
Ethelburgh, who was a Christian). Most of his subjects also followed.
However, things did not go smoothly in Northumbria. When King Edwin was killed at the
battle of Hatfield in 632, most of Northumbria reverted to Paganism. They had to be
converted all over again by Celtic monks from Scotland. Further south in 630, a Christian
called Sigeberht became King of East Anglia. He asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to send
men to help convert his people. Meanwhile, Pope Honorius sent a man named Birinus to
convert the West Saxons (who lived in Hampshire).
Missionaries also preached in the kingdom of Mercia (the Midlands). In 653, King Paeda of
Mercia was converted and baptised, and gradually the realm was converted. The last part of
England converted to Christianity was Sussex. It was converted to Christianity after 680 by
St. Wilfrid.
Finally, by the end of the 7th century, all of England was at least nominally Christian.
However, some people continued to secretly worship the old pagan gods as late as the 8th
century.
However, in the late 9th century, the Danes conquered most of England. In 878, Alfred the
Great, king of Wessex (Southern England), crushed the Danes at the battle of Edington.
Afterwards, the Danes made a treaty with Alfred. They split England between them. The
Danes took all the territory east of the old Roman road, Watling Street. The Danes also
agreed to become Christians.
Once converted to Christianity, the Danes of Eastern England had much in common with the
Saxons. Gradually Alfred's descendants conquered the Danish-held areas of England, and in
time they created a single kingdom of England.
Then in the late 10th century, there was a religious revival. A man named Dunstan (c.1020-
1088) was Archbishop of Canterbury. He reformed the monasteries. Many new churches and
monasteries were built during his time. Women played a significant part in the 10th-century
revival.
In the Middle Ages, religion was a vital part of everyday life. All children were baptised
(unless they were Jewish), and everyone attended mass on Sunday. Mass was in Latin, a
language that ordinary people did not understand. Bishops ruled over groups of parishes
called dioceses. They usually came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and
frequently participated in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They
were poor and often had little education. Parish priests had their land called the glebe, where
they grew their food. They lived and worked alongside their parishioners.
In the Middle Ages, monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They also ran the only hospitals
where they tried to help the sick as best they could. They also provided hospitality for
pilgrims and other travellers (although as time went by, there was an increasing number of
inns where you could pay to stay the night). In a medieval monastery, there was an almonry,
27
where either food or money was given to the poor; the refectory where the monks ate; the
dormitory, infirmary and finally, the cloisters where the monks could take exercise.
An almoner looked after the poor, and infirmarian looked after the sick, and a hospitaller
looked after visitors.
As well as the monks from the 13th century, there were also friars. They took vows like other
monks, but instead of withdrawing from the world, they went out to preach. Franciscan friars
were called grey friars because of their grey costumes. Dominican friars were called black
friars.
In the Middle Ages, merchants and groups of craftsmen were organised into guilds, which
protected their interests. Guilds also put on plays called mystery plays. (The word mystery is
a corruption of the French word “métier”, meaning job or trade). The plays were based on
Bible stories and were meant to instruct the people. However, there was nothing solemn
about these plays. They contained lots of jokes.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Virgin Mary and the saints were given much more
prominence in religion. Furthermore, some rich people paid for chantries, which were
chapels where a priest said prayers for the dead in the belief that they would shorten the
period the dead person would spend suffering in purgatory before they could enter Heaven.
A famous Christian of the 14th century was John Wycliffe. He translated the Bible from
Latin into English. He also denied the doctrine of transubstantiation (the belief that bread and
wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ during mass). Wycliffe died of natural
causes, but his followers were persecuted. They were known as Lollards (a word that meant
mutterers) because they said long prayers. In 1401 a law was passed which allowed heretics
to be burned to death. Nevertheless, the Lollards continued to meet during the 15th century.
One of the great Christians of the early 16th century was William Tyndale. In 1525 Tyndale
translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale also translated part of the Old Testament.
However, Tyndale was burned in 1536. His last words were: 'Lord open the King of
England's eyes.
Statement True or
False
1 Christians first appeared in England in the second century BC.
2 Roman Britain was a multicultural place.
3 Christianity was first introduced to Britain by St. Bede.
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4 The Romans worshipped only one God.
5 Christians were not treated well by the ancient Romans.
6 Christians were given freedom of worship in AD313.
7 Christianity spread in England in the fifth century.
8 Christianity spread to Ireland from Wales.
9 Marriage often assisted the conversion of kings to Christianity.
10 Northumbria was converted to Christianity twice.
4.3 Why the Reformation?
As is argued, the adoption of Protestantism was a political rather than a religious event.
King Henry VIII's Queen, Catherine of Aragon, had been previously married to his brother.
According to the law, Henry had to get special papal dispensation for this marriage, as
marrying the wife of his brother was classed as incest.
This marriage, however, produced no male children to ascend on the throne at Henry's death.
This led Henry to doubt both the marriage and its spiritual validity. Moreover, at the
beginning of 1511, Henry VIII finally had a son, but the boy died after only 7 weeks.
Catherine had four miscarriages, and only one of her children lived - a girl named Mary.
Henry was desperate to have a son and heir and was adamant that Catherine could not give
him one. In the end, he decided that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's
widow. Henry now argued that the marriage to Catherine was not valid, and he asked the
Pope to annul the marriage. However, the Pope refused to co-operate.
Later, in the mid-1520s, Henry met and fell in love with Anne Boleyn, a lady in waiting to
Catherine. Because of this, he wished to annul his marriage to Catherine and marry Anne
with the obvious hope of producing a male heir for the English throne. Naturally, to marry
Anne, the marriage with Catherine had to be annulled by the Pope. Henry found himself in a
difficult situation. Firstly, to re-marry, he needed special papal dispensation. However, he
realised that Pope would not agree to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon easily. It
would imply that the first papal dispensation was now in error. Second, Charles V, the Holy
Roman Emperor, had recently invaded Rome and captured the Pope. This made the latter a
29
virtual prisoner of Charles. All of these taken together would mean that Henry would get a
firm ‘no’ to his request.
To disguise his failure, Henry did what many other kings would do. He fired his closest
advisor on the matter, Cardinal Wolsey, the Lord Chancellor of England. This happened
because the negotiations with the papal court were largely carried out by Wolsey. When he
failed, Henry dismissed and arrested him and replaced him with Thomas Cranmer and
Thomas Cromwell, both of whom were sympathetic to the new ideas of Martin Luther. They
gave the king some radical advice: 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. This move would also make things easier, and if the
King wanted an annulment, he could grant his annulment.
In 1529, the English Parliament began to debate this question, which occupied them for
seven years. The Parliament was called the "Reformation Parliament." However, though the
Parliament did not settle the matter all at once, it steadily granted powers over the church. 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 that placed the clergy completely
under Henry's control. In that same year, Henry married Ann Boleyn, who was already
pregnant with his second daughter, future Elizabeth I.
The next move of the Parliament was to stop all contributions to the Roman church by
English clergy and laypeople and gave Henry complete control over Parliamentary church
appointments in 1534. Finally, the Act of Succession declared the children of Ann Boleyn to
be the heirs to the throne and officially declared the King the supreme head of the church.
Despite all these activities, the English church didn't change. It was still, for all practical
purposes, a Catholic Church. The only real difference that anybody would notice was the use
of English Bibles in the church. The only substantive change Henry made merely involved
the head of the church. The English church, however, would radically change under Henry's
successor, Edward VI.
In the early 17th century, the king and Parliament clashed over the issue of religion. In 1633,
William Laud was made Archbishop of Canterbury. He was strongly opposed to the Puritans,
and King Charles I supported him wholeheartedly. Laud emphasised the ceremony and
decoration in churches. These measures were strongly opposed by the Puritans. They feared it
was the 'thin edge of the wedge', and Catholicism would eventually be restored in England.
30
In the 16th century, everybody was supposed to belong to the Church of England. However,
in the 17th century, independent churches were formed. The first Baptist Church in England
began meeting in 1612. Later in the 17th century, George Fox (1624-1691) and Margaret Fell
(1614-1702) founded the Quakers. Fox believed that everybody had an inner light, and during
the 1660s and the 1670s, he travelled across England. Margaret Fell wrote a book called
“Women's Speaking Justified, Proved and Knowed of the Scriptures”. However, the Quakers
were persecuted and Fox himself was often imprisoned.
In 1642, Civil War arose between the king and parliament. It ended in 1646, and Charles I
was executed in 1649. Following the Civil War and the execution of the king, many
independent churches sprang up in England. Charles II became king in 1660. The king was
not particularly religious, but parliament was determined to crack down on the many
independent churches that had sprung up and make Anglicanism the state religion again.
They passed a series of acts called the Clarendon code, a series of laws to persecute non-
conformists (Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England). The Corporation Act
of 1661 said that all officials in towns must be members of the Church of England. The Act
of Uniformity 1662 said that all clergy must use the Book of Common Prayer. About 2,000
clergies who disagreed resigned. Furthermore, the Conventicle Act of 1664 forbade
unauthorised religious meetings of more than 5 people unless they were all from the same
household.
Finally, the Five Mile Act of 1665 forbade non-Anglican ministers to come within 5 miles of
incorporated towns. (Towns with a mayor and corporation). However, these measures did not
stop the non-conformists meeting or preaching.
When Charles II died in 1685, he was followed by James II, who was openly Catholic. James
II promptly alienated the people by appointing Catholics to powerful and important positions.
In 1687, he went further and issued a Declaration of Indulgence suspending all laws against
Catholics and Protestant non-Anglicans.
James II was deposed in 1688. Afterwards, the Bill of Rights (1689) said that no Catholic
could become king or queen and no king could marry a Catholic. Parliament also passed the
Toleration Act in 1689. Non-conformists were allowed their places of worship and their
teachers and preachers, but they could not hold government office or attend university.
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In the early 18th century, England was noted for its lack of religious enthusiasm. It was an
age of reason rather than dogmatism, and the churches lacked vigour. However, in the mid-
18th century, things began to change. In 1739 the great evangelist George Whitefield (1714-
1770) began preaching. Also, in 1739, John Wesley (1703-1791) began preaching. He
eventually created a new religious movement called the Methodists.
John Wesley travelled all over the country, often preaching in open spaces. People jeered at
his meetings and threw stones, but Wesley persevered. John Wesley never intended to form a
movement separate from the Church of England. However, the Methodists did eventually
break away.
At the end of the 18th century, a group of Evangelical Christians formed Clapham Sect. They
campaigned for an end to slavery and cruel sports. They were called the Clapham Sect
because so many of them lived in the London suburb of Clapham.
Meanwhile, in the late 18th-century religious enthusiasm began to revive in England. A key
figure in the revival was Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791).
During the 19th century, Britain was transformed by the industrial revolution. In 1801, at the
time of the first census, only about 20% of the population lived in towns. By 1851, the figure
had risen to over 50%. By 1881, about two-thirds of the population lived in towns.
During the early 19th century religious revival continued. The Church of England regained its
energy and many new churches were built.
Meanwhile, in 1829, the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed. Since the Reformation
Catholics had been unable to become MPs or to hold public office. The Act restored those
rights to them.
Organised religion was much more important in 19th century England than it is today.
Nevertheless, in 1851 a survey showed that only about 40% of the population was at church
or chapel on a given Sunday. Even allowing for those who were ill or could not make it for
some other reason, meant that half the population did not go to church. Many of the poor had
little or no contact with the church. In 1881 a similar survey showed only about 1/3 of the
population at church on a given Sunday. In the late 19th century, organised religion was in
decline in England.
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During the 19th century, many poor workers had little or no contact with the church. In 1865,
William and Catherine Booth founded a new movement to reach the poor and fight a 'war'
against poverty. In 1878, it was named the Salvation Army.
During the 20th century, church-going declined rapidly in England, and by the end of the
20th century, only a small minority of the population attended church regularly. Nevertheless,
most people continued to believe in God and in the late 20th century, there was a hunger for
the spiritual. There was an explosion of interest in the occult and the New Age Movement.
Meanwhile, in the early 20th century, Pentecostal churches were formed. They practised the
gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the 1960s, the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit spread to
mainstream churches. In the 1970s and 1980s charismatic or, 'house churches' became
common.
At the end of the 20th century, the Alpha Course became an effective method of introducing
people to Christianity.
Statement True or
False
1 The underlying reasons for the Reformation were political.
2 Henry doubted the validity of his marriage to Catherine because he did not
love her.
3 Henry was sure that the pope would agree to his request for a divorce.
4 Wolsey was punished for something which he was not guilty of.
5 Henry replaced his advisors by people who supported the ideas of Luther.
6 It took Parliament 10 years to settle the issues of the Reformation.
7 “Submission of the Clergy” made Henry undisputed Head of the Church.
8 The only major difference between Catholicism and Anglicanism was that the
service was conducted in English.
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9 Edward VII changed the church laws considerable.
10 Parliament passed the Toleration Act in 1699.
4. 5 The current religious situation in Britain
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. Moreover, the British monarch is a member of the church as well as its Supreme
Governor. The Church of England retains the right to draft legislative measures (related to
religious administration) through the General Synod, which can then be passed into law by
Parliament. The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest Christian church with around
five million members, mainly in England and Ireland and Wales. There are also growing
Orthodox and Pentecostal churches in England. The largest religious group is Christianity,
though the Presbyterian Church of Scotland (The Kirk), is recognised as the National church.
The Roman Catholic Church of Scotland is Scotland's second largest Christian church,
representing a sixth of the population. In the 1920s, the Church in Wales became partially
independent from the Church of England.
In Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, closely linked to the Church of Scotland in
terms of theology and history, is the second largest church, followed by the Church of
Ireland.
34
At the 2011 census, there were 1,536,015 Muslims in England and Wales, forming 3% of the
population. The largest groups of Muslims are of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian origin.
Over 1 million people follow religions of Indian origin: Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. Today
British Jews number around 300,000, with the UK having the fifth largest Jewish community
worldwide.
Since the 1950s, church attendance has fallen dramatically, and the British are generally
uninterested in formal religious practice. Sixty per cent of adults do not believe in God, and
one-third has no religious affiliation. Thirty-six per cent of the population identifies with the
official, state-sanctioned Church of England; 10 per cent with the Roman Catholic Church; 4
per cent with Presbyterianism; 4 per cent with Baptism and Methodism; 3 per cent with other
Protestant denominations, and 3 per cent with other religions. Four per cent describe
themselves as Christians, and 35 per cent say that they have no religion. Geographically, the
Church of England includes 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, whose importance in local life has declined considerably since 1950. In Scotland and
Northern Ireland, Presbyterianism is strongly represented, and Roman Catholicism is
significant in Northern Ireland, the Western Isles of Scotland, parts of Lancashire and Sussex,
and cities where large numbers of nineteenth-century Irish Catholic immigrants settled. Only
in Northern Ireland is religion strongly identified with political aspirations.
4.6.1 Circle the correct answer from a, b and c:

1. The second largest church after the Anglican Church in Britain is:
a) Scottish; b) Welsh; c) Catholic.
2. After the Anglican Church the second national church is:
a) Catholic; b) Scottish; c) Pentecostal.
3. The major church in Britain is:
a) Anglican; b) Presbyterian; c) other.
4. The supreme Governor of the Church is the:
a) Prime Minister; b) Prince of Wales; c) British monarch.
5. The Kirk is the name of :
a) Presbyterian church; b) Anglican church; c) Baptist church.
6. In Wales the most popular churches are:
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a) Orthodox and Catholic; b) Kirk and Catholic; c) Methodist and Baptist.
4.6.2 In pairs, read the texts below and discuss the significance of each of
the following people to Britain
4.7 Figures of the Reformation

The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. Only those who were widowed were
free to remarry. This did not mean that husbands or wives could not simply decide that their
marriage was not working, divorce their spouses and remarry. The Roman Catholic Church
did not allow it. Those people who disobeyed the rule would be excommunicated by the
Pope which meant that their souls would not be rested in Paradise. .
Catherine of Aragon
This situation put Henry VIII, who was haunted by the idea of dying without an heir, in a
difficult position. He decided against the above-mentioned approach and made an unusual
appeal to the pope so that he might get a special "Papal Dispensation".
If granted, it meant that the pope would agree to Henry’s request for a divorce from Catherine
of Aragon (6 December 1485 – 7 January 1536), who had given birth to a daughter, Mary.
However, she had failed to produce a male heir who survived into adulthood, and Henry
wanted a son to secure the Tudor dynasty.
Anne Boleyn
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The fact that Henry was king of England did not affect the tradition of the Catholic Church to
ban divorce for others. Naturally, the Pope refused to grant Henry’s wish and by 1533,
Henry’s anger was such that he ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him a divorce
so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, a woman of "charm, style and wit, with will and
savagery which made her a match for Henry”.
This event effectively led to England breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church based
in Rome. Henry was made Supreme Head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534.
The country was still Catholic, but the Pope’s power had been officially over.
Anne arrived at court in 1522, from years in Europe, as maid of honour to Queen Catherine.
Henry instantly fell in love with her. Anne resisted all his attempts to seduce her, refusing to
become his mistress as had her sister, Mary. She insisted on marriage, and this made Henry
ask for an annulment of his marriage with Catherine. Anne did not produce a male heir either,
but she did give birth to Elizabeth, who later became Elizabeth I of England. In 1536, when
Henry was courting Jane Seymour, he had Anne investigated for high treason. On 2 May, she
was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury of peers and
found guilty on 15 May. She was beheaded four days later on Tower Green. Modern
historians argue that the charges against her, which included adultery and incest, were
unconvincing. However, following the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth, as Queen, Anne
was venerated as a martyr and a heroine of the English Reformation..
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (1508 – 1537) was Queen consort of England as the third wife of King Henry
VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn following the latter's execution in 1536. She died of
postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, a son who
briefly reigned as Edward VI.
37
Anne of Cleves
Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Cleves was never consummated. Thus she was not crowned
queen consort. After the annulment of her marriage, she was referred to as the ‘King's
Beloved Sister’. It was alleged that the king was disappointed in her appearance and
considered her plain. Shortly after the marriage, Anne was asked for her consent to an
annulment, to which she agreed.
Catherine Howard
Catherine’s quick marriage to Henry just a few weeks after the annulment from Anne, in July
1540, reflected Henry's lifelong urgency to secure the Tudor succession by fathering healthy,
legitimate sons since he had only one, Edward (later Edward VI).
However, Catherine found her marital relations unappealing. She was not pregnant upon
marriage and was repulsed by her husband's obesity. Early in 1541, she embarked upon a
light-hearted romance with Henry's favourite male courtier, Thomas Culpeper, whom she had
initially desired on her arrival at court two years earlier. This liaison led to the charges of
treason and adultery against her two years after her marriage to the King.
Catherine was stripped of her title as queen and imprisoned in Syon Abbey, Middlesex,
through the winter of 1541. On 10 February 1542, she was taken to the Tower of London.
The next day the bill of attainder received the Royal Assent, and Catherine's execution was
scheduled for 7 a.m. on 13 February. Before her execution, she made a speech describing her
punishment as "worthy and just" and asked for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul.
According to popular folklore, her last words were, "I die a Queen, but I would rather have
died the wife of Culpeper."
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Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr (11 November 1512– 5 September 1548) was a kind-hearted lady who brought
a quiet family life to the ageing king. She reconciled Henry with his daughters, Mary and
Elizabeth, whom he had previously disowned. Catherine also developed a good relationship
with Henry's son, Edward. She was appointed regent in 1544 while Henry went on his last
unsuccessful expedition to France. Catherine was deeply religious, and although brought up a
Catholic, she embraced the new protestant faith and had strong reforming convictions.
Edward VI
Henry finally died in 1547, and he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son Edward. Since he
was too young to rule, his uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was made protector
and ruled in his stead. Somerset was a devout Protestant, as was Archbishop Cranmer. They
began to turn England into a truly Protestant country. The Act of Six Articles was repealed,
and in 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer, the first Anglican prayer book, was issued.
Meanwhile, priests were allowed to marry, and pictures or statues of Mary or the saints were
removed from churches. In 1552, a second prayer book was issued. Also, in Edward's reign,
the chantries (where a priest prayed for the souls of the dead) were closed.
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Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary)
In 1553, Edward died, and he was followed by his sister Mary. She was a Catholic, and as she
detested the changes made by Henry VIII and Edward VI, she was determined to undo the
reforms of the two previous reigns. Having restored the Catholic mass, Mary ordered the
clergy to leave their wives or lose their posts. Then, in November 1554, the Act of
Supremacy was repealed.
In 1555 Mary began burning Protestants, which earned her the nickname 'Bloody Mary'. The
first martyr was John Rogers, who was burned on 4 February 1555. Over the next three years,
almost 300 Protestants were martyred. (Most of them were from Southeast England, where
Protestantism had spread most widely). Many more Protestants fled abroad. However,
Mary's cruelty gained sympathy for the Protestants and alienated ordinary people. She drove
people away from Roman Catholicism. Mary died in 1558..
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was crowned in January 1559 and restored Protestantism to England. The Act of
Supremacy was restored in April 1559, and further Acts replaced Catholic practices.
However, this time it was a moderate Protestantism. Elizabeth disliked extremists and
disapproved of the Puritans. Most of the population (not all) accepted the religious
40
settlement. Although people could be fined for not attending church, some Catholics
continued to practice their religion in secret. Meanwhile, the clergy became much better
educated during the 16th century. By the end of the century, many of them did a degree.
4.8.1 Answer the following questions:

1. How do we know that Christianity was well-spread in fourth century?
2. Present information about the circumstances of how Christianity spread in Britain.
3. Describe the function of Christianity in the lives of todays British people.
4. Present information about Wycliffe and the fate of his followers.
5. Describe the events which occurred in the constant battles between Kings and Church dignitaries
who fought for the control of the Church and its possessions
4.8.2 In pairs read the text below about Henry’s life, discuss the following
points and report to the group:
1. Henry as a private man

