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CONTENTS Chapter 1: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Unit 1: A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom 6 Unit 2: The Government of the United Kingdom 28 Chapt

ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI KHOA TIẾNG ANH

GIÁO TRÌNH ĐẤT NƯỚC HỌC

THE SOCIETY

OF MAJOR ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Hà Nội - 2019

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

THE SOCIETY

OF MAJOR ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Edited by: Le Thi Vy

Ngo Thi Thanh Thao Luu Chi Hai

Nguyễn The Hoa Nguyen Thanh Binh

Le Anh Tuyet

INTRODUCTION

This course book, adapted from a variety of invaluable materials, is structured

for learners of English as a foreign language at any level of proficiency from intermediate upwards

This material is expected to be for students who want to get general views of the society of the countries where English is used as the official language Students

may have a chance to get access to the history, the constitution, the people, the education, the economy… of many parts of the world which they may find far

away from each other in the map but very close in terms of language

Aims and Objectives of the Course

The learners would be able to:

 achieve thorough understanding about the history, the discovery and foundation as well as the development of the countries

 know geographical conditions of the countries influencing

people’s life

 be able to clarify the political systems: the monarchy and republic;

the power and the roles of the Head of State, the constitutional systems…

 have knowledge of native people and the present population,

including their races, the class system in the society……

 have general views on the economy, education … of the

English-speaking world

CONTENTS

Chapter 1:

The United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Unit 1: A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom 6

Unit 2: The Government of the United Kingdom 28

Chapter 2:

The United States of America

Unit 8: The Political System in the United States 96

Unit 10: Education in the United States 116

Unit 11: Social Problems in the United States 127

Chapter 3:

Canada

Unit 13: The Government and Politics of Canada 148

Chapter 4:

Australia and New Zealand

Unit 15: The Land and the Peoples of the Dreaming 167

Unit 16: From Penal Colony to “Free Migration” 177

Unit 17: Australia as a Liberal Democratic Society 186

Unit 18: New Zealand: Land, People and History 197

Chapter 1:

The United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This chapter offers an overview to the United Kingdom It includes the foundation of the UK, the political system, the class, the race, the economy, the educational system, and the British foreign relations

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Union Jack (British Flag)

Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Unit 1: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE

UNITED KINGDOM

Focal points:

1 a complicated country with a complicated name

2 the significant role of London

3 cultural and economic dominance of England

4 invasion from the Roman Empire

5 settlement of the Anglo-Saxons

6 physical features of Scotland

7 independence of Scotland for 300 years

8 union with England in 1707

9 brief introduction to Wales

10 population and physical features of Northern Ireland

11 partition of Ireland in 1921

Area: total 244820 sq km

Land: 241 590 sq km

Water: 3230 sq km (Including Rockwall and Shetland Islands)

Population: more than 67 million (17/09/2019)

An Overview to the United Kingdom

The full name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland It is a highly centralized and unitary state, and its main component, England, has been so for thousand years As a political entity, however, Britain (is the UK loosely called) is being the state which emerged from the union of the ancient kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707

To the west of the continent of Europe lie two large islands called the British Isles The larger of these, consisting of England, Scotland and Wales, is known

as Great Britain The smaller island is Ireland, with Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic England is the southern and central part of Great Britain Scotland is in the north of the island, and Wales in the west Northern Ireland is

situated in the north-eastern part of Ireland England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom of Great Britain

Most people know something about the country because its huge overseas empire gave it an important international role which only came to an end in the years following the Second World War However, the things that people know about the UK (which they will probably call simply Britain or, wrongly, England) may have little to do with how most real British people live their lives today

Windsor Castle

For one thing, the days of empire are now long enough ago that only old people remember it as anything of any importance in their lives Britain is no longer an imperial country, though the effects of its imperial past may be often encountered in all sorts of ways; not least in the close relationships which exist with the fifty or more countries which used to be a part of that empire, and which maintain links through a loose (and voluntary) organisation called the Commonwealth of Nations But more important today in Britain's international relations is the European Union of which the UK has been a member since 1973, and it is more useful when considering modern Britain to emphasise its role as a European nation, rather than its membership of the Commonwealth It remains a

relatively wealthy country, a member of the Group of Seven large developed economies

One other obvious effect of that old imperial role lies in the makeup of the British population itself Immigration from some of those Commonwealth countries, which was encouraged in the 1950s and 1960s, has produced a population of which 1 in 20 are of non-European ethnicity They themselves, or their parents or grandparents, were born in India or Pakistan, the countries of the Caribbean, to name only the most common

The distinction between the 4 constituent parts is only one, and perhaps the simplest, of the differences which divide the United Kingdom It has been already pointed out that the UK is now a multiracial society, and these quite recent groups of immigrants have brought aspects of their own cultures with them which sit side by side with more traditionally British ways of life, for example, many are Muslims, while most British people (in name at least) are Christians And clearly involved in the above example of the Scottish woman is the fact that men and women do not have the same experience of life in Britain

Also Britain is divided economically: it is a society with a class-structure It is

possible to exaggerate the importance of this class-structure, because most countries have some kind of class-system, but it is true to say that the class structure of UK society is relatively obvious The culture of a factory worker whose father was a factory worker may be quite different from that of a stockbroker whose father was a stockbroker They will tend to read different newspapers, watch different television programmes, speak with a different accent, do different things in their free-time, and have different expectations for their children

Another difference which marks British society is that of region Even within each of the four countries there are different regions: the difference between the

"highland" and "lowland" Scots has a long historical significance, for example: north and south England are also considered to be culturally distinct, though the boundary between them is not marked on any map, and exists only as a rather unclear mental attitudes Nevertheless, there is some basis to the distinction in economic terms as the south is on average wealthier than the north

Part of the reason for that economic difference between north and south is found

in another distinction which marks British society, a distinction which can be seen in many societies but is perhaps particularly obvious in the UK That is the difference between the capital and provinces London is in the south of the country, and is dominant in United Kingdom in all sorts of ways It is by far the largest city in country, with about one seventh of the nation's population; it is the seat of government; it is the cultural centre, home to all the major news papers,

