Difference between revisions of "United Kingdom" - New World Encyclopedia

United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland¹
United Kingdom of Great Britain; and Northern Ireland1
	Coat of arms of the United Kingdom
	Motto: Dieu et mon droit (the Royal motto3); (French for "God and my right")
	Anthem: God Save the Queen 4;
Capital	London; 51°30′N 0°7′W / 51.5, -0.117
Largest Most populous conurbation	Greater London Urban Area
Official languages	English (de facto5)
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Formation
EU accession	1 January 1973
Area
Population
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
GDP (nominal)	2005 estimate
Currency	Pound sterling (£) (GBP)
Time zone	GMT (UTC+0)
Internet TLD	.uk7
Calling code	+44
	1 In the UK, some other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous (regional) languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, the UK's official name is as follows:; Welsh: Teyrnas Unedig Prydain Fawr a Gogledd Iwerddon; Scottish Gaelic: An Rìoghachd Aonaichte na Breatainn Mhòr agus Eirinn a Tuath; Irish: Ríocht Aontaithe na Breataine Móire agus Thuaisceart Éireann; Scots: Unitit Kinrick o Great Breetain an Northren Ireland; Cornish: An Rywvaneth Unys a Vreten Veur hag Iwerdhon Glédh; 2 There is also a variant for use in Scotland; see Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.; 3 The Royal motto used in Scotland is Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (Latin: "No-one provokes me with impunity").; 4 See #Symbols below. It also serves as the Royal anthem.; 5 In addition to English (use established by precedent), Welsh is recognised in Wales as a "language of equal standing"[citation needed]. Since 2005, Scottish Gaelic in Scotland has the status of "an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language" [1]. See also Languages in the United Kingdom.; 6 Official estimate provided by the UK Office for National Statistics [2].; 7 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 is GB, but .gb is unused. The .eu domain is also shared with other European Union member states.

Revision as of 04:00, 14 August 2007

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain is a country and sovereign state that is situated in west Northern Europe.

The United Kingdom is a political union made up of three constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and includes six of the nine counties of Ulster Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom also has several overseas territories, including Bermuda, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Saint Helena among others.

The dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, while possessions of the Crown and part of the British Isles, are not part of the United Kingdom.

A constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom is a Commonwealth Realm, sharing the same person — Queen Elizabeth II — with the fifteen other Realms as monarch and head of state.

A member of the G8, the United Kingdom is a highly developed country with the fifth largest economy in the world and second largest in Europe, estimated at US$2.2 trillion. It is the third most populous state in the European Union with a population of 60.2 million.

After the end of the British Empire, the UK retained influence throughout the world because of the extensive use of the English language as well as through the world-spanning Commonwealth of Nations, headed by Queen Elizabeth II.

Geography

Map of the United Kingdom.

Located primarily on the island of Great Britain and in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The mainland is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel and Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland.

With a land area of 94,526 square miles (244,820 square kilometres), the United Kingdom is slightly smaller than Oregon in the United States.

Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line.

Scotland's geography] is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis. There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. Scotland has nearly 800 islands, mainly west and north of the mainland, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands.

Wales (Cymru in Welsh) is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) at 3560 feet (1085 meters) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn). Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly.

The 10 tallest mountains in the UK are all found in Scotland. The highest peaks is Ben Nevis (in the Nevis Range), at 4406 feet (1344 meters). There is no peak in England that is 3300 feet (1000 meters) or greater, the highest mountain being Scafell Pike in England's Lake District, at some 3208 feet (978 meters) The lowest point is in the Fens of East Anglia, in England, parts of which lie up to 13 feet (4 meters) below sea level.

In total, it is estimated that the UK is made up of over 1000 small islands, some being natural and some being man-made crannogs, which were built in past times using stone and wood and which were enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

The climate of the UK varies, but is generally temperate, though significantly warmer than some other locations at similar latitude, such as central Poland, due to the warming influence of the Gulf Stream. In general, the south is warmer and drier than the north.

Newbury and surroundings on a fine summer's day.

At 4409 feet, Ben Nevis is the highest peak in the UK.

The prevailing winds are south-westerly, from the North Atlantic Current. More than 50 percent of the days are overcast. There are few natural hazards, although there can be strong winds and floods, especially in winter.

Average annual rainfall varies from over 120 inches (3000 millimeters) in the Scottish Highlands down to 21.8 inches (553mm) in Cambridge. The county of Essex is one of the driest in the UK, with an average annual rainfall of around 24 inches (600mm) although it typically rains on over 100 days per year.

The highest temperature recorded in the UK was 101.3°F (38.5°C) at Brogdale, near Faversham, in the county of Kent, on August 10, 2003. The lowest was -17.0°F (27.2°C) recorded at Braemar in the Grampian Mountains, Scotland, on February 11, 1895.

The United Kingdom, along with the rest of Europe, has been hit by heat waves during the summer in recent years. The heat waves have been the reason for many deaths in the past years, with temperatures nearing the 104°F (40°C) mark.

The longest river in the UK is the River Severn, at 220 miles (354km) which flows through both Wales and England. The largest lakes are: Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland (147.39 square miles), Loch Lomond in Scotland 27.46 square miles), Lake Windermere in England (5.69 square miles) and 14.74 km²), and Lake Vyrnwy in Wales 3.18 square miles. As a result of its industrial history, the United Kingdom has an extensive system of canals, mostly built in the early years of the Industrial Revolution, before the rise of competition from the railways. The United Kingdom also has numerous dams and water reservoirs to store water for drinking and industry. The generation of hydroelectric power is rather limited, supplying less than two percent of British electricity, mainly from the Scottish Highlands.

Originally, oak forests probably covered the lowlands, while pine forests and patches of moorland covered the higher or sandy ground. Much forest has been cleared for cultivation, so that by 2007, only about 9 percent of the total surface is wooded — in east and north of Scotland and in southeast England. Oak, elm, ash, and beech are the most common trees in England, while pine and birch are common in Scotland. Heather, grasses, gorse, and bracken predominate on the moorlands.

Wolves, bears, boars, and reindeer are extinct, but red and roe deer are protected for sport. Foxes, hares, hedgehogs, rabbits, weasels, stoats, shrews, rats, and mice are common, otters are found in many rivers, and seals appear along the coast. The chaffinch, blackbird, sparrow, and starling are the most numerous of the 230 species of birds there, and another 200 are migratory. Game birds — pheasants, partridges, and red grouse — are protected. The rivers and lakes contain salmon, trout, perch, pike, roach, dace, and grayling.

File:Severn Aerial.jpg

The Severn bridges crossing near the mouth of the River Severn.

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The River Thames in London.

Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60 percent of food needs with only one percent of the labour force. It contributes around two percent of GDP. Around two thirds of production is devoted to livestock, and one third to arable crops.

The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves, plus limestone, chalk, gypsum,silica, rock salt, china clay, iron ore, tin, silver, gold, lead, as well as arable land, wheat, barley, hill farms, sheep

The United Kingdom is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has met Kyoto Protocol target of a 12.5 percent reduction from 1990 levels and intends to meet the legally binding target of a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2010. Between 1998-1999 and 1999-2000, household recycling increased from 8.8 percent to 10.3 percent.

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. The ancient City of London to which the name originally belonged still retains its tiny mediaeval boundaries; but the name "London" has long applied more generally to the whole metropolis which has grown up around it. London, with a population of 7.7 million, is today one of the world's leading business, financial and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the major global cities

Edinburgh, with a population of 448,624 in 2001, is the capital of Scotland, Cardiff, with a population of 380,000 in 2007, is the capital of Wales, and Belfast, with a population of 579,554 in 2001, is the capital of Northern Ireland.

A panorama of modern London, taken from the Golden Gallery of Saint Paul’s Cathedral

History

Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland 1707, painting by Walter Thomas Monnington.

The British Empire in 1897.

The present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the latest of several unions formed over the last 300 years. The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England had existed as separate states with their own monarchs and political structures since the 9th century. The once independent Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, becoming itself part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. ^[1] With the Act of Union 1707, the independent states of England and Scotland, having been in personal union since 1603, agreed to a political union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. ^[2]

The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ^[3] Independence for the now Republic of Ireland in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927. ^[4]

The dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, the United Kingdom is often credited with being the nation that "created the modern world", ^[5] by playing a leading role in developing Western ideas of property, capitalism, and parliamentary democracy as well as making significant contributions to literature, the arts, and science and technology. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population, making it the largest empire in history. The first half of the 20th century, however, saw the Empire's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the United Kingdom rebuilding itself into the modern, prosperous, and technologically advanced nation it is today.

