The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Good morning everyone. Let me introduce myself: my name is... The purpose of my presentation is to tell you about The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I’m going to divide my talk into several parts. First I’ll give you information about geographical position and about population of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; after that about climate and its economy, finally I’ll tell you about political system of the country.

I’d like to start with geographical position. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles which contain more than 5,000 small islands. It consists of four parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I'd like to tell you about the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh, the capital of Wales is Cardiff, the capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast, and the capital of England and the whole of the UK is London. England, Wales and Scotland occupy the territory of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is situated in the northern part of Ireland. The territory of the United Kingdom is about 244,800 square kilometers.

Let’s now move on to its population. The population is more than 60 million. The total population of England is about 50 million. Scotland is estimated at more than 5 million, Wales - about 3 million, Northern Ireland — more than 1.7 million. About 80% of the population is urban.

Let’s turn to the next point. Great Britain is surrounded by seas on all sides (the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean). It is separated from the continent by the English Channel which is 34 km wide in its narrowest point.

In this part of my presentation, I'd like to tell you about the northern and western parts of the country that are mountainous and called the Highlands. All the rest (south, east and centre) is a vast plain which is called the Lowlands. The mountains are not very high. The rivers are not long. The most important of them are the Thames, the Mersey, the Severn, the Clyde, the Trent. There are many beautiful lakes in the mountainous parts of the country.

I'll describe here the climate of the country. The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream influence the climate of Great Britain. It is mild the whole year round. The weather in Britain is very changeable and people like to say that they have no climate but only weather.

I can’t mention the fact that Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country. It is famous first of all for its heavy and textile industries. Britain is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of iron and steel products, machinery and electronics, chemicals and textile, aircraft and navigation equipment. One of the chief industries of the country is shipbuilding. 7 % of the population is engaged in farming. The biggest industrial cities are London (port), Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Manchester.

Apart from this, Great Britain is a country of old cultural traditions and customs. It has the world known educational centres such as Oxford and Cambridge universities. They are considered to be the intellectual centres of Europe. The education is not free, it is very expensive.

Now let’s look at the political system of the country. The United Kingdom is a parliamentary monarchy and the Queen is the head of the state (since 1952 - Elizabeth II). She summons, prorogues and dissolves Parliament. She normally opens the sessions of Parliament with the speech from the throne. But in practice Britain is ruled by the elected government with a Prime Minister at the head. He has a great deal of power in contrast to that of Monarch. Number 10, Downing Street is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.

Let’s move to the next slide. The legislative branch of power is the British Parliament which consists of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Parliament sits in the House of Parliament in Westminster. It makes new laws, gives authority or the government to spend state money, and keeps a close eye on government activities.

And now I’d like to tell you some facts about political parties. There are three main political parties in Great Britain: the Labour, the Conservative and the Liberal parties. The current Prime Minister, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 11 May 2010. There's no written constitution in Great Britain, they act only on precedents and traditions.

To conclude, I’ll mention some interesting facts. A founding member of NATO, and the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the European Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK.

I’ve just told you about The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Thank you for listening. You can ask me any questions you like.