TV stations, and with far and away the widest selection of galleries, theatres and museums Also it is the business centre, headquarters of the vast majority of Britain's big companies; it is the financial centre of the nation, and one of the three major international financial centers in the world As such it combines the functions of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, or New York, Washington and Los Angeles, in one city And given its long-standing historical role in the UK, London is a huge weight in Britain's economic and culture life, and to some extent the rest of the country lives in its shadow

England Population More than 54.79 million (in 2019)

Area 130 423 sq km ( UK total 244 820 sq km) England is a highly urbanised country, with 80% of its population living in cities, and only 2% of the population working in agriculture Its largest city is the capital, London, which is dominant in the UK in all fields: government,

finance, and culture England is physically largest of the four nations, and it has

by far the largest population This dominance in size is reflected in a cultural and economic dominance too, which has the result that people in foreign countries sometimes make the mistake of talking about England when they mean the UK Significantly, people in England sometimes make that mistake too, but people in the other three nations would not: they might call themselves British (as might the English), or they might call themselves Scottish or Welsh or Irish, but they certainly wouldn't call themselves (or like to be called) English So oddly, of the four nations, the English feel most British, and therefore have the weakest sense

of themselves as a separate “English” culture within Britain

British history has been a history of invasions The Scots, Welsh and Irish are Celts but the English are Anglo- Saxons Many hundreds years ago, about the 4thcentury before our era, the country we now call England was known as Briton and the people who lived there were the Britons They belonged to the Celtic race Their culture, which is to say the way of thinking and their understanding

of nature, was very primitive They believed that different Gods lived in the thickest and darkest parts of the world The Britons were governed by a class of priests who had great power over them

In the first century AD (in 43 AD), Briton was conquered by a power state of Rome The Romans were practical men They thought a great deal of fighting and they were so strong that they usually managed to win most of the battles they fought The Romans were greatly interested to learn from travelling that valuable metals were to be found in Briton Finally they decided to occupy the island They crossed the sea in galleys under the command of Julius Caesar Toward the end of the 4th century, the invasion of all of Europe by barbaric people forced the Romans to leave Briton because they were needed to defend their own country

As soon as Britons were left to themselves, they had very little peace for many years Sea robbers came sailing in ships from other countries And the Britons were always busy to try to defend themselves Among these invaders were some Germanic Tribes called Anglos and Saxons from north-central Europe in 410

AD They pushed the existing population westward, and the British Isles became divided into mainly Anglo-Saxon zones in England, with Celtic areas in Wales, Scotland and Ireland

One of the best-known English legends derives from this time In the 5th century

AD it is said that a great leader appeared, united the British, and with his magical sword, Excalibur, drove the Saxons back This is the story of King Arthur, and has been embellished by singers, poets, novelists and even filmmakers ever since

Although King Arthur's real existence is in doubt, you can visit places associated with his legend, such as the cliff-edge castle at Tintagel in Cornwall According to legend Arthur gathered a company of knights to him, who sat together at Arthur's castle at Camelot (possibly the real hilltop fort at Cadbury Hill in Somerset) Conflict between his knights led to Arthur creating the famous "round table" at which all would have equal precedence Perhaps this could be seen as an indicator of the way in which the English have wished to see their monarch as something other than a remote dictator, and have in fact managed to gradually bind the monarchy into a more democratic system, rather than completely rejecting it

Whatever Arthur's success, legend or not, it did not last, for the Anglo-Saxons did succeed in invading Britain, and either absorbed the Celtic people, or pushed them to the western and northern edges of Britain Despite the fact that contemporary English people think of King Arthur as their hero, really he was fighting against them, for these Anglo-Saxon invaders were the forefathers of the English, the founders of "Angle-land" or "England" as it has become known Two more groups of invaders were to come after the English: from the late 8th century on, raiders from Scandinavia, the ferocious Vikings threatened Britain's shores Their settlements in England grew until large areas of northern and eastern England were under their control By then the English heroes were truly English (Anglo-Saxon), such as King Alfred the Great, who turned the tide in the south against the Vikings There remains to this day a certain cultural divide between northerners and southerners in England, which while not consciously

"Saxon" versus "Dane", may have its origins in this time The richer southerners tend to think of northerners as less sophisticated than them, while northerners think southerners arrogant and unfriendly They are also marked by having distinctly different accents

The next invaders were the Normans, from northern France, who were descendants of Vikings Under William of Normandy (known as “William the Conqueror) they crossed the English Channel in 1066, and in the Battle of Hastings, defeated an English army under King Harold This marks the last time that an army from outside the British Isles succeeded in invading William took the English throne, and became William the First of England The Tower of London, a castle in the centre of London which he built, still stands today

The Normans did not settle England to any great extent: rather they imported a ruling class The next 300 years may be thought of as a Norman (and French-speaking) aristocracy ruling a largely Saxon and English-speaking population It

is this situation which produced another of England's heroic legends This is the legend of Robin Hood, the Saxon nobleman oppressed by the Normans, who

became an outlaw, and with his band of "merry men" hid in the forest of Sherwood in the north midlands of England From this secret place, armed with their longbows, they then went out to rob from the rich to give to the poor He has featured in many television series and films, both British and American Some writers have seen in the popularity of this legend of a rebellion hidden in the green wood a clue to the English- character: a richly unconventional interior life hidden by an external conformity But, like all stereotypes, this one has its weaknesses, as many English people, especially young people, like to display their unconventionality externally-for example English punk rockers with their vividly dyed spiky hair But it is certainly true that the lifeless fronts of many English houses conceal beautiful back gardens Gardening is one of the most popular pastimes in England, and the back garden provides a place where people's outdoor life at home can go on out of the public gaze This may contrast with people from other countries whose outdoor life might be more social-sitting

on the front porch watching passers-by

The next few hundred years following the Norman invasion can be seen as a process of joining together the various parts of the British Isles under English rule, so that any English identity eventually became swamped by the necessity

of adopting a wider British identity, both to unite the kingdom internally, and to present a single identity externally as Britain became an imperial powers At the same time power was gradually transferred from the monarch to the parliament Charles the First's attempt to overrule parliament in the l640s led to a civil war

in which parliamentary forces were victorious, and the king was executed After

a gap of 11 years in which England was ruled by parliament's leader, Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy was restored Further conflict between parliament and the king led to the removal of the Scottish house of Stuart from the throne, and William and Mary were imported from Holland to take the throne, thus finally establishing parliament's dominance over the throne

