Political Party System

The political party system has existed in the country since the 17^th century. Organized political parties present their policies in the form of manifestos to the electorate for consideration during the intensive few weeks of campaigning before General Election Day. A party candidate in a constituency is elected to Parliament on a combination of election manifesto, the personality of the candidate and the attraction of the party. It should be noted, though, that party activity is not limited by the election period itself but continues as the politicians battle for power and the ears of the electorate.

 

For the last 250 years a predominantly two-party system has operated in Britain. Until 1918 it were the Conservatives (still known by their previous nickname, the ‘Tories’) and the Liberals (the party which traces its origins to the 18^th century ‘Whigs’) that took turns at holding power. Since 1945 either the Conservative Party or the Labour Party has held power.

 

 

V. MASS MEDIA

 

Newspapers

The communication media of Great Britain, press, broadcasting and TV, are among the most influential in the world. There is no censorship of press in Great Britain but the editors of newspapers are responsible for what they publish.

There are four “quality dailies“, The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph which contain a great variety of national and international news, reports from parliamentary debates, reviews of the arts, features about fashion and sport and business news. They present different political views and orientations but they are not organs of political parties.

The Times is the most famous of them all. It is an independent paper, which has got three weekly supplements: The Times Literary, Educational and Higher Education Supplement, which are published and sold separately. The Daily Telegraph is a right-wing paper and The Guardian is in general a paper of the left. The Financial Times publishes business news, stock exchange news, and also art reviews.

Then there are papers with a very high circulation such as the Daily Mirror and the Sun which belong to “popular papers“. They hardly publish any serious material; their articles mostly deal with sex scandals and money.

The British Sunday newspapers, such as The Observer and the Sunday Times have enormous circulation. They contain more pages than daily papers and usually publish articles concerned with comment and general information rather than news. Several Sunday papers publish a magazine supplement in color.

The British weekly political and literary journals such as The Economist, The New Statesman and Spectators have large nationwide circulation.

The satirically weekly, Punch, is an old British paper. It is not as popular among the young people as its rival, Private Eye.

Besides these there are many specialist weekly and monthly magazines for women and teenage girls, for people interested in various kinds of sports and hobbies, such as yachting, tennis, model railways, gardening and cars.

 

Radio, Television and Video

In Britain radio and television broadcasting is provided by the state-owned BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), which has a high international reputation for impartiality and objectivity.

The BBC has five radio programmes and two television channels. Its radio and television broadcasts include news, sport, educational, cultural and entertainment programmes. The BBCґs five programmes for radio broadcasting have their specializations. As for TV programmes the BBC has two TV channels (BBC 1 and BBC 2) and two television channels (Channel 3 and Channel 4) are put out by independent commercial companies. The British are thus able to receive four TV channels. There are about a dozen regional TV companies which broadcast in their region some programmes of local interest.

Commercial satellite and cable TV was begun in 1990 by two companies which joined together and formed British Sky Broadcasting.

 

VII. ECONOMY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has the fourth largest economy in the world, the second largest in Europe. Its capital, London, is the largest financial centre in the world.

Energy resources

The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves. Due to North Sea oil, during the 1990s the UK became a net hydrocarbon exporter and the second largest producer of oil in Western Europe after Norway. In June 2004 hydrocarbon exports fell below imports for the first time, although they are not expected to do so permanently for some years.

 Due to the island location of the UK, the country has great potential for generating electricity from wave power and tidal power, although these have not yet been exploited on a commercial basis.

Industries

Main industries: machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment, metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food processing, textiles, clothing, and other consumer goods.

 

Agricultural products: cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry; fish.

Exports: manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco

Imports:

manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

Service industries: particularly banking, insurance, and business services employ around 70% of the working population. Manufacturing continues to decline in importance.

 

Mineral potential

 

Mineral resources within the UK are highly valued natural assets. Their extraction contributes 2.4 per cent of the national gross value added. They are the raw materials for many key industries including manufacturing, construction, power generation and transportation.