The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The attitude of the present government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed ^[6], with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state ^[7]. The government has yet to choose whether to adopt the Euro currency. Plans are to hold a referendum on the issue if and when five economic tests indicate that entry into the Eurozone would be beneficial. ^[8]

Government and politics

File:Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace, 07 Mar 2006.jpeg

Queen Elizabeth II.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister 1940–1945 and 1951–1955.

Structure

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II has been chief of state since February 6, 1952, while the Heir Apparent is Prince Charles, the son of the queen, born 14 November 1948. The monarchy is hereditary Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been head of government since June 27, 2007. After legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually the prime minister, who appoints a cabinet.

The bicameral Parliament consists of a House of Lords, which has 618 seats consisting of approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 clergy, and a House of Commons, which has 646 members elected by popular vote to serve terms of five-years, or less if the House is dissolved earlier. The parliament is traditionally considered to be "supreme" in that it is able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors.

In the House of Lords, elections are held only as vacancies in the hereditary peerage arise, whereas in the House of Commons, elections were last held in May 2005. In those elections, Labor took 35.2 percent of the vote, the Conservative took 32.3 percent, Liberal Democrats 22 percent, and others took 10.5 percent. In 1998, elections were held for a Northern Ireland Assembly. Because of unresolved disputes, the transfer of power from London to Northern Ireland came only at the end of 1999 and has been suspended four times, the latest occurring in October 2002 and lasting until May 2007. In 1999, there were elections for a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly.

The United Kingdom is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on traditional customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. The British system of government has been emulated around the world — a legacy of the British Empire's colonial past — most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms.

The Mall looking onto Buckingham Palace, The official residence of the British Monarch.

In the United Kingdom, the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his/her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the monarch (known as Royal Assent), although not one has refused assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in the United Kingdom. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15 percent and 25 percent of the population, with roughly 10 percent undecided or indifferent.

The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames, London, houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Since the 1920s, the two largest political parties in British politics have been the Labour Party and Conservative Party. Though coalition and minority governments have been an occasional feature of Parliamentary politics, the first-past-the-post electoral system tends to maintain the dominance of these two parties, though each has in the past century relied upon a third party to deliver a working majority in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats, the third largest party, seek a reform to address the dominance of the two-party system.

Though many in the United Kingdom consider themselves "British" as well as "English", "Scottish" "Welsh", or "Irish" (and increasingly also "Afro-Caribbean", "Indian", or "Pakistani"), there has long been a widespread sense of separate national identities in the nations of Scotland and Wales and among the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. Independence for the Republic of Ireland in 1922 provided only a partial solution to what had been termed in the nineteenth century the "Irish Question", and competing demands for a united Ireland or continued union with Great Britain have brought civil strife and political instability up to the present day.

Parliament Buildings in Stormont], Belfast, seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Though "nationalist" (as opposed to "unionist") tendencies have shifted over time in Scotland and Wales, with the Scottish National Party founded in 1934 and Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales) in 1925, a serious political crisis threatening the integrity of the United Kingdom has not occurred since the 1970s. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each possess a legislature and government alongside that of the United Kingdom. However, this increased autonomy and devolution of executive and legislative powers has not contributed to a reduction in support for independence from the United Kingdom, with the rise of new pro-independence parties.

The resurgence in the Celtic language and identity, as well as "regional" politics and development, has contributed to forces pulling against the unity of the state. In Northern Ireland, there has been a significant decrease in violence over the last 20 years, though the situation remains tense, with the more hardline parties, such as Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists, now holding the most parliamentary seats.

Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland.

The United Kingdom has three distinct systems of law. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles. Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The Act of Union 1707 guarantees the continued existence of a separate law system for Scotland.

The Appelate Committee of the House of Lords is the highest court in the land for all criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for all civil cases in Scots law. Recent constitutional changes will see the powers of the House of Lords transfer to a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

In England and Wales, the court system is headed by the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). In Scotland, the chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases, while the sheriff court is the Scottish equivalent of the county court. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas territories, and the British crown dependencies.

Administrative subdivisions

Manchester Town Hall. Many towns and cities in the UK have impressive town or city hall buildings as administrative headquarters for local government

The United Kingdom is divided into four parts, commonly referred to as the constituent countries. Each nation is further subdivided for the purposes of local government. The Queen appoints a Lord-Lieutenant as her personal representative in lieutenancy areas across the UK; this is little more than a ceremonial role. The following table highlights the arrangements for local government, lieutenancy areas and cities across the home nations of the UK:

Historically, the four nations were divided into counties as areas for local government administration. Although these are still used to some extent for this purpose and as geographical areas, they are no longer the sole basis for local government administration.

England has been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. City status is governed by Royal CharterIn 2007, there were 66 British cities (50 in England, six in Scotland, five in Wales, and five in Northern Ireland).

The British crown has sovereignty over the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, known collectively as the crown dependencies. These are lands historically owned by the British monarch, but are not part of the United Kingdom itself. They are also not in the European Union. However, the Parliament of the United Kingdom has the authority to legislate for the dependencies, and the British government manages their foreign affairs and defence.

The UK also has 14 overseas territories around the world, the last remaining territories of the British Empire. The overseas territories are not considered part of the UK, but in some cases the local populations have British citizenship and the right to live in the UK.

Military

The Royal Navy operates four nuclear submarines armed with the Trident II nuclear missile.

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces. Their Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, The Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. The armed forces are controlled by the Defence Council.

The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive armed forces in the world. It has significant global capabilities, with total allied naval tonnage second only to the United States military and the third largest share of tactical combat aircraft to the US and France. The UK has the second or third highest military expenditure in the world, after the United States and China. The United Kingdom possesses a comprehensive nuclear arsenal, one of the small number of countries to do so, utilising the submarine-based Trident II ballistic missile system with nuclear warheads.

The British Armed Forces are active and regular participants in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and other coalition operations.

The British Army had a reported strength of 102,440 in 2005, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 49,210. The 36,320-member Royal Navy operates the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent, which consists of four Trident missile-armed submarines, while the Royal Marines are the Royal Navy's Light Infantry units for amphibious operations and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 190,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries.

There are also reserve forces supporting the regular military. These include an army reserve, the Territorial Army (TA); the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), Royal Marines Reserve (RMR) and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF). About 9 percent of the regular armed forces is made up of women, a figure that is higher for the reserve forces.

The United Kingdom Special Forces, principally the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS), but including others, provide troops trained for quick, mobile, military responses in counter-terrorism, land, maritime and amphibious operations, often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the western world in terms of gross tonnage. The last war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, with full-scale combat operations lasting almost three months.

Foreign relations

The United Kingdom is one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is also a large member state of the European Union, and is one of the three "big powers" along with Germany and France. The United Kingdom also has close relations with the United States, the Special Relationship. Britain's close allies outside of Europe include members of the Anglosphere and Commonwealth of Nations, a legacy of the British Empire. With its membership of the G8 and NATO, Britain has a certain influence in international institutions. Britain's global presence is amplified further through its trading relations and its armed forces, which maintains approximately 80 military installations and other deployments around the globe

Economy

The City of London, the largest financial centre in Europe

The British economy is the home of the Anglo-Saxon economic model, focusing on the principles of liberalisation, the free market, "common law" relating to property, and low taxation and regulation. Based on market exchange rates, the United Kingdom is the fifth largest economy in the world; the second largest in Europe after Germany, and the sixth-largest overall by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates.

The British were the first in the world to enter the Industrial Revolution, and, like most industrialising countries at the time, initially concentrated on heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining, steel production, and textiles. The empire created an overseas market for British products, allowing the United Kingdom to dominate international trade in the nineteenth century. However, as other nations industrialised and surplus labour from agriculture began to dry up, the United Kingdom started to lose its economic advantage. As a result, heavy industry declined throughout the twentieth century. The British service sector, however, has grown substantially, and now makes up about 73 percent of GDP.