Wales Population: more than 3.1 million (in 2019)

The capital of Wales is Cardiff, a small city of about 300 000 people on the south coast This southern area was an important element in Britain's industrial revolution, as it had rich coal deposits Coal-mining became a key industry for the Welsh, employing tens of thousands at its height So its recent disappearance has been a major economic and cultural blow But South Wales has been very successful in attracting investment from abroad-particularly Japan and the United States, which has helped to create new industries to replace coal and steel

Wales is the smallest among the three nations on the British mainland, though larger than Northern Ireland It is very close to the most densely populated parts

of central England Though it is hillier and more rugged than adjacent parts of England there is no natural boundary So Wales has been dominated by England for longer than the other nations of the union Nevertheless, what is remarkable

is that despite this nearness and long-standing political integration Wales retains

a powerful sense of its difference from England It also retains its own language, Welsh This is a Celtic tongue completely different from English, spoken by 19% of the population, a much higher proportion of the population than speak Gaelic in Scotland Again, all those Welsh-speakers are also fluent in English Like the rest of Britain, before the arrival of the Roman Empire, Wales was a land of Celtic peoples, living in a number of small tribal kingdoms Wales was conquered by the Romans eventually, though with difficulty The Welsh chieftain Caradoc fought a long guerrilla campaign from the Welsh hills against the invader When the Romans left Britain, Wales was again a Celtic land, though again divided into separate kingdoms, but unlike England it did not fall

to the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the 5th century

Wales was always under pressure from its English neighbours, particularly after the Norman Conquest, when Norman barons set up castles and estates in Wales under the authority of the English Crown Thus there was a need to unify Wales

to successfully resist the English This did not happen until Llywelyn and Ruffed brought a large portion of Wales under his rule, and by a military campaign forced the English to acknowledge him as Prince of Wales in 1267 But when he died, the English king, Edward the First, set about conquering Wales, building a series of great stone castles there from which to control the population These castles stand today as one of Wales' greatest tourist attractions (along with its beaches, cliffs and mountains), and tourism is now an important industry

Edward the First named his son the Prince of Wales, and the first son of the monarch has held that title ever since (including the present day Prince Charles)

to try to bring Wales into the British nation The last real attempt to resist that process was in the early 15th century when Owain Glyndwr led an unsuccessful rising against the English Today Glyndwr and Llywelyn are more than simple historical figures for the Welsh; they are the almost legendary heroes of Welsh nationalism Their brief campaigns are the only times in history when Wales has existed as a unified independent nation

A hundred years after Glyndwr, in 1536, Wales was brought legally, administratively, and politically into the UK by an act of the British parliament This close long-standing relationship means that modern Wales lacks some of

the outward signs of difference which Scotland possesses-its legal system and its education system are exactly the same as in England Often official statistics are given for "England and Wales" However, Wales is different, and one of the key markers of that difference is the Welsh language - the old British Celtic tongue which is still in daily use But as a source of the Welsh identity this is sometimes divisive, because 80% of the Welsh don't speak the language, and yet feel Welsh Since most of the Welsh speakers are in the north, this deepens a cultural division between the more populated, industrial south, and the rural north of Wales

As in Scotland the Welsh people elect their MPs to the London parliament The Welsh too have nationalist party, "Plaid Cymru"(The Party of Wales), which campaigns for an independent Wales Of the 38 Welsh MPs, 4 are members of this party Under a Labour government Wales will probably gain its own parliament to manage its own internal affairs

Scotland Population: 5.2 million (in 2019)

Area: 7.8822 sq km

The Picts, a Celtic tribe, the first inhabitants of Scotland

Scotland is the second largest of the four nations, both in population and in geographical area It is also the most confident of its own identity because alone amongst the non-English components of the UK it has previously spent a substantial period of history as a unified state independent of the UK Thus it is not a big leap for the Scottish to imagine themselves independent again

Physically, Scotland is the most rugged part of the UK, with areas of sparsely populated mountains and lakes in the north (the Highlands), and in the south (the Southern Uplands) Three quarters of the population lives in the lowland zone which spans the country between these two highland areas The largest city is Glasgow, in the west of this zone Scotland's capital city is Edinburgh, on the east coast forty miles away from Glasgow It is renowned for its beauty, and dominated by its great castle on a high rock in the centre of the city Both cities have ancient and internationally respected universities dating from the 15th century

Scotland was not conquered by the Romans, though they did try to, and for a while occupied as far as the edge of the northern highland zone The difficulty of maintaining their rule there caused them to retreat to a line roughly equivalent to the contemporary boundary between England and Scotland Along this line, from sea to sea, they, like the Chinese, built a wall to mark the northern edge of their domain, and to help defend it It is called "Hadrian's Wall" after the Emperor of Rome at the time of its building, and although ruined, lengths of it can still be seen and walked along

Nor was most of Scotland conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, although an Angle Kingdom was established in the southeast-hence Edinburgh's Germanic name British Celts displaced from the south by Saxon invasion occupied the area around what is now Glasgow, and in this same period (around the 6th century AD) people from Northern Ireland invaded the south-west They were called the Scots, and it is they that gave the modern country of Scotland its name The original Scottish Celts, called the Pacts, were left with the extensive but unproductive highland zone The division between highland and lowland Scotland remains a cultural divide today, in much the same way as north and south England see themselves as different from each other There are even areas

in the highlands where (in addition to English) people speak the old Celtic language, called "Gaelic"

Like England, Scotland began to experience Viking raids in the 9th century, and

it was the pressure from this outside threat that led Scottish kings to unify, forming an independent singular Scottish state at just about the same time that Anglo-Saxon England was also unifying The presence of this larger powerful kingdom on its southern doorstep was the key factor in Scottish politics from that time on, with frequent wars between the two William Shakespeare's play

