The United Kingdom Portal
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 93,628 square miles (242,500 km2), with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people.
The United Kingdom is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 1952. The capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with a metropolitan area population of over 14 million. Other major cities include Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and Leeds. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers.
The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 formed the Kingdom of Great Britain. Its union in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which formally adopted that name in 1927.
The United Kingdom has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the eighth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It has a high-income economy and a very high human development index rating, ranking 13th in the world. It also performs well in international rankings of education, healthcare, life expectancy and human development. It remains a great power in global affairs. The UK became the world's first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today the UK remains one of the world's great powers, with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific, technological and political influence internationally. It is a recognised nuclear state and is ranked fourth globally in military expenditure. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the United Nations, NATO, AUKUS, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interpol, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was a member state of the European Communities (EC) and its successor, the European Union (EU), from its accession in 1973 until its withdrawal in 2020 following a referendum held in 2016. (Full article...)
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Bodyline was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. It involved bowlers deliberately aiming the cricket ball at the bodies of batsmen. This caused several injuries to Australian players and led to ill-feeling between the countries that rose to diplomatic levels. Following the 1932–33 series, several authors, including many of the players involved in it, released books expressing various points of view about Bodyline. Many argued that it was a scourge on cricket and must be stamped out, while some claimed not to understand what all the fuss was about. (Full article...)
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J. R. R. Tolkien was a British writer and university professor and is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford University from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, with whom he shared membership in the literary discussion group the Inklings. In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumously published books about what he called a legendarium, a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages, and other literary essays about an imagined world called Arda (Middle-earth), and Middle-earth. Most of these works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Tolkien. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of modern fantasy literature". Tolkien's other published fiction includes stories not directly related to the legendarium, some of them originally told to his children. (Full article...)
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Did you know -
- ... that Alexandra Phillips and Alexandra Phillips stood against each other for election in South East England, and both were elected?
- ... that as the youngest UK Member of Parliament elected in 2019, Nadia Whittome became the Baby of the House?
- ... that many places in the United Kingdom were racially segregated and non-white customers were banned from using spaces and facilities, even though the law never officially permitted such a colour bar?
- ... that the London Forum, a British far-right organization, was described by an anti-fascist magazine as "[bridging] the fascist and Tory right"?
- ... that the name of the Squirrel Scouts section of the Scout Association in the United Kingdom was inspired in part by the thriving population of red squirrels on Brownsea Island, where Scouting began?
- ... that vehicles crossing Terras Bridge pass over a tidal river, an ungated level crossing, and the remains of a canal?
In the news
- 28 June 2022 – 2022 monkeypox outbreak
- 2022 monkeypox outbreak in the United Kingdom
- The United Kingdom reports nearly 200 cases of monkeypox. (GOV.UK)
- 28 June 2022 – Scottish independence
- Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, announces during a parliamentary debate session that an independence referendum bill will be tabled in the Scottish Parliament. The bill sets the date for the break-up vote at October 19, 2023. Sturgeon will try to bypass Prime Minister Boris Johnson's unlikely permission to conduct the referendum by referring the bill to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. (CNBC) (The Guardian)
- 22 June 2022 – 2021–2022 inflation surge
- Inflation in the United Kingdom reaches 9.1%, a 40-year record, as food and fuel prices continue to increase. (AP)
- 21 June 2022 – 2021–2022 inflation surge
- 2022 United Kingdom national rail strike
- Railway transport workers go on a nationwide general strike in the United Kingdom after talks on a 7% pay increase for workers collapses. The RMT says that industry executives have only offered a 2% increase in pay, which is well below rising inflation levels. (BBC News)
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