In the 1980s, under the Government of Margaret Thatcher, most state-owned enterprises in the industrial and service sectors, which since the 1940s had been nationalised, were privatised. The British Government now owns very few industries/businesses apart from the Post Office and a few others.

The British economy has in recent years seen the longest period of sustained economic growth for more than 150 years, and is one of the strongest European Union economies in terms of inflation, interest rates and unemployment, all of which remain relatively low. However, in common with the economies of other English-speaking countries, it has higher levels of income inequality than some European countries.

The service sector of the United Kingdom is dominated by financial services, especially in banking and insurance. London is one of the world's largest financial centres with the London Stock Exchange, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, and the Lloyd's of London insurance market all based in the city. It also has the largest concentration of foreign bank branches in the world. In the past decade, a rival financial centre in London has grown in the Docklands area, with HSBC, Citigroup, and Barclays Bank all relocating their head offices there. The Scottish capital, Edinburgh also has one of the large financial centres of Europe

Tourism is very important to the British economy. With over 27 million tourists a year, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world.

The British manufacturing sector, however, has greatly diminished since World War II. It is still a significant part of the economy, but only accounted for one-sixth of national output in 2003. The British motor industry is a significant part of this sector, although all large-volume producers are now foreign-owned. Civil and defence aircraft production is led by the United Kingdom's largest aerospace firm, BAE Systems, and the pan-European consortium known as Airbus. Rolls-Royce holds a major share of the global aerospace engines market. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry is also strong in the UK, with the world's second and third largest pharmaceutical firms (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, respectively) being based in the UK.

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Bank of England £20 note.

The United Kingdom's agriculture sector is small by European standards, accounting for only 0.9 percent of GDP. The UK though has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves. Primary energy production accounts for about 10 percent of Gross domestic product (GDP), one of the highest shares of any industrial state.

The currency of the UK is pound sterling, represented by the symbol £. The Bank of England is the central bank and is responsible for issuing currency, although banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover the issue. The UK chose not to join the Euro on the currency's launch, although the government has pledged to hold a public referendum for deciding membership if "five economic tests" are met.

Government involvement over the economy is exercised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer who heads HM Treasury, but the Prime Minister, is First Lord of the Treasury (the Chancellor of the Exchequer being the Second Lord of the Treasury). However since 1997, the Bank of England, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has control of interest rates and other monetary policy. The UK government has greatly increased public sector spending (i.e.: government spending of taxes) since 1995, and annual spending on investment in infrastructure has grown from £5.6-billion in 1997 to £29-billion in 2006.

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Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of international passengers

The government's Department for Transport oversees the well-developed transport system in the United Kingdom. A radial road network of 29145 miles of main roads is centred on London, Edinburgh and Belfast, while, in Great Britain, a motorway network of 2173 miles is centred on Birmingham and London. There are a further 213750 miles of paved roads.

The National Rail network of 10,072 route miles (16,116 route kilometers) in Great Britain and 189 route miles (303km) in Northern Ireland carries over 18,000 passenger trains and 1000 freight trains daily. Urban rail networks are well developed in London and several other cities. There was once over 30,000 route miles of rail network in the U.K., however most of this was reduced over a time period from 1955 to 1975, much of it after a report by a government advisor Richard Beeching in the mid 1960s (known as the Beeching Axe).

Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest international airport, and being an island nation the UK has a considerable network of sea ports, which received over 558 million tonnes of goods in 2003–04.

Exports totalled $468.8-billion in 2006. Export commodities included manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals, food, beverages, and tobacco. Export partners included the United States 13.9 percent, Germany 10.9 percent, France 10.4 percent, Ireland 7.1 percent, Netherlands 6.3 percent, Belgium 5.2 percent, and Spain 4.5 percent. Imports totalled $603-billion. Import commodities included manufactured goods, machinery, fuels, and foodstuffs. Import partners included Germany 12.8 percent, the United States 8.9 percent, France 6.9 percent, Netherlands 6.6 percent, China 5.3 percent, Norway 4.9 percent, and Belgium 4.5 percent.

Per capita GDP was $30,436, in 2005, a rank of 18th. Unemployment rate 2.9 percent (2006 est.) and 17 percent lived below the poverty line in 2002.

Demographics

Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom.

At the 2001 Census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. This had been estimated up to 59,834,300 by the Office for National Statistics in 2004. Two years later it had increased to 60.2 million, largely from net immigration, but also because of a rising birth rate and increasing life expectancy — of 78.7 years for the total population in 2007. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. About a quarter of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban, with an estimated 7,517,700 in the capital of London.

Ethnicity

Located on a group of islands close to Continental Europe, the lands now constituting the United Kingdom have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Present day Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Between the various constituent countries, there has been sufficient internal migration to mix the population.

The United Kingdom has among the highest immigration rates in Europe, along with Italy and Spain. Immigration has come through interaction with continental Europe and international ties forged by the British Empire. Constant waves of immigration hit the UK, with Europe, Africa and South-East Asia being the biggest areas from where people emigrate. In the 2001 Census, 7.9 percent of the UK's population identified themselves as an "ethnic minority".In some UK cities the percentage of "minority groups" is large but is still less than half. For example; Birmingham (UK's second largest city) has 29.6 percent Leicester 36 percent. There are a large number of Indians, mainly from northern India, who make up about 2.0 percent of the population.

Ethnicity, as detailed in the 2001 UK Census: White British, 85.67 percent; white (other), 5.27 percent; Indian, 1.8 percent; Pakistani, 1.3 percent; mixed race, 1.2 percent; white Irish, 1.2 percent; black Caribbean, 1.0 percent; black African, 0.8 percent; Bangladeshi, 0.5 percent; Asian (non-Chinese), 0.4 percent; British Chinese, 0.4 percent; other, 0.4 percent; and black (others), 0.2 percent;

Religion

Canterbury Cathedral, one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in the UK.

Unlike many countries today, which are officially secular, the UK is an officially Christian country. This is reflected throughout British public life, for instance, there are established state churches in England and Scotland and the Head of State is a Christian monarch crowned by an Arch-bishop in a church. British society is said to belong to the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

A majority of Britons, 72 percent, identify themselves as Christian. Christianity was introduced to Britain by the Romans. Despite this, a relatively small proportion of the population attends public worship on a weekly basis. The United Kingdom has one of the lowest levels of public worship attendance in the world, with less than 8 percent of people attending any form of worship on a regular basis (of whom the majority are of middle-aged and older generations).

Each home nation has its own church hierarchy. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the "mother" and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Originally established as part of the Roman Catholic Church in 597C.E. by Augustine of Canterbury on behalf of Pope Gregory I, the Church split from Rome in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII of England. The Church of England is a state church, and some of her bishops sit in the House of Lords. The British monarch is required to be a member of the Church of England under the Act of Settlement 1701 and is the Supreme Governor. Roman Catholics are expressly forbidden from becoming monarch, stemming from conflict over the crown and whether Britain was in the past, Catholic or Protestant. The Church of England is based at Canterbury Cathedral and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman.

Westminster Abbey is used for the Coronation of all British Monarchs who are also made the head of the Church of England.

The Church of Scotland (known informally as The Kirk) is the national church of Scotland. It is a Presbyterian church and is not subject to state control. The British monarch is an ordinary member, although the monarch is required to swear an oath to "defend the security" of the Church at their coronation. Splits in the Church since the Reformation have led to the creation of various other Presbyterian churches in Scotland including the Free Church of Scotland and the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

In Wales, the Church in Wales was disestablished in the 1920s, although it remains in the Anglican community. The Church of Ireland was disestablished in the nineteenth century.

The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest denomination of Christianity in the UK. After the Reformation, strict laws were passed against Catholics; these were removed by the Catholic Emancipation laws in the 1850s. The Catholic hierarchy is separate in England and Wales, Scotland.

In Northern Ireland the Catholic Church in Ireland is the largest single denomination. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the largest Protestant denomination and is in terms of theology and history very closely linked to the Church of Scotland. Other large Christian groups are the Methodists and the Baptists.

The Hindu temple at Neasden is the largest temple of Hinduism in Europe.

