United Kingdom: About the United Kingdom - Part 1
From ExecutivePlanet.com
An introduction - geography and culture
The official, legal description of the nation-state that lies off the northwest coast of continental Europe has been the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1927. Somewhat unsurprisingly this is not widely known outside the subjects of the Crown who possess a passport stating as much in a plurality of languages of which the German Vereinigtes Königreich Grossbritannien und Nordirland probably sounds the most incongruous. For most of the global population the UK is simply England and its people are English or sometimes, and more generously, Britons or just British. Even Great Britain, however, consists of three distinct entities: England, Scotland, and Wales. England has existed as a unified kingdom since the 10th century and the union with Wales was enacted in 1284; the Act of Union of 1707 led to Scotland joining England and Wales as Great Britain.
Although described in the CIA’s World Factbook 2002 as ‘slightly smaller than Oregon’, the UK is culturally and ethnically diverse. For the most part such differences will not be readily apparent to the visitor but it is important to avoid offending those who value their particular identity. Any form of discrimination is, of course, taboo but many Welsh and Scots - particularly in more rural areas - will take exception to being called English. Such a proud sense of local identity may also be found in the English regions furthest from London and the 'Home Counties' (the area of southeast England within 60-70 miles of London), especially the northeast around Newcastle, Merseyside, and the West Country. These regions also have strong local accents, and even dialects, that may be difficult for the foreign ear to pick up on first hearing. In Wales, moreover, a quarter of the population speak Welsh (a Celtic language like Gaelic and unrelated to modern English); all official notices etc. are written in both Welsh and English but Welsh is the first language of choice in many parts of Wales and many Welsh-speakers deliberately use their mother tongue to exclude ‘outsiders’ (i.e. the English). Perhaps 60,000 Scots know their own version of Gaelic but it is unlikely to be heard outside the Highlands and Islands.
This question of cultural identity is doubly problematic in the case of Northern Ireland where the historical consequences of centuries of British involvement in Irish government remain unresolved. All of Ireland belonged to the United Kingdom from 1801 until the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 resulted in the formal partition of the island; this established the independent Republic of Ireland (Eire) in the south with Dublin as its administrative capital whilst Ulster or the six counties in the north remained part of the UK. The ‘Troubles’ that have dominated Anglo-Irish affairs for over three decades have their origin in the frequently violent opposition between nationalist republicans from the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland seeking (re-)union with Eire and loyalists or unionists from the Protestant majority (two-thirds of the population in the north) who are bitterly opposed to any link with Dublin and fiercely attached to the British Crown. Whatever the solution may be - and, despite difficulties in the continuing negotiations, at least the violence has subsided - it is recommended that any visitor to Ireland (north or south) tread very warily through this minefield of sensitivities. It would also be wise to exercise similar caution in Glasgow where football symbolically but very obviously, divides the second city of Scotland between supporters of Celtic (Catholic) and Rangers (Protestant) along ancient tribal lines and can lead to aggressive confrontation when the two teams meet.
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