Macbeth is set in the Scotland of this period The town of Berwick upon Tweed

near the Scottish border in present day England is said to have changed hands thirteen times as a result of Anglo-Scottish conflict Despite the conflict, there were close ties between the two countries with extensive intermarriage between the two aristocracies, and even between the royal families A recent Hollywood

movie, Brave heart, told the story of William Wallace's uprising in 1298, which

was quelled by the English But only a few years later the Scots, under the leadership of Robert the Bruce, were victorious at the Battle of Bannockburn, leading to 300 years of full independence

In 1603, however, Queen Elizabeth the First of England died childless, and the next in line to the throne was James the Sixth of Scotland, so he also became James the First of England, uniting the two thrones But for another hundred years Scotland maintained its separate political identity However, in 1707 by agreement of the English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland joined the Union There followed two rebellions in 1715 and 1745 in which the heir to the Stuart claim (deposed in 1688 by the English parliament) to the British throne attempted to reassert his right to rule Britain, gathering support in Scotland then marching with an army into England In 1745 this led to a brutal military response from the British army The rebel army was destroyed at the Battle of Culloden (the last battle on British soil) in northern Scotland Scottish highland clan (extended family group) culture was effectively destroyed at this time, and today exists largely as a way of parting tourists from their money by selling

them "tartan" souvenirs or histories of "their" clan For following Culloden, and even more importantly, the agricultural changes of the 18th century which led to depopulation of the highlands, many Scots sought their fortune outside Scot-land-in England, America, Canada, or Australia So that there are more people

of Scottish descent outside Scotland than in it, and many of those come back to find their "roots", forming a good target for the sellers of such souvenirs

The dream of an independent Scotland has not vanished Although Scotland elects its members of parliament to the London parliament in just the same way

as the English do and sends 72 representatives to London, the Scotland Act 1998 provided for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Executive, following endorsement of the UK Government's proposals on "devolution in a referendum in 1997 when the proposal to establish a Scottish Parliament was supported by 74.3% of the votes In the first election to the Parliament, in May

1999, 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) were elected for a fixed four-year term The Labour Party, which had traditionally done well in elections

in Scotland, became the largest single party The Scottish National Party which wants an independent Scotland is the second largest party and the Conservative Party the third largest in the Parliament

Scotland has a great tradition of innovation in the arts, philosophy and science The inventor of the telephone was a Scot, and the first man to transmit a television picture was another Its writers have given the world such well-known work as Walter Scott's romances of highland Scotland, and "Auld Lang Syne" (by Robert Burns, who wrote in the Scots dialect) But the work which many

consider to best some up Scotland's position is the famous novel Dr Jekyll and

Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which describes how the civilised

scientist Dr Jekyll transforms periodically into the crude and violent Mr Hyde This description of the dual nature of man is perhaps a good way to think of Scotland: superficially fully integrated into the UK, but concealed beneath this is

a still-strong Scottish identity

Northern Ireland Population: 1.8 million (in 2019)

Northern Ireland (often called "Ulster" after an ancient Irish kingdom which once existed in that part of Ireland) is the smallest of the four nations, both in area and population With only 1.5 million people, it is smaller than many Chinese cities Its capital, Belfast, is a relatively small town of around 350 000 people, but is much the biggest city in the province Though Northern Ireland is small it is significant because of the political troubles there

The one thing that almost everyone knows about Ireland is that the island has

been divided by a long and bloody conflict The simplest way of describing this conflict is as the result of Ireland's colonial history From the time of Queen Elizabeth I (i.e., from the late 1590s) the new settlers, loyal to the British crown and Protestant in religious persuasion, were granted land, position, and privileges which had been systematically taken away from the indigenous, Roman Catholic population

In the 17th century, the English and Scottish Protestants were sent to Northern Ireland to stop the Irish Catholics from causing trouble The fighting is not the one between the two nations, but between the two religions because the Protestants in Ireland helped the English and Scottish Protestants to fight against the Irish Catholics The result was the loss of the Catholics, and they had to move to the South (Irish Republic at present)

Until 1921 the full name of the UK was "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", not only "Northern Ireland", because the whole island of Ireland was politically integrated with Great Britain, and had been since 1801, while Britain's domination of the Irish dated back centuries even before that date But Irish desires for an independent Irish state were never lost, and one of the key issues in late 19th century British politics was a campaign in parliament for what was called "home-rule"- Irish political control of Irish affairs The Third Home Rule Bill' was finally passed in 1914, but the process was overtaken by the First World War and was suspended for the duration of the war

Along with the political campaign for home-rule there were groups who followed a more direct method of pursuing Irish independence, engaging in guerrilla or terrorist activities against British institutions and the British military forces During the First World War and immediately after, this activity increased, sometimes brutally suppressed by British forces The Easter Rising of

1916 was the most spectacular event, in which the rebels took over Dublin's Post Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means The leaders of the rebellion were executed In 1919 a group calling itself the IRA (Irish Republican Army) expanded the fighting In the end the conflict became too great to ignore, and as the Sinn Fein ("Ourselves Alone") party, who were supporters of the Irish terrorists (or freedom-fighters, depending on your point of view), gained most of the Irish seats in the British parliament, Irish independence became inevitable However, there was a problem The majority of Irish people were descendants of the original Celtic people who inhabited the British Isles before the Romans arrived 2000 years ago Ireland was not invaded by the Romans, or settled by the Anglo-Saxons who followed them into Britain, thus they were ethnically distinct from the majority of British people Adding to this difference was religion: most Irish people remained Catholics, while most British people had become

Protestants But in one part of Ireland this was not, and is not, the case In the 17th century, the English government, trying to increase its control of Ireland, encouraged people from Scotland and Northern England to emigrate to the troublesome north of Ireland As a result the northeastern part of Ireland gained

a population who saw themselves differently from the rest of the Irish people They thought of themselves as British, and wished to remain a part of the British state Also, they were Protestants In 1921 the idea of being a part of an independent Irish State, where most people were Catholic, did not appeal On the other hand they could not "go home"-Ireland was their home: they had been there 250 years or more They had shown in 1913 that they would not accept union with Ireland by organizing a show of force, and put 100000 armed men in the streets of Northern Ireland