2. The initial methods and philosophy of Henry’s rule
3. Henry as a “Defender of the Faith”
4. Henry as an architect of the Reformation
5. The ultimate reason for the Reformation[
6. Henry as a ruler
Henry VIII, born in 1491, was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The
significance of Henry's reign is, at times, overshadowed by his six marriages: however,
dispensing with these enables a deeper search into the major themes of the reign.
The court life initiated by his father evolved into a cornerstone of Tudor government in the
reign of Henry VIII. After his father's rigid rule, the energetic, youthful and handsome king
41
avoided governing in person, much preferring to journey to the countryside hunting and
reviewing his subjects. Matters of state were left in the hands of others, most notably Thomas
Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Cardinal Wolsey virtually ruled England until his failure to
secure the papal annulment that Henry needed to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533. The early part
of Henry's reign, however, saw the young king invade France, defeat Scottish forces at the
Battle of Flodden Field (in which James IV of Scotland was slain), and write a treatise
denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the pope awarded Henry the title
"Defender of the Faith".
The 1530's witnessed Henry's growing involvement in government, and a series of events
which greatly altered England, as well as the whole of Western Christendom: the separation
of the Church of England from Roman Catholicism. The separation was actually a by-product
of Henry's obsession to produce a male heir; Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male
and the need to maintain dynastic legitimacy forced Henry to seek an annulment from the
pope in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey tried repeatedly to secure a legal annulment
from Pope Clement VII, but Clement was beholden to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and
nephew of Catherine. Religious reform movements had already taken hold in England, but on
a small scale: the ideas of Luther and Zwingli circulated within intellectual groups, but
continental Protestantism had yet to find favour with the English people. The break from
Rome was accomplished through law, not social outcry; Henry, as Supreme Head of the
Church of England, acknowledged this by slight alterations in worship ritual instead of a
wholesale reworking of religious dogma. By 1536, all ecclesiastical and government officials
were required to publicly approve of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty. The
king moved away from the medieval idea of ruler as chief lawmaker and overseer of civil
behaviour, to the modern idea of ruler as the ideological icon of the state.
The remainder of Henry's reign was anticlimactic. Two men were particularly prominent
figures through the latter stages of Henry's reign: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer.
Cromwell, an efficient administrator, succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, creating new
governmental departments for the varying types of revenue and establishing parish priest's
duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. Cranmer, Archbishop of
Canterbury, dealt with and guided changes in ecclesiastical policy and oversaw the
dissolution of the monasteries.
Henry VIII built upon the innovations instituted by his father. The break with Rome, coupled
with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to the royal supremacy that would last
until the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred
years after Henry's death. History remembers Henry in much the same way as stated by
Piero Pasqualigo, a Venetian ambassador: "... he is in every respect a most accomplished
prince."
(From Diary of Ancient Rites, A Guide For The Serious Practitioner, By Melissa Anderson,
2006, pp.48-51)
4.8.3 Project
42
1 In groups of two make a brief presentation on the current religious situation in Britain
(you can refer to the chart on page 42).
Religion Percent
Christianity 71.8%
None 15.1%
Not stated 7.8%
Islam 2.8%
Hinduism 1.0%
Sikhism 0.6%
Judaism 0.5%
Buddhism 0.3%
2 Countries in dark blue on the map have a majority of native speakers. Countries in light
blue have English as an official language, de jure or de facto. In groups of two identify both
groups of the countries and present them to the group.
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Lecture 5 Influential factors from the History of
Britain
5.1 Roman Invasions
44
C
The earliest people are thought to have come to Britain about 500,000 years ago. The Celtic
tribes invaded Britain from Europe after about 800 BC and developed knowledge regarding
how to make stronger weapons and tools using iron. About seven different tribes lived
throughout the island. They had their coinage, became wealthy from copper and tin and
started successful commerce. Gallic, Irish, Welsh and Cornish languages are all connected to
the language of the Celts.
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process that began effectively in AD 43 under
Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Platius later served as the first governor of
Britannia. In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed
diplomatic and trading links with the Romans since Julius Caesar’s expeditions in 55 and 54
BC, and Roman economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-
Roman era, especially in the south. Britain was considered to be quite fertile with great
forests and raw materials. The Romans must have known about its predominantly agricultural
economy with farms - arable in the south-east and livestock elsewhere. The Romans found
Britain to be populated by many distinct Iron Age tribes, each tribe quite fearsome but with
no overall military structure or mutual defence. All of this put Romans in a favourable
position.
Between 55 BC and 40 AD, the status quo of tribute, hostages, and client states without
direct military occupation, begun by Caesar’s invasions of Britain, largely remained intact.
Augustus prepared the invasions in 34 BC, 27 BC and 25 BC. The first and third were called
off due to revolts elsewhere in the empire; the second because the Britons seemed ready to
45
come to terms. According to Augustus, two British kings fled to Rome as suppliants during
his reign. Strabo’s Geography, written during this period, says that Britain paid more in
customs and duties than could be raised by taxation if the island were conquered. However,
the request for help from the client kings gave Claudius just the excuse he needed to invade
Britain.
In the century that followed Caesar’s invasions of Britain (55 and 54 BC), the political
climate of the Celtic tribes that maintained loyal relationships with Rome slowly deteriorated.
While some call Caesar’s invasions a failure, the fact that they resulted in a century of tribute,
profitable trade and subservient political attitudes from the tribes to Rome must account for
something. However, the more removed Caesar was from the memory of the Celtic tribes, the
less stable the relationships between Rome and Britain became. Rome made an enormous
profit from Britain from silver, tin and iron, winemaking and pottery. In addition, lead ore,
which was abundant in Britain, was an important material to Romans in many industries
practised in Rome.
While many opposed Roman occupation, leadership squabbles certainly made a unified front
hard to achieve. Other less influential tribes welcomed Roman arrival and supported their
cause with the belief that doing so would increase their power. The Socio-political
environment of tribal Britain made the Roman strategy easy to understand. Aulus Plautius
would make his campaign one of “divide and conquer,“ much as Caesar had done in Gaul a
century earlier. However, Caesar left Britain in September of 54 AD, never again to come
back. For the next few years, he was at war with Pompey, and then he was assassinated. The
next Roman invasion of Britain - and the start of over four centuries of occupation – took
place under the command of Claudius. Cladius started his reign with some instability and a
lack of support from the people. Because of this, he required a military victory to strengthen
his public image. To achieve this, he decided to invade Britain, which Julius Caesar visited
but never conquered. Claudius sent in four legions under the control of Aulus Plautius. They
landed at Richborough (Kent) for a full-scale invasion of the island. Later, the Romans
moved north through England and Wales but were stopped by the fierce tribes living in what
is now Scotland.
In the years after the initial invasion, the Romans steadily expanded their control over the rest
of southern Britain and into Wales. The Romans suppressed several revolts, one of which was
led by Caratacus, the leader of the Catuvellauni in 47 AD. Another revolt was organised by
Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, in 60-61 AD.
Emperor Claudius died suddenly in 54 AD, in highly suspicious circumstances at the same
time as the Brigantes rebellion. His stepson, Nero, came to the throne. In his writings,
Suetonius says that Nero once considered abandoning Britain. It took too many resources to
hold the country, resources that could be better used to expand the Roman Empire. With the
death of Claudius, his friends and advisors also disappeared from the scene, though not in
such extreme ways. Claudius was elevated to the level of a God, but also it allowed him to
become a subject of ridicule. Such is the attitude of the Romans to treat a late Emperor in this
46
manner. Claudius had an outstanding military reputation. The Romans were a very proud race
and believed that public image was paramount. If Nero had withdrawn from Britain, it could
have been viewed as a deformation of Claudius and all the victories he had accomplished.
Maybe it was for this reason that Nero maintained a British presence.
Statement True or
False
1 The Celtic tribes invaded Britain from Africa.
2 In the years BC, some rich and powerful Celtic societies lived in England.
3 Cornish is a Germanic language.
4 Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 43 BC.
5 Aulus Platius served as the first governer of Britannia.
6 Before the Romans, Britain’s population had a good military defensive

structure.
7 Romans invaded Britain at least three times.
8 From the economical point of view it was easier to pay tribute rather than
taxes.
9 The Romans were not interested in the British riches and natural resources.
10 The British people endured the Roman occupation passively.
5.3 The Anglo-Saxon Tribes
The term Anglo-Saxon is used to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the
south and east of Britain beginning in the early 5th century and from their creation of the
English nation up to the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Saxon era denotes the period of
English history between about AD 550 and 1066. The term is also used for Old English,
spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in England, between, at least,
the mid 5th century and the mid 12th century.
The Venerable Bede, writing in the early 8th century, identified the English as the
descendants of three Germanic tribes: firstly the Angles who, according to the Bede, left their
former land empty in Germany. The name England OE: Engla land or Ængla land)
47
originated from this tribe. Secondly, the Saxons, from Lower Saxony (in modern Germany)
and finally the Jutes, possibly from the Jutland peninsula (in modern Denmark).
The Anglo-Saxon tribes spoke what we call OE, which continued to be the common language
of England for some time after the Norman Conquest of 1066 but, under the influence of the
Anglo-Norman language spoken by the Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English
roughly between 1150–1500.
Old English is far closer to early Germanic than Middle English. It is less Latinised and
retains many morphological features (nominal and verbal inflexion), that were lost during the
12th to 14th centuries. The languages closest to Old English are the Frisian languages, spoken
by a few hundred thousand people in the northern part of Germany and the Netherlands.
Before literacy in the vernacular Old English or Latin became widespread, a runic alphabet,
the futhorc, was used for inscriptions. When literacy became more prevalent, the Latin script
was used with some letters derived from the futhorc.
Statement True or
False
1 Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes.
2 The Anglo-Saxon period in the history of Britain ended in 1066.
3 The Venerable Bede considered the English to be the descendants of three

Germanic tribes.
4 O E was spoken only by the nobles after 1066.
5 Middle English is more Latinised than OE.
6 A form of OE is still spoken by a few people today.
7 A combination of furthorc and runic alphabets were used in inscriptions.
5.5 The Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings
48
The successful Norman invasion of England in 1066 brought Britain into the mainstream of
western European culture. The Normans and French armies were led by Duke William II of
Normandy. William defeated King Harold II of England, on October 1066, at the Battle of
Hastings and was crowned on Christmas Day 1066. He then consolidated his control over
England and settled many of his followers in England, introducing many governmental and
societal changes to medieval England.
The battle of Hastings took place in the year AD 1066 after a dispute over the succession to
the English throne. Its significance is shown by the fact that it provoked changes in English
law, language and culture and prepared the establishment of the English feudal system.
It is thought that William, Duke of Normandy, was the cousin of Edward, the King of
England. As Edward died childless in 1066, a contender for the throne was Harold
Godwinson, an English earl and close friend of Edward the Confessor and his wife. But
William alleged that before his death, Edward had promised the throne to him. Therefore he
intended to take up his throne. William enjoyed great support not only by the noblemen of
Normandy, where he came from but also of Brittany and Flanders.
On October 14th, 1066, William landed his 7,000 troops on the beach of Pevensey. After
defeating the English at the battle of Hastings the next day, William was crowned King of
England on Christmas day 1066 in Westminster Abbey.
It is thought that William, Duke of Normandy, was the cousin of Edward, the King of
England. As Edward died childless in 1066, a contender for the throne was Harold
Godwinson, an English earl and close friend of Edward the Confessor and his wife. But
William alleged that before his death, Edward had promised the throne to him. Therefore, he
intended to take up his throne. William enjoyed great support not only by the noblemen of
Normandy, where he came from but also of Brittany and Flanders.
On October 14th, 1066, William landed his 7,000 troops on the beach of Pevensey. After
defeating the English at the battle of Hastings the next day, William was crowned King of
England on Christmas day 1066 in Westminster Abbey.
49
The Battle of Hastings is known as "the battle that changed history”. This title was earned
because of the huge impact it had on the people of Britain, on their culture, the country, and
the way they were looked upon by the world. The Saxons organised several unsuccessful
rebellions, as they all proved to be poorly coordinated and thus were easy to stamp out.
Hence, William the Conqueror was able to rule for 21 years.
Under William’s law, which he quickly and easily established, the king was the authority
figure. He served as the collective executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the
government. This was the first significant change.
The second significant change, coming as a result of the battle, was the new language and
culture. Both of them were adopted during that period and replaced the previous Anglo-
Saxon customs of more than 300 years with a French dialect and Norman culture.
The third significant result of the battle of Hastings was the introduction of the feudal system
to England. Before moving to Britain, William had already developed a centralised feudal
state in Normandy. In this system, the king would usually offer his warriors a plot of land
called a fief, in exchange for their loyalty. This loyalty often served as the basis for uniting
the kingdom. William took the Anglo-Saxon land and gave it to his Norman followers. Great
nobles, or barons, were responsible to the king; lesser lords, each owning a village, were
directly responsible to the baron. Under them were the peasants, tied by the string of mutual
duties and obligations to the local lord and forbidden to travel without their permission. The
peasants were English speaking Saxons, whereas the lords and the barons were the French-
speaking Normans. This system was considered to be the beginning of the English class.
Statement True or
False
50
1 The Norman conquest was a progressive event in British history.
2 William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II of England in 1066.
3 William did not change the structure of the state and society.
4 William consolidated the feudal system in England.
5 William was crowned in St. Paul’s cathedral.
6 The reason for the Battle of Hastings was the succession to the throne.
7 William believed that Edward had left the throne to him.
8 The Battle of Hastings changed history significantly.
9 The Romans fought against Norman rule in Britain.
10 William did not manage to overcome Saxon rebellions.
5.6.2 Circle the correct answer from a) b) or c).
1 The Germanic tribes included:
a) Angles, Saxons and Jutes; b) Angles, Saxons and Celts; c) Saxons, Jutes and Vikings.
2 The Venerable Bede lived in the:
a) VI century; b) VII century; c) VIII century.
3 1150–1500 is the period when OE changed into;

a) Norman; b) French; c) Middle English.
4 A form of OE is still spoken in:
a) Germany and the Netherlands; b) Italy and Spain; c) Germany and France.
5 OE sounded like:
a) Danish; b) Frisian; c) Swedish.
5.6.3 Speaking:
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1. In pairs discuss why the analysed periods from its history were important for Britain
2. Describe three significant results of the Norman rule
3. Read the text below and analyse the importance of the Roman invasion for Britain.
4. What did the Romans give to Britain?
 Language
 The English language was developed from the Romans. The Romans spoke and wrote
in Latin and many of our modern English words are based on Latin words.
 The Calendar
The calendar we use today is more than 2,000 years old. It was started by Julius
Caesar, a Roman ruler and is based on the movement of the earth around the sun, and
so is called the 'solar calendar.' The solar calendar has 365 days a year, and 366 days
every leap year, or every fourth year. The names of the months are taken from the
names of Roman gods and rulers. The month 'July,' in fact, is named after Julius
Caesar himself.
 Laws and a legal system
 The laws came originally from the Roman Empire
 The Census
 The Roman Empire was huge and included millions of people living over a large area.
How did they keep track of all these people? They counted them! The Roman Empire
began the practice of taking a census, or a 'count,' of all the people within its
boundaries every so often. Today, many countries like ours take a census every 10
years.
 The Romans also gave Britain:
straight roads; central heating; concrete; aqueducts (bridges for water).
5.6.4 Speaking part 2
Read the text about Boudicca and report to the group
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Boudicca
Boudicca became the leader of the Iceni (a tribe from Norfolk) when her husband Prasutagus
died. The Romans seized his treasure, and Roman soldiers assaulted Boudicca and her two
daughters. This angered the Iceni people, and they rose in revolt. Within a few weeks,
Boudicca was leading an army of 70,000 men. They advanced on Camulodunum
(Colchester), a prosperous Roman town with few soldiers to guard it. The Roman people hid
in a magnificent temple newly built in honour of Claudius. Boudicca's army rampaged
through Camulodunum and stole food, clothing and jewellery from shops and houses. Then
they surrounded the temple. The Romans inside thought they would be safe, but the rebels
battered down the doors. Inside, they hacked the men, women and children to pieces. No one
was spared. They then set fire to the town and left it a smoking ruin.
The rebels advanced on Londinium (London). The Romans sent a messenger to Wales to get
help from Suetonius, who set off for London with his cavalry, leaving his infantry to follow
as fast they could. When Suetonius reached London, he realised that his men could not stop
Boudicca's huge army, and withdrew ordering the citizens to leave town. When Boudicca
reached Londinium, it was undefended. The rebels killed anyone they could find. Some of the
victims were killed in horrible ways as sacrifices to their gods. The town was first looted,
then burned. Verulamium (St.Albans) was the next town to fall to the rebels. The three largest
towns in Roman Britain were destroyed in a few weeks, and 60,000 people were killed.
Boudicca was now ready to take on the Roman army led by Suetonius. She found it almost
halfway between St. Albans and Wroxeter. A small, following Army of 10,000 women and
children (with their wagons loaded with booty) had come to watch the inevitable victory.
The rebels charged the Romans at the end of the valley. The Roman infantry stopped the
charge and began to advance, driving the rebels back. The Roman cavalry charge caused the
Britons to turn and run. The women and children, and wagons prevented the rebels from
fleeing the battlefield. The Romans killed 80,000 men, women and children for the loss of
only 400 of their own men. Boudicca escaped but took poison before the Romans could
capture her. The most serious threat to the Roman conquest was over.
The end of Boudicca brought the completion of the conquest of Britain and the Pax Romana.
Britain was more or less peaceful from 77 AD onwards. In 122 AD, the emperor Hadrian
decided to establish a northern border for the Roman Empire by building a wall guarded by
Roman soldiers: this is known as Hadrian's Wall.
5.6.5 Project:
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1. In Speaking 2 (p. 49) there are listed several things that the Roman Empire gave to
Britain. In pairs, complete the list adding more important items to the list. Report to
the group.
2. Find more information about the battle of Hastings and report to the group.
Self- assessment test Number 1 Lectures 1-5
1 State whether the following statements are True or False
Statement True or
False
1 Young people may worship different forms of paganism in the UK.
2 Wars and overseas colonisation hampered industrialization of England.
3 Britain became the leading country of Europe in the middle of the XIX c.
4 The 1832 Reform Act gave more rights to Middle Class philosophy.
5 Urban development hampered development of the Health Service.
6 Reformation led to the confiscation of the property of Catholic Churches.
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7 Working class people usually own their own houses.
8 Middle class people usually support the Conservative Party.
9 Theoretically the gender balance and equality are observed in England.
10 Traditionalists approve of sexual minorities and unmarried partnerships.
11 Attitudes to the family are similar across all age groups of British society.
12 Celts lived only in the territory of Britain.
13 The British identity was created in 1707.
14 Contemporary Britons still look like their ancient ancestors.
15 The British Isles were not characterised by cultural variety.
16 Danish conquerors did not accept Christianity as their religion.
17 Franciscan friars were called grey friars.
18 Mystery plays were tragic in their content.
19 Tyndale translated the New Testament into English.
20 Nero had to maintain Britain in order not to be ridiculed by his enemies.
21 French became the language of poor people in William the Conqueror’s time.
22 The Battle of Hastings started as a dispute about the future King of England.
23 Edward gave the throne to Harold Godwinson.
24 William was a representative of the British nobility.
25 The Saxons were defeated because of their poor organisation.
26 William ruled for 29 years.
27 By centralising his kingdom, William increased the king’s power.
28 Receiving a fief meant a reward for loyalty to the king.
29 William returned Anglo-Saxon lands to the Anglo-Saxon nobles.
30 The Battle of Hastings was a progressive event in the History of Britain.
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2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, c
1 England and Wales were united in:
a) 1536; b) 1602; c) 1546.
2 Ireland became a colonial dependency in:
a) 1657; b) 1690; c) 1169
3 The Romans’ native language was:
a) Roman; b) Latin; c) Nomadic.
4 The Magna Carta was signed in :
a) 1215; b) 1230; c) 1247.
5 ‘Submission of the Clergy’ was passed in:
a) 1533; b) 1534; c) 1544.
6 Henry VIII took control over church appointments in:
a) 1534; b) 1541; c) 1533.
7 By the catholic law only ________________ people were free to re-marry
a) Widowed; b) divorced; c) unmarried.
8 Henry asked for “Papal Dispensation” because he wanted to marry:
a) Jane Seymour; b) Anne Boleyn; c) Catherine Parr.
9 Parliament also passed the Toleration Act in:
a) 1678; b) 1689; c) 1692.
10 Christianity was introduced to Britain by:
a) St. Nicholas; b) St. Augustus; c) St. Francesco.
11 Worshipping many gods means being:
a) polytheist; b) monotheist; c) atheist.
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12 St Alban was executed in:
a) 230 AD; b) 324 AD; c) 304 AD.
13 Christians were given freedom of worship by:
a) Emperor Constantine; b) Emperor Augustus; c) Emperor Diocletian.
14 Pope Gregory was keen to convert the ________________ to Christianity
a) Welsh; b) Anglo-Saxons; c) Celts.
15 St. Augustine was sent to _______________ to spread Christianity
a) Kent; b) York; c) Dover.
16 Which kingdoms was not converted to Christianity under their Queen’s influence?
a) Kent; b) Northumbria; c) Mercia.
17 The last kingdom to accept Christianity was:
a) Sussex; b) Northumbria; c) Mercia.
18 Chantries were:
a) prayers; b) purgatories; c) chapels.
19 The Bible was translated from Latin into English by:
a) Wesley; b) Wycliffe; c) Bede.
20 The second largest church after the Anglican church in Britain is the:
a) Scottish; b) Welsh; c) Catholic.
21 Besides the Anglican church the second national church is situated in:
a) Catholic; b) Scottish; c) Pentecostal.
22 The supreme Governor of the Church is the:
a) Prime Minister; b) Prince of Wales; c) British monarch
23 In Wales the most popular churches are:
a) Orthodox and Catholic; b) Kirk and Catholic; c) Methodist and Baptist.
24 A ‘runic’ alphabet was otherwise known as a:

a) Futhorc; b) Phoenician; c) Permic.
25 A fief was given to certain nobles as a sign of :
a) hostility; b) loyalty; c) recognition.
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26 The system introduced by William the Conqueror is considered to be the
beginning of the _________________ system in the British society
a) class; b) family; c) legal.
Lecture 6 British Politics
6.1 The Public attitude to politics and governing bodies in the UK
Politicians are frequently considered to be dishonest in England. Thus people are not shocked
when and if the government is caught lying. However, this does not mean that the
government is expected to be doing anything illegal. In England, some politicians have been
caught, for example, cheating on their expenses claims. Perhaps surprisingly, it is statistically
proved that more than half of the adults do not know the name of their local MP. Quite a high
proportion do not know the names of the important government ministers or leaders of the
major political parties.
However, the British were not always so unenthusiastic towards politics. For many centuries,
it was a maxim of gentlemen’s clubs that nobody should mention political or religious topics
in polite conversation with strangers. This was because if anybody did, there was a danger
that the conversation would become too heated, and the participants would become bad-
tempered and even violent.
Nowadays, politics is no longer regarded to be a dangerous topic and stability is now

generally taken for granted. This may even make politics a boring topic to discuss. However,
the lack of enthusiasm is not the same as complete disenchantment. This is proved by the
fact, that three-quarters of the adult population are interested enough in politics to vote at
national elections, even though voting is not compulsory. There is a general feeling of
confidence and workability of the system.
The Prime Minister is often openly and severely criticised. Even so, there are very rarely any
loud demands or public demonstrations for the system to be cleaned up or changed. In
Britain, it is generally accepted that politics can be a dirty business. Because of this,
politicians tend to present themselves as the people who do their jobs out of a sense of public
duty!
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The United Kingdom is governed within the framework of a constitutional monarchy in
which the Monarch is the Head of State, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the
Head of Government. The Monarch formally has several rights. However, in reality, s/he
does not independently decide the most significant matters and thus does not decide which
political course the country will adopt.
As is known, executive power is in the hands of the Monarch’s Government and of the
devolved Governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Executive legislative
power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of
Commons and in the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and
Northern Ireland assemblies. The judicial system is independent of the executive and
legislative powers. The highest national court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The three elements that make up Parliament, the monarch ( kong king or queen), the
House of Lords and the elected House of Commons are constituted on different principles. In
addition, they meet only on occasions of symbolic significance, such as the state opening of
Parliament, when the Commons are summoned by the monarch to the House of Lords. The
agreement of all the three elements is normally required for legislation, but that of the
monarch is given as a matter of course to the Bills sent to her.
Parliament can legislate for Britain as a whole or any part of the country. It can also
legislate for the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which are crown dependencies and,
thus, technically not part of Britain. Because of this, they have their local legislatures who
make laws on the island, local affairs.
The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and is made up of constitutional

