18 F Western Cultures3

英国册所有课文
正确排序：
:英1介： Unit 1: Great Britain
:英2介： Unit 2: Northern Ireland
:英3府： Unit 3: The Government of the United Kingdom
:英4阶A, 原为：Unit 4: Politics
:英4阶B， 原为： Unit 10: British Society: Housing, Class, and Race
:英5经： Unit 5: The UK Economy
:英6文： Unit 6: British Literature
:英7教， 原为： Unit 9: British Educational System
:英8外，原为： Unit 11: British Foreign Relations
:英9媒， 原为： Unit 12: British Media
:英10体节A， 原为： Unit 7: Sports in Britain
:英10体节，原为： Unit 8: British Holidays and Festivals
==英1介 介绍1==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk00/text00.asp.htm
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Introduction : The United Kingdom
Text
A Map of the British Empire
The full name of the country we are studying is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is a complicated name for what is in many ways a complicated country. Most people know something about it because its huge overseas empire gave it an important international role which only came to an end in the years following the Second World War. However, the things that people know about the UK ( which they will probably call simply Britain or, wrongly, England) may have little to do with how most real British people live their lives today.
A Map of Europe
For one thing, the days of empire are now long enough ago that only old people remember it as anything of any importance in their lives. Britain is no longer an imperial country, though the effects of its imperial past may be often encountered in all sorts of ways; not least in the close relationships which exist with the fifty or more countries which used to be a part of that empire, and which maintain links through a loose (and voluntary) organisation called the Commonwealth of Nations. But more important today in Britain international relations is the European Union, of which the UK has been a member since 1973, and it is more useful when considering modern Britain to emphasise its role as a European nation, rather than its membership of the Commonwealth. It remains a relatively wealthy country, a member of the Group of Seven large developed economies.
One other obvious effect of that old imperial role lies in the make-up of the British population itself. Immigration from some of those Commonwealth countries, which was encouraged in the 1950s and 1960s, has produced a population of which 1 in 20 are of non-European ethnicity. They themselves, or their parents or grandparents, were born in India or Pakistan, the countries of the Caribbean, to name only the most common.
An English Gentleman's Family
This introduces what is the key theme of the chapters about the United Kingdom: as is the case for most, or all, countries, it is not possible to sum up the British people with a few simple phrases. Many people who think of Britain think of the English gentleman. But this is just a stereotype which never applied to the majority of the British people, and really has little validity today. The UK is one nation, with a single passport, and a single government having sovereignty over it all, but as the full name of the nation suggests, it is made up of different elements. It includes 4 parts within the one nation-state: the island of Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales, and Northern Ireland, a province on the neighbouring island of Ireland, completes the set. So when discussing Britain and the British some consideration has to be made of these differences: for example a woman from Scotland would not be pleased if we were to call her an English gentleman? She is Scottish and female, and sees her identity as different from that of men and separate from the English.
A Mosque in UK
But this distinction between the 4 constituent countries is only one, and perhaps the simplest, of the differences which divide the United Kingdom. It has been already pointed out that the UK is now a multiracial society, and these quite recent groups of immigrants have brought aspects of their own cultures with them which sit side by side with more traditionally British ways of life, for example, many are Muslims, while most British people (in name at least) are Christians. And clearly involved in my example of the Scottish woman is the fact that men and women do not have the same experience of life in Britain. Also Britain is divided economically: it is a society with a class-structure. It is possible to exaggerate the importance of this class-structure, because of course most countries have some kind of class-system, but it is true to say that the class structure of UK society is relatively obvious. The culture of a factory worker whose father was a factory worker may be quite different from that of a stockbroker whose father was a stockbroker: they　will tend to read different newspapers, watch different television programmes, speak with a different accent, do different things in their free-time, and have different expectations for their children.
Another difference which marks British society is that of region. Even within each of the four countries there are different regions: the difference between the Highland and Lowland Scots has a long historical significance, for example: north and south England are also considered to be culturally distinct, though the boundary between them is not marked on any map, and exists only as a rather unclear mental attitude. Nevertheless, there is some basis to the distinction in economic terms as the south is on average more wealthy than the north.