The UK has a variety of natural resources including geological ones such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, limestone, chalk, gypsum, silica, rock salt, china clay, iron ore, tin, silver, gold, lead as well as agricultural  (arable land, wheat, barley, sheep).

 

The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Due to the island location of the UK, the country has great potential for generating electricity from wave power and tidal power, although these have not yet been exploited on a commercial basis.

 

VIII. EDUCATION SYSTEM

 

Education in England may differ from the system used elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

 

Basically, there are two systems: one covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and one covering Scotland. The two education systems have different emphases. Traditionally the English, Welsh and Northern Irish system has emphasized depth of education whereas the Scottish system has emphasized breadth. Thus English, Welsh and Northern Irish students tend to sit a small number of more advanced examinations and Scottish students tend to sit a larger number of less advanced examinations. It should be noted that local English practice can vary from this general picture although Scottish practice is well nigh universal.

 

STAGES:

Pre-school (3-5 years): nursery school, playground, kindergarten;

Primary Education (5-11 years; 5-7 – infant school, pre-preparatory school; 7-11 years – junior school/preparatory school);

 

The school years in England and Wales

In general, the cut-off point for ages is the end of August, so all children must be of a particular age on the 1st of September in order to begin class that month.

Secondary Education (11\12 -16 years, comprehensive school, grammar school, public school);

 

Education in Scotland

 

Education in Scotland differs from the system used elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Basically, there are two systems: one covering England, Wales, or Northern Ireland and one covering Scotland. The two education systems have different emphases. Traditionally, the English, Welsh and Northern Irish system has emphasized depth of education whereas the Scottish system has emphasized breadth. Thus English, Welsh and Northern Irish students tend to sit a small number of more advanced examinations and Scottish students tend to sit a larger number of less advanced examinations.

 

Education in Northern Ireland

 

Education in Northern Ireland differs slightly from the system used elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The Northern Irish system emphasizes a greater depth of education compared to the English and Welsh systems.

 

 

Higher education

 

Higher education is education provided by universities and other institutions that award academic degrees, such as university colleges, and liberal arts colleges.

 

Higher education includes both the teaching and the research activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level and the graduate (or postgraduate) level. Higher education differs from other forms of post-secondary education such as vocational education. However, most professional education is included within higher education, and many postgraduate qualifications are strongly vocationally or professionally oriented, for example in disciplines such as law and medicine.

 

 

Degrees and Graduation

 

 There is a three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor) currently used in the United Kingdom.

 

A graduate student (also, grad student or grad in American English, postgraduate student or postgrad in British English) is an individual who has completed a bachelor's degree (B.A., B.S./B.Sc., or another flavor) and is pursuing further higher education, with the goal of achieving a master's degree (M.A., M.S./M.Sc., M.Ed., etc.) or doctorate (Ph.D., Ed.D., D.A., D.Sc., D.M.A., Th.D., etc.) In the United States, graduate education can also refer to those pursuing a post-master's Educational Specialist degree or post-master's Certificate of Advanced Study. The term usually does not refer to one in medical school and only occasionally refers to someone in law school or business school.

Admission

Admission to do a research degree in the UK typically requires the sponsorship of a professor. Admission to do a master's degree (based on coursework) depends upon having an undergraduate degree, generally in a related subject.

Life

Postgraduate work at universities in the UK is very intense.

Funding

It is very difficult to obtain funding for postgraduate study in the UK. There are a few scholarships for master's courses, but these are rare and dependent on the course and class of undergraduate degree obtained. Most master's students are self-funded.

Funding is available for some Ph.D. courses. There is more funding available to those in the sciences than in other disciplines

 

 

 

Public schools in the UK

 

A public school, in common British usage, is a school which is usually prestigious and historic, which charges fees, does not arbitrarily restrict admissions, and is financed by bodies other than the state, commonly as a private charitable trust. Often but not always they are boarding schools. Confusingly to a non-native English speaker a public school is actually a private school! In British usage, a government-run school (which would be called a 'public school' in other areas, such as the United States) is called a state school.