conventions, statutes and other elements. This system of government, known as the
Westminster system, has been adopted by other countries, especially those that were formerly
parts of the British Empire. As there are no legal restraints imposed by a written constitution,
Parliament acts as the main political body of the country. It can make and change any law and
can overturn established conventions or turn them into law. In addition to this, it can even
(exceptionally) prolong its own life beyond the established period without consulting the
electorate.
In practice, Parliament does not assert its supremacy in this way. Thus, its members (MPs)
always bear in mind the common law and usually act following precedent. The validity of an
Act of Parliament, once passed, cannot be disputed in the law courts. By law, the House of
59
Commons is directly responsible to the electorate, and the House of Lords recognises the
supremacy of the elected chamber.
The Monarch appoints a Prime Minister as the head of Her Majesty’s Government on the
condition that the Prime Minister should be a member of the House of Commons party, most
likely to be able to form a Government with the support of that House. In practice, this means
that the leader of the Political Party with an absolute majority of seats in the House of
Commons is chosen to be the Prime Minister. If no party has an absolute majority, the leader
of the largest party is given the first opportunity to form a coalition. The Prime Minister then
selects the other Ministers who make up the Government and act as political heads of the
various Government Departments.
About twenty of the most senior government ministers make up the Cabinet, and
approximately 100 ministers, in total, comprise the Government. Under the constitutional
convention, all ministers within the Government are either MPS or peers in the House of
Lords.
As in some parliamentary systems of the Government (especially those based upon the
Westminster system, the executive (called "the Government") is drawn from and is
answerable to Parliament. In practice, members of Parliament of all major parties are strictly
controlled by “whips”, members who try to ensure they vote according to party policy. If the
Government has a large majority, they are very unlikely to lose enough votes to be unable to
pass legislation.
The Prime Minister is the most senior in the Cabinet. S/he is responsible for chairing Cabinet
meetings, selecting Cabinet ministers (and all other positions in Her Majesty's Government),
and formulating the government policy. The Prime Minister is the de facto leader of the UK
Government, since s/he exercises executive functions that are nominally vested in the
sovereign (by way of the Royal Prerogatives). Historically, the British Monarch was the sole
source of executive powers in the Government. However, following the rule of the
Hanoverian monarchs, an arrangement of a "Prime Minister" chairing and leading the Cabinet
began to emerge. Over time, this arrangement became the effective executive branch of
Government, as it assumed the day-to-day functioning of the British Government away from
the sovereign.
Theoretically, the Prime Minister is primus inter pares (i.e. Latin for first among equals)
among his/her Cabinet colleagues. While the Prime Minister is the senior Cabinet Minister,
60
s/he is theoretically bound to make executive decisions collectively with the other Cabinet
ministers. The Cabinet, along with the PM, consists of Secretaries of State from the various
government departments, the Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, the Lord High
Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, the President of the Board of Trade, the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster and Ministers without portfolio for example. Cabinet meetings are
typically held weekly, while Parliament is in session.
The Government of the United Kingdom contains several ministries known mainly, though
not exclusively, as departments, for example, the Ministry of Defense. These are politically
led by a Government Minister who is usually a Secretary of State and member of the Cabinet.
He or she may also be supported by junior Ministers. In practice, several Government
Departments and Ministers have responsibilities that cover England alone, with devolved
bodies having responsibility for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland or responsibilities that
mainly focus on England.
Statement True or
False
1 In Britain, government is often thought to violate the law.
2 The Watergate Scandal occurred in America.
3 People are generally interested in politics in Britain.
4 Politics has always been regarded as a boring topic.
5 The lack of enthusiasm in politics was caused by disenchantment
6 Politicians are presented as publically responsible people.
7 The judicial system is not independent in Britain.
8 The Parliament and King do not meet regularly.
9 Britain has a codified institution.
10 The Prime Minister can make decisions without consulting the Government.
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6.3 British Democracy
The British are believed to respect the law, although they may not have much respect for the
present institutions of the law. As a matter of fact, there is little systematic law-breaking by
the vast majority of the population. Although the law is largely respected, the British are
comparatively unenthusiastic about making new laws.
Britain is unique in several aspects. First, Britain is one of the very few European countries
whose citizens do not have identity cards. You do not even have to have your driving license
with you when you are in your car. If something happens, you have 24 hours to take the
documents to the nearest police station!
First, Britain is the only country in Western Europe without a Freedom of Information Act.
There is no law by which you are obliged to tell anyone about the details of your work,
neither is the Government obliged to inform you what information they have about you.
These two aspects are characteristic of the relationship in Britain between the individual and
the state. The duties of the individual towards the state are confined to not breaking the law
and paying taxes regularly. There is no national military service, people do not immediately
have to register their change of address with any government authority if they move the
house.
On the other hand, the Government has a relatively free hand as well. It can be claimed that
in Britain, democracy involves less participation by ordinary citizens in governing and law-
making than in other countries. Any major changes can be introduced into the law without
formally asking the people! Moreover, it does not even have to have a special vote in
Parliament with an especially high proportion of MPs in favour. It just needs to get
Parliament to agree in the same way as for any new law.
62
It seems unusual, but there have only been three countrywide referendums in British History.
In 1975 and 2016, on whether the country should stay in the European Community and in
2011, Alternative Vote Referendum
It can be argued that in Britain, democracy has never meant that the people have a hand in the
running of the country. Rather it means that the people choose who is to govern the country
and then let them go on with it!
Statement True or
False
1 The British do not respect the law.
2 The British like making new laws.
3 The British are expected to carry ID (formal identification).
4 It is not essential for the British to carry their driving licence whilst driving.
5 Britain does not have a Freedom of Information Act.
6 The Government has to inform a person re their knowledge of him/her.
7 The British are obliged to serve a two-year military service.
8 The British do not have to inform the Government if they move address.
9 The Government cannot make major decisions without public agreement.
10 In Britain referenda are held frequently.
6.4.2 Fill in the blanks with the words form the box:
Centuries; constitution; controlled; document;

European; example; law; monarchy;
parliamentary; king; system;
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Britain is a constitutional ______________ which means that it is a country governed by a
king or a ______________. The monarch is believed to accept the advice of a parliament.
Britain is also a ______________ democracy. In other words, this means that Britain is the
country whose government is ______________ by a parliament which has been elected by
the people. In Britain, as in many ______________ countries, the official head of state,
whether a monarch (as in Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark) or a president (as in
Germany, Greece and Italy) has little real power.
On the other hand, there are features of the British ______________ of government which
make it different from that in other countries. The most notable is the question of the
______________ . Britain may be the only country without a constitution at all! Of course
there are rules, regulations, laws, principles and procedures for running of the country – all
the documents known to the lawyers collectively as ‘the constitution’ but there is no single
document which can be appealed as to the highest ______________of the state.
Instead, the principles and procedures by which the country is governed and from which
people’s rights are derived come from a number of different sources built up over the
______________. Some of these sources have been written down and others are just assumed
to be right. For ______________, there is no written law that says anything about who can be
the Prime Minister or what the powers of the Prime Minister are. Similarly, there is no
written _____________which says what the human rights are and how they should be
accepted.
6.5 The Origins of the Party System in Britain
Britain is usually described as having a ‘two-party system’. One reason for the existence of
this situation is the electoral system. The other is the nature of the origin of British political
parties. Britain is unlike most other countries as its parties were first formed inside
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Parliament and were later extended to the public at large. Historically, in the XVIII century,
Members of Parliament tended to divide themselves into two camps, those who supported the
Government of the time and those who did not. During the XIX century, it gradually became
the habit that the party which did not control the Government, presented itself as an
alternative Government. Later the idea of the alternative Government received legal
recognition. Since then, the leader of the second biggest party in the House of Commons
receives the title “The leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, and his/her importance is verified
by the salary they get. The Leader of the Opposition chooses a ‘shadow cabinet’, which
actively criticises the Government and gets ready to replace the Government if and when
elected. Thus the main reason for the existence of these two parties is to gain power by
forming effective coalitions of interest groups and individuals. Hence they do not present the
interests of any specific group of society.
Since 2022, Britain has been ruled by Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party. The first British Asian prime minister, he
previously held two cabinet positions under Boris Johnson, latterly as Chancellor of the
Exchequer from 2020 to 2022. Sunak has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond
(Yorks) since 2015.The party system is an essential element in the working of the
constitution. The present-day system, as was mentioned above, depends upon the existence of
the organised political parties, each of which presents its policies to the electorate for
approval. The Parties are not registered or formally recognised in law, but in practice, most
candidates in elections and almost all winning candidates belong to one of the main parties.
The party which wins most seats, although not necessarily the most votes, at a general
election, or which has the support of a majority of members in the House of Commons,
usually forms the Government. By tradition, the leader of the majority party is asked by the
Sovereign to form a government. About 100 of the party members in the House of Commons
and the House of Lords, receive ministerial appointments, including appointments to the
Cabinet on the advice of the Prime Minister. The largest minority party becomes the official
Opposition, with its leader and ‘shadow cabinet’.
The leaders of the Government and Opposition sit on the front benches on either side of
the commons chamber, with their supporters - the backbenchers - sitting behind them. Similar
arrangements for the parties also apply to the House of Lords; however, Lords who do not
wish to be associated with any political party may sit on the “cross-benches”. The
effectiveness of the party system in Parliament rests largely on the relationship between the
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Government and the opposition parties. The opposition may try to overthrow the Government
by defeating it in a vote on a “matter of confidence”.
In general, the aims of the Party System in the parliament are:
· to contribute to the formulation of policy and legislation by constructive criticism;
· to oppose government proposals it considers objectionable;
· to seek amendments to government Bills; and
· to put forward its policies to improve its chances of winning the next general election.
The Opposition performs these roles by debating issues and putting questions on the floor of
both Houses and through the committee system.
Government business arrangements are settled, under the direction of the Prime Minister and
the Leaders of the two Houses, by the Government Chief Whip in consultation with the
Opposition Chief Whip. The Chief Whips together constitute the “usual channels” often
referred to when the question of finding time for a particular item of business is discussed.
The leaders of the two Houses are responsible for enabling the Houses to debate matters
about which they are concerned.
Outside Parliament, party control is exercised by the national and local organisations. Inside
Parliament, the party control is exercised by the Chief Whips and their assistants who are
chosen within the party. Their duties include keeping members of the party informed of
forthcoming parliamentary events and businesses, maintaining the party’s voting strength by
ensuring members attend important debates and passing on to the party leadership the
opinions of backbench members.
Statement True or
False
1 The Electoral System is the only reason for the two party system in Britain.
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2 British political parties were first formed inside the parliament.
3 The Shadow Cabinet was first formed in the XVIII century.
4 The Leader of the Opposition leads the Shadow Cabinet.
5 The British political parties present the interests of certain groups of society.
6 Britain’s political direction is currently defined by a coalition.
7 Political parties in Britain are registered and formalised.
8 The British Cabinet of Ministers consists of about 200 people.
9 The Shadow Cabinet presents an alternative government.
10 Cross benchers are each associated with all parties in the parliament.
6.6.2 Speaking:
6.6.2.1 Answer the following questions:
1 Speak about the structure of the British Parliament.

2 Speak about the Prime Minister’s responsibilities.
3 Why is British democracy unique? Discuss the reasons for your answer.
4 What are the aims of the Party System in the Parliament?
5 How is each Party control and exercised inside and outside the Parliament?
6.6.2.2 Read the following passage and discuss the following issues:
1 What is the main idea of the passage of text below?

2 How has the two party system changed and why?
3 How many political parties are still active and represented in Parliament?
Originally, the two parties that made up the two-party system were the Conservatives (Tories)
and Liberals (Whigs) that alternated terms in office and opposition between them. The
Liberals had been the governing party for much of the 19th century. The two-party system in
Britain then changed with the emergence of the Labour Party and the partition of Ireland,
which had the combined effect of weakening the Liberals. Until 1929 Britain briefly had a
three-party system with the Labour Party eventually replacing the Liberals as the second
main party in a changed two-party system (Cook, 1998 p. 106).
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noticeable in promoting and maintaining a two-party system in Britain which made it difficult
for third parties to succeed. The system works against third parties unless they have
concentrated support in a few constituencies rather than evenly spread support across the
whole of the country.
The notion of the two-party system in Britain was linked to the ideas of class alignment and
voting behaviours. The Labour and Conservative parties were the two main parties as they
represented the two main classes, the working class and the middle/upper class respectively.
The two-party system has changed for various reasons and in various ways. It is no longer the
case that the Conservatives and Labour will finish in first and second place in every
constituency across Britain.
Overall, the two-party system could still be argued to exist in Britain, although it has
undoubtedly changed and could be replaced by a multi-party system if proportional
representation were to be adopted for Westminster elections
6.6.3 Project
Find more information about:
a) the currently active political parties in Britain and describe their activity and history;
b) find out more information about the current alliance and present it to the group.
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Lecture 7 The British Parliament
7.1 The Houses of Parliament at Westminster
The British Parliament is bicameral (Latin bi, two + camera, chamber), which means having
two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Bicameral legislatures tend to require a concurrent
majority to pass legislation.
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 Overseas territories. Parliament alone possesses ultimate power over all other political
bodies in the UK. At its head is the Sovereign.
As was mentioned above, the Parliament is bicameral, with an “upper” house, the House of
Lords and a “lower” house, the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes two
different types of members: the Lords Spirituals (the senior bishops and other dignitaries of
the Church of England, which is the major church of the UK) and the Lords Temporal
(members of the Peerage) whose members are not elected by the people but are hereditary or
appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. Before the Supreme Court
was opened in 2009, The House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law
Lords.
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
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By custom, Parliament is also informed before all-important international treaties and
agreements are ratified. However, the making of treaties is a royal prerogative exercised on
the advice of the Government and is not subject to parliamentary approval.
The Parliament is elected for five years. However, in practice, general elections are usually
held before the end of this term. However, Parliament can be dissolved and elections can be
ordered by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The life of the Parliament is divided into sessions. Each session lasts for one year, usually
beginning and end in October or November. At the start of each session, the King’s speech to
Parliament outlines the Government’s policies and proposed legislative programme.
Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (the lower House of Parliament
and referred to as "the Commons") and the Lords. The House of Lords, like the House of
Commons, assembles in the Palace of Westminster. The House of Lords (commonly referred
to as "the Lords" and also known as House of Peers, for ceremonial purposes) is the upper
House of the Parliament of the UK. Unlike the House of Commons, membership of the
House of Lords is not attained by-election from the population as a whole, but by inheritance
or appointment (Lords Temporal), or by their ecclesiastical role within the established church
(Lords Spirituals). The Lords spirituals are represented by 26 senior bishops of the Church of
England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership. Of these, many are life
peers appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Ministers. Membership was once
a right of birth to hereditary peers. However, following a series of reforms, as of
2010[update], only 9 elected by the House from the hereditary peers, remain as members.
The number of members is not fixed; as of October 2010[update], the House of Lords had
744 members, as against the fixed 650 seat membership of the House of Commons.
The full, formal title of the House of Lords is “The right Honorable the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament”.
7.1.1 The House of Lords
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 (for instance, Lords of Appeal
or ‘law lords’);
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· all other life peers;
· the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and
Winchester and the 21 senior bishops of the Church of England.
Hereditary peerages carry a right to sit in the House provided holders establish their claim
and are 21 years old or over. However, anyone succeeding to a peerage may disclaim that
peerage for their lifetime, and by doing so, gain the right to vote and stand as candidates for
parliamentary elections. Peerages, both hereditary and life, are created by the Sovereign on
the advice of the Prime Minister. They are usually granted recognition of service in politics or
other spheres of life. In addition to this, senior judges are given life peerages as Lords of
Appeal. The House of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor who is ex-officio
Speaker of the House.
7.1.2 The House of Commons
The House of Commons consists of 659 MPs directly elected by voters in each of Britain’s
659 parliamentary constituencies.
General elections are held after the Parliament has been dissolved, and a new one is
summoned by the King. When an MP dies or resigns, a by-election takes place.
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 who are elected by the House on
the nomination of the Government but, like the speaker, are drawn from both the Opposition
and the government party.
The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known
as the Houses of Parliament), in the city 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 King. In practice, real power is vested in
the House of Commons. This is because the Sovereign generally acts on the advice of the
Prime Minister and the power of the House of Lords has been limited.
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Statement True or
False
1 Bicameral parliaments don’t require a concurrent majority to pass legislation.
2 The British parliament also rules Britain’s overseas lands.
3 The Prime Minister is the Head of Parliament.
4 Some members of the peerage are referred to as the Lords Spiritual.
5 The Lords Temporal are officially appointed by the King.
6 The role of the Law Lords is now played by the Supreme Court.
7 The Law Lords played a judicial role in the House of Commons.
8 The House of Commons is elected every 4 years.
9 The Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons.
10 The House of Lords is as powerful as the House of Commons.
7.3 The Parliamentary electoral system
There are four types of elections in the United Kingdom: UK general elections, elections to
devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections and mayoral elections. Elections are
held on a specific Election Day, which is traditionally a Thursday. General elections do not
have fixed dates. However, they must be called within five years of the opening of the
Parliament, following the last election. Other elections are held on fixed dates though, in the
case of the devolved assemblies and parliaments, early elections can occur in certain
situations.
United Kingdom general elections are held when the Members of Parliament (MPs) forming
the House of Commons of the Parliament of the UK are elected. Following the Parliament
Act 1911, parliamentary sessions, after lasting a maximum of five years, and end with the
dissolution of Parliament. Therefore, elections are not fixed, and the time is chosen by the
governing party to maximise political advantage. The 2019 general election was held on
December 12, 2019.
For electoral purposes, Britain is divided into constituencies, each of which returns one
member to the House of Commons. To ensure that constituency electorates are kept roughly
equal, permanent Parliamentary Boundary Commissions keep constituencies under review.
Thus the number and geography of constituencies may change slightly from election to
election. Elections are always by a genuine secret ballot.
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Candidates aim to win particular geographic constituencies in the United Kingdom. Each
constituency elects one MP by the first past the post system of election. It resulted in the
Conservative Party receiving a majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives won 43.6% of the
popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since 1979.
As is known, the party with the most seats, i.e. the most MPs, usually forms the government,
and the second-largest party becomes Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Almost all successful
candidates are members of a political party.
British citizens, together with citizens of other commonwealth countries and citizens of the
Irish Republic resident in Britain, may vote provided they are aged 18 or over and are
included in the annual register of electors for the constituency and are not subject to any
disqualification.
People not entitled to vote include members of the House of Lords, patients detained under
mental health legislation, sentenced prisoners and people convicted within the previous five
years of corrupt or illegal election practices.
Each elector may cast one vote, in person at a polling station. Electors whose circumstances
on polling day are such that they cannot reasonably be expected to vote in person at their
polling station may apply for an absent vote at a particular election. Most British citizens
resident abroad may also now apply for absent votes.
Voting is not compulsory. The simple majority system of voting is used. Candidates are
elected if they have more votes than any of the other candidates, although not necessarily an
absolute majority over all other candidates together.
All British Citizens and citizens of other Commonwealth countries may stand for elections as
MPs provided they are aged 21 or over and are not disqualified. Those disqualified include
un-discharged bankrupts, people sentenced to more than one year’s imprisonment. The clergy
of the Church of England, Church of Scotland, Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic
Church and peers.
Statement True or
False
1 General elections have a fixed day of the week
2 The length of the work of parliament is defined by the Parliament Act (1913).
3 Elections are held at last once every five years.
4 Each constituency can elect two candidates.
5 The number of candidates depends on the number of constituencies.
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6 MPs are elected by means of the first past the post system.
7 The second largest party forms the government.
8 The poser of the British Parliament does not spread to overseas territories.
9 There are just four types of elections in Britain.
10 General elections have fixed dates.
7.4.2 Speaking
1 Speak about the functions of the Parliament.

2 Speak about the procedure of voting in Britain.
7. 5 Brexit
The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum also known as the EU
referendum and the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom
(UK) and Gibraltar. Quite unexpectedly, the referendum revealed that 51.9% of people
voted in favour of leaving the EU. In spite of the fact that legally the referendum was not
considered to be binding, as the government had promised to implement the result, it had to
keep the promise and therefore, initiated the official EU withdrawal process on 29 March
2017.. This means that the UK will leave the EU by 30 March 2019. This was not the first
referendum held and dedicated to this issue. The first referendum on continued membership
of European Communities was held in 1975 and then, the idea was approved by 67.2 %
against 32.8 % of voters who voted against it.
However, in May 15, the legal basis for a referendum on EU membership was established by
the UK Parliament through the EU referendum Act 2015. There were two approaches to the
issue. On the one hand, David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne endorsed the
approach “Britain Stronger in Europe” . On the other hand, Vote Leave was the official
group campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, and was followed by the Conservative MP
Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove and Labour MP Gisela Stuart.
As soon as result was made public, financial markets reacted negatively but soon recovered,
and Cameron announced that he would resign as prime minister and Conservative party
leader, having campaigned unsuccessfully for a "Remain" vote. It should be mentioned that it
was the first time that a national referendum result had gone against the preferred option of
the UK Government. Cameron was promptly succeeded by Theresa May on 13 July 2016.
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The United Kingdom left the European Union — now an economic and political partnership
of 27 countries — on January 31, 2020, bringing to an end 47 years of British membership of
the EU and the institutions that preceded it.
Attention has now turned to the future EU-UK relationship, as both sides face the huge
challenge of trying to strike a trade deal and reach agreement in a range of other areas in just
a few months. A stand-still transition period ends on December 31, 2020.
"Brexit" — the term used to describe Britain's EU departure — represents the most important
constitutional shake-up the UK has known since it joined the six-nation European Economic
Community in 1973. It is also the first time the European institution has lost a member.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/02/11/brexit-draft-deal-first-of-many-hurdles-to-a-smooth-
exit
7.6.1 Speaking
1 How does the European Union work?
2 What is the function of the Court of Justice in the European Union?
7.6.2 Choose the correct answer from a), b), or c:
1 The British Parliament is:

a) monocameral; b) tricameral; c) bicameral.
2. The ‘lower’ house of Parliament is referred to as:
a) House of Peers; b) House of Lords; c) House of Commons.
3 The Parliament is elected for __________ years:
a) three; b) five; c) four.
4 Parliament can be dissolved by the advice of the:
a) monarch; b) opposition leader; c) Prime Minister
5 Peers can stand as an MP if:
a) they disclaim their right as a peer; b) when they reach 21; c) they are male.
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6 The British Parliament now consists of:
a) 659 MPs; b) 657 MPs; c) 643 MPs.
7 When an MP dies or resigns a/an ________________takes place.
a) extra –election; b) by-election; c) further election.
8 The British Parliament meets in:
a) The Palace of Westminster; b) The Palace of Buckingham; c) The Palace of Kensington.
9 In theory the ________________ has the supreme legislative power.
a) The Prime Minister; b) The King; c) The House of Lords.
10 The election day is traditionally a ________________
a) Tuesday; b) Sunday; c) Thursday.
7.7 Devolved parliaments
The members of England are ruled by the British Parliament, as discussed earlier. However,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their governing bodies.
7.7.1 Scottish Government - The Scottish Parliament
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 referendum held in Scotland in 1997 resulted in a vote for a Scottish
Parliament to be set up. The current Parliament was established by the Scotland Act of 1998,
which sets out its powers as a devolved legislature. The Act delineates the legislative
competence of the Parliament – the areas in which it can make laws – by explicitly specifying
powers that are "reserved" to the Parliament of the United Kingdom: all matters that are not
explicitly reserved are automatically the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. 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 governments, sport and the arts, transport, training,
tourism, research and statistics and social work.
However, the Scottish Parliament is unable to legislate on such issues that are reserved to and
dealt with at Westminster (and where Ministerial functions usually lie with UK Government
ministers). These include broadcasting policy, civil service, common markets for UK goods
and services, constitution, electricity, coal, oil, gas, nuclear energy, defence and national
security, drug policy, employment, foreign policy and relations with Europe, most aspects of
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transport safety and regulation, social security and the stability of the UK's fiscal, economic
and monetary system,
7.7.2 Welsh Government - The National Assembly
As initially established, the Welsh Government had no independent executive powers in law
(unlike, for instance, the Scottish Ministers and Ministers in the UK Government). The
National Assembly was established by the Government of Wales Act 1998.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 formally separated the legislature (National Assembly
for Wales) and the Welsh Government, giving Welsh Ministers independent executive
authority, this taking effect after the May 2007 elections. Following separation, the Welsh
ministers exercise functions in their own right.
Under the structures established by the Government of Wales Act 2006, the role of Welsh
Ministers is 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: a) agriculture,
fisheries, forestry and rural development; b) ancient monuments and historical buildings; c)
culture; d) economic development; e) education and training; f) environment; g) fire and
rescue services and promotion of fire safety; h) food; i) health and health services; j)
highways and transport; k) housing; l) local government; m) National Assembly for Wales; n)
public administration; o) social welfare; p) sport and recreation; q) tourism; r) town and
country planning; s) water and flood defences; t) the welsh language.
7.7.3 Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has the
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.
Historically it has had a very turbulent history encountering many suspensions. From 7 June
1921 until 30 March 1972, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland was the Parliament
of Northern Ireland which was suspended on 30 March 1972 and formally abolished in 1973
under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
Shortly after this, the first Parliament was abolished, attempts began to restore devolution on
a new basis that would see power shared between nationalists and unionists. To this end, a
new parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, was established in 1973. However, this body
was abolished in 1974. In 1982 another Northern Ireland Assembly was established as a body
to scrutinise the actions of the Secretary of State, the British minister with responsibility for
Northern Ireland. It received little support from nationalists and was officially dissolved in
1986.
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The latest version of the Assembly 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 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. However, it only existed in a "shadow" form until 2 December 1999, when full
powers were devolved to the Assembly. Since then, the Assembly has operated only
intermittently and has been suspended on four occasions.
When the Assembly was suspended, its powers returned to the Northern Ireland Office.
Following talks in November 2006, an agreement was made, an election to the Assembly was
held on 7 March 2007. Full power was restored to the devolved institutions on 8 May 2007.
Significantly, powers concerning policing and justice were transferred to the Assembly on 12
April 2010.
The third Assembly was dissolved on 24 March 2011, in preparation for the elections to be
held on Thursday 5 May 2011, being the first Assembly since the Good Friday Agreement to
complete a full term. The fourth Assembly convened on 12 May 2011.
7.8.1 Speaking
In groups of three read the texts about the devolved legislatures (7.7.1 to 7.7.3) and find the
similarities and differences between the devolved ruling bodies.
7.9 The Three Main political parties in the United Kingdom
7.9.1 The Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a political party in the UK that adheres to a centre-right

philosophy of conservatism. The Conservatives hold a permanent majority of English seats
but usually achieve poorly in Scottish and Welsh constituencies.
The Conservative Party was founded in 1834, out of the old Tory party, active since 1678.
Today, it is still often colloquially referred to as the Tory Party, with its members, the
Conservatives also referred to as Tories. Conservative governments were in power for two-
thirds of the 20th century, led by such notable leaders as Winston Churchill and Margaret
Thatcher.
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7.9.2 The Labour Party
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom.
The Labour Party was last in government between 1997 and 2010, under Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179, reduced to 167 in 201 and 66 in 2005. The
Labour Party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United
Kingdom, having won the second-largest number of seats in the 2019 general election.
The leader of the party and leader of the opposition is Keir Starmer. Labour is the largest
party in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), being the only party in the current Welsh
government. The party is the third-largest in the Scottish Parliament, behind the Scottish
National Party and the Scottish Conservatives.
The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19th century when it became apparent that there was
a need for a new political party to represent the interests and needs of the urban proletariat.
7.9.3 The Liberal / Social Democratic / Liberal Democratic Party
The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th
century until the rise of the Labour party in the 1920s. Then the Liberal Party was a third
party of varying strength and importance up to 1988 when it merged with the Social
Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party, which would become known as the Liberal
Democrats.
The Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, which had its origins as an aristocratic faction in the
reign of Charles II. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown and
increasing the power of the Parliament.
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7.10.2 Speaking
In groups of three, read the texts about political parties (one each) and report to the rest
of the group. Comment on the logos, history and current degree of involvement.
7.10.2 In text Activities - Project
In pairs, look at the General Election results of the Parliamentary elections of May 6,
2010 and discuss the figures shown overleaf.
Electorate 45,614,661. Total votes cast 29,688,353 (65.1% of the total).
Party Votes % of Vote Seats
Conservative 10,703,695 36.1 306
Labour 8,606,518 29.0 258
Liberal Democrat 6,836,718 23.0 57
Democratic Unionist Party 168,216 0.6 8
Scottish National Party 491,376 1.7 6
Sinn Fein 171,942 0.6 5
Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) 165,394 0.6 3
Social Democratic and Labour Party 110,970 0.4 3
Green 285,616 1.0 1
Alliance Party 42,762 0.1 1
Speaker 22,860 0.1 1
United Kingdom Independence Party 919,677 3.1 0
British National Party 564,321 1.9 0
Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force 102,361 0.3 0
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Respect-Unity Coalition 33,081 0.1 0
Independent Community and Health Concern 16,150 0.1 0
Others 446,696 1.5 1
Lecture 8 Reflections on the British

Monarchy
8.1 A brief history of the British Monarchy
The British Monarchy traces its origins from the Kings of Angles and the early Scottish
kings. By the year 1000, the kingdoms of England and Scotland had developed from the
small kingdoms of early medieval Britain. The last Anglo-Saxon Monarch (Harold II) was
defeated and killed in the battle of Hastings, and the English Monarchy passed to the Norman
conquerors. In the thirteenth century, the principality of Wales was absorbed by England, and
the Magna Carta began the process of reducing the political powers of the Monarch.
From 1603, when the Scottish King James VI inherited the English throne as James I, both
kingdoms were ruled by a single monarch. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of Monarchy was
broken, for the only time, by the establishment of the republican Commonwealth of England
that followed the War of the Three Kingdoms. The Act of Settlement 1701, which is still in
force, excluded Roman Catholics or those married to the Catholics, from succession to the
English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the
Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland joined to create the UK. The
British Monarch became nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of
the world at its greatest extent in 1921.
After World War II, several former colonies and dominions became independent of Britain,
bringing the British Empire to an end. George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the
title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of the independent
countries comprising the Commonwealth of Nations.
Currently, the British Monarchy is the constitutional Monarchy of the UK as well as its
overseas territories. The present monarch, Elizabeth II, reigned from 6 February 1952 to
September 8, 2022. Now Charles III is King of the UK. The monarch and his immediate
family undertake various official, ceremonial and representative duties. As a constitutional
monarch, the King is limited to such functions as bestowing titles and honours, dissolving
and opening Parliament and appointing the Prime Minister.
Although the British Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she
continues to play a significant part in the life of the nation.
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As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and representational duties which
have developed over one thousand years of history. In addition to these State duties, The
Monarch has a less formal role as 'Head of Nation'. The Sovereign acts as a focus for national
identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises
success and excellence and supports the idea of voluntary service.
In all these roles, the Sovereign is supported by members of their immediate family.
8.2 The present-day power and the role of the Monarch

In practice, the Monarch cannot choose anyone she likes to be Prime Minister. Charles III
will agree to choose someone who has the support of the majority of MPs in the House of
Commons. The same holds for the Parliament. If the Prime Minister requests a dissolution of
Parliament when he or she wants to hold an election, it would normally be impossible for the
Monarch to refuse the “request”. Similarly, in theory, the King has the right to refuse the
royal assent to a bill passed by Parliament, but no monarch has ever done this since 1708.
Thus, in reality, the Monarch has little or no real political power. When she/he opens
Parliament each year, they very obviously read out the script that has been prepared for them
by the Prime Minister.
She cannot stop the Government from going ahead with any of its politics.
However, three roles are often mentioned by political and legal experts. First, the monarch is
the personal embodiment of the government of the country. Because of the clear separation
between the symbol of Government (the King) and the actual government, changing the
government does not threaten the stability of the country as a whole. Second, it is still argued
that the monarch could act as a final check on a government that was becoming dictatorial. If
the government ever managed to pass a bill through Parliament which was unpopular, the
monarch could refuse the royal assent and the bill would not become law. Similarly, if a
Prime Minister who had been defeated at a general election was to ask immediately for
another dissolution of Parliament (so that another election could take place), the monarch
could refuse the request and dismiss the Prime Minister. Third, the Monarch has a very
practical role to play. By being a figurehead and representing the country, Charles III can
perform the ceremonial duties which heads of state often have to spend much of their time
on.
In any case, the Monach is still very popular with the majority of the British people as the
Monarchy gives them a symbol of continuity and national pride. Besides, the Monarch opens
Parliament, and all of the ceremonies connected with the Royal family and the King make up
for the lack of colour and ceremony in most people’s boring, daily lives. Thus, the glamorous
lives of the Royal Family provide a source of entertainment.
Statement True or
False
1 Early Scottish kings were the sole founders of the British Monarchy.
2 Harold II was a Norman king.
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3 Wales became part of England in the XIII century.
4 The Magna Carta increased the political powers of the monarch.
5 King James VI of Scotland and James I of England were the same person.
6 Commonwealth of England and the Commonwealth of Nations are the same.
7 The monarch can make few if any independent political decisions.
8 The monarch can dissolve parliament on her own initiative.
9 A change of government does not affect the monarchy.
10 The monarchs are still very popular among the British people.
8.4 The Present Royal Family
Members of the Royal Family support The Monarch in his many State and national duties, as
well as carrying out important work in the areas of public and charitable service, and helping
to strengthen national unity and stability.
Those who undertake official duties are members of The King’s close family: his siblings and
their spouses, Prince William, Prince of Wales and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales,
and in addition, members of the wider family.
Younger members of the Royal Family who are in education or military training do not
undertake official duties full-time, but usually play a role in important national events and
commemorations.
Every year the Royal Family as a whole carries out over 2,000 official engagements, not only
in the UK but also around the world. These engagements may include official State
responsibilities. Members of the Royal Family often carry out official duties in the UK and
abroad where The Monarch cannot be present in person. The Prince of Wales and Princess
Royal ( Princess Ann), for example, may present members of the public with their Honours at
an Investiture.
When official events such as receptions, State banquets and garden parties are held, the Royal
Family supports The King in making his guests welcome.
Members of the Royal Family also often represent The King and the nation in
Commonwealth or other countries, at events such as State funerals or national festivities, or
through longer visits to strengthen Britain's diplomatic and economic relations.
The Royal Family also plays an important role in supporting and encouraging the public and
charity sectors. About 3,000 organisations list a member of the Royal Family as patron or
president.
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The huge range of these organisations - covering every subject from education to the
environment, hospitals to housing - allows members of the Royal Family to meet people from
a wide spectrum of national and local life, and to understand their interests, problems and
concerns.
Some members of the Royal Family have also established their own charities - for example,
The Prince's Trust, The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme ( now Prince Edward possesses
this title after the death of his father, prince Philip) and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers,
a charity which provides advice and support for people acting as carers.
The Royal Family also plays an important role in recognising and supporting the work of the
Armed Services. Members of the Royal Family have official relationships with many units of
the Forces, paying regular visits to soldiers, sailors and airmen serving at home and abroad.
Finally, the Royal Family as a whole plays a role in strengthening national unity. Members of
the Royal Family are able to participate in and be recognised at community and local events
in every part of the UK, from the opening of new buildings to celebrations or acts of
commemoration.
The King working by himself would be unable to attend every engagement to which he is
invited. Members of the Royal Family can undertake local or specialist engagements which
would otherwise have to be declined.
8.5.1 In pairs discuss:
a) What are three roles of the Monarch?
b) How and in what do the members of the Royal Family help the King?
c) What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a monarch in Britain.

Would you like to be a monarch ?
8.5.2 Speaking
In pairs read the following material and discuss why the following monarchs were
significant for the History of Britain
King Offa of Mercia 757 - 796
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King Offa took control of Kent, Wessex and the west but never Northumbria. However,
he was the first king to claim the title of Rex Anglorum (King of the English). He was
regularly fighting the Welsh and built Offa’s Dyke, which can still be seen today.
King John I 1199- 1216
King John was King Richard’s hated brother. He was disliked so much and his
behaviour so bad that he was forced to sign The Magna Carta in 1215, which forever
restricted the power of the monarch and was the beginning of the British Constitution
Queen Elizabeth 1
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen Regent of England and
Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen,
Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor
Dynasty.
Elizabeth depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers. One of her first moves as queen
was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the
Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement held firm throughout her reign and
later evolved into today's Church of England. Elizabeth was expected to get married, but
despite several petitions from parliament and numerous courtships, she never did. The
reasons for this outcome have been much debated. As she grew older, Elizabeth became
famous for her apparent virginity, and a cult grew up around her, which was celebrated in the
portraits, pageants, and literature of the day.
In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and siblings. One of her mottos
was "video et taceo" ("I see and say nothing"). This strategy, viewed with impatience by her
counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Elizabeth was cautious in
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foreign affairs and only half-heartedly supported many ineffective, poorly resourced military
campaigns in the Netherlands, France and Ireland. However, the defeat of the Spanish
Armada in 1588 associated her name with what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest
victories in English History.
Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan Era, famous for the flourishing of English
Drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for
the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake.
Queen Elizabeth II
The Queen’s Flag
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926) was the long- reigning Queen
and Head of State of 16 independent countries known as the Commonwealth realms,
including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas,
Grenada, Papua and New Guinea. In addition, as Head of the Commonwealth, she was the
figurehead of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations and, as the British Monarch, she
was the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Elizabeth II died on September 8,
2022. Since her death, his son, Charles III has ascended the throne of Britain.
The Queen was born on 21 April 1926, the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who
later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. At the time, she stood third in the line
of succession to the throne, after firstly Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII),
and secondly, her father, The Duke of York. It was not expected that her father would
become King, or that she would eventually become Queen.
Princess Elizabeth was educated at home together with Princess Margaret, her younger sister.
After her father succeeded to the throne in 1936, and she became heir presumptive, she
started to study constitutional history and law as preparation for her future role. She also
learned French from many French and Belgian governesses. She often used it when speaking
to ambassadors and heads of state from French-speaking countries and when visiting French-
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speaking areas of Canada. Princess Elizabeth also studied art and music, learned to ride, and
became a strong swimmer. She won the Children's Challenge Shield at London's Bath Club
when she was thirteen.
Princess Elizabeth became engaged to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, and they were married
in Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947. The event was fairly simple, as Britain was
still recovering from the war, and Princess Elizabeth had to collect clothing coupons for her
dress, like any other young bride. They spent their honeymoon at Broadlands, Hampshire, the
home of Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall, Balmoral.
Lieutenant Mountbatten, His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was the son
of Prince Andrew of Greece and a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. The Queen has
paid public tribute to her husband on several occasions, recalling his loyal support and
service to the country. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their 73 th wedding
anniversary on 20 November 2020.
The Duke of Edinburgh died in April 2021.
Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales and now King Charles III, was born in 1948, and his
sister, Princess Anne, now Princess Royal, two years later.
After Princess Elizabeth became Queen, their third child, Prince Andrew, arrived in 1960 and
the fourth, Prince Edward, in 1964. Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were the first children
born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria had her family.
Their grandchildren are Peter and Zara Phillips (b. 1977 and 1981) [the children of Princess
Anne]; Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry (b. 1982 and 1984) [the children of Prince
Charles]; Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York (b. 1988 and 1990) [the
children of Prince Andrew]; The Lady Louise Windsor and Viscount Severn (b.2003 and
2007), children of The Earl and Countess of Wessex. Their first great-grandchild, Miss
Savannah Phillips, the daughter of Peter and Autumn Phillips, was born in 2010.
As well as this, the heir to the throne, William, Prince of Wales has three children
( George, Charlotte and Louis) and Prince Harry has two children with his wife Megan
Markle ( Archie and Lilibet).
Family life has been an essential support to the monarch. The family usually spends
Christmas together at Sandringham in Norfolk, attending church on Christmas Day. And in
the summer of 2006.
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Lecture 9 British Law
9.1 The main areas of law in the UK
The main areas of law exercised in the UK are the following:
· Criminal law, which deals with those behaviours considered wrong and
damaging to individuals or society as a whole, dealt with by the criminal justice
system from the initial investigation of the office to acquittal or conviction and
sentence;
· Civil Law – resolves non-criminal disputes such as disagreement over the

meaning of contracts, property ownership, divorce, child custody, damages for
personal and property damage;
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· Contract law, dealing with the principles of how contracts are made, what
happens when they work properly, and the remedies available when they go
wrong;
· Equity or “Trust” law, which is the law of “conscience” and what is fair, that
is what is equitable. This includes the making of gifts, trusts and trustees, and
includes aspects of family law in the making of wills;
· European law – this topic assesses the impact that British membership in the
European Community has had on the English legal system;
· Property law which related to the ownership of land and the creation of
rights over land;
· Public law, which looks at the relationship between government and the
private citizen;
· Tort - this deals with “civil wrongs”, for example, industrial accidents,
which give rise to potential actions in tort by individuals or businesses, including a
consideration of the remedies available when such actions are brought.
9.1.1 Civil law
Civil law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland covers business related to the family,
property, contracts and non-contractual wrongful acts suffered by one person at the hands of
another. It also includes constitutional, administrative, industrial and maritime law. Scottish
civil law has its own, broadly similar branches. Overall, the function of civil law is to provide
a legal remedy to solve problems. In some cases, civil law is based on a state or federal
statute; at other times, it is based on a ruling by the court.
The main subdivisions of Civil law are:
· family law, which includes the laws governing marriage, divorce and the welfare of
children;
· the law of property, governing ownership and rights of enjoyment, the creation and
administration of trusts and the disposal of property on death;
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· the law of contract, which regulates, for instance, the sale of goods, loans, partnerships.
insurance and guarantees; and
· the law of torts, which governs injuries suffered by one person at the hands of another,
for instance, negligence, libel and malicious prosecution.
As is seen from the above, Civil law mostly involves disputes between people, companies or
other organisations.
Civil justice in England and Wales is usually dealt with by the County Courts and the High
Court. Magistrate’s courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the County Courts and the High
Court in cases relating to children.
Most civil disputes never actually go to court, and most of those that do go, never result in a
trial. That is because many cases are resolved out of court, with everyone involved reaching a
compromise as going to court should always be the last resort, partly due to the expense and
possible delay. There are now some other ways of sorting problems without court action.
These include arbitration, mediation and ombudsmen schemes and are called alternative
dispute resolution schemes. Court rules require people to think about whether an alternative
resolution is a better way to handle a dispute than going to court.
County Courts usually handle cases involving family issues, such as divorce, custody, and
adoption. There are currently about 250 County Courts, each of which is usually assigned,
one circuit judge and one district judge. The district judge hears uncontested matters,
mortgage repossession claims and small-value claims. The circuit judge usually deals with
the high-value claims and matters of greater importance or complexity and deals with appeals
from decisions by the district judge.
Besides the above-mentioned cases, regarding divorce and family matters, the jurisdiction of
the County Courts covers:
actions founded upon contact and tort;
trust and mortgage cases;
action for the recovery of land;
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disputes between landlords and tenants;
complaints about race and sex discrimination;
admiralty cases (maritime questions and offences) and patent cases.
For small claims, there are special arbitration facilities and simplified procedures. Most small
claims are about money that one person owes to another. Arbitration is normally heard by the
district judge, who asks questions to discover the facts at issue and dispenses with strict rules
of procedure and evidence.
In addition to this, there are over 100 special care centres that deal with contested family
matters involving children.
The High Court handles significant and more complicated civil cases, while most County
Court cases are between people or companies who believe that someone owes them money.
In the event of overlapping jurisdiction between the High Court and the County Court, cases
of exceptional importance or complexity are reserved or transferred for trial in the High
Court. The High Court is divided into three divisions.
The Family Division, which is concerned with family law, including adoption and divorce;
The Chancery Division, which deals with corporate and personal insolvency, disputes in the
running of companies, between landlords and tenants and in intellectual property matters, and
the interpretation of trusts and contested wills;
The King’s Bench Division is concerned with contract and tort cases and deals with
applications for judicial review.
The Court of Appeal normally consists of three judges. Each one delivers a judgment, and the
majority opinion prevails. The Court of Appeal has the power to order a new trial or a
reversal or variation of a judgment.
Civil proceedings are started by the aggrieved person applying to court. This included a writ
served on the defendant by the plaintiff, stating the nature of the claim. Before the case is
tried, documents setting out the scope of the dispute are filed with the court. County Court
proceedings are initiated by a summons, usually served on the defendant by the court.
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Civil proceedings in Magistrates’ courts allow for written statements, expert opinions, and
hearsay evidence to be accepted in court without the presence of the witness unless the
evidence is disputed and the disputing party requests the presence of the witness.
Civil proceedings as a private matter may be abandoned or ended by settlement between the
parties at any time. In the great majority of cases, parties to a dispute settle their differences
through their solicitors before the trial stage is reached. Actions brought to court are usually
tried without a jury, except in defamation, false imprisonment or malicious prosecution cases
or where fraud is alleged, when either party may apply for trial by jury. The jury decides
what to do and determines damages to be paid to the injured party, majority verdicts may be
accepted. The Court of Appeal can increase or reduce damages awarded by a jury if it
considers them either inadequate or excessive.
In civil cases heard by the Magistrates’ court, the court issues a summons to the defendant
setting out the details of the complaint and the dates it will be heard. Parties and witnesses
give their evidence at the court hearing.
Most civil cases in Scotland are handled in the Sheriff Courts. These cases can include debt,
claims for compensation, divorce, eviction and anti-social behaviour. The Court of Session is
the highest civil court in Scotland and is the court of appeal for most civil matters. Tribunals
in Scotland deal with a range of matters, including employment, immigration, social security
and tax.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the supreme court in all matters under English
law, Northern Ireland law and Scottish civil law. It is the court of last resort and highest
appellate court in the United Kingdom; however, the High Court of Judiciary remains the
Supreme Court for criminal cases in Scotland. The Supreme Court also has jurisdiction to
resolve disputes relating to devolution in the United Kingdom and concerning the legal
powers of the three devolved governments or laws made by the devolved legislatures.
The Supreme Court started work on 1 October 2009. It assumed the judicial functions of the
House of Lords, which were exercised by the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (commonly called
"Law Lords"), the 12 professional judges appointed as members of the House of Lords to
carry out its judicial business.
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Statement True or
False
1 Criminal Law may deal with industrial accidents.
2 Contract Law deals with the situations which arise if the contracts are wrong.
3 Criminal Law deals with the whole range of the criminal process.
4 Property Law may look into what gifts people give to each other.
5 Civil Law may deal with the rights over land.
6 The Court of Appeal has the power to send cases back for a retrial.
7 Most civil case in Wales are handled in the Sheriff’s Court.
8 Tribunals deal with employment, immigration, social security and tax matters.
9 Decisions made by the Supreme Court of the UK are not final.
10 The Supreme Court assumed the judicial functions of the House of Commons.
9.2.2 Choose the correct answer from a), b), or c):
1 Civil justice in England and Wales is usually dealt with by the:

a) County Courts and the High Court; b) Central High Court and the High Court;
c) Country Courts and Magistrate Courts.
2 Magistrate Courts are connected to the:
a) Central Magistrate Court of the UK and County Courts; b) Country Courts and the
High Court; c) Civil Courts and Central Magistrate C.
3 “Alternative dispute resolution' schemes include:
a) arbitration and mediation schemes; b) ombudsmen and arbitration schemes;
c) arbitration, mediation and ombudsmen schemes.
4 The Court of Session is the highest civil court in:
a) Scotland; b) Ireland; c) Wales.
5 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom deals with all the countries except:
a) Scotland; b) Ireland; c) Wales.
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9.2.3 Speaking:
1 Which law is alternatively called ‘Trust’ law and what is the other term used to denote
the same concept?
2 Which law would be applied if a person had an industrial accident?