Part of the reason for that economic difference between north and south is found in another distinction which marks British society, a distinction which can be seen in many societies but is perhaps particularly obvious in the UK, that is, the difference between the capital and the provinces. London is in the south of the country, and is dominant in the United Kingdom in all sorts of ways. It is by far the largest city in the country, with about one seventh of the nation population; it is the seat of government; it is the cultural centre, home to all the major newspapers, TV stations, and with far and away the widest selection of galleries, theatres and museums. Also it is the business centre, headquarters of the vast majority of Britain's big companies; it is the financial centre of the nation, and one of the three major international financial centres in the world. As such it combines the functions of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, or New York, Washington and Los Angeles, in one city. And given its long-standing historical role in the UK, perhaps Xi'an too! London is a huge weight in Britain's economic and cultural life, and to some extent the rest of the country lives in its shadow.
National Portrait Gallery
Covent Garden
The Beatles in Madame Tussaud's
We shall look at many of these differences, along with other issues, in later chapters, but in the first two chapters we shall discuss just the most obvious: the four nations of the United Kingdom.
==英2介 介绍2 英苏威==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk01/text01_p1.asp.htm
:介。2
Unit 1: Great Britain
| England | Scotland | Wales |
Text
England
Lake District, One of the Most Beautiful Areas in England
Population (1994) 　48.7 million 　(UK total 58.4 million)
Area: 130 423 km2 　　　(UK total 241 752 km2)
England is a highly urbanized country, with 80% of its population living in cities, and only 2% of the population working in agriculture. Its largest city is the capital, London, which is dominant in the UK in all fields: government, finance, and culture. England is physically the largest of the four nations, and it has by far the largest population. This dominance in size is reflected in a cultural and economic dominance too, which has the result that people in foreign countries sometimes make the mistake of talking about England when they mean the UK. Significantly, people in England sometimes make that mistake too, but people in the other three nations would not: they might call themselves British (as might the English), or they might call themselves Scottish or Welsh or Irish, but they certainly wouldn't call themselves (or like to be called) English. So oddly, of the four nations, the English feel most British, and therefore have the weakest sense of themselves as a separate "English" culture within Britain.
London
Swansea, South Wales
British history has been a history of invasions. Before the first century AD Britain was made up of many tribal kingdoms of Celtic people: a powerful culture originating in central Europe. Then in 43AD Britain was invaded by the Roman empire, and England and Wales (though not Scotland or Ireland) became a part of the Roman empire for nearly 400 years. As the Roman empire came under threat from the east, the Roman armies and Roman protection were withdrawn from Britain, and Britain was again divided into small kingdoms, and again it came under threat from outside, this time from Germanic peoples: the Angles, and the Saxons.
One of the best-known English legends derives from this time. In the fifth century AD it is said that a great leader appeared, united the British, and with his magical sword, Excalibur, drove the Saxons back. This is the story of King Arthur, and has been embellished by singers, poets, novelists and even filmmakers ever since.
Tentagel Castle in Cornwall
Knight Lancelot
Although King Arthur's real existence is in doubt, you can visit places associated with his legend, such as the cliff-edge castle at Tintagel in Cornwall. According to legend Arthur gathered a company of knights to him, who sat together at Arthur's castle at Camelot (possibly the real hilltop fort at Cadbury Hill in Somerset). Conflict between his knights led to Arthur creating the famous "round table" at which all would have equal precedence. Perhaps this could be seen as an indicator of the way in which the English have wished to see their monarch as something other than a remote dictator, and have in fact managed to gradually bind the monarchy into a more democratic system, rather than completely rejecting it.
Whatever Arthur's success, legend or not, it did not last, for the Anglo-Saxons did succeed in invading Britain, and either absorbed the Celtic people, or pushed them to the western and northern edges of Britain. Despite the fact that contemporary English people think of King Arthur as their hero, really he was fighting against them, for these Anglo-Saxon invaders were the forefathers of the English, the founders of "Angle-land" or "England" as it has become known.
