Northern England

Liverpool

Mancunians , Liverpudlians (a specific scouse accent)

The Beatles

Lake District - Lake Poets

SCOTLAND

- Three main regions:

- Southern uplands sheep farming
- Central plain most of the population
- Highlands and islands

Symbols:

Saint Andrew's Cross one ofthe oldiest national flags of all

Thistle / bodliak

Caledonia

POLITICS

The UK Parliament - taxes, defence and international relations

The Scottish Parliament education and law

Scotland uses its own banknotes.

Scottish independence: Around a third of Scotlands 4 million voters believe that Scotland should
leave the UK.

12 OCTOBER 2012 EDINBURGH AGREEMENT

A power to stage a referendum about independence.

OCTOBER 2014
 EDINBURGH (the capital)

has a nickname Athens of the North

crags

Palace of Holyroodhouse

Queens official residence in Scotland

Royal Mile, Edinburg Castle, Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Burke and Hare murders (William Burke, William Hare)

Body snatchers

Several medical schools in Edinburgh - great demand for fresh bodies

Dr. Robert Knox (at least 16 people)

Burking

Highlands

Scottish science

Scots have always been at forefront of science

James Watt steam engine

Kirkpatrick Macmillan the invention of bicycles

Alexander Graham Bell telephone

Sir Alexander Fleming penicillin

John Logie Baird - television

Alexander WatsonWatt radar

SCOTTISH LITERATURE

long and successful history

great authors

Robert Burns - national poet of Scotland (auld lang syne)- played at New Years Eve

Sir Walter Scott historical novels

Robert Louis Stephenson Treasure Island

SCOTTISH CULTURE

tartan a special kind of cloth design, a symbol of clan and national identity

bagpipes (music- significant aspect of Scottish culture)

clan large group of geographically related people

Scottish Gaelic spoken about 65,000 people

Sir Sean Connery

Whisky from uisgebeatha or usquebaugh water of life

Exports cost 4.23bn pounds in 2011

25 percent exports Scottish

25 percent of total UK food and drink exports

Northern Ireland
- created in 1921

BELFAST - the capital

- highest religious observance in Europe

- majority Protestant

- descendants of mainly Scottish settlers

- shamrock (atelina) the symbol of luck

The troubles (1968 1995)

Catholic discrimination - civil rights movement

- violent opposition by Protestants

- Royal Ulster Constabulary vs. Irish Republican Army vs. British Army

- January 30, 1972, 13 unarmed protesters shot and killed (Bloody Sunday)

- 1998 Good Friday Agreement

Wales
- originally a Celtic region

- wealhas stranger or foreigner

- in Welsh Crymru

Cardiff - the capital

3 million inhabitants

Nation Assembly for Wales

Established in 1988, 60 members

Officially bilingual

- English and Welsh

560,000 speakers Welsh Gealic (at least some knowledge of that, usually mother language)

The Flag of Wales was used by Henry VII at the battle Bosworth in 1485.

Symbol leek

Most people in Wales south-east of the country

This part used to be coal mining region

No really large cities

Largest cities in Wales Cardiff, Swansea

Sir Tom Jones, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones - famous people

Jones, Lloyd, Williams, Owen typical names there

- Mountainous landscape
- Snowdonia NP Snowdon, 1058 m

System of government

- constitutional monarchy without a written constitution

- no single written document which can be appealed to as the highest law of the land
- laws agreed by the Parliament
- judgements of the courts
- customs
- important documents MAGNA CARTA, Bill of rights
 Three branches:
- Parliament
- Government
- Law courts

Official head is the Queen

PARLIAMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

House of Commons / House of Lords
House of Commons (650 Members of Parliament, more politcal power)
House of Lords (Peers are not elected)

Her Majestys Government

- led by PrimeMinister ( David Cameron)
- Cabinet - about 20 ministers (secretaries of state)
- Chancellor of the Exchequer - treasury
- Lord Chancellor - law
- Foreign Secretary
- Home Secretary

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

- One of the longest reigning monarchs in British history

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender
of the Faith

Since WWI Houseof Windsor

Queen Elizabeth II

- Public duties and engagements

- State Opening of Parliament
- Christmas Day speech
- Official Birthday celebration
- 2012 Diamond Jubilee
- Royal Maundy
- specially minted coins distributed to pensioners
 Honours Orders of Knighthood