3 Which law would be applied if you had a problem with your government?
4 What are the disputes heard by the High Court?
5 Describe the procedure applied if a person wants to start Civil Proceedings.
9.2.4 In pairs read the following text about Human Rights in Britain and
discuss the issues of Human Rights and their violation in the world.
Provide examples and report to the group.
Anyone who is in the UK for any reason has fundamental human rights which government
and public authorities are legally obliged to respect. These became law as part of the Human
Rights Act 1998.
The Human Rights Act
The Human Rights Act 1998 gives further legal emphasis in the UK to the fundamental rights
and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. These rights not only
impact on matters of life and death, they also affect the rights you have in your everyday life:
what you can say and do, your beliefs, your right to a fair trial and other similar basic
entitlements.
Most rights have limits to ensure that they do not unfairly damage other people's
rights. However, certain rights – such as the right not to be tortured – can never be limited by
a court or anybody else.
You have the responsibility to respect other people's rights, and they must respect yours.
Your human rights are:
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 the right to life;
 freedom from torture and degrading treatment;
 freedom from slavery and forced labour;
 the right to liberty;
 the right to a fair trial;
 the right not to be punished for a deed that wasn't a crime when you
did it;
 the right to respect your privacy and family life;
 freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and to express your
beliefs;
 freedom of expression;
 freedom of assembly and association;
 the right to marry and to start a family;
 the right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights
and freedoms;
 the right to peaceful enjoyment of your property;
 the right to an education;
 the right to participate in free elections;
 the right not to be subjected to the death penalty.
If any of these rights and freedoms are breached, you have a right to an effective solution in
law, even if the breach was by someone in authority, such as, for example, a police officer.
9.2.5 Project
Compare the British and Georgian Systems of Law
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Lecture 10 The Commonwealth of Nations
(The British Commonwealth)

10.1 History
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously

known as the British Commonwealth, is an inter-governmental organisation of 54
independent member states. All but two (Mozambique and Rwanda) of these countries were
formerly part of the British Empire. The member states co-operate within a framework of
common values and goals outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion
of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty,
egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The Commonwealth is not a
political union but an inter-governmental organisation through which countries with diverse
social, political and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status.
The Activities of the Commonwealth are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth
Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, and biennial meetings between Commonwealth
Heads of Government. The symbol of the Commonwealth is the Head of the
Commonwealth. This ceremonial position is currently held by King Charles II, who is also
a monarch, separately and independently, of sixteen Commonwealth members known as the
"Commonwealth realms".
The Commonwealth started after World War II when the British Empire was gradually
dismantled to the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April
1949, following the London Declaration, the word "British" was dropped from the title of the
Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature.
The issue of countries with constitutional structures not based on a shared Crown but that
wanted to remain, members of the Commonwealth, came to a head in 1948 with the passage
of The Republic of Ireland Act 1948. In this Act, Ireland renounced the sovereignty of the
Crown and thus left the Commonwealth. The Ireland Act 1949, which was passed by the
Parliament of Westminster, offered citizens of the Republic of Ireland a status similar to that
of citizens of the Commonwealth in the UK law. The issue was resolved in April 1949 at a
Commonwealth prime ministers' meeting in London. Under the London Declaration, India
agreed that, when it became a republic in January 1950, it would accept the British Sovereign
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as a "symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head
of the Commonwealth."
The other Commonwealth countries recognised India's continuing membership of the

association. At Pakistan's insistence, India was not regarded as an exceptional case and it was
assumed that other states would be accorded the same treatment as India.
The London Declaration is often seen as marking the beginning of the modern
Commonwealth. Following India's precedent, other nations became republics or
constitutional monarchies with their monarchs while some countries retained the monarch of
the United Kingdom, but their monarchies developed differently and soon became
independent in the practice of the British monarchy.
As a result of the expansion of the Commonwealth, Britain and the pre-1945 dominions
became informally known as the "Old Commonwealth”. In 1952, the New Commonwealth
Movement was founded, and Winston Churchill became its president. The term "New
Commonwealth" has also sometimes been used in the United Kingdom (especially in the
1960s and 1970s) to refer to recently decolonised countries, which are predominantly non-
white and developing. It was often used in debates about immigration from these countries.
As already mentioned, the Commonwealth's objectives were first outlined, in 1971, in the
Singapore Declaration, which promoted individual liberty, democracy and the pursuit of
equality and opposition to racism; the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and free
trade. To these were added opposition to discrimination based on gender and environmental
sustainability. These objectives were reinforced by the Harare Declaration in 1991.
The Commonwealth areas of work are Democracy, Economics, Education, Gender,

Governance, Human Rights, Law, Small States, Sport, Sustainability, and Youth.
The Commonwealth has long been distinctive as an international forum where developed
economies and many of the world's poorer countries seek to reach agreement by consensus.
This aim has sometimes been difficult to achieve, as when disagreements over Rhodesia in
the late 1960s and 1970s, and apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, led to a cooling of
relations between the United Kingdom and African members.
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Through a separate voluntary fund, Commonwealth governments support the Commonwealth
Youth Programme, a division of the Secretariat with offices in Gulu (Uganda), Lusaka
(Zambia), Chandigarh (India), Georgetown (Guyana) and Honiara (Solomon Islands).
These requirements are that members must accept and comply with the Harare principles, be
fully Sovereign states, recognise the monarch of the Commonwealth realms as the Head of
the Commonwealth and respect the wishes of the general population concerning
Commonwealth membership.
New members must "as a general rule" have a direct constitutional link to an existing
member. In most cases, this is due to being a former colony of the United Kingdom, but some
have links to other countries, either exclusively or more directly (e.g. Samoa to New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea to Australia, and Namibia to South Africa). The first member to be
admitted without having any constitutional link to the British Empire or a Commonwealth
member was Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, in 1995 following its first democratic
elections and South Africa's re-admission in 1994. Mozambique's controversial entry led to
the Edinburgh Declaration and the current membership guidelines. In 2009, Rwanda became
the second Commonwealth member admitted not to have any previous constitutional links.
The Commonwealth comprises 54 countries (including one currently suspended member)
across all six inhabited continents. After India, the next-largest Commonwealth countries by
population are Pakistan (176 million), Bangladeshi (156 million), Nigeria (154 million), the
UK (61 million) and South Africa (49 million). Tuvalu is the smallest member, with about
10,000 people.
The status of "Member in Arrears" is used to denote those that are in arrears in paying
subscription dues. The status was originally known as “special membership" but was
renamed on the Committee on Commonwealth Membership’s recommendation. There are
currently no Members in Arrears. The most recent Member in Arrears, Nauru, returned to full
membership in June 2011. Nauru has alternated between special and full membership since
joining the Commonwealth, depending on its financial situation.
The Commonwealth has adopted some symbols that represent the association of its members.
Until September 8, 2022, Elizabeth II held the position of Head of the Commonwealth as a
symbol of the Commonwealth's free association, dating back to the London Declaration,
issued on 28 April 1949. The English language is recognised as a symbol of the members'
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heritage. It is considered a symbol of the Commonwealth recognition of it as "the means of
Commonwealth communication" is a prerequisite for Commonwealth membership.
The flag of the Commonwealth consists of the symbol of the Commonwealth Secretariat, a
gold globe surrounded by emanating "rays", on a dark blue field; it was officially adopted on
26 March 1976. 1976 also saw the organisation agree to a common date on which to
commemorate Commonwealth Day, the second Monday in March, having developed
separately on different dates from Empire Day celebrations.
In recognition of their shared heritage and culture, Commonwealth countries are not
considered to be "foreign" to each other. When engaging bilaterally with one another,
Commonwealth governments exchange High Commissioners instead of ambassadors.
Between two Commonwealth realms, they represent the Head of Government rather than the
Head of State. In addition, some members treat resident citizens of other Commonwealth
countries preferentially to citizens of non-Commonwealth countries. Britain and several
others, mostly in the Caribbean, grant the right to vote to Commonwealth citizens who reside
in those countries. Some states, such as Canada and New Zealand, have abolished such
preferences. In non-Commonwealth countries, in which their own country is not represented,
Commonwealth citizens may seek consular assistance at the British embassy.
In recent years, the Commonwealth has been accused of not being vocal enough about its
core values. Allegations of a leaked memo from the Secretary-General instructing staff not to
speak out on human rights were published in October 2010.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011considered a report by a

Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group panel which asserted that the organisation had lost
its relevance and was decaying due to the lack of a mechanism to censure member countries
when they violated human rights or democratic norms. The panel made 106 "urgent"
recommendations, including the adoption of a Charter of the Commonwealth, the creation of
a new commissioner on the rule of law, democracy and human rights to track persistent
human rights abuses and allegations of political repression by Commonwealth member states,
recommendations for the repeal of laws against homosexuality in 41 Commonwealth states
and a ban on "forced marriage”. The failure to release the report, or accept its
recommendations for reforms in the area of human rights, democracy and the rule of law was
decried as a "disgrace" by former British Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a member
of the EPG who told a press conference: "The Commonwealth faces a very significant
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problem. It's not a problem of hostility or antagonism, it's more of a problem of indifference.
Its purpose is being questioned, its relevance is being questioned and part of that is because
its commitment to enforce the values for which it stands is becoming ambiguous in the eyes
of many member states. The Commonwealth is not a private club of the governments or the
secretariat. It belongs to the people of the Commonwealth."
In the end, two-thirds of the EPG's 106 urgently recommended reforms were referred to study
groups, an act described by one EPG member as having them "kicked into the long grass".
There was no agreement to create the recommended position of human rights commissioner,
instead, a ministerial management group was empowered with enforcement: the group
includes alleged human rights offenders. It was agreed to develop a charter of values for the
Commonwealth without any decision on how compliance with its principles would be
enforced.
Statement True or
False
1 The Commonwealth and the British Commonwealth are synonymous.
2 The Commonwealth contains only former dominions of Britain.
3 Mozambique used to be a British colony.
4 The Commonwealth is a political union.
5 The members of the Union are regarded as equals.
6 Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth now.
7 The Harare declaration was adopted in 1971.
8 New members are constitutionally linked with “old” members.
9 Commonwealth realms all have their own monarchs.
10 The pre-war dominions of Britain are called the “New Commonwealth”.
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10.2.2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, c:
1 The Commonwealth Secretariat is headed by the:

a) Monarch; b) Commissar; c) Secretary – General,
2 The symbol of the Commonwealth is:
a) the Head of the Commonwealth; b) the Secretary–General; c) each monarch of the
Realm?
3 Which country left the Commonwealth by The Republic of Ireland Act 1948?
a) Northern Ireland; b) Republic of Ireland; c) Mozambique.
4 The London Declaration is often seen as marking the beginning of the:
a) modern Commonwealth; b) old Commonwealth; c) white Commonwealth
5 The first country which was not linked with a member of the Commonwealth is:
a) Togo; b) Namibia; c) Mozambique.
10.2.3 Speaking:
Read the following text about the Commonwealth’s objectives and activities and then discuss
the following issues:
1. What are the main objectives of the Commonwealth?

2. What did the Harare declaration contribute to the establishment of the priorities of the
Commonwealth?
3. What was added to the above- mentioned priorities by the Also Rock Declaration?
10.3 The Commonwealth’s objectives
The Commonwealth's objectives were first outlined in the 1971 Singapore Declaration, which
maintains that the Commonwealth is devoted to world peace; the promotion of democracy
and individual liberty, the pursuit of equality activities and opposition to racism; the fight
against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and free trade. The Harare Declaration (in 1991)
reinforced the opposition to gender discrimination and support for environmental
sustainability.
The Commonwealth's current highest priority aims are about the promotion of democracy
and development, as outlined in the “2003 Also Rock Declaration” which stated, "We are
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committed to democracy, good governance, human rights, gender equality, and a more
equitable sharing of the benefits of globalisation."
The Commonwealth has long been distinctive as an international forum where highly
developed economies (such as the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and the world's
poorer countries seek to reach agreement by consensus.
10.4.1 Project
Membership of the Commonwealth and Suspension/termination of membership
In recent years, the Commonwealth has suspended several members "from the Councils of
the Commonwealth" for "serious or persistent violations" of the Harare Declaration,
particularly in disregarding their responsibility to have a democratic government. Suspended
members are not represented at meetings of Commonwealth leaders and ministers, although
they remain members of the organisation. Currently, there is one suspended member - Fiji.
Pakistan was the second country to be suspended, on 18 October 1999. However, the
Commonwealth's longest suspension came to an end on 22 May 2004 but Pakistan was
suspended for a second time, far more briefly, for six months from 22 November 2007.
Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002.
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Self- assessment test Number 2 Lectures 6-10
1 State whether the following statements are True or False
Statement True or
False
1 Voting is compulsory in Britain.
2 The British want to change the country’s political system.
3 The Monarch decides what political course the country will take.
4 The executive power is in the hands of the Government.
5 The Scottish and Irish parliaments are devoid of any legislative power.
6 Many ex-British Empire countries have governmental systems like the UK.
7 The British Parliament is restrained by the Constitution.
8 The British Parliament largely follows the constraints of the EU.
9 The British Parliament can officially prolong its own life independently.
10 Many countries of Europe do not have the Freedom of Information Act.
11 Crossbenchers are members of the House of Commons.
12 Backbenchers are less active than other members of the House.
13 The House of Lords is also called the House of Peers.
14 The number of members of the House of Commons is not fixed.
15 The British Parliament is the only parliament in the UK.
16 The Lords Temporal are elected by the people.
17 The Monarch officially opens the new Parliamentary session.
18 The number of people in the House of Lords is not fixed.
19 Hereditary peers can attend the House of Lords sessions when they are 18.
20 Prospective voters must be registered in the Annual Register.
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21 People usually vote in person.
22 Members of the House of Lords can vote in General Elections.
23 The Commonwealth of England was not ruled by a monarch.
24 The Act of Settlement is still in force.
25 In the first half of the XX century Britain was part of an Empire.
26 The British Empire possessed about half of the globe.
27 The British Empire ceased to exist soon after World War II.
28 George V was the first English king to be “Head of the Commonwealth”.
29 Scottish Civil Law is different from that of the other 3 members of the UK.
30 Maritime Law is included in Property Law.
31 Constitutional problems may be dealt with by Criminal Law.
32 Malicious prosecutions are usually dealt by Civil Law.
33 Most Civil Law cases are resolved in the court.
34 Divorces are dealt with by County Courts.
35 Small claims are regulated by complicated procedures.
36 Arbitrations are heard by the District Judge.
37 There are 51 members in the Commonwealth.
38 Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth.
39 Elizabeth II was the monarch of the Commonwealth Realms until Septmber

8, 2022.
40 The Commonwealth began soon after World War I.
Continued…..
Statement True or
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False
41 The British and Westminster Parliaments are synonymous.
42 The pre-war dominions of Britain are known as the “New Commonwealth”.
43 Winston Churchill was the President of the New Commonwealth.
44 The Harare declaration was adopted in 1971.
45 New members are constitutionally linked with old members.
46 Samoa was linked with New Zealand.
47 Nigeria is the most populated country in the Commonwealth.
48 Currently there are no Members in Areas.
49 French is the language of the Commonwealth.
50 Members of the Commonwealth have “Commonwealth Embassies”.
51 In 2011 the panel claimed that the Commonwealth was in decay.
52 Violation of people’s rights is a major problem the Commonwealth faces now
2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, c
1 The Supreme Court is the highest court in:

a) UK; b) Scotland; c) Ireland.
2 The System of government in the UK is known as the:
a) London System; b) UK system c) Westminster system.
3 The British Parliament follows the rules of the:
a) UN; b) EU; c) USA.
4 The Prime Minster is appointed by the:
a) Monarch; b) Parliament; c) Electorate.
5 All the ministers should be the members of the:
a) Government; b) Parliament; c ) Royal family.
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6 The high-value claims and matters of greater importance are dealt with by the:
a) Circuit Judge; b) District Judge; c) Magistrate.
7 Disputes between landlords and tenants are dealt with by:
a) District Courts; b) County Court; c) Civil Courts.
8 Corporate and personal insolvency cases are dealt with by the:
a) Chancery Division; b) Family Division; c) King’s Bench Division.

9 The King’s Bench Division is concerned with:
a) Interpretation of trusts and contested wills; b) Contract and tort cases;
c) family law.
10 While coming to a decision The Court of Appeal makes a decision when:
a) 2/3 of the opinions prevail; b) half of the opinions prevail; c) the majority
opinion prevails.
11 In 1971, The Commonwealth’s objectives were outlined in the:

a) London Declaration; b) Singapore declaration; c) Harare Declaration
12 The first country not linked with any member of the Commonwealth is:
a) Togo; b) Namibia; c) Mozambique.
13 Commonwealth day is celebrated in:
a) March; b) April; c) June.
14 What are Commonwealth representatives called?
a) Ambassadors; b) High Commissioners; c) High Commissariats.
15 When the MP dies or resigns a/an _________________ takes place:
a) extra election; b) by-election; c) further election.
16 The British Parliament meets in the Palace of:
a) Westminster; b) Buckingham; c) Kensington.
17 In theory the ________________ has the supreme legislative power:
a) The Prime Minister; b) The monarch; c) The House of Lords.
18 Election day is traditionally a ________________ :
a) Tuesday; b) Sunday; c) Thursday.
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19 The Parliamentary opposition is referred to as Her Majesty’s:
a) Parliamentary opposition; b) Loyal Opposition; c) Shadow opposition.
20 People can vote when they are aged _________________ or over:
a) 18; b) 21; c) 16.
21 The Presidency of the European Council changes at _____________ intervals:
a) yearly; b) six-monthly; c) five-yearly.
22 Heads of Governments of the member states meet twice a year as the:
a) European Council; b) European Union; c) European Commission.
23 The European Commission consists of:
a) officers; b) commissioners; c) soldiers.
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Lecture 11 The Media
11.1 The Importance of the National Press
The morning newspaper is considered to be a British household institution. Moreover, many

people would not be expected to do without their newspapers for even one day! The Sunday
newspapers tend to be thicker and contain more information as well as selling more copies.
Each of the national papers can be characterised as belonging to one of two distinct
categories. The ‘quality papers’ or ‘broadsheets’ cater for better-educated readers. The
“popular papers” or “tabloids” sell to a much larger readership. The popular papers contain
far more pictures and far less print than the quality newspapers. While the broadsheets devote
much space to politics and other crucial ‘serious’ matters, the tabloids concentrate more on
“human interest stories” which often involve sex and scandal!
However, both types of newspapers devote a roughly equal amount of time and attention to
the sport. It can be argued that the difference between them is in the treatment of the topics
they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence. Interestingly, the reason that
the quality newspapers are called broadsheets, and the popular ones tabloids, is that the pages
were different shapes, the broadsheets being twice as large as the tabloids. The way politics is
presented in the national newspapers reflects the fact that British political parties are
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essentially parliamentary organisations. It is a well-known fact that different papers have
different political outlooks. However, none of the large newspapers is an organ of any
political party. Nevertheless, many are often obviously in favour of the politics of this or that
party but none of them has ever directly associate or identify themselves with a political
party.
The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large multinational
companies. This fact helps to explain two notable features. One of them is the freedom from
interference from governmental influence, which is virtually absolute. The press is so
powerful in this respect that it is often referred to as the “fourth state” (the other three being
the Commons, the Lords and the monarch). This absolute freedom is ensured because there
is a general feeling in the country that “freedom of speech” is a basic constitutional right.
The other feature of the press which is primarily the result of the commercial interests of its
owners is its shallowness. Arguably, some other tabloids have almost given up even the
pretence of dealing with serious matters. Apart from sport, their pages are full of little except
stories about the private lives of celebrities. Moreover, the desire to attract readers at all costs
has meant that nowadays even the broadsheets in Britain can look rather “popular” if and
when compared to equivalent “quality” papers in some other countries. They are still serious
newspapers containing high quality and reliable information about certain things but, even so,
they now give a lot of coverage to the news with a “human interest” angle when they have the
opportunity. While doing so, the press has found itself in conflict with another British
principle which is as strongly felt like that of freedom of speech – the right to privacy.
Complaints regarding invasions of privacy are dealt with by the Press Complaints
Commission (PCC). This organisation is made up of newspaper editors and journalists and
follows a Code of Practice which sets limits on the extent to which newspapers should
publish details of people’s private lives.
Statement True or
False
1 Broadsheets write for educated people to read.
2 Tabloids do not have as many readers as quality newspapers.
3 Sunday newspapers contain less information than daily papers.
4 Broadsheets include political news and its analysis.
5 Quality newspapers do not contain details of people’s private lives.
6 Different papers may have different political outlooks.
7 Sport is popular with both types of newspapers.
8 The media in Britain expresses but may not agree with the views of the
government.
9 Disclosing secretes of celebrities violates the right to privacy.
10 PCC follows a specific Code of Practice.
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11.3 Online newspapers
An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper exists on the World Wide Web or
Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.
It proved to be significant and most profitable to go online as this created more opportunities
for newspapers and made the newspapers stronger and faster in breaking news. In addition to
this, the credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the
close relationships they have with advertisers, are also seen by many in the newspaper
industry as strengthening their chances of survival. Finally, the movement away from the
printing process can also help decrease costs.
Online newspapers are much like hard-copy newspapers, and the same legal boundaries, such
as laws regarding libel, privacy and copyright, also apply to online publications in most
countries, like in the UK. Moreover, in the UK, the Data Protection Act applies to online
newspapers and news pages, as well as the PCC. However, in the beginning, the distinction
was not very clear to the public in the UK as to what was a blog or a forum site and what was
an online newspaper. In 2007, a ruling was passed to formally regulate the UK based online
newspapers, news audio, and news video websites covering the responsibilities expected of
them and to clear up what is and what isn't an online publication.
Currently, all news reporters are being taught to shoot videos and to write in the succinct
manner necessary for the Internet news pages. Many are learning how to implement blogs
and the ruling by the UK's PCC should help this development of the internet.
As is known, journalism students in schools around the world are taught about the
"convergence" of all media and the need to have knowledge and skills involving print,
broadcast and web.
The oldest example of an online newspaper or, in this case, a weekly summary over the
weekend's news is the Weekend City Press Review, set up in 1991. Truly 'Online Only'
newspapers and magazines started much later, except for "News Report", an online
newspaper created by Bruce Parrello in 1974 on the PLATO System at the University of
Illinois. Nowadays, it would be difficult to find a daily newspaper in the UK or United
States, in fact in the world, in the 21st century that does not have or share a website.
Very few newspapers by 2006 will claim to have made money from their websites, which are
mostly free to all viewers. The Guardian experimented with new media in 2005, offering a
free twelve-part weekly podcast series by Ricky Gervais and another UK daily, the Daily
Telegraph, which went online soon after.
The online-only paper is a paper that does not have any hard copy connections. An example
of this is an independent web-only newspaper, introduced in the UK in 2000, called the
Southport Reporter. It is a weekly regional newspaper that is not produced or run in any
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format other than 'soft-copy on the internet by its publishers PCBT Photography. As of 2009,
the collapse of the traditional business model of print newspapers has led to various attempts
to establish local, regional or national online-only newspapers - publications that do original
reporting, rather than just commentary or summaries of reporting from other publications.
Statement True or
False
1 Online newspapers made the newspapers more efficient.
2 Online newspapers cost more than printed ones.
3 Online newspapers follow different rules to those for printed newspapers
4 Initially, people confused an online newspaper with a blog.
5 Online journalists do not follow different standards of writing.
6 New journalists are well equipped with a knowledge of IT technology.
7 Online newspapers do not have to obey the PCC Code of Practice.
Continued…….
Statement True or
False
8 The Weekend City Press Review was an independent online newspaper.
9 News Report was created as an “ordinary” web newspaper.
10 Viewers do not pay money to read online newspapers.
11.4.2 Select the correct answer from a, b, or c.
1 The Press is referred to as the ‘fourth state’ because of its:

a) power; b) popularity; c) wide circulation.
2 PCC deals with violations of the right to:
a) property; b) privacy; c) education.
3 Libel, privacy and copyright are guaranteed by the:
a) Data Reveal Act; b) Data Information Act; c) Data Protection Act.
4 Online press limits were formally regulated in:
a) 2009; b) 2007; c) 2010.
5 On-line newspaper style is ________________ than the printed ones:
a) more succinct; b) more verbose; c) more effluent.
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11.4.3 Speaking
1 Speak about the factors which make the press free in Britain
2 What are the factors which make the online newspapers more appealing than their
printed counterparts)
3 Read the text about the BBC and discuss the strengths of this organisation.
The BBC might be said to be “the mother of information services” and enjoys a reputation for
impartiality and objectivity. The BBC has often shown itself to be rather proud of the fact
that it gets complaints from both sides of the political divide because this testifies not only its
impartiality but also its independence. However, this independence is as much the result of
habit and common agreement as it is a result of its legal status. The BBC does not depend on
advertising or on the government for its income. It gets funding from the license fee, which
everybody less than 70 years old who uses a TV set has to pay. However, the government
decides how much this fee is going to be, appoint the BBC’s board of governors and its
director-general, has the right to veto any BBC programme before it has been transmitted and
even has the right to take away the BBC’s license to broadcast. Thus, theoretically, it would
be easy for a government to influence what the BBC does.
Television has taken over from radio as the most significant form of broadcasting in Britain.
There have been occasions when the government has successfully persuaded the BBC not to
show something. But there have also been occasions when the BBC has refused to bow to the
government pressure.
11.4.2 Project
Find more information about BBC and compare it to the Georgian system of Broadcasting.
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Lecture 12 Banking Institutions and Welfare
12.1 Banks
As is known, 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. As well as its
banking and insurance strengths, other notable features include:
its foreign exchange market with an average daily turnover is more than the combined
turnover of New York and Tokyo;
the London Stock Exchange, which is the biggest trade centre for foreign equities in the
world, accounting for 60 % of the global turnover;
the World’s second-largest fund management centre, after Tokyo;
one of the world’s biggest markets in financial futures and options, with its share of the world
market having more than doubled since 1988;
the world’s largest centre for issuing international bonds and for secondary trading.
Because of these facts, 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
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international and pre-eminent financial centres, with advantages over other financial centres
of the world.
In addition to the above said, the strengths of London also include:
the concentration of business and service functions, among them the range of ancillary and
support services, such as legal services, accountancy and management consultancy;
efficient worldwide communications links;
a favourable position in the time zone between the USA and the Far East;
a stable political climate;
a highly qualified and flexible workforce;
world-class service industries, including hotels, restaurants, theatres, other cultural

attractions.
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. Most of the major banks now own finance houses, leasing and factoring companies
and insurance companies. In addition to this, some retail banks have overseas subsidiaries or
overseas branches. The banks offer loan facilities to companies and have become important
suppliers of finance for small firms.
Competition among the banks and other financial institutions remains intense, especially in
the markets for personal savings, consumer credit and mortgages. Some banks are now
considering “outsourcing” of various services.
HSBC and Lloyds TSB Group are the two largest banks in Europe, in terms of market
capitalisation. Four other banks are Britain’s top companies; namely, 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.
London is a major centre for international banking. This means that banks from a large
number of countries have branches or representatives in London.
Overseas banks serve predominantly overseas clients, and much of their business is
conducted in foreign currency and the wholesale market.
On the other hand, a small number of British banks have their head offices in Britain, but
operate mainly abroad, often specialising in particular regions.
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The major British retail banks also have operations overseas, to a varying extent. For
example, Barclays has banking businesses in Africa, the Caribbean and other countries of
Europe. The Lloyds TSB Group operates banking and financial services in Europe, Australia,
and Latin America.
On the other hand, problems in the development of the economic system of the UK started in
2007 when the 2007–2012 global recession began in December 2007 and took a particularly
sharp downward turn in September 2008. The global recession affected the entire world
economy, with higher detriment in some countries than others. It was sparked by the outbreak
of the 2007-2012 global financial crisis. The economic side effects of the European sovereign
debt crisis, accompanied by slowing US and Chinese growth continues to provide obstacles
to world economic growth.
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. Meanwhile, the
house price wheel of fortune has ground to a halt. This is despite strenuous efforts by the TV
and media to keep it turning.
According to Nationwide (the largest mortgage lender in the UK), 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.
Predictably, the falling base rate prompted a resurgence of the “borrow and spend”
mentality. Up to 2003, cheap loans were offered very easily though, by 2008, such loans were
almost impossible to get.
Nowadays, it is obvious that GDP, in 2012, is declining by 0.3% and most of the rest of the
world is also heading in the same direction.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also reduced its world economic growth forecast
for this year to 3.5 per cent, the lowest since the negative growth in 2009. Some economists
predict that growth this year could be over 1/3, lower than the IMF estimate.
Statement True or
False
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1 London’s foreign exchange market daily turnover is more than the combined
value of New York and Tokyo.
2 Tokyo is he world’s largest fund management centre.
3 New York is the world’s largest centre for secondary training.
4 Many international banks have representatives in London.
5 British banks do not operate abroad.
6 It is expected that world economic growth in 2012 will be 3.5% or less.
12.3 The Bank of England
The Bank of England was founded to act as the Government's banker and debt manager.
Since then, its role has developed and evolved, centred on the management of the nation's
currency and its position at the centre of the UK's financial system.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, which is often referred to as
the 'Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’.
The Bank was founded in 1694, nationalised on 1 March 1946, and gained independence in
1997. Standing at the centre of the UK's financial system, the Bank is committed to
promoting and maintaining monetary and financial stability as its contribution to a healthy
economy of Britain.
The Bank's roles and functions have evolved and changed over its three-hundred-year history.
Since its foundation, it has been the Government's banker and, since the late 18th century, it
has been a banker to the banking system more generally - the bankers' Bank. As well as
providing banking services to its customers, the Bank of England manages the UK's foreign
exchange and gold reserves.
The Bank has three core purposes - monetary stability, financial stability and promotion of
the efficiency and competitiveness of Britain’s financial services. The Bank has had a
monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales since the early 20th century.
Since 1997 the Bank has had statutory responsibility for setting the UK's official interest rate.
Interest rates decisions are taken by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (the MPC),
which has to judge what interest rate is necessary to meet a target for overall inflation in the
economy. The inflation target is set each year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Bank
implements its interest rate decisions through its financial market operations - it sets the
interest rate at which the Bank lends to banks and other financial institutions. The Bank has
close links with financial markets and institutions. This contact informs a great deal of its
work, including its financial stability role and publication of monetary and banking statistics.
The Bank of England is committed to increasing awareness and understanding of its activities
and responsibilities, across both general and specialist audiences alike. In addition to this, the
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Bank offers technical assistance and advice to other central banks through its Centre for
Central Banking Studies and has a museum at its premises in Threadneedle Street in the City
of London, open to members of the public free of charge.
Statement True or
False
1 The Bank of England is the financial centre of the UK
2 The Bank gained independence in 1964
3 When founded, the Bank of England was the Governments banker
4 The Bank of England’s sole function is to manage the UK’s foreign exchange
and gold reserves
5 The Bank has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England
6 The Bank gained statutory responsibility for setting the UK’s official interest
rate in 1997
7 The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee sets the interest rates to target
inflation
8 The Bank works independently of other financial organisations of the country
9 The Centre for Central Banking Studies offers advice to the financial
organisations
10 The Museum of the Bank is free to the general public
12.5 Welfare in Britain

Britain can claim to have been the first large country in the world to have accepted that it is
part of the job of the government to help any citizen in need and to have set up what is
generally known as a ‘welfare state’
A welfare state is a concept of government where the state plays a key role in the protection
and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the
principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public
responsibility for those unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life.
The general term may cover a variety of forms of economic and social organisation.
In Britain, anyone below the retirement age of 65 who has previously worked for a certain
minimum period of time can receive unemployment benefit (the ‘dole’). This is organised by
the Department of the Employment. All retired people are entitled to the standard old age
pension which is up to approximately £110 per week for a single person. Thus, many people
make arrangements during their working lives to have some additional income after they
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retire. They may contribute to the pension scheme, or use a life insurance policy as a form of
saving. In such cases, a lump sum is paid by the insurance company at around the age of
retirement and/or a monthly payment is made for life.
Those people who have never worked can apply for income support. A wide range of other
benefits exist as well. For example, these include child benefits (a small weekly payment for
each child), usually paid to mothers. Other examples are housing benefits, to help with rent
payments, maternity benefit and death grants, to cover funeral expenses.
This system, however, has its imperfections. On the one hand, there are people who are
entitled to various benefits but who do not receive them. On the other hand, there are people
who have realised that they can have higher income (through doles and other benefits) when
not working than they can when they are employed.
It should also be noted that the whole social security system is coming under increasing
pressure because of the rising number of the unemployed and particularly an increasing
number of pensioners. It is felt that if everybody actually claimed for the benefits they are
entitled, the whole system would break down.
The government takes a more active part in looking after people’s welfare. Services can run
either directly by local governments or indirectly through contracting out to private
companies, for example, building and running of old people’s homes and the provision of
‘home helps’ for people who are disabled. Before the welfare system was established and the
concept of ‘social services’ came into being the poor and needy in Britain turned to the many
charitable organisations for help. Such organisations are staffed by unpaid volunteers,
especially women and rely on voluntary contributions from the general public.
Charities and the social services departments sometimes cooperate, one example of such
fruitful cooperation is the ‘meals on the wheels’ system whereby the food is cooked by the
local government staff and later distributed by volunteers of the district to individual homes.
However, as a result of the current World crisis the government plans to change the system ,
for example unemployment benefits could be cut for people who fail to get work over long
periods of time.
People receiving payments could also be expected to learn to read, write and count, to make
them more employable. It is said that the system had gone "truly awry" and a "culture of
entitlement" had to be addressed to boost the economy.
Proposals outlined by the current government include:

 out-of-work benefits linked to wages rather than inflation, if wages are lower;
 a cap on the amount people can earn and still live in a council house;
 reduce the current £20,000 housing benefit limit;
 stopping the out-of-work being better off by having children;
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 consider paying some benefits "in kind" rather than in cash;
 expecting parents on income support to prepare for work while children have
free nursery care;
 getting the physically able to do full-time community work after a period out
of work;
 sickness benefit claimants should take steps to improve their health
In March 2012, the government's Welfare Reform Act received Royal Assent. That act,
which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, introduces an annual cap on benefits and
makes the system more efficient.
12.6.1 State whether the following statements are True or False
Statement True
or
False
1 In a Welfare State the state protects its citizens’ economic and social wellbeing
2 The ‘dole’ can be received by all the unemployed living in the UK
3 Standard old age pension in the UK is very high
4 The Pension Scheme helps the people to make their pensions higher
5 A lump sum is always paid by insurance companies
6 All the people who are entitled to benefits receive them
7 The “meals on wheels” is a product of co-operation between charities and social
systems
8 Charities are based on goodwill
9 Volunteers expect to be paid
10 Most volunteers in charity organisations are women
12.6.2 Speaking
Read the texts about HSBC and the Georgian Bank Republic and discuss the profiles of
both of them:
12.6.2.1 HSBC [Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation]
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Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services
organisations in the world. HSBC's international network comprises around 8,000 offices in
87 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East
and Africa.
With listings on the London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Bermuda stock exchanges,
shares in HSBC Holdings plc are held by around 220,000 shareholders in 124 countries and
territories. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American
Depositary Receipts.
Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services
organisations in the world. HSBC's international network comprises around 8,000 offices in
87 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East
and Africa.
With listings on the London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Bermuda stock exchanges,
shares in HSBC Holdings plc are held by around 220,000 shareholders in 124 countries and
territories. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American
Depositary Receipts.
HSBC provides a comprehensive range of financial services to around 100 million customers
through four customer groups and global businesses: Personal Financial Services (including
consumer finance); Commercial Banking; Global Banking and Markets; and Private Banking.
Group Values and Business Principles
The HSBC corporate character defines the values and principles inherent in all our everyday
dealings.
Group History
The HSBC Group has an international pedigree that is unique. Many of its principal
companies opened for business over a century ago, and they have a history that is rich in
variety and achievement. The HSBC Group is named after its founding member, The Hong
Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, which was established in 1865 to finance
the growing trade between China and Europe
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TBC Bank
TBC Bank, first referred to as Tbilisi Business Centre, was founded in 1992. Now TBC bank
is one of the most trusted banks of Georgia and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and
is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. 12.6.2.2
With the listing, TBC is the third Georgian company to secure a premium listing on the LSE,
following the country’s largest lender and TBC’s main rival, Bank of Georgia Holdings, in
2012. Founded in 1992 by Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, TBC’s other owners
include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance
Corporation and Dutch Development Bank FMO.
At the moment, TBC is Georgia’s market leader in retail lending to small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) and owns market shares in non-banking deposits.
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Lecture 13 Education in Britain
13.1 Primary and Secondary Education
All children in England and Wales between the ages of 5 and 16 must receive a full-time
education, while in Northern Ireland, children must begin at age 4. For children under age 5,
publicly-funded nurseries and pre-schools are available for a limited number of hours each
week. After the age of 16, students can either remain at School for two further years, attend
sixth form colleges or other further education institutions. All these options offer general
education courses in addition to more specific vocational or applied subjects.
The UK introduced a National Curriculum in 1992, and state schools are required to adhere to
it until students reach age 16. The Education and Skills Act of 2008 has raised the
compulsory age to 18, effective in 2013 to 17-year-old and in 2015 to 18-year-old.
National Curriculum core subjects are: English (Welsh is also a core subject in Welsh-
speaking schools), mathematics, science, design and technology, information and
communication technology, history, geography, modern foreign languages, music, art and
design, physical education, and citizenship. In addition to these core subjects, there are many
other compulsory courses, such as religious education. (Note that Independent schools are
not obliged to adhere to the National Curriculum).
Northern Ireland follows a similar framework; however, schools can develop additional
curriculum elements to express their particular ethos and meet the pupils' individual needs
and circumstances. The curriculum also includes the Irish language in Irish-speaking schools.
After five years of secondary education, students take examinations in a range of subjects at
the level of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE is a single-
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subject examination set and is marked by independent examination boards. Students usually
take up to ten (there is no upper or lower limit) GCSE examinations in different subjects,
including mathematics and English language.
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 known as AS-Levels after an additional year of study.
Following two years of study, students may take A-Level (short for Advanced Level)
examinations required for university entrance in the UK.
There are two types of schools in the UK, state-funded and independent (privately-funded)
schools. Approximately ninety per cent of British students attend state-funded schools. State
schools follow the “National Curriculum,” with core subjects as mentioned above. 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.
Also referred to as ‘public schools,’ the independent schools set their curricula and are
funded by student fees and interest earned on school endowments/investments. There are
approximately 2,600 independent schools in the UK. About half of these institutions
participate in a voluntary accreditation programme facilitated by the Independent School
Council.
13.2.1State whether the following statements are True or False
Statement True or
False
1 All children in the UK should go to school between ages 6 to 18.
2 When they are 16, children can go to Further Education colleges.
3 Pre-school places are available for the whole day.
4 The National Curriculum should be adhered to by all schools in the UK.
5 In 2015 schooling will be compulsory between the ages of 5 to 18.
6 Schools cannot add their own subjects to the National Curriculum subjects.
7 In Ireland and Wales, their national languages are elective subjects.
8 Up to ten subjects are usually examined at GCSElevel.
9 A-level examination passes are needed for entry to Further Education colleges.
10 AS-levels can be taken straight after finishing the Secondary schooling.
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13.3 Higher education in the UK
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, since many postgraduate academic disciplines are both
vocationally, professionally, and theoretically/research-oriented, such as in law, medicine,
pharmacy, dentistry, and veterinary medicine. A basic requirement for entry into these
graduate-level programmes is almost always a bachelor's degree. Requirements for admission
to such high-level graduate programs are competitive and admitted students are expected to
perform well.
13.4 Oxford University
Oxford University is the oldest University in the English-speaking world. Although the exact
date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back as the 11th
century. The University grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students
from attending the University of Paris.
After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-
east to Cambridge, where they established what we now know as the University of
Cambridge. The two "ancient universities" have many common features and are often jointly
referred to as "Oxbridge”. In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part
of British Society, the two universities have a long history of the rivalry.
Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weekly essay-based tutorials at

self-governing colleges and halls, supported by lectures and laboratory classes organised by
University faculties and departments. League tables consistently list Oxford as one of the
UK's top two universities, and Oxford consistently ranks in the world's top 10.
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The head of the University was named a chancellor from 1201, and the masters were
recognised as Universitas or corporation in 1231. The students associated together, based on
geographical origins, into two “nations”, representing the North (including the Scots) and the
South (including the Irish and the Welsh). In later centuries, geographical origins continued
to influence many students' affiliations with a membership of a college or hall.
The new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced the fate of Oxford University from
the late 15th century. With the Reformation and the breaking of ties with the Roman Catholic
Church, Catholic Recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe. The University
was a centre of the Royalist Party during the English Civil War (1642–1649), while the town
favoured the opposing Parliamentarian cause. From the mid-18th century onward, however,
the University of Oxford took little part in political conflicts.
Administrative reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral
examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent, and the
establishment of four women's colleges. Although the University's emphasis traditionally had
been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded in the 19th century to encompass
scientific and medical studies. The mid-twentieth century saw many distinguished continental
scholars, displaced by Nazism and Communism, relocating to Oxford.
The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who
have made major contributions to British politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. More
than forty Nobel laureates and more than fifty world leaders have been affiliated with the
University of Oxford.
The first five colleges for women were established thanks to the activism of the Association
for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW). Lady Margaret Hall (1878) was
followed by Somerville College in 1879; the first 21 students from Somerville and LMH
attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop. The first two colleges for women
were followed by St Hugh's (1886), St Hilda's (1893) and St Anne's College (1952).
Women have been eligible to be full members of the university and entitled to take degrees
since 7 October 1920. The women's colleges were only given full collegiate status in 1959.
Five previously all-male colleges became co-educational in 1974. Since 2008, when St.
Hilda's first admitted men, all Oxford colleges have been co-educational. By 1988, 40% of
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undergraduates at Oxford were female; the ratio is now about 48:52, in men's favour. .
Oxford University is a federation. It comprises over forty self-governing colleges and halls,
along with a central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor. The academic
departments are located centrally within this structure. They are not affiliated with any
particular college. Departments provide facilities for teaching and research; determine the
syllabi and guidelines for the teaching of students, perform research, and deliver lectures and
seminars. Colleges arrange tutorial teaching for their undergraduates. The members of an
academic department are spread around many colleges. Certain colleges do have subject
alignments (e.g. Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences). However, these are
exceptions, and most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from a
diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the
central university (the Bodleian), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such
as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-disciplinary
library for the use of its members).
The university's formal head is the Chancellor, though as with most British universities, the
Chancellor is a titular figure, rather than someone involved with the day-to-day running of
the university. The Chancellor is elected by the members of Convocation, a body comprising
all graduates of the university, and holds office until death.
The Vice-Chancellor is the "de facto" head of the University. Five Pro-Vice-Chancellors have
specific responsibilities for Education; Research; Planning and Resources; Development and
External Affairs; and Personnel and Equal Opportunities. The University Council is the
executive policy-forming body consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, as well as heads of
departments and other members elected by Congregation, in addition to observers from the
Students’ Union. The Congregation, the "Parliament of the Dons", comprises over 3,700
members of the University’s academic and administrative staff and has ultimate
responsibility for legislative matters: it discusses and pronounces on policies proposed by the
University Council.
Two university proctors, elected annually on a rotating basis from two of the colleges, are the
internal ombudsmen, who make sure that the university and its members adhere to its
statutes. This role incorporates student welfare and discipline, as well as oversight of the
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university's proceedings. The collection of University Professors is called the Statutory
Professors of the University of Oxford. They are particularly influential in the running of the
graduate programmes within the University. The various academic faculties, departments,
and institutes are organised into four divisions, each with its Head and elected board. They
are the Humanities Division; the Social Sciences Division; the Mathematical, Physical and
Life Sciences Division; and the Medical Sciences Division.
The heads of Oxford colleges are known by various titles, according to the college, including
the warden, provost, principal, president, rector, master or dean. The colleges join together as
the Conference of Colleges to discuss policy and deal with the central University
administration. Teaching members of the colleges (fellows and tutors) are collectively and
familiarly known as dons (though the term is rarely used by members of the university itself).
In addition to residential and dining facilities, the colleges provide social, cultural, and
recreational activities for their members. Colleges have the responsibility for admitting
undergraduates and organising their tuition; for graduates, this responsibility falls upon the
departments.
Undergraduate teaching is centred on the tutorial, where 1 – 4 students spend an hour with an
academic discussing their week’s work, usually an essay (humanities, most social sciences,
some mathematical, physical, and life sciences), or problem sheet (most mathematical,
physical, and life sciences, and some social sciences). Students usually have one or two
tutorials a week and can be taught by academics at any other college - not just their own - as
expertise and personnel required. These tutorials are complemented by lectures, classes and
seminars, which are organised on a departmental basis. Graduate students undertaking taught
degrees are usually instructed through classes and seminars, though there is more focus upon
individual research.
Statement True or
False
1 Henry VIII banned English students from attending French Universities.
2 Cambridge University was founded after disputes and unrest at Oxford.
3 Cambridge and Oxford University have always co-operated fruitfully.
4 The tutorial is the basic form of teaching at Oxford University.
5 Tutorials are based on essay writing.
6 Students are still associated on the geographical principle of origin at Oxford.
7 Oxford University took part in the English Civil War.
8 During the English Civil War Oxford University sided with Cromwell.
9 Oxford does not take an active part in politics now.
10 Replacement or oral examination with written entrance tests was part of the
administrative reforms.
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13.5.2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, or c:
1 Oxford University is formally headed by a:
a) Chancellor; b) Vice-chancellor; c) Don.
2 The de facto head of the University is a:
a) Chancellor; b) Vice-Chancellor; c) Don.
3 Undergraduate teaching is based on:
a) seminars; b) tutorials; c) lectures.
4 Lectures are organised by:
a) Departments; b) Faculties; c) Specialities.
5 The Dispute between Town and Gown started in:
a) 1209; b) 1222; c) 1234.
13.5.3 Fill in the blanks with the words from the box:
academic; course; degrees; examinations;

first; place; responsible
The university itself is ________________ for conducting examinations and

conferring ________________. The passing of two sets of examinations is a
pre-requisite for a first degree. The first set of examinations, called either
Honour Moderations ("Mods" and "Honour Mods") or Preliminary
Examinations ("Prelims"), are usually held at the end of the ________________
year (after two terms for those studying Law, Theology, Philosophy and
Theology, Experimental Psychology or Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology
or after five terms in the case of Classics). The second set of _______________
the Final Honour School ("Finals"), is held at the end of the undergraduate
_________________ course. Successful candidates receive first-, upper or
lower second-, or third-class honours based on their performance in Finals
The ________________ year is divided into three terms, determined by

