ENGLAND |
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England is the largest, the most populous, and
the most densely populated of the four "Home Nations" which make up the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the
south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England is named after
the Angles, one of a number of Germanic peoples who settled there in the 5th
and 6th centuries. England has not been an independent nation since 1707
when the modern Great Britain was established. |
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Naming and symbols
The names by which most of the various languages of Europe refer to England
follow two distinct patterns. Virtually every continental European tongue
uses a name similar to "England": "Angleterre" (French), "Anglia" (Hungarian),
"Anglija" (Slovene), "Inghilterra" (Italian), "Engleska" (Serbo-Croatian)
and so on. The Celtic languages of northwest Europe, by contrast, use quite
different names, e.g. "Bro-Saoz" (Breton), "Pow Sows" (Cornish) and "Sasana"
(Irish). The explanation lies in the tribal settlement of England in the
Dark Ages and the different contacts between various peoples. The ancestors
of the present-day Welsh and Cornish were driven west by the invasion of the
Anglo-Saxon tribes; the Celtic names for England are variants on "land of
the Saxons," since the Saxons were the western-most tribal groups. By
contrast, it has been suggested that the Angles' geographic position along
the eastern coast of England gave them a higher international profile as
traders than the inland-dwelling Saxons.
Alternative names sometimes used for England have included the slang "Blighty",
from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"; and "Albion," an ancient
name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century,
supposedly in reference to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover. (In its
origins, however, the name applied to the whole island of Great Britain.)
More poetically, England has been called "this scept'red isle...this other
Eden" and "this Green and Pleasant Land", quotations respectively from the
poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did
those feet in ancient time).
"England" is sometimes, wrongly, used in reference to the whole United
Kingdom, the entire island of Great Britain (or simply Britain), or indeed
all of the British Isles. This misuse of the name is not only incorrect but
can cause offence to people from other parts of the UK. There are situations,
furthermore, where although the word "England" wouldn't be factually
incorrect, British people would typically use the less-specific "Britain" or
"The UK" instead. This usage pattern is frequently seen in documents from
the USA.
The inhabitants of England are the English. Slang terms sometimes used for
them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic) and "Limeys" (in reference
to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent
scurvy).
The English flag is St. George's cross, a thin red cross on a white field. A
red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries AD. It became associated with Saint George, and England, along
with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of
Genoa) which claimed him as their patron saint, began to use his cross as a
banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which
English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all
purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag.
The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used
in a variety of contexts, for example as the badge of the English Rugby
Union team. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English
national football team, having its basis in the English royal arms first
used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late twelfth century.
England does not have an official anthem of its own but Jerusalem (incorporating
the Blake phrase quoted above), I vow to thee my country and Land of Hope
and Glory are all widely regarded - unofficially - as English national hymns
(although the last more properly refers to Great Britain, not just England).
At sporting events, God Save The Queen (the national anthem for the UK as a
whole) is nonetheless usually played for the England football team, although
Land of Hope and Glory has been used as the English anthem at the
Commonwealth Games (where the four nations in the UK face each other
independently).
Politics
England ceased to be an independent political entity with the Act of Union
with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707, which created the Kingdom of Great
Britain. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United
Kingdom since that date, though in 1999 the first elections to the newly
created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as
the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament such as
exist in the other three nations of the United Kingdom. As all legislation
for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints
about the ability of, Northern Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Members of
Parliament to "interfere" in purely English affairs when English MPs have no
similar right of "interference". This apparent injustice is highlighted by
both English and Scottish politicians, often those opposed to devolution,
and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question.
There are calls by some for an English Parliament but the current Labour
government favours the establishment of regional governments, claiming that
England is too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. In some regions,
notably the south-west and south-east there is little interest, but in the
north of England there is growing support. A referendum on this issue will
be held in North East England, with the region due to vote in October 2004.
Planned referenda in Yorkshire and the Humber and North West England have
been delayed due to issues with all-postal ballots. Consideration has still
to be given to what powers regions would be granted, and what impact this
may have on the powers of counties or central government.
Unlike the other nations of the Kingdom, there is very little call for
independence of England from the UK. This is overwhelmingly due to its
dominance in the Union. Those groups that do campaign for such a thing tend
to be right-wing organisations with very little popular support.
Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Act of Union
1536 with Wales, England has shared a legal identity with Wales as the joint
entity of England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland retain separate
legal systems and identities.
Subdivisions
Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the
county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old,
pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and
Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts
of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they
were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds.
These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the
traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily
modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about
due to a number of factors.
The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there
was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the
area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the
cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial
revolution and the mass urbanisation of England.
The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on
cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into
unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of
government.
London is a special case, and is the one Region which currently has a
representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The thirty-two
London boroughs remain the local form of government in the city.
Other than Greater London, the official Regions are:
North East England
North West England
Yorkshire and the Humber
West Midlands
East Midlands
East of England
South West England
South East England
The Regions hold very little power owing to their lack of accountability –
regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected representatives of
various interests. When, as seems likely, several Regions opt to replace
these QUANGOs with elected assemblies, Local government in England will
remain as variable and, some might say, confusing as ever.
Major towns and cities
The largest cities in England are as follows (in alphabetical order):
Birmingham
Bradford
Bristol
Coventry
Derby
(Kingston upon) Hull
Leeds
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle (upon Tyne)
Nottingham
Plymouth
Sheffield
Stoke-on-Trent
Wolverhampton
Demographics
England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in
the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a
tenth are from non-White ethnic groups.
This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have
arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600
BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire),
350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans),
1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1880–1940 (Jews), 1950–1985
(Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community
member states, East Europeans, Kurds, refugees).
The general prosperity of England has also made it a destination for
economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This diverse
ethnic mix continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely
used internationally. |
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