The physical features of the UK

THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN

AND NORTHERN IRELAND

LECTURE 1

PLAN.

1. Introduction.

2. The physical features of the UK.

3. The climate and weather.

4. The plant and animal life.

5. Industry and agriculture.

6. The British people as they are.

7. Modern ethnic, national and religious problems.

Official name: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Status: Constitutional monarchy.

Area: 244,100 square km.

Capital:London

Nationality: English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish.

Languages: English is predominant, but also Scottish, Welsh and Irish.

Head of the government: the Queen

Legislative body: Parliament, consisting of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Flag: the Union Jack, made up of 3 crosses. The upright red cross is the cross of St.George, the patron saint of England. The white diagonal cross is the cross of St.Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. The red diagonal cross is the cross of St.Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

The national bird: Robin Redbreast.

Introduction

Many foreigners say “England” and “English” when they mean “Britain”, or the “UK” and “British”. This is very annoying for the 5 mln. people who live in Scotland, the 3 mln. in Wales and 1.5 mln. in Northern Ireland who are certainly not English. (46 mln. people live in England.) However, the people from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are all British.

The United Kingdom is an abbreviation of the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. It is often further abbreviated to “UK”, and is the political name of the country which is made of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (sometimes known as Ulster). Several islands off the British coast are also part of the United Kingdom (for example, the Isle of Wight, the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetlands, and

the Isles of Scilly), although the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not. However, all these islands do recognize the Queen.

Great Britainis the name of the island which is made up of England, Scotland, and Wales and so, strictly speaking, it does not include Northern Ireland.

The British Isles is the geographical name that refers to all the islands off the north-west coast of the European continent: Great Britain, the whole of Ireland (Northern and Southern), the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. But it is important to remember that Southern Ireland (also called “Eire”) — is completely independent.

So you should know that “the United Kingdom” or “Britain” is the correct name to use if you are referring to the country in a political rather than in a geographical way. “British” refers to people from the UK, Great Britain or the British Isles in general.

Before the United Kingdom was formed it took centuries and a lot of armed struggle was involved. In the 15th century, a Welsh prince, Henry Tudor, became King Henry VII of England. Then his son, King Henry VIII, united England and Wales under one Parliament in 1536. In Scotland a similar thing happened. The King of Scotland inherited the crown of England and Wales in 1603, so he became King James VI of Scotland. The parliaments of England, Wales and Scotland were united a century later in 1707. But the British and Irish parliaments were not united until 1801. In 1922 the southern part of Ireland, predominantly Roman Catholic in religion, became a separate state. Northern Ireland with its Protestant majority, has remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The physical features of the UK

The British Isles lie off the north-west coast of Europe. Their total area is about 244,100 square km.

The two largest islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain, which forms the greater part of the British Isles, comprises England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland comprises Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The Isle of Wight is off the southern coast of England. The Isles of Scilly are off the south-west coast of England and Anglesey is off North Wales. The Orkneys and Shetlands are to the far north of Scotland. The Isle of Man is in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands are not part of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They have a certain administrative autonomy.

Great Britain is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the north-west, north and south-west. It is separated from Europe by the North Sea, the Straits of Dover or Pas de Calais, and the English Channel or La Manche, a French name which means “a sleeve”. The North Sea and the English Channel are often called the “Narrow Seas”. They are not deep but frequently are rough and difficult to navigate during storms, which makes crossing from England to France sometimes far from pleasant.

On the west Great Britain is separated from Ireland by the Irish Sea and the North Channel.

The seas around Britain are shallow and provide exceptionally good fishing grounds.

Britain is one of the world’s smaller countries with some 55, 734,000. people, it ranks about 14th in terms of population .About half the people live in a large belt stretching north-westwards from London across England. Other large concentrations of population are in the central lowlands of Scotland, south-east Wales and the Bristol area, parts of north-east England and along much of the English Channel coast.

Climate and weather.

The British Isles lie, throughout the year, in the belt of westerly winds. Thus the prevailing winds blow from a westerly and especially a southwesterly direction, reaching the British Isles from over the vast Atlantic ocean, and depositing a plentiful rainfall.

The climate in the UK is generally mild and temperate due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The south-western winds carry the warmth and moisture into Britain. The climate in Britain is usually described as cool, temperate and humid.