Regulations, the Michaelmas Term lasts from October to December; Hilary
Term from January to March; and Trinity Term from April to June.
Within these terms, Council determines for each year eight-week periods called
Full Terms, during which undergraduate teaching takes _______________ .
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These terms are shorter than those of many other British universities.
Undergraduates are also expected to prepare heavily in the three holidays
(known as the Christmas, Easter and Long Vacations).
Lecture 14 The Arts
Part 1 Romanticism in England
14. 1
Romanticism in England (c.1820-1850)

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 (on the one hand) a deep
sensitivity to nature and (on the other) advances in the science of painting and drawing. The
latter were exemplified by the systematic sky and cloud studies of the 1820s which
characterized the work of Constable. Precise observation of nature led him to disregard the
conventional importance of line, and construct his works from free patches of colour.
This emancipation of colour is particularly characteristic of the painting of William Turner

(1775-1851). For Turner, arguably the greatest of all English painters of Romanticism,
observation of nature is merely one element in the realisation of his own pictorial ambitions.
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. Thus for instance in his painting Snowstorm: Steam-Boat
off a Harbour's Mouth (1842, Tate, London), Turner did not try to depict the driving snow
and lashing wind, but rather translated them into the language of painting. In this, Turner is
an important precursor of modern abstract painting. More immediately, his 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,
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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.
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/romanticism.htm
14. 1. 2 In Text Activities
14. .1. 2. 1 State whether the following statements are True or False
Statement True/False
a. Romanticism wanted to find a balance between nature and science T
b. Turner did not pay much attention to the colour scheme F
c. Turner was more interested in the techniques of painting than the T

topics
d. Constable’s favourite topic was the sky and clouds T
e. Constable was believed to be the predecessor of cubism F
f. Realists romanticised the reality F
g. Romantics were harmonious with the Victorian era T
14.2 The Pre-Raphaelites
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Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as 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 intended to reform art by rejecting what they considered to be the mechanistic
approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.
They believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael, in particular, had
been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art. Hence the name: Pre-Raphaelite.
In particular, they objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the
English Royal Academy of Arts. They called him "Sir Sloshua", believing that his broad
technique was a sloppy and formulaic form of academic Mannerism. In contrast, they wanted
to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of Quattrocento
Italian and Flemish art.
The Pre-Raphaelites have been considered the first avant-garde movement in art, though they
have also been denied that status, because they continued to accept both the concepts of
history painting and mimesis or imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. However,
the Pre-Raphaelites undoubtedly defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct
name for their form of art, and published a periodical, The Germ, to promote their ideas.
Their debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal..
Ophelia by John Everett Millais Medea by Evelyn De Morgan

The Brotherhood's early doctrines were expressed in four declarations:
 to have genuine ideas to express;
 to study Nature attentively, to know how to express it;
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 to sympathise with what is direct and serious, and heartfelt in previous art, to the
exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote;
 to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.
These principles are deliberately non-dogmatic since the Brotherhood wished to emphasise
the personal responsibility of individual artists to determine their ideas and methods of
depiction. Influenced by Romanticism, they thought that freedom and responsibility were
inseparable. Nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it
to possess spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. In its early stages,
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed that their two interests were consistent with one
another, but in later years, the movement divided and began to move in two directions. The
realist-side was led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalist-side was led by Rossetti and
his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. This split was never absolute since
both fractions believed that art was essentially spiritual, opposing their idealism to the
materialist realism associated with Courbet and Impressionism

Statement True or
False
1 The Pre-Raphaelites based their approach on Rafael’s ideas.
2 The Pre-Raphaelites were against Joshua Reynolds.
3 Sir Joshua Reynolds was the founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts.
4 Pre-Raphaelites considered Reynolds to be a corrupting influence on Art.
Continued …..
5 The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to painting following Raphael.
6 Pre-Raphaelites tried to revive the traditions of Quattrocento and Flemish Art.
7 The Pre-Raphaelites cannot be classed as reformers.
8 “he Germ” was used to promote the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites.
9 The Pre-Raphaelite Journal promoted the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites.
10 The study of Nature was one of the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites.
11 The Pre-Raphaelites thought that freedom and responsibility were inseparable.
12 The Pre-Raphaelites were not influenced by Romanticism.
13 Both groups of the Pre-Raphaelites believed that art was spiritual.
14 The fractions of the Pre-Raphaelites were not on speaking terms.
14.3 The Bronte Sisters
Charlotte (b.1816), Emily (b.1818) and Anne (b.1820) were the three youngest three
daughters born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte.
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The Bronte’s also had two older daughters, Maria and Elizabeth and one son,
Branwell. Tragedy first struck the lives of the Bronte sisters when their mother died shortly
after their move in 1821. In 1825, the two eldest Bronte siblings became ill while away at
school. They returned home and died shortly after their return. Following the deaths of Maria
and Elizabeth, the surviving children Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were educated by
their father at home. Their childhood was spent playing on the moors, reading and making up
stories to tell one another and writing for their own enjoyment.
14.3.1 Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte (b.1816), Emily (b.1818) and Anne (b.1820) were the three youngest three
daughters born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte.
The Bronte family also had two older daughters, Maria and Elizabeth and one son, Branwell.
Tragedy first struck the lives of the Bronte sisters when their mother died shortly after their
move in 1821. In 1825, the two eldest Bronte siblings became ill while away at school. They
returned home and died shortly after their return. Following the deaths of Maria and
Elizabeth, the surviving children Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were educated by their
father at home. They spent their childhood playing on the moors, reading and making up
stories to tell one another and writing for their enjoyment.
14.3.1 Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte is the best-known of the Bronte sisters. She was said to be patronising, and as she
was stronger than the other sisters, she did more, was more active and managed to make a
career as a teacher.
Charlotte did not start as a successful writer. Her first novel, The Professor, did not secure a
publisher. However, Charlotte was not easily discouraged and responded by finishing and
sending a second manuscript in August 1847, and six weeks later, Jane Eyre: An
Autobiography, was published. She wrote under the pen name Currer Bell.
Jane Eyre was a success and initially received favourable reviews. There was speculation
about the identity of Currer Bell and whether Bell was a man or a woman.
The speculation heightened on the subsequent publication of novels by Charlotte's sisters:

Emily's Wuthering Heights by "Ellis Bell" and Anne's Agnes Grey by "Acton Bell".
Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Charlotte's work;
accusations began to be made that Charlotte's writing was "coarse", a judgment which was
133
made more readily once, it was suspected that "Currer Bell" was a woman. However, sales of
Jane Eyre continued to be strong, and may even have increased due to the novel's developing
reputation as an 'improper' book.
Following the success of Jane Eyre, in 1848, Charlotte began work on the manuscript of her
second novel, Shirley. The manuscript was only partially completed when the Brontë
household suffered a tragic turn of events, experiencing the deaths of three family members
within eight months.
Later, Charlotte resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief and Shirley was published
in October 1849. Shirley deals with the themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in
society. Unlike Jane Eyre, written from the first-person perspective of the main character,
Shirley is written in the third-person and lacks the emotional immediacy of Jane Eyre, and
reviewers found it less shocking. And thus, it was less popular than Jane Eyre.
Charlotte sent copies of Shirley to leading authors of the day, including Elizabeth Gaskell.
Their friendship was significant in that Gaskell wrote Charlotte's biography after her death in
1855. The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857 and was unusual at the time. This
is because rather than analysing its Charlottes's achievements, it concentrated on the private
details of Charlotte's life; in particular, why Jane Eyre was so coarse and unusual. She
suppressed the details of Charlotte's love for Heger, a married man, as being too much of an
affront to contemporary morals and as a source of distress to Charlotte's still-living friends,
father and husband. It has been argued that the particular approach of Mrs Gaskell
transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just of Charlotte but all
the sisters, and began a process of sanctification of their private lives.
Charlotte's third published novel, and the last to be published during her lifetime, was
Villette which came out in 1853. Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a
boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion
different to her own, and where she falls in love with a man ('Paul Emanuel') whom she
cannot marry. Her experiences result in her having a breakdown, but eventually, she achieves
independence and fulfilment in running her school. Villette marked Charlotte's return to
writing in a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), a technique used successfully in
Jane Eyre. Another similarity to Jane Eyre was Charlotte's use of aspects from her own life as
inspiration for fictional events, in particular, reworking her time spent at the pensionnat in
Brussels into Lucy spending time teaching at the boarding school, and falling in love with
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Constantin Heger into Lucy falling in love with 'Paul Emanuel’. Villette was acknowledged
by the critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing, although it was
criticised for its 'coarseness' and not suitably 'feminine' in its portrayal of Lucy's desires.
14.3.2 Emily Bronte
The Bronte children were weak in terms of general health, they preferred to play at home, and
one of their favourite occupations was writing poems and stories. They were very imaginative
and even created a whole imaginary country with the army, maps, institutions, and they
called this country Angria. The children located it in Africa according to the soul of the
society of that time.
When Emily was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story and
began a new one about Gondal, a large island in the North Pacific. Except for Emily's Gondal
poems and Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and place-names, their writings on Gondal
were not preserved. Some "diary papers" of Emily's have survived in which she describes
current events in Gondal, some of which were written, others enacted with Anne. One dates
from 1841 when Emily was twenty-three: another from 1845 when she was twenty-seven.
At seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls' school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but
managed to stay only three months before being overcome by extreme homesickness. 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.
Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax, beginning in September 1838, when
she was twenty. Her health broke under the stress of the 17-hour workday, and she returned
home in April 1839. Thereafter, she became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of the
cooking and cleaning and teaching Sunday school. She taught herself German out of books
and practised on the piano.
Emily accompanied Charlotte to Brussels, Belgium, where they attended a girls' academy
run by Constantin Heger. The girls planned to perfect their French and German in
anticipation of opening their school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period.
The sisters returned home upon the death of their aunt. They did try to open a school at their
home but were unable to attract students to the remote area.
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In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly
into two notebooks. In the autumn of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted
that the poems be published. Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused but
relented when Anne brought out her manuscripts and revealed she had been writing poems in
secret as well.
In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer, Ellis and
Acton Bell, as mentioned earlier the pen names of charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively.
Charlotte wrote in the "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell," that their "ambiguous
choice" was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names
positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because "we had a
vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice." Charlotte
contributed 20 poems, and Emily and Anne each contributed 21. The sisters were told,
several months after publication, that only two copies had sold. However, they were not
discouraged. The Athenaeum reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and power, and
the Critic reviewer recognized "the presence of more genius than it was supposed this
utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect."
In 1847, Emily published her novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three-volume
set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat
puzzled critics.
Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out and was often condemned for its
portrayal of amoral passion, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. In
1850, Charlotte edited and published Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under
Emily's real name. Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily was finalising
her second novel, the manuscript has never been found.
Emily's health, like her sisters', was weakened by unsanitary conditions at home, the source
of water being contaminated by runoff from the church's graveyard.
Though her condition worsened steadily, Emily rejected medical help and all proffered
remedies, saying that she would have "no poisoning doctor" near her. She eventually died of
tuberculosis, on 19 December 1848 at around two in the afternoon.
14.3.3 Anne Bronte
136
Anne was barely a year old when her mother became ill died on 15 September 1821.
To provide a mother for his children, Patrick tried to remarry, but he had no success. Maria's
sister, Elizabeth Branwell (1776–1842), had moved into the parsonage, initially to nurse her
dying sister, but she subsequently spent the rest of her life there raising the Bronte children.
She did it from a sense of duty, but she was a stern woman who expected respect, rather than
love. There was little affection between her and the eldest children, but, according to
tradition, she did relate to Anne, her favourite. Anne shared a room with her aunt, they were
particularly close, and this may have strongly influenced Anne's personality and religious
beliefs
Little is known about Anne's life during 1838, but in 1839, a year after leaving the school and
at the age of nineteen, she was actively looking for a teaching position. As the daughter of a
poor clergyman, she needed to earn a living. Her father had no private income and the
parsonage would revert to the church on his death. Teaching or being a governess in a private
family was among the few options available to poor but educated women. In April 1839,
Anne began to work as a governess with the Ingham family at Blake Hall, near Mirfield
The children in Anne's charge were spoilt and wild, and persistently disobeyed and tormented
her. She experienced great difficulty controlling them and had almost no success in instilling
any education. She was not empowered to inflict any punishment, and when she complained
of their behaviour to their parents, she received no support but was merely criticised for not
being capable of her job. The Inghams, unsatisfied with their children's progress, dismissed
Anne at the end of the year. She returned home at Christmas, 1839, joining Charlotte and
Emily (who had left their positions) and her brother, Branwell. The whole episode at Blake
Hall was so traumatic for Anne, that she reproduced it in almost perfect detail in her later
novel, Agnes Grey.
Anne soon obtained a second post: this time as a governess to the children of the Reverend
Edmund Robinson and his wife Lydia, at Thorp Green, a wealthy country house near York.
Anne was to have four pupils: Lydia, age 15, Elizabeth, age 13, Mary, age 12, and Edmund,
age 8. Initially, she encountered the same problems with the unruly children that she had
experienced at Blake Hall. Anne missed her home and family, commenting in a diary paper
in 1841 that she did not like her situation and wished to leave it. Her own quiet, gentle
disposition did not help matters.
137
However, despite her outwardly placid appearance, Anne was determined and with the
experience she gradually gained, she eventually made a success of her position, becoming
well-liked by her new employers. Her charges, the Robinson girls, ultimately became her
lifelong friends.
For the next five years, Anne spent no more than five or six weeks a year with her family,
during holidays at Christmas and in June. The rest of her time she was with the Robinsons at
their home Thorp Green. She was also obliged to accompany the family on their annual
holidays to Scarborough. Between 1840 and 1844, Anne spent around five weeks each
summer at the resort and loved the place. Many locations in Scarborough formed the setting
for Agnes Grey's final scenes.
During the time working for the Robinsons, Anne and her sisters considered the possibility of
setting up their school. Various locations, including their own home, the parsonage, were
considered as places to establish it. The project never materialised and Anne chose repeatedly
to return to Thorp Green. She came home at the death of her aunt in early November 1842,
while her sisters were away in Brussels. Elizabeth Branwell left a £350 legacy for each of her
nieces.
Anne returned to Thorp Green in January 1843. She secured a position for Branwell with her
employers: he was to take over from her as tutor to the Robinsons' son, Edmund, the only boy
in the family, who was growing too old to be under Anne's care. However, Branwell did not
live in the house with the Robinson family, as Anne did.
Anne's vaunted calm appears to have been the result of hard-fought battles, balancing deeply
felt emotions with careful thought, a sense of responsibility, and resolute determination. All
three Bronte sisters had spent time working as governesses or teachers, and all had
experienced problems controlling their charges, gaining support from their employers, and
coping with homesickness but Anne was the only one who persevered and made a success of
her work.
At Anne's return to Haworth, she met William Weightman (1814–1842), Patrick's new curate,
who began work in the parish in August 1839. Twenty-five years old, he had obtained a two-
year licentiate in theology from the University of Durham. He quickly became welcome at
the parsonage. Anne's acquaintance with William Weightman parallels the writing of some
poems, which may suggest that she fell in love with him. There is considerable disagreement
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over this point. Not much outside evidence exists beyond a teasing anecdote of Charlotte's to
Ellen Nussey in January 1842.
It may or may not be relevant that the source of Agnes Grey's renewed interest in poetry is
the curate to whom she is attracted. As the person to whom Anne Bronte may have been
attracted, William Weightman has aroused much curiosity. It seems clear that he was a good-
looking, engaging young man, whose easy humour and kindness towards the Bronte sisters
made a considerable impression. It is such a character that she portrays in Edward Weston,
and that her heroine Agnes Grey finds deeply appealing.
If Anne did form an attachment to Weightman, that does not imply that he, in turn, was
attracted to her. Indeed, it is plausible that Weightman was no more aware of her than of her
sisters or their friend Ellen Nussey. Nor does it follow that Anne believed him to be
interested in her. If anything, her poems suggest just the opposite they speak of quietly
experienced but intensely felt emotions, intentionally hidden from others, without any
indication of their being requited. It is also possible that an initially mild attraction to
Weightman assumed increasing importance to Anne over time, in the absence of other
opportunities for love, marriage, and children.
Anne would have seen William Weightman on her holidays at home, particularly during the
summer of 1842, when her sisters were away. He died of cholera in the same year. Anne
expressed her grief for his death in her poem "I will not mourn thee, lovely one", in which
she called him "our darling".
Anne and Branwell continued to teach at Thorp Green for the next three years. However,
Branwell was enticed into a secret relationship with his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson.
When Anne and her brother returned home for the holidays in June 1846, she resigned from
her position. While Anne gave no reason for leaving Thorp Green, it is generally thought that
she wanted to leave upon becoming aware of the relationship between her brother and Mrs
Robinson. Branwell was sternly dismissed when his employer found out about his
relationship with his wife. Despite her brother's behaviour, Anne retained close ties to
Elizabeth and Mary Robinson, exchanging frequent letters with them even after Branwell's
disgrace. The Robinson sisters came to visit Anne in December 1848.
Once free of her position as a governess, Anne took Emily to visit some of the places she had
come to know and love in the past five years. An initial plan of going to the sea at
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Scarborough fell through, and the sisters went instead to York, where Anne showed her
sister, York Minster.
A year after Anne's death, further editions of her novels were required; however, Charlotte
prevented the re-publication of Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In 1850,
Charlotte wrote damningly "Wildfell Hall, it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve. The
choice of subject in that work is a mistake, it was too little consonant with the character,
tastes and ideas of the gentle, retiring inexperienced writer." This act was the predominant
cause of Anne's relegation to the back seat of the Bronte bandwagon. Anne's novel was
daring for the Victorian era with its depiction of scenes of mental and physical cruelty and
approach to divorce. The consequence was that Charlotte's novels, along with Emily’s
Wuthering Heights, continued to be published, firmly launching these two sisters into literary
stardom, while Anne's work was consigned to oblivion. Further, Anne was only twenty-eight,
when she wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; at a comparable age, Charlotte had produced
only The Professor.
The general view has been that Anne is a mere shadow compared with Charlotte, the family's
most prolific writer, and Emily, the genius. This has occurred, to a large extent, because Anne
was very different, as a person and as a writer, from Charlotte and Emily. The controlled,
reflective camera eye of Agnes Grey is closer to Jane Austen’s Persuasion than to Charlotte
Brontë's Jane Eyre. The painstaking realism and social criticism of The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall directly counter the romanticised violence of Wuthering Heights. Anne's religious
concerns, reflected in her books and expressed directly in her poems, were not concerns
shared by her sisters. Anne's subtle prose has a fine ironic edge; her novels also reveal Anne
as the most socially radical of the three. Now, with increasing critical interest in female
authors, her life is being re-examined, and her work re-evaluated. A re-appraisal of Anne's
work has begun, gradually leading to her acceptance, not as a minor Bronte but as a major
literary figure in her own right.
Mainly because the republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte
Bronte after its author's death, Anne is less known than her sisters, Charlotte, author of four
novels including Jane Eyre; and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. Anne's two novels,
written in a sharp and ironic style, are completely different from the romanticism followed by
her sisters. She wrote in a realistic, rather than a romantic style. Her novels, like those of her
sisters, have become classics of English literature.
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Statement True or
False
1 Several of the Bronte children were educated at home.
2 The Bronte children were not sent to school because it was thought that school
did not educate children properly.
3 The children liked playing and making up stories.
4 Charlotte was the weakest of the children.
5 Charlotte worked as a nurse.
6 Elizabeth Brnwell was a genuinely warm, compassionate woman.
7 Anne had to deal with difficult children as a governess.
8 Finally the Bronte sisters managed to set up their own school.
9 Emily was most successful and enduring as a governess.
10 Branwell was a disappointment to his sisters.
14.4.2 Select the correct answer from a, b, or c.
1 Which of the following was Charlotte’s first novel?

a) The Professor; b) Jane Eyre; c) Shirley.
2 The Wuthering Height was written by to ______________ Bronte :
a) Anne; b) Emily; c) Charlotte.
3 Which of the sisters fell in love with Heger?
a) Anne; b) Emily; c) Charlotte.
4 The sisters’ ultimate ambition was to:
a) open a school; b) be educated; c) work as governesses.
5 Who was Elizabeth Branwell particularly close to:
a) Emily; b) Anne; c) Charlotte.
14.4.3 Speaking
1. Why did Gaskell not reveal the truth about the Bronte sisters’ private lives?
2. Speak about the Bronte sisters as writers and as personalities.
3. Speak about the sisters and Elizabeth’s relationships.
14.4.4 Speaking (2)
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In Pairs read the text below about William Blake and discuss his style and
significance for British Literature:
William Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual
arts of the Romantic age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to
its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led
one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever
produced". Although he lived in London for his entire life, he produced a diverse and
symbolically rich portfolio, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or
"Human existence itself".
Considered mad by his contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high
regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and
mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as
part of both the Romantic Movement and "Pre-Romantic", for their large appearance in the
18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England – indeed, to all
forms of organised religion – Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French
and the American revolutions. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's
work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Rossetti characterised
Blake as a "glorious luminary," and as "a man not forestalled by predecessors, not to be
classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".
“To See a World..." (Fragments from "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake)
To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
A Robin Redbreast in a Cage

Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.
A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate

Predicts the ruin of the State.
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A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fiber from the Brain does tear.
He who shall train the Horse to War