Modern day Britain is much more diverse in terms of religion. As well as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism have many followers in the UK. Sikhism, Judaism and other religions have smaller numbers.

Muslims are believed to number over 1.8 million, with many of them living in towns and cities including London, Birmingham, Bradford and Oldham. Mosques are a common sight in some parts of modern day Britain. The biggest groups of British Muslims are of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi origin. More recently, the wave of Somali and Middle-Eastern asylum seekers has increased Britain's Muslim population. The 2006 controversy over the burqa reflects a split between some Britons who are questioning the extent to which Islam is compatible with British society, and others who are happy with the widespread presence of Islam in Britain.

The religions of Indian origin, like Hinduism and Sikhism in Britain are also increasing in number, with over 500,000 Hindus and 320,000 Sikhs in the country. However, these figures are likely to have increased, as they are based on the 2001 census.

File:Ukdemographicsreligion.PNG

The pie chart shows the religions of the United Kingdom.

Census data regarding religious belief: Christian 71.6 percent, Muslim 2.7 percent, Hindu 1.0 percent, Sikh 0.6 percent, Jewish 0.5 percent, Buddhist 0.3 percent, other religion 0.3 percent, not stated 7.3 percent, no religion 15.5 percent. A total of 76.8 percent of the population adhere to some religion.

Language

While the UK does not have an official language, the predominant spoken language is English. This is a West Germanic language, descended from Old English, which features a large number of borrowings from Norman French. The other main indigenous languages are the the Celtic languages of the British Isles. These fall into two groups: the P-Celtic languages (Welsh and the Cornish language); and the Q-Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic).

The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the British Empire) and is referred to as a "global language". Worldwide, it is taught as a second language more than any other. The United Kingdom's Celtic languages are also spoken by small groups around the globe, mainly Gaelic in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.

Additional indigenous languages are Scots (which is closely related to English); Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep.

Immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese, Turkish and Polish. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi and Punjabi speakers outside Asia.

Men and women

About half of British women work, and of these, half are part-time workers. The ideal of gender equality is widely shared, but inequality is evident in access to occupations by women and men, pay levels for similar kinds of work, and in the allocation of domestic tasks.

Marriage and the family

Historically most people in the United Kingdom lived either in conjugal extended families or nuclear families. This reflected an economic landscape where the general populace tended to have less spending power, meaning that it was more practical to stick together rather than go their individual ways. This pattern also reflected gender roles. Men were expected to go out to work and women were expected to stay at home and look after the families.

In the twentieth century, the emancipation of women, the greater freedoms enjoyed by both men and women in the years following the Second World War, greater affluence and easier divorce] have changed gender roles and living arrangements significantly. The general trend is a rise in single people living alone, the virtual extinction of the extended family (outside certain ethnic minority communities), and the nuclear family reducing in prominence.

From the 1990s, the break up of the traditional family unit, when combined with a low interest rate environment and other demographic changes, has created great pressure on the housing market, in particular regarding the accommodation of key workers such as nurses, other emergency service workers and teachers, who are priced out of most housing, especially in South East England.

Some research indicates that in the twenty first century, young people are tending to continue to live in the parental home for much longer than their predecessors. The high cost of living, combined with rising cost of accommodation, further education and higher education means that many young people cannot afford to live independent lives from their families.

Premarital sex and unmarried cohabitation are widely accepted. However, single motherhood caused by unstable cohabiting relationships, or marital breakdown, or as a means of obtaining welfare, is seen as a big problem because of its drain on the welfare budget, and subsequent problems of child abuse, and juvenile delinquency, rather than as a moral question.

Education

Shrewsbury Sixth Form College in Shropshire.

The United Kingdom's high literacy rate of 99 percent is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696).

There are separate education systems in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Education (although not necessarily in the form of school attendance) is compulsory for all children between the ages of five and 16, though the UK Government announced in January 2007 plans to change this to five - 18 in England. Most English, Welsh and Northern Irish state (but not independent) schools usher students through nursery school, one of two primary school tracks, and one of two secondary tracks, of which sixth form is optional. About one-fifth of British students go on to post-secondary education (18+). Most children and young people in the UK are educated in state-funded schools financed through the tax system and so parents do not pay directly for the cost of education.

Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland follows the national curriculum, which was introduced in 1988, which includes the core subjects English, mathematics, and science and the foundation subjects: design and technology, information and communication technology (known as ICT), history, geography, modern foreign languages (MFL), music, art and design and the subjects of the basic curriculum, physical education, citizenship education plus compulsory religious education (RE) which has a unique place in British law. Welsh is also a core subject in Wales. Scottish Gaelic may be taught to some pupils in Scotland.

The Scottish curriculum has emphasised breadth across a range of subjects, while the English, Welsh and Northern Irish system has emphasised greater depth of education over a smaller range of subjects at secondary school level.

The United Kingdom contains some of the world's leading, and oldest, seats of higher education, such as the ancient multifaculty universities at Oxford and Cambridge. It has produced many great scholars, scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, Kelvin, Sir Humphry Davy, Joseph John Thomson, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, Alexander Fleming, Francis Crick, Sir Joseph William Bazalgette and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The nation is credited with numerous scientific discoveries including hydrogen, gravity, the electron, structure of DNA, antibiotics and inventions including the chronometer, steam locomotive and the modern railway, vaccination, television, electric lighting, the electric motor, the screw propeller, the internal combustion engine, the jet engine, the modern bicycle, the electronic computer, along with the later development of the World Wide Web.

In 2006, it was reported that the UK was the most productive source of research after the United States; with the UK producing 9% of the world's scientific research papers with a 12 percent share of citations.

Class

Traditionally, British society has been stratified into three classes, with the highest one occupied by the aristocratic inheritors of old, landed wealth. Those in the working class typically grow up in a family supported by wages earned in industrial or agricultural labor. Neither parent has university education, and the family home is rented. The working class supports the trade union movement and the Labour Party. A middle-class person has parents with white-collar jobs who are likely to have higher education, and own their suburban house. Education is seen as the key to advancement. They tend to support the Conservative Party, which stresses self-sufficiency and individualism. However, de-industrialization, increased social mobility, and the emergence of the knowledge economy have re-defined notions of class, so that numerous educated middle class people vote for the Labor Party.

Culture

Architecture

St Paul's Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1708.

The British Airways London Eye.

The earliest remnants of architecture in the United Kingdom are mainly Neolithic monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury, and Roman ruins such as the spa in Bath. Many castles remain from the medieval period and in most towns and villages the parish church is an indication of the age of the settlement, built as they were from stone rather than the traditional wattle and daub.

Over the two centuries following the Norman conquest of 1066], and the building of the Tower of London], many great castles such as Caernarfon Castle in Wales and Carrickfergus Castle in Ireland were built to suppress the natives. Large houses continued to be fortified until the Tudor period, when the first of the large gracious unfortified mansions such as the Elizabethan Montacute House and Hatfield House were built.

The English Civil War (1642—1649) proved to be the last time in British history that houses had to survive a siege. Corfe Castle was destroyed following an attack by Oliver Cromwell's army, but Compton Wynyates survived a similar ordeal. After this date houses were built purely for living, and design and appearance were for ever more important than defence.

Just prior to the Civil War, Inigo Jones, who is regarded as the first significant British architect, came to prominence. He was responsible for importing the Palladian manner of architecture to Britain from Italy; the Queen's House at Greenwich is perhaps his best surviving work.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 an opportunity was missed in London to create a new metropolitan city, featuring modern architectural styles. Although one of the best known British architects, Sir Christopher Wren, was employed to design and rebuild many of the ruined ancient churches of London, his master plan for rebuilding London as a whole was rejected. It was in this period that he designed the building that he is perhaps best known for, St Paul's Cathedral.

In the early eighteenth century baroque architecture —popular in Europe — was introduced, and Blenheim Palace was built in this era. However, baroque was quickly replaced by a return of the Palladian form. The Georgian architecture of the eighteenth century was an evolved form of Palladianism. Many existing buildings such as Woburn Abbey and Kedleston Hall are in this style. Among the many architects of this form of architecture and its successors, neoclassicism and Romanticism, were Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers, and James Wyatt.