Faced with these conflicting demands the British government chose a compromise and organised a partition of Ireland The southern 26 counties would form an independent "free state", while the 6 north-eastern counties would remain a part of the UK This is what happened in 1921, bringing to an end 700 years of British rule in southern Ireland

Unlike the other nations in the UK, Northern Ireland was given its own Parliament to deal with Northern Irish internal affairs, based at Stormont, just outside Belfast The problem was that just as Ireland had not been purely

"Republican" (for an independent Irish Republic) so in the 6 northern counties the population was not purely "Loyalist" or "Unionist" (for union with Great Britain, loyal to the British Crown) About a third of the population was Roman Catholic, many of whom resented the North's separation from the south and identical with the nationalist cause To worsen the situation, the Protestants, being the majority, controlled the local democratically-elected parliament, and used that power to support their own economic and social dominance in the province Catholics found it harder to get jobs, or to benefit from social programmes such as public housing Schools and sporting events were segregated Catholics were regularly harassed by a Protestant Police force and any indication of nationalist sentiment was ruthlessly repressed Understandably resentment grew, and the armed conflict known as the "troubles" developed Northern Ireland today must be the only country in the world which is recognized as an independent entity but which is governed, in effect, by three separate jurisdictions: that of the Republic of Ireland, that of Great Britain, and that of its own elected executive government of ten ministers

Most young Irish people leave for England and never return; their parents do not see a future for them up North The Northern people are known as warm, generous, and energetic-as long as they are among their own

Exercises

I Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F):

1 ……….Britain is no longer an imperial country

2 ……….The Commonwealth of Nation's includes all European countries

3 ……….1 in 10 of the British population is of non-European ethnicity

4 ……….The stereotype of the English gentleman never applied the majority

of the British people

5 ……….Great Britain includes 3 constituent countries: England, Scotland, and Wales

6 ……….Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain

7 ……….When people outside the UK talk about England, they mistake it as Britain sometimes

8 ……….The Scots and Welsh have a strong sense of being British

9 ……….Scotland was never conquered by the Romans

10 ……….Most people in Scotland speak the old Celtic language, called

"Gaelic"

11 ……….Scotland was unified with England through peaceful means

12 ……….Wales is rich in coal deposits

13 ……….Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is a large city

14 ……….The title of Prince of Wales is held by a Welsh according to tradition

15 ……… Ireland is part of Great Britain

16 ……… "Ulster", referring to Northern Ireland, was once an ancient Irish Kingdom

17 ……… The capital of Belfast is a large city with half a million people

18 ……… Northern Ireland is significant because of its manufacturing industry

19 ……… The majority of Irish people were descendants of the original Celtic people who inhabited British Isles before the Romans arrived 2000 years ago

20 ……… Sinn Fein is a legal political party in Northern Ireland

II Choose the best answer:

1 Which of the following is NOT considered a characteristic of London?

A The cultural centre

B The business centre

C The financial centre

D The sports centre

2 Which of the following is NOT true about the characteristics of Britain?

A Economic differences between north and south

B Differences of social systems between Scotland and Wales

C Class differences between a white-collar worker and a blue-collar worker

D Cultural differences between immigrants and the British

3 Which of the following CANNOT be found in London?

A Teahouses

B Art galleries

C Museums

D Theatres

4 Which of the following is NOT true about Britain?

A It used to be a powerful imperial country in the world

B It plays an active role as a member of European Union

C It is a relatively wealthy and developed country

D It used to be one of the superpowers in the world

5 Three of the following are characteristics of London Which of the four is the exception?

A London is a political, economic and cultural centre of the country

B London has a larger population than all other cities in England

C London is not only the largest city in Britain, but also the largest in the world

D London has played a significant role in the economic construction of the country

6 The Tower of London, a historical sight, located in the centre of London, was built by

A King Arthur

B Robin Hood

C Oliver Cromwell

D William the Conqueror

7 Who were the ancestors of the English and the founders of England?

A They needed a unified independent nation to fight against Viking raids

B They felt it necessary to develop their own industry

C They were threatened by the Anglo-Saxons’ invasion

D They had to do it in order to resist the English

10 Where do the majority of people in Scotland live?

A In the Highlands

B In the Lowlands

C In the Uplands

D In the west of Scotland

11.Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A Wales was invaded by the Romans

B Wales was occupied by the Anglo-Saxons

C Wales was conquered by the Normans

D Wales was threatened by the English

12.Which of the following parties in Scotland still wants an independent Scotland?

A The Labour Party

B The Liberal Party

C The Scottish Nationalist Party

D The Conservative Party

13.When did Scotland join the Union by agreement of the English and Scottish parliaments?

A he became the first Prince of Wales in 1267

B he brought the English under his control

C he led a historic uprising against the English

D he unified Wales as an independent nation

15 Northern Ireland is the smallest of the four nations, but is quite well-known

in the world for

A its most famous landmark, the "Giant's Causeway"

B its rich cultural life

C its low living standards

D its endless political problems

16 Faced with conflicting demands the British government chose a compromise and organized a partition of Ireland in 1921, because

A the British government wouldn't be able to control Ireland any longer by force

B the British government intended to satisfy both sides-Catholics and Protestants

C Catholics in Ireland demanded a partition of Ireland

D Protestants welcomed the idea of partition

17 In the early 1970s, the IRA

A killed many Protestants and Catholics

B burned down the houses of Catholics

C murdered individuals at random

D carried out a series of bombing and shooting and attacked the security forces as their main target

18 Why did the British government decide to replace the power-sharing policy with "direct -rule" from London?

A The power-sharing policy was not accepted by the majority of Protestants

B The Northern Irish Parliament could not govern the power effectively

C The Power-Sharing policy couldn't be carried out

D All the above

III Fill in the blanks:

1 The full name of the United Kingdom is the and

2 The island of Great Britain is made up of England, and

3 The United Kingdom has been a member of the since 1973

4 Britain is now a society which produces a population of which 1 in 20 are of ethnicity

5 London plays a significant role in Britain's economic and cultural life It's not only the financial .of the nation, but also one of the major international financial centres in the world