Shall never pass the Polar Bar.
The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.
The Gnat that sings his Summer song
Poison gets from Slander’s tongue.
The poison of the Snake and Newt
Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.
A truth that’s told with bad intent

Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the World we safely go.
Every Night and every Morn

Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night.
Lesson 15 The Arts Part 2

15.1 Jane Austen
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Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed
gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her
realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars
and critics. She came from an impoverished, though once wealthy, close-knit family.
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, containing pieces originally written between 1787 and 1793.
There is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as the
period from 1809 to 1811 and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen,
made further additions as late as 1814.
Austen's Juvenilia is often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and

"anarchic"; he compares them to the work of 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne and the
20th-century comedy group Monty Python.
As Austen grew into adulthood, she continued to live at her parents' home, carrying out those
activities normal for women of her age and social standing: she practised the pianoforte,
assisted her sister and mother with supervising servants, and attended female relatives during
childbirth and older relatives on their deathbeds. She sent short pieces of writing to her
newborn nieces
Jane was particularly proud of her accomplishments as a seamstress. She also attended church
regularly, socialised frequently with friends and neighbours, and read novels - often of her
composition - aloud to her family in the evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often
meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held
regularly at the assembly rooms in the town hall. Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was
fond of dancing, and excelled at it".
When she was twenty, Tom Lefroy, a nephew of neighbours, visited Steventon from
December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to
London to train as a barrister. Lefroy and Jane would have been introduced at a ball or other
neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they
spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I
behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing
and sitting down together." The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of
January. Marriage was impractical, as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had
any money and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and
establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he was carefully kept away
from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again.
Harris Bigg-Wither proposed marriage and Jane Austen accepted. As described by Caroline
Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive - he
was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive
in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Jane had known him since both
were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to her and her family. He
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was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up.
With these resources, Austen could provide her parents at a comfortable old age, give her
sister Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the
next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance. No
contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal In 1814, Austen
wrote a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious
relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now
turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, and not to think of accepting him
unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying
without affection".
In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started but did not complete a new novel, The Watsons.
The story centres on an invalid clergyman with little money and his four unmarried
daughters. Sutherland describes the novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of
dependent women's lives". Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop
work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805, and her circumstances resembled
those of her characters too closely for comfort.
Around early 1809, Jane's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life -
the use of a large cottage in Chawton village that was part of Edward's nearby estate,
Chawton House. Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved into Chawton cottage on 7 July
1809. In Chawton, life was quieter than it had been since the family's move to Bath in 1800.
The Austens did not socialise with the neighbouring gentry and entertained only when family
visited. Austen's niece Anna described the Austen family's life in Chawton: "It was a very
quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping
our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to
read or write." Austen wrote almost daily, but privately, and seems to have been relieved of
some household responsibilities to give her more opportunity to write. In this setting, she was
able to be productive as a writer once more. In 1809 she published Sense and Sensibility
followed two years later by Pride and Prejudice and one year after that by Mansfield Park.
Austen learned that the Prince Regent admired her novels and kept a set at each of his
residences. In November 1815, the Prince Regent's librarian invited her to visit the Prince's
London residence and hinted Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince.
Though Austen disliked the Prince, she could scarcely refuse the request. She later wrote Plan
of a Novel, according to hints from various quarters, a satirical outline of the "perfect novel"
based on the librarian's many suggestions for a future Austen novel.
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Statement True or
False
1 Jane Austen came from a low – class family.
2 Jane Austen’s family despised each other.
3 Jane started to write in order to become a serious writer.
4 Juvenilia contained works written in Jane Austen’s yuth.
5 Juvenilia was later edited by her relatives.
6 Jane Austen’s style in Juvenilia is compared to that of Elizabeth Gaskell.
7 Jane performed the duties of an unmarried daughter.
8 Jane was good at cooking and gardening.
9 Jane wrote about the hard life of a woman in the XIX century.
10 She did not use any personal details in her novels.
15.3 Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber now Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English
composer of musical theatre.
Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as
"the most commercially successful composer in history." Several of his musicals have run for
more than a decade, both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a
song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also
gained some honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British
Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy
Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and
the Kennedy Centre Honours in 2006. Several of his songs, notably "The Music of the Night"
from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ
Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats have been widely recorded
and were hits outside of their parent musicals.
His company, the 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 Useful Group.

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15.4.1 Circle the correct answer from a), b), or c).
1 Andrew Lloyd Webber has a title which means he is a:
a) Baron; b) Count; c) Duke.
2 Andrew Lloyd Weber has gained a:
a) knighthood; b) knighthood and peerage; c) peerage.
3 “Don’t cry for me Argentina” was written by:
a) Benjamin Britten; b) Julian Lloyd Webber; c) Andrew Lloyd Weber.
4 Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Theatre operating empire is called “The Really Useful:
a) Group”; b) Team”; c) Company”.
5 ‘The Music of the Night’ was used in:
a) Evita; b) The Phantom of the Opera; c) Jesus Christ Superstar;
15.5 Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua was born in Georgia, but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of
eight, and then to England at fourteen. She made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was
the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female
artist. Currently, Katie Melua is the second richest British musician under thirty.
In November 2003, at the age of nineteen, she released her first album, Call off the Search,
which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its
first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September
2005 and to date has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album
Pictures, in October 2007.
Katie Melua is also known to be a very charitable person and has taken part in some charity
concerts. In addition to this, she has visited Oxfam charity shops for many years, using them
frequently to buy her clothing. She has stated that this is related as much to her dislike of
spending and glamour, as it is to her support for the charity. Katie admits that she looks "like
a tramp" and that her hairdresser playfully calls her "the Rumanian window cleaner".
Katie is also a patron of Fair Trees, the organisation, trying to stop the exploitation of cone
pickers in Ambrolauri, Georgia, by the European Christmas tree industry. The local people in
this region of Georgia are paid a pittance to risk their lives climbing 30m high fir trees to
collect the cones from which the seeds are extracted and sent to Christmas tree nurseries in
Europe. Until Fair Trees came along these cone pickers were given no safety equipment or
training, no health insurance and very little pay; every year people were injured and even
killed doing this hazardous work. This cause is close to Katie's heart as she was born in
Georgia. Fair Trees grow and sell the only fair trade Christmas trees in the world (certified by
the WFTO) and are campaigning to change things in Georgia
6 1 Project Ideas: Discuss the biographies of the following painters

15. 6.1. 1 Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723- 1792),
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Reynolds was a portrait painter who dominated English artistic life in the middle and late
18th century.
There were no public exhibitions of contemporary artists in London before 1760 when
Reynolds helped found the Society of Artists and the first of many successful exhibitions was
held. The patronage of George III was sought, and in 1768 the Royal Academy was founded.
Although Reynolds’s painting had found no favour at court, he was the obvious candidate for
the presidency, and the king confirmed his election and knighted him. Reynolds guided the
policy of the academy with such skill that the pattern he set has been followed with little
variation ever since. The yearly Discourses that he delivered at the academy mirrored many
of his thoughts and aspirations, as well as his professional problems.
His success was assured from the first portrait and by 1755 he had already had quite a few
assistants to help him execute the numerous portrait commissions he received. The early
London portraits have vigour and naturalness about them that is perhaps best exemplified in a
likeness of Honourable Augustus Keppel (1753–54). The pose is not original, being a
reversal of the Apollo Belvedere, an ancient Roman copy of a mid-4th-century-BC
Hellenistic statue Reynolds had seen in the Vatican.
After 1760 Reynolds’s style became increasingly classical and self-conscious. As he fell
under the influence of the classical Baroque painters of the Bolognese school of the 17th
century and the archaeological interest in Greco-Roman antiquity that was sweeping Europe
at the time, the pose and clothes of his sitters took on a more rigidly antique pattern, in
consequence losing much of the sympathy and understanding of his earlier works.
From 1769 nearly all of Reynolds’s most important works appeared in the academy. In
certain exhibitions, he included historical pieces, such as Ugolino (1773), which were
perhaps his least successful works. Many of his child studies are tender and even amusing,
though now and again the sentiment tends to be excessive. Two of the most enchanting are
Master Crewe as Henry VIII (1775–76) and Lady Caroline Scott as ‘Winter’ (1778). His
most ambitious portrait commission was the Family of the Duke of Marlborough (1777).
In 1782 Reynolds had a paralytic stroke, and about the same time, he was saddened by
bickerings within the Royal Academy. Seven years later his eyesight began to fail, and he
delivered his last Discourse at the academy in 1790. He died in 1792 and was buried in St.
Paul’s Cathedral.
Reynolds preferred the company of men of letters to that of his fellow artists and was friends
with Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Oliver Goldsmith, among others. He never
married, and his house was kept for him by his sister Frances.
Reynolds’s state portraits of the king and queen were never considered a success, and he
seldom painted for them, but the prince of Wales patronized him extensively, and there were
few distinguished families or individuals who did not sit for him. Nonetheless, some of his
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finest portraits are those of his intimate friends and fashionable women of questionable
reputation.
Unfortunately, Reynolds’s technique was not always entirely sound, and many of his
paintings have suffered as a result. After he visited Italy, he tried to produce the effects of
Tintoretto and Titian by using transparent glazes over a monochrome underpainting, but the
pigment he used for his flesh tones was not permanent and even in his life began to fade,
causing the over pale faces of many surviving portraits. In the 1760s Reynolds began to use
more extensively bitumen or coal substances added to pigments. This practice proved to be
detrimental to the paint surface. Though a keen collector of old-master drawings, Reynolds
himself was never a draftsman, and indeed few of his drawings have any merit whatsoever.
Reynolds’s Discourses Delivered at the Royal Academy (1769–91) is among the most
important art criticism of the time. In it, he outlined the essence of grandeur in art and
suggested the means of achieving it through rigorous academic training and study of the old
masters of the art.
Adapted from John Woodward ( Encyclopaedia Britannica)
15. 7 Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough, ( 1727-1788), a portrait and landscape painter, was the most versatile
English painter of the 18th century. Some of his early portraits show the sitters grouped in a
landscape (Mr and Mrs Andrews, c. 1750). As he became famous and his sitters fashionable,
he adopted a more formal manner that owed something to Anthony Van Dyck (The Blue
Boy, c. 1770). His landscapes are of idyllic scenes. During his last years, he also painted
seascapes and idealized full-size pictures of rustics and country children.
To obtain a wider public, Gainsborough moved in 1759 to Bath, where his studio was soon
thronged with fashionable sitters. He moved in musical and theatrical circles, and among his
friends were members of the Linley family, whose portraits he painted. At Bath, he also met
the actor David Garrick, for whom he had a profound admiration and whom he painted on
many occasions. His passion for music and the stage continued throughout his life. In the
west country, he visited many of the great houses and at Wilton fell under the spell of
Anthony Van Dyck, the predominating influence in his later work. Despite the demand for
portraits, he continued to paint landscapes.
In 1761 he sent a portrait of Earl Nugent to the Society of Artists, and in the following year,
the first notice of his work appeared in the London press. Throughout the 1760s he exhibited
regularly in London and 1768 was elected a foundation member of the Royal Academy.
Characteristically he never took much part in the deliberations.
In Bath, Gainsborough had to satisfy a more sophisticated clientele and adopted a more
formal and elegant portrait style based largely on a study of Van Dyck at Wilton, where he
made a free copy of Van Dyck’s painting of the Pembroke family. By 1769, when he painted
Isabella Countess of Sefton, it is easy to see the refining influence of Van Dyck in the
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dignified simplicity of the design and the subtle muted colouring. One of Gainsborough’s
most famous pictures, The Blue Boy, was probably painted in 1770.
Gainsborough preferred to paint his friends rather than public figures, and a group of portraits
of the 1760s—Uvedale Price, Sir William St. Quinton, and Thomas Coward, all oldish men
of strong character—illustrate Gainsborough’s sense of humour and his approach to
sympathetic sitters.
Gainsborough was the only important English portrait painter to devote much time to
landscape drawing. He composed a great many drawings in a variety of mediums including
chalk, pen and wash, and watercolour, some of them varnished. He was always eager to find
new papers and new techniques. He produced a magic lantern to give striking lighting effects;
the box is still in the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with some of the slides. In
addition, Gainsborough made a series of soft-ground etchings and aquatints. He never sold
his drawings and, although many of them are closely related to pictures, they are not studies
in the ordinary sense but works of art in their own right.
Gainsborough was not methodical in keeping sitter books, and comparatively few of the
portraits in the early years in London are dated. In 1777 he exhibited at the Royal Academy
the well-known Mrs Graham, C.F. Abel, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Maria,
Duchess of Gloucester, all deliberately glamorous and painted in richly heightened colour.
Queen Charlotte is more restrained; the painting of the flounced white dress decorated with
ribbons and laces makes her look particularly regal. It is significant that Gainsborough, unlike
most of his contemporaries, did not generally use drapery painters. In 1784 he quarrelled with
the Academy because they insisted on hanging the Three Eldest Princesses at the normal
height from the floor, which Gainsborough maintained was too high to appreciate his
lightness of touch and delicate pencilling. In protest, he withdrew the pictures he had
intended for the exhibition and never showed them again at the Academy.
In some of Gainsborough’s later portraits of women, he dispensed with a precise finish, and,
without sacrificing the likeness, he concentrated on the general effect. Mrs Sheridan melts
into the landscape, while Lady Bate Dudley, a symphony in blue and green, is an
insubstantial form, almost an abstract. Mrs Siddons, on the other hand, shows that
Gainsborough could still paint a splendid objective study. Few of the later male portraits are
of a pronounced character, but exceptions are two particularly good pictures of musicians,
Johann Christian Fischer and the unfinished Lord Abingdon.
Of all the 18th-century English painters, Thomas Gainsborough was the most inventive and
original, always prepared to experiment with new ideas and techniques, and yet he
complained of his contemporary Sir Joshua Reynolds, “Damn him, how various he is.”
Gainsborough alone among the great portrait painters of the era also devoted serious attention
to landscapes. Unlike Reynolds, he was no great believer in an academic tradition and
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laughed at the fashion for history painting; an instinctive painter, he delighted in the poetry of
paint. In his letters, Gainsborough shows a warm-hearted and generous character and an
independent mind. His comments on his work and methods, as well as on some of the old
masters, are very revealing and throw considerable light on contemporary views of art.
adapted from Mary Woodall Encyclopedia Brittanica
Statement True or
False
1 Katie Melua made her debut in 2003.
2 When her first album was released, Katie was 23 years old.
3 “Piece by Piece” is Katie’s second album.
4 Katie is now the richest UK artist.
5 Katie is not involved in charitable activities.
6 Katie enjoys a glamorous life style and dresses expensively.
7 Katie contributes to making the European Christmas more beautiful.
8 Katie has done much to make cone gatherer’s lives safer.
15.6.2 Speaking
1 Read the following text and discuss the problem raised.
2 Compare the situation with the current position of Georgian Arts.
According to a widely held opinion, interest in the Arts in Britain used to be largely confined
to a small elite. However, compared with fifty years ago, far more people today read books,
visit art galleries and go to the theatre or attend concerts. Nevertheless, the fact remains that
most British people prefer sport, television and videos to anything highly ‘cultural’.
It is said that in Britain, the Arts are not actively encouraged. Moreover, if compared to other
Western countries, government financial support for the arts in Britain is one of the lowest. In
schools, subjects such as art and music, though always available, tend to be pushed to the
sidelines.
What makes the situation even worse is that the arts are not normally given a very high level
of publicity. For instance, each summer many high-quality arts festivals are held around the
country, but the vast majority of people do not even know of their existence. In addition to
this, London has some of the finest collections of paintings and sculptures in the world about
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which tourists are not usually notified. Artists, if not very famous, do not usually get
recognition and respect from the public. On the other hand, some artists have achieved
international recognition through are still little known in Britain.
“The arts” are more popular with the people. For instance, hundreds of thousands of people
are enthusiastically involved in one or other of the arts, but with a more-or-less amateur
fashion. Every town in the country has at least one amateur dramatic society which gives
performances regularly and does not charge much. All over the country, many people learn
handicrafts (such as pottery or embroidery) in their free time and sometimes sell their work in
local shops.
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Self assessment test Number 3 Lectures 11-15
1 State Whether the following statements are True or False

Statement True or
False
1 Sunday newspapers sell less copies than weekday newspapers.
2 Quality newspapers and tabloids generally differ in shape.
3 Tabloids are much larger than Broadsheets
4 British political parties are parliamentary associations.
5 The British press is controlled by the people.
6 The Guardian started the new media in 2007.
7 A true online newspaper does not have a hard copy.
8 According to forecasts, soon electronic newspapers will be abandoned.
9 The London Foreign Exchange Market’s daily turnover is more than that of the
combined New York and Brussels turnover.
10 Tokyo is the world’s largest fund management centre.
11 It is expected that world economic growth will be 3.5% less in 2012.
12 Currently the Social Security system is experiencing the need for change.
13 Women make up most of the social volunteers.
14 The Welfare Reform Act will introduce additional restrictions on welfare pay.
15 Children under 5 spend the whole day at school.
16 Private Schools may choose not to follow the National Curriculum.
17 Scottish is one of the core educational subjects in Scotland.
18 The Irish Language is an optional subject in Ireland.
19 GCSE examinations include Maths and English as core components.
20 Women’s colleges at Oxford University were established in the 20th century.
21 Initially only “classics subjects” were taught at Oxford University.
22 Cambridge University is older than Oxford University.
23 Higher Education includes secondary schools.
24 Vocational education and training may be part of the curriculum at some
Universities.
25 Professional Education is not a part of Higher Education.
26 Professional Education and Vocational Education are synonyms.
27The Chancellor takes an active part in the management of the University.
28 Students at Colleges of Oxford University were usually grouped according to
their geographical origin.
29 During the English Civil War, Oxford was on the side of the Parliamentarians.
153
30Accordingto the Pre-Raphaelites, medieval culture revealed spiritual and
creative harm.
31 The realist and medievalist parts of art were harmonious.
32 Charlotte Bronte’s first novel was not successful.
33 The Bronte sisters took pen names for their writing.
34 The Bronte sisters used pen names because of the current gender stereotyping.
35 Jane Eyre was thought to be a proper book.
Continued …..
Statement True or
False
36 The stay-at-home daughter usually led the life of a servant.
37 Charlotte and Emily Bronte went to Paris to study at a girl’s academy.
38 Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell were published under pen names.
39 The Bronte sisters were raised by their stepmother.
40 Katie Melua patrons the only Fair Trade Christmas Trees company in the
world.
2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, or c.
1 GDP stands for:

a) Gross Domestic Product; b) Great Domestic Product; c) Grand Domestic
Product.
2 The City of London is often referred to as the:
a) square mille; b) square mile c) square milles.
3 The world’s largest centre for issuing international bonds is:
a) London; b) New York; c) Tokyo.
4 The IMF stands for “The International ________________:
a) Monetary Foundation; b) Market Fund; c) Monetary Fund.
5 GCSE stands for “General Certificate of:
a) Secondary Education; b) Security Education; c) Secondary English.
6 A-Level stands for:
a) Alumni Level; b) Accuracy Level; c) Advanced Level.
7 To enter a UK University students must take one of the following examinations:
a) GCSE; b) A-Level; c) AS-Levels.

8 In the XVth century scholars fled to Europe because of the:
154
a) English Civil War; b) Royal War; c) Reformation.
9 The English Civil War started in
a) 1642 ; b) 1649; c) 1656.
10 The First women’s colleges were established in Oxford University in:
a) XIX c; b) XX c; c) XVIII c.
11 The Pre-Raphaelites were founded in:
a) 1849; b) 1848; c) 1878.
12 What were the Pre-Raphaelites influenced by?
a) Classicism; b) Renaissance; c) Romanticism.
13 Pre-Raphaelites said that __________________ did not exist without each other.
a) freedom and responsibility; b) freedom and love; c) responsibility and
patriotism.
14 The book, “The Life of Charlotte Brontë” was written by:
a) Emily Bronte; b) Elizabeth Gaskell; c) Jane Austen.
15 Katie Melua was the UK’s best- selling female artist in:
a) 2003; b) 2006; c) 2009.
155
156

Lectures 1 15 Students Fundation of British Studies M. Rusieshvili Adn T.cartledge 1

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Lectures 1 15 Students Fundation of British Studies M. Rusieshvili Adn T.cartledge 1

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Lecture 1 Great Britain and the UK

The UK versus Great Britain (Geographically versus Politically)

1.2 In Text Activities

1 The British Isles consist of two large islands only.

2 Great Britain is larger in size than Ireland.

3 The Channel Islands are ruled absolutely by the United Kingdom.

5 Great Britain is believed to be part of the “Atlantic Iron”.

6 In the Iron Age, British people spoke a Celtic Language.

7 The Vikings called Great Britain “Britania”.

8 Anglo-Saxons were Germanic Tribes.

9 The Kingdom of Scotland was formed in the X! Century.

1.2.2 Circle the correct answer from a, b, c

1. As well as Britain, the Atlantic Bronze also included:

c) Germany, France, Ireland and Spain.

2. The kingdom of Scotland was formed by------------------tribes:

a) Celtic; b) Gaelic; c) Anglo-Saxon.

3. Cymru, is now used to denote:

a) Ireland; b) Wales; c) Scotland.

4. Wales officially became part of England in the ------------------century:

a) XIII; b) XIV; c) XVI.

a) 1707; b) 1710; c) 1709.

a) Kingdom of England and Scotland; b) Kingdom of Great Britain; c) Kingdom of Wales

7. The capital of Scotland is

a) Cardiff; b) Glasgow; c) Edinburgh.

1.2.3 Answer the following questions separately:

3. Speak about the development of the meaning of the word Cymru

1.3 The countries comprising the UK

As a result of vigorous repeated attempts to restore self-government, the present-day

1.4 In Text Activities

a) National flags of the UK;

b) National plants and symbols of the UK;

Lecture 2 National Identity 1The Four nations of

At present, the population of Great Britain is approximately 67,771,315. 1 The nation’s

The United Kingdom

2.2 In Text Activities

2.2.1 State whether the following statements are True or False:

1 Regional and cultural differences do not cause linguistic differences.

2 It is impossible to detect people’s background from their accent.

3 Accent is a socio-cultural category.

4 80% of the Welsh generation speak Welsh as their first language.

5 Gallic is not frequently spoken in Scotland any more.

6 Old Norse has a richly published and preserved history.

7 Cornish is not spoken routinely any more.

8 The Irish language is currently used to restore national pride in Belfast

9 Symbolic attachment does not play a significant role in the UK.

10 Vegetarianism is most commonly the preference of lower class females.

2. 3 Significant moments from the History and Society of the UK.

Further reading: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/unpublished/econinvent-3.pdf

2.4 In Text Activities

2 Scotland joined England in 1707.

4 The Union of Great Britain and Ireland was separated in 1934.

5 All the countries of the UK have independent, fully functional parliaments.

6 Permanent Roman settlements were established in Britain in 43 BC.

7 The upper classes of Britain spoke Roman in the Roman era.

8 After the Romans, Great Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxons.

9 Jutes were Viking tribes.

10 Magna Carta led to the creation of the Parliament.

2.6 In Text Activities

2.6.1 State whether the following statements are True or False:

2 The Conservative Party is most popular in England.

3 England has the largest, popular minority nationalist parties.

4 The Welsh National Party is concerned with North Sea Oil.

6 Ethnic minorities live in ethnic ghettos in the UK.