Two more groups of invaders were to come after the English: from the late 8th century on, raiders from Scandinavia, the ferocious Vikings, threatened Britain's shores. Their settlements in England grew until large areas of northern and eastern England were under their control. By then the English heroes were truly English (Anglo-Saxon), such as King Alfred the Great, who turned the tide in the south against the Vikings. There remains to this day a certain cultural divide between northerners and southerners in England, which while not consciously "Saxon" versus "Dane", may have its origins in this time. The richer southerners tend to think of northerners as less sophisticated than themselves, while northerners think southerners arrogant and unfriendly. They are also marked by having distinctly different accents.
The next invaders were the Normans, from northern France, who were descendants of Vikings. Under William of Normandy (known as "William the Conqueror"). They crossed the English Channel in 1066, and in the Battle of Hastings, defeated an English army under King Harold. This marks the last time that an army from outside the British Isles succeeded in invading. William took the English throne, and became William the First of England. The Tower of London, a castle in the centre of London which he built, still stands today.
Robin Hood
The Normans did not settle England to any great extent: rather they imported a ruling class. The next three hundred years may be thought of as a Norman (and French-speaking) aristocracy ruling a largely Saxon and English-speaking population. It is this situation which produced another of England's heroic legends. This is the legend of Robin Hood, the Saxon nobleman oppressed by the Normans, who became an outlaw, and with his band of "merry men" hid in the forest of Sherwood in the north midlands of England. From this secret place, armed with their longbows, they then went out to rob from the rich to give to the poor. This early English socialist (!) has featured in many television series and films, both British and American. Some writers have seen in the popularity of this legend of a rebellion hidden in the green wood a clue to the English character: a richly unconventional interior life hidden by an external conformity. But, like all stereotypes, this one has its weaknesses, as many English people, especially young people, like to display their unconvenionality externally—for example English punk rockers with their vividly dyed spiky hair. But it is certainly true that the lifeless fronts of many English houses conceal beautiful back gardens. Gardening is one of the most popular pastimes in England, and the back garden provides a place where people's outdoor life at home can go on out of the public gaze. This may contrast with people from other countries whose outdoor life might be more social—sitting on the front porch watching passers-by.
The next few hundred years following the Norman invasion can be seen as a process of joining together the various parts of the British Isles under English rule, so that any English identity eventually became swamped by the necessity of adopting a wider British identity, both to unite the kingdom internally, and to present a single identity externally as Britain became an imperial power. At the same time power was gradually transferred from the monarch to the parliament. Charles the First's attempt to overrule parliament in the 1640s led to a civil war in which parliamentary forces were victorious, and the king was executed. After a gap of eleven years in which England was ruled by parliament's leader, Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy was restored. Further conflict between parliament and the king led to the removal of the Scottish house of Stuart from the throne, and William and Mary were imported from Holland to take the throne, thus finally establishing parliament's dominance over the throne.
Scotland
Kyle of Tonque, Scotland
Sheep in Scotland
A Swan in Scotland
Cattle in Scotland
　　Population: 　5.111 million 
　　Area: 　　　　77 080km2
Scotland is the second largest of the four nations, both in population and in geographical area. It is also the most confident of its own identity because alone amongst the non-English components of the UK it has previously spent a substantial period of history as a unified state independent of the UK. Thus it is not a big leap for the Scottish to imagine themselves independent again.
Physically, Scotland is the most rugged part of the UK, with areas of sparsely populated mountains and lakes in the north (The Highlands), and in the south (The Southern Uplands). Three-quarters of the population lives in the lowland zone which spans the country between these two highland areas. The largest city is Glasgow, in the west of this zone. Scotland's capital city is Edinburgh, on the east coast forty miles away from Glasgow. It is renowned for its beauty, and dominated by its great castle on a high rock in the centre of the city. Both cities have ancient and internationally respected universities dating from the 15th century.
Edinburgh Castle
Glasgow
Scotland was not conquered by the Romans, though they did try to, and for a while occupied as far as the edge of the northern highland zone. But the difficulty of maintaining their rule there caused them to retreat to a line roughly equivalent to the contemporary boundary between England and Scotland. Along this line, from sea to sea, they, like the Chinese, built a wall to mark the northern edge of their domain, and to help defend it. It is called "Hadrian's Wall" after the Emperor of Rome at the time of its building, and although ruined, lengths of it can still be seen and walked along.