6 Britain consists of three nations, including England, and

7 Britain is a country with a history of invasions In 43 AD Britain was invaded

by .in the late 8th century they experienced raids from Scandinavia and in the 11th century they suffered invasions from

8 The Anglo-Saxons began to settle in Britain in the century

9 The capital of Britain is , which has great influence on the UK in all fields including government, finance, and

10 Charles the First, king of Britain, was executed, because he attempted to overthrow …… in the English Revolution

11 Name two Scottish cities which have ancient and internationally respected universities: and

12 The battle of Bannockburn led by Robert the Bruce succeeded in winning the full independence of

13 Both the Scottish and Welsh people elect their members of parliaments to the London Parliament and each holds and seats respectively

14 The capital of Scotland is ., which is well-known for its natural

15 Although Wales is the smallest of the three nations on the mainland, it's good

at getting from abroad, particularly Japan and

16 To pursue Irish independence, the most spectacular event in the Irish history was .of 1916, in which the rebels occupied Dublin's and forced the British to take it back by military means

17 As Protestants were the majority of the province, they controlled the local , and used that power to support their dominance in the area

18 The IRA believed that they had made enough progress so that they could concentrate on a political process, and run candidates for

19 Sinn Fein, the legal party, supports the IRA's right to fight Its leaders spoke of a twin campaign for union with Ireland, both political and military, which is known as the policy of

20 The Good Friday Agreement assures that Northern Ireland "remains part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without

of Northern Ireland"

IV Questions for discussion:

1 What was the British Empire? What do you know about it? In what way is the Empire still felt in Britain and in the international field?

2 Why is it not possible to sum up the British people with a few simple phrases?

3 "British history has been a history of invasion." Please illustrate this point

with the examples from the text How did each of the invasions influence English culture?

4 What are some general characteristics of Scotland? How did Scotland become part of the union of Great Britain?

5 Describe characteristics of Wales and Wales’ unification with Great Britain

6 Are there any differences between England, Scotland and Wales in terms of cultural tradition?

7 Are there any differences between England, Scotland and Wales in terms of cultural tradition?

8 Why is Northern Ireland, according to the author, so significant in the United Kingdom? What is the political problem there?

9 What are some of the factors in Irish and English history that affect the situation in Northern Ireland today?

KEYS TO EXERCISES IN UNIT 1

16 The Easter Rising, Post Office

17 Parliament, economic and social

18 Official, election

19 Political, the Bullet and the Ballot Box

20 The loyalist community, the consent of the majority of the people

Unit 2: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED

KINGDOM

Focal points:

1 divine right of kings

2 the Bill of Rights of 1689

3 the Cabinet

4 the Prime Minister

5 the Constitution

6 the power and the functions of the Parliament

7 the roles of the monarch

8 the House of Lords

9 the House of Commons

Britain is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be traced over a thousand years Other countries also have long political histories but these histories are marked by periods of sudden, and often violent, change Although Britain too has had its periods of political instability, in contrast to say, France or the United States, the process of state-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution.This long, unbroken history is still apparent in Britain's current political institutions and in its political culture

The Monarchy

Britain is democracy, yet its people are not constitutionally in control of the state As a result of an historical process the people of Britain are subjects of the Crown, accepting the Queen as the head of the state Yet even the Queen is not sovereign in any substantial sense since she receives her authority from Parliament, and is subject to its direction in almost all matters In short, she reigns but does not rule Technically, British sovereignty collectively resides in the three elements of Parliament: the Crown, and Parliament's two chambers, the House of Lords and the House of Commons

This curious situation came about as a result of a long struggle for power between the Crown and the Parliament during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries In 1689, Parliament won that struggle, because it controlled most of the national wealth It agreed to allow the Crown to continue to function within certain limits, and subject to Parliament's control

The role of the monarchy today is primarily to symbolize the tradition and unity

of the British state Obviously the prime minister and governing party at any given time will only represent the part of the population that voted in their favour The Queen, however, because she is non-political, belongs to everybody Under the terms of the constitution her other roles are as follows: she is legally head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and "supreme governor" of the Church

of England

The remaining powers of the monarch are basically to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament; to give royal assent to legislation passed by Parliament; to appoint government ministers, judges, officers and the armed forces, governors, diplomats and bishops of the Church; to confer honors such as peerages and knighthoods; to remit sentences passed on convicted criminals; and finally to declare war on or make peace with an enemy power However, in most matters

of state, the Queen exercises her power according to the direction of her Prime Minister

In a 1988 poll, most Britons felt the Queen's most important job was to represent Britain at home and abroad; her second most important job was to set standards

of good citizenship and family life While the Queen has indeed led an exemplary life, her children have been criticised for their poor behavior Her successor and son, Prince Charles, divorced his wife, Princess Diana Stories came out in the press alleging that they had both been having extramarital affairs Her middle son, Andrew, also divorced his wife, Sarah Ferguson (popularly known as Fergie) Andrew and Fergie in particular were both criticised for their jet-setting lifestyles and the way they squandered money While the Queen is independently wealthy, much of the financial support for the Royal Family comes from the taxpayer, supposedly in recognisance of the fact that the royal family fulfils its role on behalf of the British people This had led

to great controversy in recent years In 1992, after Andrew and Fergie had separated, newspapers published a picture of a topless Fergie and her "financial advisor", a wealthy Texan, lounging around a swimming pool People were outraged because their tax money was used to support such decadence Shortly afterwards, Charles and Diana also announced they were separating and allegations about their extramarital affairs began to appear in the press

Criticism of the Queen's children led to a more general criticism about the monarchy and the debate came to a head in November 1992 when a fire did a great deal of damage to Windsor Castle The government immediately offered

50 million pounds' worth of taxpayers' money to pay for repairs The electorate was very angry: Britain was in a recession and basic things like hospitals and

schools had been forced to cut their services because public money was so scarce They thought it was very unfair that the Queen, who is incredibly wealthy and does not have to pay taxes herself, should not have to pay for at least part of the repairs The taxpayer was already paying for the running costs

of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, three other palaces, a royal yacht, a royal train and a royal plane As a result of the controversy, the Queen offered to start paying taxes and to accept less public money to support her family She also began to open Buckingham Palace to tourists in the summer months in order to raise money to pay for repairs Her willingness to give in to popular demands once again endeared her to her subjects, although her children still remain quite unpopular

