United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign state in the European Union. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, it includes the island of "Great Britain" (a term also applied loosely to refer to the whole country), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands.Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to its east, the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south-southwest. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 93,800 square miles (243,000 km²), the UK is the 80th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also is the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 64.5 million inhabitants.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. Its capital city is London, an important global city and financial centre with an urban population of 10,310,000, the fourth-largest in Europe and second-largest in the European Union. The current monarch—since 6 February 1952—is Queen Elizabeth II. The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The latter three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. The nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.

United Kingdom (disambiguation)

The United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe.

United Kingdom may also refer to:

United Kingdom (album)

United Kingdom is the fourth album by American Music Club. It was recorded primarily for the UK, where the band had a larger following than in their native USA, and consists of a mixture of studio and live tracks. The LP was produced by Tom Mallon who also produced the band's previous three LPs, The Restless Stranger, Engine and California. United Kingdom contained the song "Kathleen", the most obvious of many that Mark Eitzel has composed about his long-term muse, Kathleen Burns.

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Eitzel.

Personnel

Politics of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a unitary democracy governed within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majesty's Government, on behalf of and by the consent of the Monarch, as well as by the devolved Governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Northern Ireland Executive. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The UK political system is a multi-party system. Since the 1920s, the two largest political participation have been the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Before the Labour Party rose in British politics, the Liberal Party was the other major political party along with the Conservatives. Though coalition and minority governments have been an occasional feature of parliamentary politics, the first-past-the-post electoral system used for general elections tends to maintain the dominance of these two parties, though each has in the past century relied upon a third party such as the Liberal Democrats to deliver a working majority in Parliament. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government held office from 2010 until 2015, the first coalition since 1945. The coalition ended following Parliamentary elections on May 7, 2015, in which the Conservative Party won an outright majority of 330 seats in the House of Commons, while their coalition partners lost all but eight seats.

Outline of political science

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to politics and political science:

Politics – the exercise of power; process by which groups of people make collective decisions. Politics is the art or science of running governmental or state affairs (including behavior within civil governments), institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the corporate, academic, and religious segments of society.

Political science – the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior.

Branches of political science

Fields of study of political science

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established on 1 January 1801 under the terms of the Acts of Union 1800, by which the nominally separate kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were united. In 1922, twenty-six of thirty-two counties of Ireland seceded to form the Irish Free State (later becoming the Republic of Ireland) and, to reflect the change in the United Kingdom's boundaries, the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 formally amended the name of the UK Parliament to the "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

The period began with the newly formed United Kingdom defeating the French Empire in 1814 in the Napoleonic Wars. As a direct result of this, the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century. Great Britain and the northeast of Ireland industrialised rapidly, whereas the rest of Ireland did not, deepening economic and social disparities between them. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland, and increased calls for Irish land reform and the devolution of executive power. During and after the Great War, the rise of Irish nationalism and physical force republicanism eventually culminated in the Irish War of Independence, and in 1922 the partition of Ireland between the newly founded Irish Free State and the northeast, which opted to remain part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.

United Kingdom Pavilion at Epcot

The United Kingdom Pavilion is a United Kingdom-themed pavilion that is part of the World Showcase, within Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Its location is between the French and Canadian Pavilions.

Layout

The United Kingdom Pavilion, designed to look like a stereotypical British village, has English gardens including a hedge maze.

The shops sell British items, such as tea, toys, clothing, and Beatles merchandise.

A band called the British Revolution performed British rock music covers from acts such as the Police, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Blur, and Led Zeppelin.

A comedic group, known as the World Showcase Players, used to perform humorous and interactive versions of "King Arthur and the Holy Grail" and "Romeo and Juliet" (renamed "Romeo and Edna").

Attractions and services

Attraction

Dining