Nor was most of Scotland conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, although an Angle Kingdom was established in the southeast—hence Edinburgh's Germanic name. British Celts displaced from the south by Saxon invasion occupied the area around what is now Glasgow, and in this same period (around the sixth century AD) people from northern Ireland invaded the south-west. They were called the Scots, and it is they that gave the modern country of Scotland its name. The original Scottish celts, called the Picts, were left with the extensive but unproductive highland Zone. The division between highland and lowland Scotland remains a cultural divide today, in much the same way as north and south England see themselves as different from each other. There are even areas in the highlands where (in addition to English) people speak the old Celtic language, called "Gaelic".
Like England, Scotland began to experience Viking raids in the ninth century, and it was the pressure from this outside threat that led Scottish kings to unify, forming an independent singular Scottish state at just about the same time that Anglo-Saxon England was also unifying. The presence of this larger powerful kingdom on its southern doorstep was the key factor in Scottish politics from that time on, with frequent wars between the two. William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" is set in the Scotland of this period.The town of Berwick upon Tweed near the Scottish border in present day England is said to have changed hands thirteen times as a result of Anglo-Scottish conflict. Despite the conflict, there were close ties between the two countries with extensive intermarriage between the two aristocracies, and even between the royal families. A recent Hollywood movie, Braveheart, told the story of William Wallace's uprising in 1298, which was quelled by the English. But only a few years later the Scots, under the leadership of Robert the Bruce, were victorious at the Battle of Bannockburn, leading to 300 years of full independence.
Queen Elizabeth I
In 1603, however, Queen Elizabeth the First of England died childless, and the next in line to the throne was James the sixth of Scotland, so he also became James the First of England, uniting the two thrones. But for another hundred years Scotland maintained its separate political identity. However, in 1707 by agreement of the English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland joined the Union. There followed two rebellions in 1715 and 1745 in which the heir to the Stuart claim (deposed in 1688 by the English parliament) to the British throne attempted to reassert his right to rule Britain, gathering support in Scotland then marching with an army into England. In 1745 this led to a brutal military response from the British army. The rebel army was destroyed at the Battle of Culloden (the last battle on British soil) in northern Scotland. Scottish highland clan (extended family group) culture was effectively destroyed at this time, and today exists largely as a way of parting tourists from their money by selling them "tartan" souvenirs or histories of "their" clan. For following Culloden, and even more importantly, the agricultural changes of the 18th century which led to depopulation of the highlands, many Scots sought their fortune outside Scotland—in England, America, Canada, or Australia. So that there are more people of Scottish descent outside Scotland than in it, and many of those come back to find their "roots", forming a good target for the sellers of such souvenirs.
The dream of an independent Scotland has not vanished, but it does not seem to be one shared by most Scots. Scotland elects its members of parliament to the London parliament in just the same way as the English do. It sends 72 representatives to London, but at the election in 1992, of those 72 only 3 were elected from the Scottish Nationalist Party—a political party which wants an independent Scotland. However, the largest group of MPs (49) was from the Labour party, which has said that if they are elected as the UK government at the next election they would set up a regional parliament for Scotland to manage its own internal affairs within the UK.
Scotland has a great tradition of innovation in the arts, philosophy and science. The inventor of the telephone was a Scot, and the first man to transmit a television picture was another. Its writers have given the world such well-known work as Walter Scott's romances of highland Scotland, and "Auld Lang Syne" (by Robert Burns, who wrote in the Scots dialect). But the work which many consider to best sum up Scotland's position is the famous novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which describes how the civilised scientist Dr Jekyll transforms periodically into the crude and violent Mr Hyde. This description of the dual nature of man is perhaps a good way to think of Scotland: superficially fully integrated into the UK, but concealed beneath this is a still-strong Scottish identity.