Peerages:
DUKE Order of the Garter, KG
MARQUIS Order of Merit, OM
EARL Order of the British Empire, SBE, OBE, MBE
VISCOUNT
BARON
Knight Sir
Dame

Order of the British Empire

J.R.R Tolkien, CBE

Agata Christie, DBE

Sir Paul McCartney, MBE

David Beskham, OBE

J.J. Rowling, OBE

Hugh Laurie, OBE

ROYAL FAMILY

PRince Phillip

Mountbatten, Duke od Edinburgh

Prince Consort

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Prince Charles

His Royal Highness

Prince of Wales

Prince of Henry od Wales

POLITICAL PARTIES

The system has existed since the 18th century

TORIES conservatives
David Cameron

Minimal government interference in the economy

High priority to national defence and internal law and order

Richer sections of the society

In power for most of the 2th century

Dismalting of British Empire

1920 the British Empire controlled a fifth of the world

The Empire dismantled in 25 years after WW II.

Commonwealth of Nations

54 countries, 2 billion people

Some of the richest, some of the poorest countries in the world

The Queen Head of State in 18 countries including Canada and Australia

Primary goals:

- economic co-operation between member nations

- promotion of demoncracy and human rights

British overseas territories

14 territories, which rely on Britain fortheir defeence

Population of less than 200,000

military bases tax havens (daov podvody)

Gibraltar, British Virgin islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Falkland islands
British Armed Forces

Royal Air Force

Royal Navy

British Army

Their task

to protect the UK and its overseas territories

- to promote UKs wider security interest

- to support international peacekeeping efforts

Immigration to UK

Since 1962 legislation to resctrict the number of immigrants

Ethnic minorities are concentrated in the cities

1.05 million of Indian (1.8 % of the population)

747.000 Pakistani (1.3%)

283.000 Banbladeshi (0.5%)

7.9 % of the population - mixed raceor ethnic minority

Religion (christian)

EDUCATION IN UK

- became compulsory onlyin 1880, for children aged 5 10

- one of the lastin Europe to organize education for everyone
- uebn osnovy (curricula)
- free of charge, free textbooks, free transportation
Three stages: primary, secondary, tertiary
- compulsory up to 16
- English child - 24 hours per week
- Scotland 27, Japan - 30

Types of schools

State schools - free

Independent schools fees are paid

Confusing terminology:

Schools funded by government are called state schools 94 %

Schools that rely on funding from non-governmental sources - independent schools

The most prestigious of independent schools public schools

2,400 independent schools educate about 600.000 pupils of all ages , 550 of them public schools.

PUBLIC SCHOOL ( fees from 300 to 4000, a term at Eton 6000)

Winchester College, 1382

Eton College, 1440

Westminster School, 1560

ETON COLLEGE (the most famous public schol in the world)

18 former prime ministers (PMs)

Waterloo was won on the playing of ETON.

ETON WALL GAME (game played)

SCHOOL UNIFORMS

Secondary education

- At 16 General Certificate of Secondary Education, GCSE

- After, students are free to leave the school (about 1/3 does that)
- Sixth Form College preparation for A-level exams
- Universities select students on basis of A-levels

Something missed ???

Mass media:

- newspapers

- magazines

- radio

- television

- Internet- blogs, message boards, podcasts, video sharing

Newspapers in the UK

The British the highest circulation of newspapers in the EU

- Nearly 400 copies per 1000 people

- 12 national daily newspapers
- 10 national Sunday ones

Broadsheets vs. Tabloids

Broadsheet/Quality/Serious

For better educated readers

More text, less pictures

Smaller headlines

Educated English

Politics, economy, serious news

Large format

Tabloids/Popular

Most of population

Less text, more pictures

Larger headlines, wordplay

Gossip, celebrity, sex, scandal

Small format

In the past easy to distinguish

Today - blurred line between the two types

Broadsheets include photographs, small format, large headlines

Shallowness (plytkos) the result of the commercial interests

British newspapers are ,,low,,

Even the serious newspapers can look popular

BROADSHEETS

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, The Gurdian, The Times, The INDEPENDENT

TABLOIDS

THE SUN, The Sun, The daily mirror