A less well known role of the Queen, which is nevertheless very important to British politics, is that of a confidante to the Prime Minister Every Tuesday the Prime Minister attends the Queen privately at Buckingham Palace In her more than 40 years on the throne, the Queen has had weekly chats with 10 different Prime Ministers and they have said that her long experience and her political neutrality make her a good source of informed observation on the day to day problems of governance

Interestingly, it is said that the Queen gets on much better with Labour Prime Ministers than with Conservative Prime Ministers

The Parliament

The Houses of Parliament

The word "parliament" comes from the verb "to parley", that is, to discuss or talk The term was first used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and towns which the king occasionally summoned if he wanted to raise money Traditionally, medieval kings were supposed to meet their own royal expenses out of their own wealth

If extra resources were needed, for example, if a king wanted to wage a war, which he frequently did he would try to persuade the Great Council, a gathering

of leading, wealthy barons which met several times a year, to give him some extra money By the 13th Century, kings found they could not make ends meet

by asking for money from this quite small group, and so they widened the Great Council to include representatives of counties, cities and towns, to get them to contribute to his projects It was in this way that the Great Council came to include both those who were summoned "by name"(the House of Lords) and representatives of communities (the House of Commons) These two houses exist today and collectively we call them the Parliament The Commons quickly gained in political strength They were willing to help the King by raising taxes and passing laws, but in return they wanted an increasing say in what the king was doing In recognition of this, Henry IV decreed in 1407 that all money grants should be considered and approved by the Commons before being considered by the Lords, a formula which is almost the same today The Commons also acquired law-making powers by the 15th century, a prerogative which had once belonged only to the King and his Councilors

The civil war which brought the Roundheads to power in the 17th century was rooted in a dispute over the power of the king vis-a-vis Parliament James I and his successor Charles I both insisted on their divine right as kings They felt Parliament, representing the community, had no real political right to exist, but only existed because the king allowed it to do so It was the effort to reassert the rights of Parliament that led to the civil war The royalist armies were defeated and King Charles I was executed in 1649 But by 1660, Charles I's son was re-stored to the throne as Charles II

The next King, James II, having apparently learned little from the experience of the previous decades, also tried to govern without the consent of Parliament Leading politicians and church authorities asked James' son-in-law, William of Orange, to replace him In return, William promised these representatives that he would declare governing without parliamentary consent to be illegal This might have led to another civil war, but James ran away and William took over In

1689 Parliament passed the Bill of Rights which ensured that the King would never be able to ignore Parliament

The House of Lords and the House of Commons

Below the Queen is the House of Lords It consists of the Lords Spiritual, who are the Archbishops and most prominent bishops of the Church of England; and the Lords Temporal, which refers to everyone else Lords, usually called peers, are not elected and are not considered to represent anyone besides themselves They sit in the Lords either because they have inherited the seat from their forefathers (peerages can only be passed through the male line) or because they have been appointed by the sovereign, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister (a practice created in 1958) These latter are called life peers

Because peers are appointed or given the right by their birth into a particular family, in Parliament they speak and vote as individuals, not as representatives

of the greater interests of the country-although of course civic-minded peers do try to serve their country rather than their own interests Unlike those who serve

in the House of Commons, they do not receive salaries and many do not attend Parliament at all In 1993 there were 1213 Lords: 776 were hereditary peers, 391 were life peers, 20 were Law Lords (a special group chosen to assist the House

in its judicial duties) and the remainders were Lords Spiritual Only 375 on average regularly attended the sittings

Nowadays the composition of the House of Lords is seen as being both sexist and elitist because of the way the majority of peerages are passed down through aristocratic patrilineal lines It is very likely that efforts will be made to reform the House of Lords to make it a more effective and modem institution in the next decade

Finally, there is the House of Commons which currently consists of about 651 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected by the people to represent them MPs represent voters in a particular area, known as a constituency or seat The number of seats varies a little bit because of changes in the population MPs are only allowed to sit for the lifetime of the parliament, that is, the length of time between General Elections when a new set of MPs is elected However, MPs can

be reelected a limitless number of times and so popular MPs have veritable careers as parliamentarians Unlike the Lords, MPs receive a salary of about 31

000 pound a year This is about the same pay as an average middle class sional such as a doctor or an accountant would earn and it is thought that MPs will thus be able to identify with the "typical" voter they represent They also receive allowances for secretaries and researchers, travel and soon

profes-Parliament is the seat of British democracy, but it is perhaps valuable to remember that while the House of Lords was created in order to provide a council of the nobility for the King, the Commons were summoned originally in

order to provide the King with money The more money the King demanded the more the Commons questioned its use Because of its financial power, its ability

to raise or withhold money, the House of Commons, eventually - from the seventeenth century onwards - gained power not only in matters of finance but also of legislation over both the monarch and also the Lord Ultimately the House of Commons can force the government to resign by passing a resolution

of "no confidence" The Government must also resign if the House rejects a proposal so vital to its policy that it has made it a matter of confidence

The Birth of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

To ensure good relations between Crown and Parliament, the king or queen met regularly with a group of important Parliamentarians, a group which became known as the Cabinet While Cabinet ministers were appointed by the sovereign, they had to have enough support in the House of Commons to enable them to persuade Parliament to pass laws and vote for taxes

In 1714, the ruling Queen died without producing an heir to the throne and so Britain had to "import" a member of the royal family from Germany to rule Britain The new King George I spoke English very badly and was not very interested in politics anyway, so he left the job of chairing cabinet meetings to one of his ministers In time he came to be called the prime minister