In the early nineteenth century the romantic medieval gothic style appeared as a backlash to the symmetry of Palladianism, and such buildings as Fonthill Abbey were built. By the middle of the nineteenth century, as a result of new technology, construction was able to develop incorporating steel as a building component; one of the greatest exponents of this was Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace. Paxton also continued to build such houses as Mentmore Towers, in the still popular retrospective English Renaissance styles. In this era of prosperity and development British architecture embraced many new methods of construction, but ironically in style, such architects as August Pugin ensured it remained firmly in the past.

At the beginning of the twentieth century a new form of design — arts and crafts — became popular. The architectural form of this style, which had evolved from the nineteenth century designs of such architects as George Devey, was championed by Edwin Lutyens. Arts and crafts in architecture is symbolized by an informal, non-symmetrical form, often with mullioned or lattice windows, multiple gables and tall chimneys. This style continued to evolve until World War II.

Following the Second World War reconstruction went through a variety of phases, but was heavily influenced by Modernism, especially from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Many bleak town centre redevelopments—criticised for featuring hostile, concrete-lined "windswept plazas"—were the fruit of this interest, as were many equally bleak public buildings, such as the Hayward Gallery. Many Modernist-inspired town centres are today in the process of being redeveloped.

However, it should not be forgotten that in the immediate post-war years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of council houses in vernacular style were built, giving working class people their first experience of private gardens and indoor sanitation.

Modernism remains a significant force in UK architecture, although its influence is felt predominantly in commercial buildings. The two most prominent proponents are Lord Rogers of Riverside and Lord Foster of Thames Bank. Rogers' iconic London buildings are probably Lloyd's Building and the Millennium Dome, while Foster created the Swiss Re Buildings]] (aka The Gherkin) and the City Hall (London).

Terraced houses are typical in inner cities and places of high population density

The United Kingdom has one of the highest population densities in Europe. Housing tends to be smaller and more closely packed than in other countries, particularly compared to North America. The British have a particular affinity with the terraced house, dating back to the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. The majority of surviving housing built before 1914 is of this type, and consequently it dominates inner residential areas. In the twentieth century the process of suburbanisation led to a spread of semi-detached and detached housing. In the aftermath of the Second World War, public housing was dramatically expanded to create a large number of council estates, although the majority of these have since been purchased by their tenants. Although many British people live in apartments, it is commonly argued that they are less comfortable with this form of living than their European counterparts. This is not the case in Scotland, where many more people live in this type of housing.

Art

Thomas Gainsborough's Blue boy, painted 1770.

The oldest art in the United Kingdom can be dated to the Neolithic period, and is found in a funerary context. But it is in the Bronze age that the first innovative artworks are found. The Beaker people, who arrived in Britain around 2500 B.C.E., were skilled in metal refining. At first, they worked mainly in copper, but around 2150 B.C.E., they learned how to make bronze. As there was a ready supply of tin in Cornwall and Devon, they were able to make take advantage of this new process. They were also skilled in the use of gold, and especially the Wessex culture excelled in the making of gold ornaments. Works of art placed in graves or sacrificial pits have survived, showing both innovation and high skill.

In the Iron Age, the Celtic culture spread in the British Isles, and with them a new art style. Metalwork, especially gold ornaments, was still important, but stone and most likely wood was also used. This style continued into the Roman period, and would find a renaissance in the Medieval period. It also survived in the Celtic areas not occupied by the Romans, largely corresponding to the present-day Wales and Scotland.

The Romans, arriving in the first century B.C.E., brought with them the Classical style. Many monuments have survived, especially funerary monuments, statues and busts. They also brought glasswork and mosaics. In the fourth century, a new element was introduced as the first Christian art was made in Britain. Several mosaics with Christian symbols and pictures have been preserved. The style of Romano-British art follows that of the continent, but there are some local specialities, to some extent influenced by Celtic art.

Roman rule was replaced by a number of kingdoms with different cultural backgrounds. The Celtic fringe gained back some of the power lost in the Roman period, and the Celtic style again became a factor influencing art all over Britain. Other peoples, such as the Saxons, Jutes and Danes, brought with them Germanic and Scandinavian art styles. Celtic and Scandinavian art have several common elements, such as the use of intricate, intertwined patterns of decoration. Leaving the debate over which style influenced the other most aside, it seems reasonable to say that in Britain the different style to some extent fused into a British Celtic-Scandinavian hybrid.

The Grand Canal, Venice by J. M. W. Turner, painted 1835.

Anglo-Saxon sculpting was outstanding for its time in the eleventh century, as proved by pre-Norman ivory carvings. Christianity started spreading among the people of Britain from the end of the sixth century. Celtic high crosses show the use of Celtic patterns in Christian art. Scenes from the Bible were depicted, framed with the ancient patterns. Some ancient symbols were redefined. Murals were painted on the white-chalked walls of stone churches, and stained glass was used in church and other windows.

The English Renaissance, starting in the early sixteenth century, was mainly concerned with music and literature; in art and architecture the change was not as clearly defined as in the continent. Painters from the continent continued to find work in Britain, and brought the new styles with them, especially the Flemish and Italian Renaissance styles.

The Peacock Skirt, by Aubrey Beardsley.

As a reaction to abstract expressionism, pop art emerged originally in England at the end of the 1950s.

Notable visual artists from the United Kingdom include John Constable, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner. Twentieth century artists included Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, and the pop artists Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake. New York-born Sir Jacob Epstein was a pioneer of modern sculpture.

More recently, the so-called Young British Artists have gained some notoriety, particularly Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Notable illustrators include Aubrey Beardsley, Roger Hargreaves, and Beatrix Potter.

Notable arts institutions include the Allied Artists' Association, Royal College of Art, Artists' Rifles, Royal Society of Arts, New English Art Club, Slade School of Art, Royal Academy, and the Tate Gallery.

Cinema

File:Get Carter poster.jpg

Michael Caine] in Get Carter (1971).

The United Kingdom has been influential in the technological, commercial, and artistic development of cinema and probably second only to the USA in producing the greatest quantity of world-wide film stars. Despite a history of successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity (including economic and cultural issues) and the influences of American and European cinema, although it is fair to say a brief "golden age" was enjoyed in the 1940s from the studios of J. Arthur Rank and Korda.

Film production in the UK has experienced a number of booms and recessions. Although many factors can be used to measure the success of the industry, the number of British films produced each year gives an overview of its development: the industry experienced a boom as it first developed in the 1910s, but during the 1920s experienced a recession caused by US competition and commercial practices. The Cinematograph Films Act 1927 introduced protective measures, leading to recovery and an all-time production high of 192 films in 1936. However, over-expansion caused a major crash, and low production continued throughout World War II.

Film production recovered after the war, with a long period of relative stability and growing American investment. But another recession hit the industry in the mid-1970s, reaching an all-time low of 24 films in 1981. Low production continued throughout the 1980s, but it increased again in the 1990s with renewed private and public investment. Although production levels give an overview, the history of British cinema is complex, with various cultural movements developing independently. Some of the most successful films were made during recessions, such as Chariots of Fire (1981).

Clothing

The kilt is a traditional Scottish garment.

There is no specifically British national costume. Even individually, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have only vestiges of a national costume; Scotland has the kilt and Tam o'shanter (hat). In England certain military uniforms such as the Beefeater or the Queen's Guard are considered to be symbolic of Englishness, though they are not official national costumes. Morris dancers or the costumes for the traditional English May dance are cited by some as examples of traditional English costume.

This is in large part due to the critical role that British sensibilities have played in world clothing since the eighteenth century. Particularly during the Victorian era, British fashions defined acceptable dress for men of business. Key figures such as Beau Brummell, the future Edward VII and Edward VIII created the modern suit and cemented its dominance. As such, it could be argued that the national costume of the British male is a three-piece suit, necktie and bowler hat - an image regularly used by cartoonists as a caricature of Britishness.

Cuisine

The Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and yorkshire pudding.

Fish and chips.

Although there is ample evidence of a rich and varied approach to cuisine during earlier historical periods (particularly so among wealthy citizens), during much of the nineteenth and twentieth century Britain had a reputation for somewhat conservative cuisine. The stereotype of the native cuisine was of a diet progressing little beyond stodgy meals consisting of "meat and two veg". Even today, in more conservative areas of the country, "meat and veg" cuisine is still the favoured choice at the dinner table.