One of the most striking things about the British Isles is the rapidity with which the weather changes from day to day or even during the day. A warm sunny day may be followed by one with cool or cold dry winds. The weather is so changeable that the English often say that they have no climate but only weather.

Rainfall is more or less even throughout the year. In the mountains there is heavier rainfall than in the plains of the south and east. The driest period is from March to June and the wettest months are from October to January. The average range of temperature (from winter to summer) is from 5 to 23 degrees above zero. During a normal summer the temperature sometimes rises above 30 degrees in the south. Winter temperatures below ten degrees are rare. It seldom snows heavily in winter, frost is rare. In winter the continent of Europe gets colder with increasing distance from the Atlantic and similar effect is noticeable in the British Isles, for Eastern Britain faces the colder continent whereas western Britain faces the relatively warm Atlantic. The coldest parts of all are the lofty Highlands of Scotland, but the western shores of the Highlands although wet and bleak are never cold and Cape Wrath shows about the same January mean temperature as the Isle of Wight. In January the warmest parts of the British Isles are south-western Ireland and south-western England (Devon and Cornwall). There snow is rare and it never lies on the ground for long. Many plants can grow there which would be chilled by frost in other parts of the country.

In summer the south-eastern part of England is warmest, and it becomes gradually cooler towards the north and north-west, so that the Shetland Islands are the coolest part of the British Isles. Some crops which ripen well in the south (wheat, for example) will not ripen in northern Scotland.

So, we may say that the British climate has three main features: it is mild, humid and changeable. That means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild. Snow may come but it melts quickly. In winter the cold is a humid cold, not dry.

This humid and mild climate is good for plants. Trees and flowers begin to blossom early in spring.

The plant and animal life.

With its mild climate and varied soils, Britain has a diverse pattern of natural vegetation. When the islands were first settled, oak forest probably covered the greater part of the lowland, giving place to extensive marshlands, thin forests of Scots pine on higher and sandy ground and perhaps some open moorland. In the course of the centuries nearly all the forests have been cleared and woodlands now occupy only about 6% of the surface of the country. The greatest density of woodland occurs in the north and east of Scotland, in some parts of south-east England and on the Welsh border. The most common trees are oak, beech, ash and elm and, in Scotland, pine and birch. The Highlands with thin soil are largely moorland with heather and grasses. In the cultivated areas that make up most of Britain there are many wild flowers, flowering plants and grasses.

The fauna of the British Isles is in general similar to that of north-western Europe, though there are fewer species. Some of the larger mammals, including the wolf, the bear, the boar and the Irish elk, have become extinct; there are foxes in most rural areas, and otters are found along many rivers and streams. Both common and grey seals may be seen on various parts of the coast, though not usually in the same localities. Smaller mammals include mice, rats, hedgehogs, moles, squirrels, hares, rabbits, weasels and stoats.

There are about 430 species of birds, including many songbirds. About 230 species are resident and the rest are regular visitors to Britain. The most numerous are blackbird, sparrow and starling.

The many species of gulls and other sea-birds which nest round the coast often fly far inland in search of food or shelter in rough weather. many of the rarer species of birds are protected by law.

River and lake fish include salmon, trout, sea-trout, perch, roach and pike.

There are more than 21,000 different kinds of insects, most of them small, in the British Isles.

The insect fauna in Britain is less varied than that of continental Europe and lacks a number of common European species.

Britain’s industry, trade, agriculture and fisheries.

Britain lives by industry and trade. Her 55,734,000 people provide one of the world’s biggest markets for food and raw materials. In return, British manufactured goods of every kind are sent all over the world. They make about an eighth of the world’s total exports of manufactures. Invisible exports — shipping, insurance, aviation, tourism, etc. — earn nearly as much as commodity exports.

Just over 200 years ago the first industrial revolution began in Britain with such epoch-making inventions as the steam engine and the first machinery for weaving textiles. Later, British inventors and engineers gave the world the first railways, steamships, pneumatic tyres, miners’ safety lamps, mechanical reapers, matches and many other things that are now familiar everywhere.

Today, in a new age of modern technology, Britain has made important advances in such new industries as electronics and telecommunications equipment, in aircraft and aircraft engines, in plastics and synthetic materials, radio-isotopes and new drugs — all major exports. At the same time Britain has harnessed traditional craftsmanship to modern methods to continue to produce those items for which she is justly famous, such as pottery, glassware, woollen and leather goods.

