Britain: Difference between revisions
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Useful information on British life and the United Kingdom for those who are not British.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or just United Kingdom, or UK, for short) is a state which sits on a collection of islands in ([[With Europe but Not of It|or "near"]]) the North-West of [[Europe (band)|Europe]], most particularly Great Britain and a northern part of the island of Ireland, as well as smaller islands like Orkney and Shetland. "Great Britain" is not the name of the country, at least not since 1801. Britain has two meanings, the first, more informal, is an abbreviation for "Great Britain". The second, more formal, is used for the entire United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland.
Britain (aka the UK) is made up of four "home nations": England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Wales was annexed by England in the middle ages (and the title of Wales' old ruler - Prince of Wales (''Tywysog Cymru'') - has been passed to the reigning English monarch's eldest son ever since) but Scotland's entry into this Union was via vote of the Scottish Parliament in the early 18th century which means, theoretically, Scotland entered as an equal. Because England and Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, this means that talking about the "Kingdom of England" (or of Scotland) after 1707 is incorrect as those entities had legally ceased to exist. (Which makes the common foreign—and frequently domestic—reference to Her Majesty as 'the Queen of England' a mistake). The title "United Kingdom" only came about when another Act of Union combined the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, though paragraph III of the 1707 Act of Union states "THAT the United Kingdom of Great Britain be Represented by one and the same Parliament..." and the description "United Kingdom" was in common parlance in the 18th century.
The King of England was also Lord of Ireland from 1171, and King of Ireland from 1541; Ireland joined the UK in 1801. Most of Ireland left again in 1921 to form the Irish Free State, which later became the Republic Of Ireland. Since 1999, Scotland and Wales have been partially self-governing through a new Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly respectively, though these bodies only have powers to deal with certain areas of government - education policy, for example. Scotland & Wales still elect MPs to the main London Parliament too, which retains control over national issues like defense. Northern Ireland is a portion of Ireland that remained part of the United Kingdom after the rest of Ireland decided to become independent (and, later, a republic) in the 20th century.
Variously described by names such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, the British Isles, Great Britain, Britain, England; many in fact refer to subtly different entities and these themselves may contain areas with different rules (the Channel Islands, Man, etc). It is perfectly easy to run across a construction like, ''"The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles but not governed by the British Prime Minister; though it is not part of the United Kingdom it is subject to the Queen of England"'' - all of which is essentially correct, but the hideous confusion all these overlapping and vaguely similar-sounding terms create is so great it is nearly impossible to explain the situation to someone unfamiliar with it. Especially not verbally, when this necessitates using phrases like "a man from Man has a British passport but is not technically British and certainly not from Great Britain" or "the Republic of Ireland in the island of Ireland is properly called Ireland"... Fortunately, the [[Tv Tropes Will Enhance Your Life|helpful magic of
[[File:britain-map 139.gif|frame|Oh, there it is the United Kingdom. Beyond Great Britain, see that? That's Northern Ireland.]]
The name 'Britain' has been traced back through the Latin 'Brittannia' back to 'Prydain' and the tribal 'Pretani', and most probably means 'the tattooed ones'.<ref>The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?</ref>
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Democracy in Britain proceeded through a series of parliamentary reforms, where power was gradually ceded from the nobility, to the common citizenry. Electoral suffrage widened slightly with the Great Reform Act of 1832 which was the first to enlarge the electorate, but still left it very narrow, based on income and with different rules in different places, allowing a fair bit of corruption. External events - specifically the [[The American Revolution|American]] and [[The French Revolution|French]] revolutions are generally held to have had a large influence on the decision to widen the vote. After this the electorate expanded relatively rapidly during the 19th Century so that for the first time over half of men could vote by 1884. In 1918 property restrictions were removed for all men, who could now vote at the age of 21, and some women were given the vote for the first time (although not on equal terms with men, suffering property and age restrictions). Historians will gladly discuss what caused the government to give women the vote, but the two simplest reasons are the campaigns of the militant suffragettes, and the work that women undertook during the First World War. Some people still held two votes - TOW says that 7% of the electorate held two votes. In 1928 women were allowed to vote at 21 just like men could, and in 1969 the voting age was reduced to 18, where it still stands today.
Once ruled the [[The British Empire|largest empire in world history]], but gave independence to the other countries after [[World War Two]]. A permanent member of the UN Security Council, and with [[Ultimate Defence of the Realm|its own nuclear weapons]] and one of the few remaining blue-water navies,
The British have a tendency to be [[Wicked Cultured]] when it comes to their own language, frequently throwing Latin, French, Spanish, German and Italian phrases into everyday conversation. Tellingly London has a population where over 250 languages are spoken. This is likely due to the fact that throughout history, there has been a steady influx of external cultural influences to the island nation, from Romans to Scandinavian to French, thus the need to evolve their language into a highly complicated pidgin to facilitate communication and trade.
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Britain creates sports and watches the rest of the world master them, with the exception of [[Self-Deprecation]], which nobody else seems to have the hang of.<ref>Australia and Canada do a pretty good job, but that's probably because they inherited it directly.</ref> As the only English-speaking country for most of history, a huge proportion of classic English-language literature originates from the British Isles.
The
Since Britain is the cradle of the English language, British English has been known as... [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|oh sod it. I never wanted to do this. Ranting in a page about the traits of a country in Europe. Discussing linguistics I have little base to know. I always wanted to be... A LUMBERJACK!]].
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** [[East Anglia]]
* [[Four Little Tax Havens]] (the Channel Islands)
* [[Gibraltar]]
* [[Stroke Country]] (Northern Ireland)
* [[Other British Towns and Cities]]
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** [[The Raj]]
* [[Victorian Britain]]
** [[Queen
* [[The Home Front]]
* [[Post War British Politics]]
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