Traditional British fare usually includes dishes such as fish and chips; roast dishes of beef, lamb, chicken and pork; both sweet and savoury pies and puddings, as well as regional dishes such as the Cornish pasty and Lancashire Hotpot.

On January 8, 1940, four months after the outbreak of World War II, a system of food rationing was introduced to conserve stocks and feed the nation during the critical war years. Rationing persisted until July 4, 1954 when a fourteen year period of relative privation (which profoundly affected a generation of people attitude to "a culture of food") finally came to an end. With the end of rationing, Britain's diet began to change, slowly at first during the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of such people as Elizabeth David, but immeasurably by the closing decades of the twentieth century.

During the transitional period of the 1970s, a number of influential figures such as Delia Smith (perhaps Britain's most famous homegrown exponent of good food), began the drive to encourage greater experimentation with the new ingredients (e.g. pasta) increasingly being offered by the supermarkets. The evolution of the British diet was further accelerated with the increasing tendency of the British to travel to continental Europe (and sometimes beyond) for their annual holidays, experiencing new and unfamiliar dishes as they travelled to countries such as France, Italy, and Spain.

Towards the mid to late 1990s and onwards an explosion of talented new TV chefs began to come to prominence, (with figures as diverse as Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, Ken Hom, Nigella Lawson, Madhur Jaffrey, Nigel Slater, James Martin and Keith Floyd) this brought about a noticeable acceleration in the diversity of cuisine the general public were prepared to try and their general confidence in preparing food that had would once have been considered pure staples of foreign cultures, particularly the Mediterranean European, South and East Asian diets. As a result, a new style of cooking called Modern British emerged.

This process of increased variety and experimentation in food inevitably dovetailed with the very profound impact that the post-war influx of immigrants to the UK (many from Britain's former colonies in the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent) had on the national cuisine. The new communities propelled new and exciting dishes and ingredients onto restaurant tables and into the national consciousness. In many instances, British tastes fused with the new dishes to produce entirely new dishes such as the Balti, an English invention based on Indian cuisine that has since gained popularity across the world. Many of these new dishes have since become deeply embedded in the native culture, culminating in a speech in 2001 by Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, in which he described Chicken Tikka Masala as "a true British national dish."

Literature

William Shakespeare, famed playwright

The countries that make up the United Kingdom have provided some of the world's most notable and popular authors, poets and literary figures. The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the English language.

Many world-famous writers and poets lived and wrote in the United Kingdom. England is particularly well represented in the history of the novel. Early English writers who could be described as novelists include Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth. These romantic writers were followed by a wave of more realistic writers in later centuries, including Jane Austen (often credited with inventing the modern novel), Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells. In the 20th century, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, J. R. R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Graham Greene and Ian McEwan all excelled. Tolkien became one of the most popular writers of the modern world, returning to a Romantic view of fiction. Childrens' author J. K. Rowling has had huge recent success.

Wales and Scotland have also contributed many fine writers to the UK's stock of great literature, particularly in poetry. In the early medieval period, Welsh writers composed the famous Mabinogion. In modern times, the poets R.S. Thomas and Dylan Thomas bring Welsh culture and ideas to a world audience. In Romantic literature, Scotland offers Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson's epic adventures and the leading poet of his day, Robert Burns. Modern Scottish writers like Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn helped develop a distinct modernist and nationalist Scottish voice, sometimes termed the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's detective stories set in Edinburgh.

Many authors from other nationalities, particularly the Irish, and from Commonwealth countries, have also lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathon Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad and Salman Rushdie. Kazuo Ishiguro offers another viewpoint, that of a Japanese author working in the United Kingdom and writing on British themes such as social class.

The history of the theatre in the United Kingdom is particularly vivid. Shakespeare's contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson add depth to the early theatre. More recently Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism. Nobel prize-winning Samuel Beckett is a particularly important Irish playwright who has strongly influenced the theatre of modernism.

Important poets include Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, William Blake, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, Lord Tennyson, T. S. Eliot, R. S. Thomas, Wilfred Owen, John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden and Ted Hughes.

Further information: English literature, Scottish literature and Welsh literature

Media

The UK has a virtually unrivalled number of media outlets, and the prominence of the English language gives it a widespread international dimension.

The BBC is the UK's publicly-funded radio and television broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest broadcaster in the world. Funded by the compulsory television licence, the BBC operates several television networks and radio stations both in the UK and abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World, is broadcast throughout the world and the BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in 33 languages globally. The major television networks in the UK are BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Five and BSkyB. The vast majority of digital cable services are provided by NTL:Telewest (created by the merger of NTL and Telewest in March 2006), and free-to-air digital terrestrial television by Freeview.

Radio in the UK is dominated by BBC Radio, which operates 10 national networks and over 40 local radio stations. The most popular radio station, by number of listeners, is BBC Radio 2, closely followed by BBC Radio 1. There are also hundreds of commercial radio stations which are largely local-based offering up a variety of music or talk formats.

Traditionally British newspapers could be split into "quality", serious-minded newspapers (usually referred to as broadsheets because of their large size) and tabloid, popular newspapers. However, because of considerations of convenience of reading, many traditional broadsheets have both switched to a 'compact'-sized format, traditionally used by tabloids. The Sun has the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the UK, with approximately a quarter of the market; its sister paper, The News of The World similarly leads the Sunday newspaper market ^[9], and traditionally focuses on celebrity-led stories. The Daily Telegraph, a right-of-centre paper, is the highest selling of the qualities (former broadsheets), having overtaken The Times in circulation figures. ^[10] The Guardian is a more liberal or left-wing former broadsheet. The Financial Times is the main business paper, printed on distinctive salmon-pink broadsheet paper.

Music

Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Lord Benjamin Britten who pioneered British opera.

The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the world's most famous rock bands including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Deep Purple, The Who, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and The Rolling Stones. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock with bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash, music in the 1970s as well as the creation of heavy metal along with being the birthplace of the Goth youth culture. The late-1970s and 1980s saw the rise of Post-Punk and New Wave. The so-called 'Second British Invasion' into the US popular music scene took place from 1982 to 1984 when UK bands flooded the US Billboard charts. In the mid to late-1990s, the Britpop phenomenon saw bands such as Radiohead, Oasis and Blur attain considerable national and international success. The 1990s also saw the rise of major Welsh bands such as The Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers helping this mainly underground genre to cross over into the mainstream (having originated in the early-90's with techno bands such as Orbital). Also British pop producers Stock Aitken Waterman - dominated the charts in the late-80's and early-90's with their instantly recognisable brand of pop from acts including today's pop superstar, Kylie Minogue. The 1990s charts were also dominated by the boy band phenomenon, with groups such as Take That thriving amongst countless others. Girl groups like the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud also found considerable success. UK Garage developed out of the urban music scene towards the end of the decade, through popular acts such as the Artful Dodger. The popularity of 'soft rock' bands such as Coldplay has increased, whilst indie music has grown in profile, with Arctic Monkeys enjoying chart success and Pete Doherty gaining newspaper headlines. 'Reality-TV' have also produced a new generation of popstars.

Theatre

William Shakespeare, chief figure of the English Renaissance, is here seen in the Chandos portrait.

The United Kingdom also has a vibrant tradition of theatre. Theatre was introduced to the UK from Europe by the Romans and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose.

By the medieval period theatre had developed with the mummers' plays, a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance, concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood. These were folk tales re-telling old stories, and the actors travelled from town to town performing these for their audiences in return for money and hospitality. The medieval mystery plays and morality plays, which dealt with Christian themes, were performed at religious festivals.

The reign of Elizabeth I in the late 16th and early 17th century saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts. Perhaps the most famous playwright in the world, William Shakespeare, wrote around 40 plays that are still performed in theatres across the world to this day. They include tragedies, such as Hamlet (1603), Othello (1604), and King Lear (1605); comedies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1594—96) and Twelfth Night (1602); and history plays, such as Henry IV, part 1—2. The Elizabethan age is sometimes nicknamed "the age of Shakespeare" for the amount of influence he held over the era. Other important Elizabethan and 17th-century playwrights include Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster.

Aphra Behn was the first professional woman playwright.