Engineering industries produce many leading exports: electrical machinery, cars, tractors and commercial vehicles, bicycles and precision instruments of many kinds make up nearly half the goods exported.

Britain is the world’s third largest trading nation, accounting for about 11% of international trade in manufactured goods. Over a quarter of total exports go to Commonwealth countries and over a third to Western Europe. The United States of America, Canada, Australia, India, new Zealand and Germany are among Britain’s chief trading partners.

Britain’s role as a trading nation and as centre of the Sterling Area, which holds a quarter of the world’s population, includes a vast network of financial services, centred on the City of London. With its many famous institutions, such as the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange, and Lloyd’s, and its international commodities such as rubber, metals and tea, the City has for over a century held a place of first importance in world trade.

Although Britain is a highly industrialized country, agriculture is still one of her most important industries. Just over 700,000 farmworkers provide over half the food needed by some 55,5 mln. people. This is achieved by widespread use of machinery (there are 500,000 tractors in use) and by making the best use of the results of research and scientific experiments.

For a small country, Britain has a great variety of soil, climate and types of farming; ranging from breeding in Scotland and sheep farming in the mountains of Wales to growing crops, mainly wheat, barley, oats and potatoes, in the large, flat, fertile areas of the eastern counties.

Over 200 years ago British livestock breeders developed the principles which have produced some of the world’s finest pedigree cattle, sheep, pigs and horses. Famous breeds of cattle — Hereford, Shorthorn, Aberdeen Angus, Ayrshire and others — have laid the foundation of pedigree herds in North and South America, Australia and many other countries.

Agricultural research is carried out at over 50 research stations in pest control, fertilisers, plant and animal diseases and the improvement of crops and livestock. Their work gives valuable aid to farmers in the developing countries, which send many students to Britain.

Sea fishing, round the coasts of Britain and in distant waters, is of great importance in Scotland and in the north-east of England. About two-fifth of Britain’s 22,000 fishermen are employed in the Scottish ports, such as Aberdeen, Fraserburgh and Granton. Distant-water vessels fish the seas around Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland.

Research into improved methods of fishing, processing and storage plays a big part in modernising an ancient industry.

The British people as they are.

Great Britain is an island on the outer edge of the European continent, and its geographical situation has produced a certain insular spirit among its inhabitants, who tend, a little more perhaps than other people, to regard their own community as the centre of the world. The insularity produces a certain particularism among the numerous groups of whom the whole community is composed. The British look on foreigners in general with contempt and think that nothing is as well done elsewhere as in their own country. The British people have also been known as superior, snobbish, aloof, hypocritical and unsociable.

These characteristics have been noted by people from all over the world, but are they typical of all the Britons? The ordinary Briton was seen to be friendly and sociable. There are indeed two nations, with basically different outlooks and characters, in Britain. The two nations are defined simply as the rich and the poor. The traditional opinion about the British, or the English in earlier centuries, was based on the habits of those Britons who could afford to travel, the diplomats and merchants. English vanity and arrogance grew as England fought off the competition from other European countries and became the world’s leading trading nation, going on to industrialize rapidly.

Englishmen tend rather to be conservative, they love familiar things. They are hostile, or at least bored, when they hear any suggestion that some modification of their habits, or the introduction of something new and unknown into their lives, might be to their advantage. This conservatism on a national scale, may be illustrated by reference to public attitude to the monarchy, an institution which is held in affection and reverence by nearly all English people.

Britain is supposed to be the land of law and order. Part of the British sense for law and orderliness is a love of precedent. For an Englishman, the best of all reasons for doing something in a certain way is that it has always been done in that way.

The Britons are practical and realistic; they are infatuated with common sense. They are not misled by romantic delusions.

The English sense and feeling for privacy is notorious. England is the land of brick fences and stone walls (often with glass embedded along the top), of hedges, of thick draperies at all the windows, and reluctant introductions, but nothing is stable now. English people rarely shake hands except when being introduced to someone for the first time. They hardly ever shake hands with their friends except seeing them after a long interval or saying good-bye before a long journey.

Snobbery is not so common in England today as it was at the beginning of the 19th century. It still exists and advertisers know how to use it in order to sell their goods. The advertisers are very clever in their use of snobbery. Motorcar manufacturers, for example, advertise the colour of their cars as “Embassy Black”. Embassy black is plain, ordinary, but the name suggests diplomats and all the social importance that surrounds them, and this is what the snobs need.