While a king or queen who was interested in politics remained very influential, the Parliament was slowly becoming more powerful, especially as it became more organized In 1832, when a system for choosing the House of Commons

by popular election replaced the monarch's job of appointing representatives, the modern political system was born Members of Parliament (MPs) assembled themselves into groups which eventually would become political parties, organized groups which presented their policies and ideas to the electorate for approval The party with the most supporters in the Commons forms the government, and by tradition, the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister Most MPs belong to political parties - Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are the major ones The Prime Minister is the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in a general election His or her Cabinet nowadays consists of usually around 20 MPs in the governing party who are chosen by the Prime Minister to become government ministers in the Cabinet The Cabinet carries out the functions of policy-making, the coordination of government departments and the supreme control of government The House of Commons is the real centre of British political life-it is the place where elected representatives make and debate policy-and so its role is discussed in greater detail in the chapter on British Politics

The British Government Today

From this brief history we can see that British government today is deeply influenced by its long past Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy While the official head of state is the Queen, her powers are largely traditional and symbolic The government at national and local levels is elected by the people and governs according to British constitutional principles

Following a general election, the Queen invites the leader of the majority party represented in the Commons as the PM to form a government on her behalf As head of the government, the PM appoints about 100 ministers, of whom about

20 are in the Cabinet - a senior group which takes major policy decisions Ministers are collectively responsible for government decisions and individually responsible for their own departments The second largest party forms the official Opposition, with its own leader and "shadow cabinet" The Opposition has a duty to challenge against government policies and to present an alternative program

Although government is essentially political, it depends upon a permanent body

of officials, the Civil Service, to administer the decisions of ministers, and to keep the wheels of government - in its broadest sense - turning Policies are carried out by government departments and executive agencies staffed by politically neutral civil servants Civil servants must be as loyal to an incoming government as to the outgoing one; however much as private individuals they may be pleased or dismayed at the change of government

Because of Britain's imperial past, when many other corners of the globe were ruled from London, we find similar systems of government in many former colonies Other countries which are governed according to the principles of British parliamentary democracy are Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India All but India recognize the Queen as their head of state, and a representative of the Crown, called the Governor-General, is present in such constitutional

monarchies in order to fulfill the role of the monarch

The Constitution

British governance today is based upon the terms and conditions of the constitution Israel and Britain are the only two countries without written constitutions of the sort which most countries have Instead of having one particular document which lists out the basic principles of how a country should be governed, the foundations of the British state are laid out in statute law, that is, laws passed by Parliament; the common laws, which are laws which have been established through common practice in the courts, not because Parliament has written them; and conventions,

which are rules and practices which do not exist legally, but are nevertheless regarded as vital to the workings of government

Parliament

Parliament has a number of different functions First and foremost, it passes laws Another important function is that it provides the means of carrying on the work of government by voting for taxation Its other roles are to scrutinise government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day

Parliament is supreme in the British state because it alone has the power to change the terms of the Constitution For example, the decision for Britain to join the European Union (EU) required a constitutional change because it meant recognizing that EU law would in particular cases be more important than British law

There are no legal restraints upon Parliament It can make or change laws, change or overturn established conventions or even prolong its own life without consulting the electorate However, it does not assert its supremacy, but bears the common law in mind and acts according to precedent

Strictly speaking, the Parliament today consists of the Queen, the House of Lords and the House of Commons These three institutions must all agree to pass any given legislation

However, most everyday references to Parliament refer to the workings of the Lords and/or the Commons, with the Monarchy regarded as a separate institution This is because even though the Queen must consent to pass a law, this consent is given as a matter of course The last royal refusal was in 1707

Exercises

I Decide whether the following statements are true ( T ) or false ( F ):

1 ……….It is no doubt that Britain is the oldest representative democracy

in the world

2 ……….In Britain, the process of state-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution, in contrast to France and the US

3 ……….The oldest institution of government in Britain is the Monarchy

4 ……….The divine right of the king means the sovereign derived his authority from his subjects

5 ……….As the king in theory had God on his side, it was thought that he should exercise absolute power

6 ……….The term "parliament" was first officially used in 1066 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and towns

7 ……….Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy

8 ……….Common laws are laws which have been established through common practice in the courts

II Choose the best answer:

1 Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of British government?

A It offers the Queen high political status and supreme power

B It is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy

C It is the oldest representative democracy in the world

D It has no written form of Constitution

2 What happened in 1215?

A It was the year of Norman Conquest in British history

B Forced by barons, King John signed the Magna Carta

C Henry IV granted the Commons the power to review money grants

D King Egbert united England under his rule

3 Which of the following is NOT true about the Great Council?

A They included barons and representatives from counties and towns

B They were sometimes summoned by the kings to contribute money

C They later developed into what we now know as the Cabinet

D They represented the aristocrats as well as the communities

4 Under whose reign was the Bill of Rights passed?

A James II

B William of Orange

C Oliver Cromwell

D George I

5 Which of the following is NOT related to the Constitution?

A It is a written document which lists out the basic principles for government

B It is the foundation of British governance today

C Conventions and Laws passed by Parliament are part of the Constitution

D The common laws are part of the Constitution

6 Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A There are no legal restraints upon Parliament

B Strictly speaking, the Queen is part of the Parliament

C Parliament has the supreme power of passing laws

D Parliament has no power to change the terms of the Constitution

7 Which of the following is NOT a true description of the Queen's role?

A The Queen selects the Prime Minister and the Cabinet

B The Queen symbolises the tradition and unity of the British state

C The Queen acts as a confidante to the Prime Minister

D The Queen is the temporal head of the Church of England

8 Which of the following is NOT a feature of the House of Lords?

A Lords do not receive salaries and many do not attend Parliament sittings

B It consists of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal

C The lords are expected to represent the interests of the public

D Most of the lords in the House of Lords are males

9 Which of the following is NOT based on the fact?

A Members of Parliament elect the Prime Minister and the Cabinet

B MPs receive salaries and some other allowances

C MPs are expected to represent the interests of the public

D Most MPs belong to the major political parties

III Fill in the blanks:

1 , the ancestor of the present Queen, Elizabeth II, united England under his rule in 829

2 The doctrine of the "divine right of kings" held that the sovereign derived his authority from , not from

3 During the civil war in the 17th century, those who represented the interests of Parliament are called and those who supported the King were called

4 In 1215, some feudal barons and the Church forced King to sign the to place some limits on the King's power