During the Interregnum 1642—1660, English theatres were kept closed by the Puritans for religious and ideological reasons. When the London theatres opened again with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they flourished under the personal interest and support of Charles II. Wide and socially mixed audiences were attracted by topical writing and by the introduction of the first professional actresses (in Shakespeare's time, all female roles had been played by boys). New genres of the Restoration were heroic drama, pathetic drama, and Restoration comedy. The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such as William Wycherley's The Country Wife (1676), The Rover (1677) by the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696), and William Congreve's The Way of the World (1700). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court.

In the 18th century, the highbrow and provocative Restoration comedy lost favour, to be replaced by sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy such as George Lillo's The London Merchant (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italian opera. Popular entertainment became more important in this period than ever before, with fair-booth burlesque and mixed forms that are the ancestors of the English music hall. These forms flourished at the expense of legitimate English drama, which went into a long period of decline. By the early 19th century it was no longer represented by stage plays at all, but by the closet drama, plays written to be privately read in a "closet" (a small domestic room).

A change came in the late 19th century with the plays on the London stage by the Irishmen George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, all of whom influenced domestic English drama and vitalised it again.

Today the West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred around Shaftesbury Avenue. A prolific composer of the 20th century Andrew Lloyd Webber has dominated the West End for a number of years and his musicals have travelled to Broadway in New York and around the world, as well as being turned into films.

The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon in England, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays.

Important modern playwrights include Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Arnold Wesker.

Sport

Tennis originated in the UK. The Wimbledon championships Grand Slam tournament is held in London every July.

A number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including association football (football, or soccer), rugby football (rugby), golf, cricket, tennis and boxing.

The most popular sport in the UK is association football (known as soccer in North America and Australia), commonly referred to as just "football". The UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which are to be hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. It is in this way that rugby football differs internationally to association football, as the England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (including Northern Ireland) teams do come together to form the British and Irish Lions, though they do all compete separately internationally for the most part.

The UK is home to many world-renowned football clubs, such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal in England, and Celtic and Rangers in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. British teams are generally successful in European Competitions and several have become European Cup/UEFA Champions League winners: Liverpool (five times), Manchester United (twice), Nottingham Forest (twice), Aston Villa and Celtic.

File:NewWembleyBuild.jpg

Wembley Stadium when completed will be the largest football stadium in the United Kingdom.

The UK's most traditional sport is cricket. Cricket was invented in England and is one of the oldest still played sports in the world. There are league championships but most just support the national team. Like with football there is no UK team. There is only an England side but many Welsh and Scottish players have played for England. English cricket grounds include Lords, The Brit Oval, Headingly, Old Trafford, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

By far the UK's most successful sport, if judged by the number of wins in the international arena, is rowing which holds a strong presence amongst other rowing nations such as Australia, Canada and Germany. It is widely considered that the UK's most successful sportsperson is Steven Redgrave who won five gold and one bronze medals at five consecutive Olympic Games as well as numerous wins at the World Rowing Championships and Henley Royal Regatta.

Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby league originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played predominantly in Wales, Northern Ireland and Southern England. Having supposedly originated from the actions of William Webb Ellis at the town of Rugby, it is considered the national sport of Wales. In rugby league the UK plays as one nation – Great Britain – though in union it is represented by four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (which consists of players from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). England is the current holder of the Rugby World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions tour either Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

The Wimbledon Championships are international tennis events held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews regarded as the worldwide "Home of Golf".

Thoroughbred racing is also very popular in England. It originated under Charles II of England as the "Sport of Kings" and is a royal pastime to this day. World-famous horse races include the Grand National and the Epsom Derby.

Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK, and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course. Cricket is also popular; although the popularity of the game is dramatically greater in England than in other parts of the UK, all four constituent nations as of 2006 compete at the One-Day International level – Scotland independently, Wales as part of the English team, and Northern Ireland as part of All-Ireland.

Shinty or camanachd (a sport derived from the same root as the Irish hurling and similar to bandy) is popular in the Scottish Highlands, sometimes attracting crowds numbering thousands in the most sparsely populated region of the UK.

The country is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One and the World Rally Championship are based in the UK. The country also hosts legs of the F1 and World Rallying Championship calendars and has its own Touring Car Racing championship, the BTCC.

British Formula One World Champions include Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill (twice), Jim Clark (twice), John Surtees (who was also successful on motorcycles), Jackie Stewart (three times), James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, and Graham Hill's son, Damon Hill. British drivers have not been as successful in the World Rally Championship, with only Colin McRae and the late Richard Burns winning the title.

Symbols

The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth.

The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (commonly known as the "Union Jack", though this is technically only correct when at sea). Created from the superimposition of the flags of England (St George's Cross) and Scotland (Saint Andrew's Cross); the Saint Patrick's cross, representing Ireland, was added to this in 1801.

The national anthem of the UK is God Save the Queen.^[11]

Britannia is a personification of the UK, originating from the Roman occupation of southern and central Great Britain^[12]. Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding the back of a lion. In modern usage, Britannia is often associated with maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song Rule Britannia.

File:Proof-gold-britannia.jpg

Britannia, featured on Royal Mint gold bullion coin

The lion has also been used as a symbol of the UK; one is depicted behind Britannia on the 50 pence piece and one is shown crowned on the back of the 10 pence piece, it is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Lions have been used as heraldic devices many times, including in the royal arms of both the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Kingdom of Gwynedd in Wales. The lion is featured on the emblem of the England national football team, giving rise to the popular football anthem Three Lions.

The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of Great Britain.

Britain (especially England) is also personified as the character John Bull.

The ancient British landscape, and especially some of its distinctive fauna such as the oak tree and the rose, have long been a widely-used proxy for the visual representation of British identity.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

↑ "The Act of Union with Wales", SchoolsHistory.org.uk, 7 November 2004. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
↑ "The Treaty (or Act) of Union, 1707". Retrieved 15 May 2006.
↑ "The Act of Union", Act of Union Virtual Library. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
↑ "The Anglo-Irish Treaty, 6 December 1921", CAIN. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
↑ Ferguson, Niall (2003). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02328-2.
↑ "Modest progress but always on back foot", Times Online, 21 December 2005. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
↑ "European Constitution: bad for Britain, bad for Europe", Conservative Party. Retrieved 23 May 2006.
↑ "The UK's five tests", BBC News, 21 November 2002. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
↑ ABC Newspaper Circulation Figures The Times, May 12 2006, accessed May 16 2006.
↑ Audit Bureau of Circulation Interactive Analysis National Newspaper Selection - Average Net Circulation (UK) 03-Jul-2006 to 30-Jul-2006. Retrieved 2006-09-04. Lists Daily Telegraph as 844,929 and The Times as 620,456.
↑ It is sometimes asserted by those used to a legislative tradition that God Save the Queen is not the actual national anthem of the UK, (or sometimes that it is the de facto national anthem) because no law has ever been passed to say that that is the case. In the UK however such laws are unnecessary; custom, practice and proclamation are sufficient to establish it as the official national anthem.
↑ Britannia on British Coins. Chard. Retrieved 2006-06-25.

External links

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[1] "The Act of Union with Wales", SchoolsHistory.org.uk, 7 November 2004. Retrieved 15 May 2006.

[2] "The Treaty (or Act) of Union, 1707". Retrieved 15 May 2006.

[3] "The Act of Union", Act of Union Virtual Library. Retrieved 15 May 2006.

[4] "The Anglo-Irish Treaty, 6 December 1921", CAIN. Retrieved 15 May 2006.

[5] Ferguson, Niall (2003). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02328-2.

[6] "Modest progress but always on back foot", Times Online, 21 December 2005. Retrieved 16 May 2006.

[7] "European Constitution: bad for Britain, bad for Europe", Conservative Party. Retrieved 23 May 2006.

[fivetests-8] "The UK's five tests", BBC News, 21 November 2002. Retrieved 16 May 2006.

[9] ABC Newspaper Circulation Figures The Times, May 12 2006, accessed May 16 2006.

[10] Audit Bureau of Circulation Interactive Analysis National Newspaper Selection - Average Net Circulation (UK) 03-Jul-2006 to 30-Jul-2006. Retrieved 2006-09-04. Lists Daily Telegraph as 844,929 and The Times as 620,456.