 

Many of the independent schools in the UK do not refer to themselves as public schools. Many choose to use the term independent school. In part this is due to a sense that some 'minor' public schools have many of the social associations and traditions of public schools but without the quality of teaching and extracurricular activities.

 

The term 'public' (first adopted by Eton) historically refers to the fact that the school was open to the paying public, as opposed to, a religious school that was only open to members of a certain church, and in contrast to private education at home (usually only practical for the very wealthy who could afford tutors).

 

Public schools played an important role in the development of the Victorian social elite. Under a number of forward-looking headmasters leading public schools developed a curriculum based heavily on classics and physical activity for boys and young men of the upper and upper middle classes. They were schools for the gentlemanly elite of Victorian politics, armed forces and colonial government. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to public school as a mark of participation in the elite (it was Martin Wiener's opposition to this tendency which inspired his 1981 polemic "English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit: 1850-1980", which became a huge influence on the Thatcher government's opposition to old-school gentlemanly Toryism and, by default, a key reason for the recent upsurge of privately-educated pop singers in the UK).

 

Public schools often relied heavily on the maintenance of discipline by older boys, both to reduce staffing costs and as preparation for military or public service.

 

While under the best circumstances the Victorian public schools were superb examples of education, the reliance on corporal punishment and the prefect system could also make them awful. The classics-based curriculum was criticised for not providing skills in sciences or engineering.

 

The public school system influenced the school systems of the British empire to an extent. Recognisably 'public' schools can be found in many Commonwealth countries.

 

Today most public schools are highly selective on academic grounds, as well as financial grounds (ability to pay high fees) and social grounds (often a family connection to the school is very desirable in admissions).

 

Here are some of the public schools in the UK:

Bedford School, Bradfield College, Charterhouse, Cheltenham College, Clifton College, Dover College, Dulwich College, Eton College, Harrow School, Lancing College, Malvern College, Oswestry School, Radley College, Repton School, Rossall School, Rugby School, Shrewsbury School, Tonbridge School, Wellington College, Westminster School.

 

IX. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Since the 19^th century both the British government and the people have faced and tried to solve the problem of environment pressures and degradation. However, Britain became more conscious of the degradation of their environment during the 1980s.

 

 It’s a well-known fact that Britain is the world’s first industrialized country and its cities were the first to suffer the so-called ‘smog’. London’s ‘pea-soupers’ (thick smogs) were described in the works of Ch. Dickens and Sherlock Holmes stories. At the end of 1952 a particularly bad smog occurred. It lasted for several days and claimed the lives of between 4,000 and 8,000 people.

 

Water pollution and the quality of water are also major problems. During the 1960s and 1970s laws were passed which stopped much of the pollution and improved the situation. However, rivers are still insufficiently protected against polluters.

 

One of the first measures to protect the natural environment was setting up ‘national parks’ and ‘areas of outstanding natural beauty’ (AONBs). Aims of NPs are to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage they contain. AONBs comprise areas of national landscape quality, but do not have the extensive areas of open country suitable for recreation that are found in NPs. In England and Wales alone 10 national parks were established. The largest of these are the Lake District, Snowdonia, Northumberland and the Peak District.

 

Another measure against environment degradation was creating Green Belts which are areas to be left open and protected from inappropriate building development so that pollution is reduced and people can seek recreation there. Green Belts have been established around major cities including London, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc.

 

The second half of the 20^th century saw new pressures on the natural environment. The growth of the population, in general, and those fond of tourism, in particular, resulted in heavy use of the protected areas during the summer. Two areas notably in danger are the Lake District and the Peak District in the Pennine Hills. National parks in Britain are already significantly different from those in most of Europe, because they are already man-modified landscapes. Many of the landscapes run the risk of development as leisure facilities. The more people will use and interfere with these NPs the more they will be degraded.

 

Commuters have also increased the pressure on the countryside from roads and houses.