Sir Walter Scott
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Wales
Population: 　2.899 million
Area: 　　　　20 776 km2
Cardiff Castle,
Wales
The capital of Wales is Cardiff, a small city of about 300 000 people on the south coast. This southern area was an important element in Britain's industrial revolution, as it had rich coal deposits. Coal-mining became a key industry for the Welsh, employing tens of thousands at its height. So its recent disappearance has been a major economic and cultural blow. But South Wales has been very successful in attracting investment from abroad—particularly Japan and the United States, which has helped to create new industries to replace coal and steel.
Wales is the smallest among the three nations on the British mainland, though larger than Northern Ireland. It is very close to the most densely populated parts of central England. Though it is hillier and more rugged than adjacent parts of England there is no natural boundary. So Wales has been dominated by England for longer than the other nations of the union. Nevertheless, what is remarkable is that despite this nearness and long-standing political integration Wales retains a powerful sense of its difference from England. It also retains its own language, Welsh. This is a Celtic tongue completely different from English, spoken by 19% of the population, a much higher proportion of the population than speak Gaelic in Scotland. Again, all those Welsh-speakers are also fluent in English.
Like the rest of Britain, before the arrival of the Roman empire, Wales was a land of Celtic peoples, living in a number of small tribal kingdoms. Wales was conquered by the Romans eventually, though with difficulty. The Welsh chieftain Caradoc fought a long guerrilla campaign from the Welsh hills against the invader. When the Romans left Britain Wales was again a Celtic land, though again divided into separate kingdoms, but unlike England it did not fall to the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the fifth century.
But Wales was always under pressure from its English neighbours, particularly after the Norman conquest, when Norman barons set up castles and estates in Wales under the authority of the English Crown. Thus there was a need to unify Wales to successfully resist the English. This did not happen until Llywelyn ap Gruffudd brought a large portion of Wales under his rule, and by a military campaign forced the English to acknowledge him as Prince of Wales in 1267. But when he died, the English king, Edward the First, set about conquering Wales, building a series of great stone castles there from which to control the population. These castles stand today as one of Wales' greatest tourist attractions (along with its beaches, cliffs and mountains), and tourism is now an important industry.
Charles,Prince of Wales
Edward the First named his son the Prince of Wales, and the first son of the monarch has held that title ever since (including the present day Prince Charles) to try to bring Wales into the British nation. The last real attempt to resist that process was in the early 15th century when Owain Glyndwr led an unsuccessful rising against the English. Today Glyndwr and Llywelyn are more than simple historical figures for the Welsh, they are the almost legendary heroes of Welsh nationalism. Their brief campaigns are the only times in history when Wales has existed as a unified independent nation.
A hundred years after Glyndwr, in 1536, Wales was brought legally, administratively, and politically into the UK by an act of the British parliament. This close long-standing relationship means that modern Wales lacks some of the outward signs of difference which Scotland possesses—its legal system and its education system are exactly the same as in England. Often official statistics are given for "England and Wales". However, Wales is different, and one of the key markers of that difference is the Welsh language—the old British Celtic tongue which is still in daily use. But as a source of the Welsh identity this is sometimes divisive, because 80% of the Welsh don't speak the language, and yet feel Welsh. Since most of the Welsh speakers are in the north, this deepens a cultural division between the more populated, industrial south, and the rural north of Wales.
As in Scotland the Welsh people elect their MPs to the London parliament. The Welsh too have nationalist party, "Plaid Cymru" (The Party of Wales), which campaigns for an independent Wales. Of the 38 Welsh MPs, 4 are members of this party. Under a Labour government Wales will probably gain its own parliament to manage its own internal affairs.
==英2介 介绍3 北爱==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk02/text02_p1.asp.htm
:介。3 北爱
Text
　　Population: 1.642 million
　　Area: 13 483 km2 
General Introduction
A Street in Belfast
Northern Ireland (often called "Ulster" after an ancient Irish kingdom which once existed in that part of Ireland) is the smallest of the four nations, both in area and population. With only 1.64 million people, it is smaller than many Chinese cities. Its capital, Belfast, is a relatively small town of around 350 000 people, but is much the biggest city in the province. Though Northern Ireland is small it is significant because of the political troubles there.