[11] It is sometimes asserted by those used to a legislative tradition that God Save the Queen is not the actual national anthem of the UK, (or sometimes that it is the de facto national anthem) because no law has ever been passed to say that that is the case. In the UK however such laws are unnecessary; custom, practice and proclamation are sufficient to establish it as the official national anthem.

[12] Britannia on British Coins. Chard. Retrieved 2006-06-25.

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@@ Line 384: / Line 384: @@
 === Cinema ===
-[[Image:Get Carter poster.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Michael Caine] in ''Get Carter'' (1971).]]
+[[Image:Get Carter poster.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Michael Caine] in ''Get Carter'' (1971).]]
 The United Kingdom has been influential in the technological, commercial, and artistic development of [[Film|cinema]] and probably second only to the [[USA]] in producing the greatest quantity of world-wide film stars. Despite a history of successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity (including economic and cultural issues) and the influences of American and European cinema, although it is fair to say a brief "golden age" was enjoyed in the 1940s from the studios of J. Arthur Rank and Korda.
@@ Line 393: / Line 393: @@
 ===Clothing===
 [[image:Bagpipe_performer.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The kilt is a traditional Scottish garment.]]
-There is no specifically British national costume.  Even individually, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have only vestiges of a national costume; Scotland has the [[kilt]] and [[Tam o'shanter (hat)|Tam o'shanter]].  In England certain [[military]] [[uniform]]s such as the [[Yeomen Warders|Beefeater]] or the [[Queen's Guard]] are considered to be symbolic of Englishness, though they are not official national costumes.  [[Morris dance|Morris dancers]] or the costumes for the traditional English [[May dance]] are cited by some as examples of traditional English costume.
+There is no specifically British national costume. Even individually, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have only vestiges of a national costume; Scotland has the [[kilt]] and [[Tam o'shanter (hat)]].  In England certain military uniforms such as the [[Beefeater]] or the [[Queen's Guard]] are considered to be symbolic of Englishness, though they are not official national costumes. [[Morris dancers]] or the costumes for the traditional English [[May dance]] are cited by some as examples of traditional English costume.
 This is in large part due to the critical role that British sensibilities have played in world clothing since the eighteenth century. Particularly during the Victorian era, British fashions defined acceptable dress for men of business. Key figures such as [[Beau Brummell]], the future [[Edward VII]] and [[Edward VIII]] created the modern suit and cemented its dominance. As such, it could be argued that the national costume of the British male is a [[three-piece suit]], [[necktie]] and [[bowler hat]] - an image regularly used by cartoonists as a caricature of Britishness.
@@ Line 400: / Line 400: @@
 [[Image:Sunday roast - roast beef 1.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and yorkshire pudding.]]
 [[Image:Fishandchips.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Fish and chips.]]
-Although there is ample evidence of a rich and varied approach to cuisine during earlier historical periods (particularly so amongst wealthy citizens), during much of the 19th and 20th century Britain had a reputation for somewhat conservative cuisine. The stereotype of the native cuisine was of a diet progressing little beyond stodgy meals consisting of "meat and two veg". Even today, in more conservative areas of the country, "meat and veg" cuisine is still the favoured choice at the dinner table.
+Although there is ample evidence of a rich and varied approach to cuisine during earlier historical periods (particularly so among wealthy citizens), during much of the nineteenth and twentieth century Britain had a reputation for somewhat conservative cuisine. The stereotype of the native cuisine was of a diet progressing little beyond stodgy meals consisting of "meat and two veg". Even today, in more conservative areas of the country, "meat and veg" cuisine is still the favoured choice at the dinner table.
-Traditional British fare usually includes dishes such as [[fish and chips]]; roast dishes of beef, lamb, chicken and pork; both sweet and savoury pies and puddings, as well as regional dishes such as the [[Pasty|Cornish pasty]] and [[Lancashire Hotpot]].
+Traditional British fare usually includes dishes such as [[fish and chips]]; roast dishes of beef, lamb, chicken and pork; both sweet and savoury pies and puddings, as well as regional dishes such as the [[Cornish pasty]] and [[Lancashire Hotpot]].
-On 8 January 1940, four months after the outbreak of [[World War II]], a system of food [[Rationing]] was introduced to conserve stocks and feed the nation during the critical war years. Rationing persisted until July 4, 1954 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_3818000/3818563.stm] when a fourteen year period of relative privation (which profoundly affected a generation of people attitude to 'a culture of food') finally came to an end. With the end of rationing, Britain's diet began to change, slowly at first during the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of such people as [[Elizabeth David]], but immeasurably by the closing decades of the 20th century.
+On January 8, 1940, four months after the outbreak of [[World War II]], a system of food [[rationing]] was introduced to conserve stocks and feed the nation during the critical war years. Rationing persisted until July 4, 1954 when a fourteen year period of relative privation (which profoundly affected a generation of people attitude to "a culture of food") finally came to an end. With the end of rationing, Britain's diet began to change, slowly at first during the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of such people as [[Elizabeth David]], but immeasurably by the closing decades of the twentieth century.
 During the transitional period of the 1970s, a number of influential figures such as [[Delia Smith]] (perhaps Britain's most famous homegrown exponent of good food), began the drive to encourage greater experimentation with the new ingredients (e.g. pasta) increasingly being offered by the supermarkets. The evolution of the British diet was further accelerated with the increasing tendency of the British to travel to continental Europe (and sometimes beyond) for their annual holidays, experiencing new and unfamiliar dishes as they travelled to countries such as France, Italy, and Spain.
-Towards the mid to late 1990s and onwards an explosion of talented new 'TV chefs' began to come to prominence, (with figures as diverse as [[Jamie Oliver]], [[Ainsley Harriott]], [[Ken Hom]], [[Nigella Lawson]], [[Madhur Jaffrey]], Nigel Slater, James Martin and [[Keith Floyd]]) this brought about a noticeable acceleration in the diversity of cuisine the general public were prepared to try and their general confidence in preparing food that had would once have been considered pure staples of foreign cultures, particularly the Mediterranean European, South and East Asian diets. As a result, a new style of cooking called [[Modern British cuisine|Modern British]] emerged.
+Towards the mid to late 1990s and onwards an explosion of talented new TV chefs began to come to prominence, (with figures as diverse as [[Jamie Oliver]], [[Ainsley Harriott]], [[Ken Hom]], [[Nigella Lawson]], [[Madhur Jaffrey]], Nigel Slater, James Martin and [[Keith Floyd]]) this brought about a noticeable acceleration in the diversity of cuisine the general public were prepared to try and their general confidence in preparing food that had would once have been considered pure staples of foreign cultures, particularly the Mediterranean European, South and East Asian diets. As a result, a new style of cooking called [[Modern British]] emerged.
-This process of increased variety and experimentation in food inevitably dovetailed with the very profound impact that the post-war influx of [[immigrant]]s to the UK (many from Britain's former colonies in the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent) had on the national cuisine. The new communities propelled new and exciting dishes and ingredients onto restaurant tables and into the national consciousness. In many instances, British tastes fused with the new dishes to produce entirely new dishes such as the [[Balti (food)|Balti]], an English invention based on Indian cuisine that has since gained popularity across the world. Many of these new dishes have since become deeply embedded in the native culture, culminating in a speech in 2001 by Foreign Secretary, [[Robin Cook]], in which he described [[Chicken Tikka Masala]] as 'a true British national dish' [http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,657407,00.html].
+This process of increased variety and experimentation in food inevitably dovetailed with the very profound impact that the post-war influx of [[immigrant]]s to the UK (many from Britain's former colonies in the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent) had on the national cuisine. The new communities propelled new and exciting dishes and ingredients onto restaurant tables and into the national consciousness. In many instances, British tastes fused with the new dishes to produce entirely new dishes such as the [[Balti (food)|Balti]], an English invention based on Indian cuisine that has since gained popularity across the world. Many of these new dishes have since become deeply embedded in the native culture, culminating in a speech in 2001 by Foreign Secretary, [[Robin Cook]], in which he described [[Chicken Tikka Masala]] as "a true British national dish."
-With the rich diversity of its peoples and its (arguably) relatively successful attempts at creating a true multicultural society, married to a reputation as an experimental and forward thinking nation, the future of British cuisine looks positive.
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