The British people are prudent and careful about almost everything. Their lawns are closely cropped , their flowerbeds primly cultivated, their trees neatly pruned. Everything is orderly. Drinks are carefully measured, seats in a cinema are carefully assigned (even if the theatre is empty you are required to sit in the seat assigned to you), closing hours rigorously observed.

A tradition that is rooted not only in their own soul, but in the minds of the rest of the world is the devotion of the English to animals. Animals are protected by law. If, for instance, anyone leaves a cat to starve in an empty house while he goes for his holiday, he can be sent to prison. There are special dogs’ cemeteries. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded half a century before its counterpart for the prevention of cruelty to children.

Most people in Britain work a five-day week, from Monday to Friday; schools, colleges and universities are also closed on Saturdays and Sundays. As Friday comes along, as people leave work they say to each other, ”Have a nice week-end.” Then on Monday morning they ask, ”Did you have a nice week-end?”

On Sunday mid-mornings most British people indulge in some fairly light activities such as gardening, washing the car, shelling peas or chopping mint for Sunday lunch, or taking the dog for a walk. Another most popular prelunch activity consists of a visit to “a pub” — either a walk to the “local”, or often nowadays a drive to a more pleasant “country pub” if one lives in a built-up area. The national drink in England is beer, and the “pub”, where Englishmen go to drink to, is a peculiarly English institution.

Much leisure time is spent in individual pursuits, of which the most popular is gardening. Most English people love gardens, their own above all, and this is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats.

The British people are the world’s tea drinkers. They drink quarter of all the tea grown in the world each year. Many of them drink tea on at least eight different occasions during the day.

British homes. The majority of the British population live in small houses built close together. A typical house of this kind is built with two floors. The front door, which faces the street, opens into a hall with two rooms, one on each side of the hall. One of them is the dining-room; the other may be called the sitting-room or the living-room. The most modern name for it is the lounge.

The rooms upstairs are bedrooms; they are often very small. Often the dining-room is the most comfortable room in the house, and the one that is used all the time. The other members of the family bring their hobbies and games to the table. But when the TV-set is turned on, no one can do anything in the dining-room.

Very many houses of this type were built in British cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today the land on which they stand has become very valuable and the owners either sell or it or pull down the old houses and build large blocks of flats. In this way the owners make more money.

Many British people give their suburban houses a name, such as the Cedars, the Poplars, the Rhubarb Cottage, even though there are no trees or vegetables in their gardens. People of high social position have country houses with names, so a house with a name seems “better” than a house with a number. Numbers make the postman’s work much easier, but this is not important.

Modern Ethnic ,National and Religious problems.

During the last two decades the people of Great Britain stopped to be purely “European”. Most of the country’s population descend from the Celts, Angles, Saxons, and Normans. Since the 1950’s, however, many immigrants from Commonwealth countries have settled in Great Britain, especially in England. In the mid 1950’s immigrants arrived at a rate of about 35,000 a year. Most of them came from India, Pakistan, the West Indies and Africa. The rapid growth of population resulted in many serious problems that led to race riots in early 1980’s.

The general decline of manufacturing eventually resulted in high unemployment. The rate of unemployment peaked in the mid-1980’s providing grounds for new racial clashes. The British workers had to compete for jobs with the immigrants, while the immigrants resented the discrimination they sometimes encountered. The British do a lot to settle

racial problems and they have already succeeded in building a multiethnic society. They have learned to respect cultural and religious identity of the new arrivals, and mutual respect has always been to prosperity of human society.

Another problem still unsolved is the Irish question, which is rather a religious and political than national matter. Beginning in 1921, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other militant Irish catholic groups have been at war with the British, hoping to force the British government to give up control over Northern Ireland. British measures could not totally halt the wave of bombings and killings in Northern Ireland and England.

Irish Protestants retaliated against the IRA attempts, and acts of violence and terrorism continued into 1990’s.

Irish Protestants resent the union of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. They believe that such union would place them under Catholic rule. On the other hand, Catholics in Northern Ireland claim that the Protestants discriminate against them. The riots that began in 1968 made Britain suspend Northern Ireland’s government and establish direct rule over the country. This measure has brought little positive changes, and tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland may lead to serious complications.