Physically, it is mostly rural, with low hills, a beautiful lake district in the south-west, and a rugged coastline, which includes its most famous landmark, the "Giant’s Causeway", a rocky promontory made up of black hexagonal columns formed by cooling lava millions of years ago. Legend has it that the giant Finn MaCool built it to cross the sea to Scotland. The nature of its link to Great Britain has been a key element in Northern Ireland's history, and remains an issue today.
An Irish Farmhouse
This chapter will concentrate on the political problems of Northern Ireland, because unfortunately that is what is best known about it, though often not well understood. However, you should remember that it is a place where ordinary life continues, to which the troubles are an addition, rather than the main preoccupation of everyday life. Apart from the troubles, crime is very low, and even including political violence the murder-rate is much lower than in most American cities. Also the problems are mainly concentrated in particular areas, (where the troubles cannot be ignored for long, and where everyone would know a victim), but away from these places they might almost be forgotten, at least until the evening newspaper is delivered, or an armoured car drives by.
Northern Ireland has an active cultural life with many theatres, restaurants, pubs and museums: its best known poet, Seamus Heaney, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. Film-maker Neil Jordan won an Oscar for the "Best Original Screenplay" in 1992 with his film The Crying Game. Van Morrison is an internationally famous pop musician. Brian Frie is a playwright whose stageplays are acclaimed in London and Dublin as well as further afield.
A Pub in Belfast
Neil Jordan
The Crying Game
Headquarters of Shorts Company
The Northern Ireland economy has its problems, partly as a result of the troubles discouraging investment, partly as a result of its peripherality in relation to the UK. Its wealth per head is the lowest of any UK region. Nevertheless living costs are also comparatively low, and a standard of living is possible for those of middle to upper incomes which many Londoners might envy. Industrial companies there include the aircraft manufacturers, Shorts, who build small commuter aircraft, as well as parts for other manufacturers such as Boeing, and the UK's largest shipbuilders, Harland and Woolf.
● General Introduction 
● History
● The Troubles
● Towards a Solution?
History
Until 1921 the full name of the UK was "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", not only "Northern Ireland", because the whole island of Ireland was politically integrated with Great Britain, and had been since 1801, while Britain's domination of the Irish dated back centuries even before that date. But Irish desires for an independent Irish state were never lost, and one of the key issues in late nineteenth century British politics was a campaign in parliament for what was called "home-rule"—Irish political control of Irish affairs. The Home Rule Bill was finally passed in 1914, but the process was overtaken by the First World War and was suspended for the duration of the war.
Along with the political campaign for home-rule there were groups who followed a more direct method of pursuing Irish independence, engaging in guerilla or terrorist activities against British institutions and the British military forces. During the First World War and immediately after, this activity increased, sometimes brutally suppressed by British forces. The Easter Rising of 1916 was the most spectacular event, in which the rebels took over Dublin's Post Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means. The leaders of the rebellion were executed. In 1919 a group calling itself the IRA (Irish Republican Army) expanded the fighting. In the end the conflict became too great to ignore, and as the Sinn Fein ("Ourselves Alone") party,
The Image of IRA
who were supporters of the Irish terrorists (or freedom-fighters, depending on your point of view), gained most of the Irish seats in the British parliament, Irish independence became inevitable.
However, there was a problem. The majority of Irish people were descendants of the original Celtic people who inhabited the British Isles before the Romans arrived 2000 years ago. Ireland was not invaded by the Romans, or settled by the Anglo-Saxons who followed them into Britain, thus they were ethnically distinct from the majority of British people. Adding to this difference was religion: most Irish people remained Catholics,
A Catholic Church Dublin
while most British people had become Protestants. But in one part of Ireland this was not, and is not, the case. In the seventeenth century, the English government, trying to increase its control of Ireland, encouraged people from Scotland and Northern England to emigrate to the troublesome north of Ireland. As a result the northeastern part of Ireland gained a population who saw themselves differently from the rest of the Irish people. They thought of themselves as British, and wished to remain a part of the British state. Also, they were Protestants. In 1921 the idea of being a part of an independent Irish State, where most people were Catholic, did not appeal. On the other hand they could not "go home"—Ireland was their home: they had been there 250 years or more. They had shown in 1913 that they would not accept union with Ireland by organising a show of force, and put 100000 armed men in the streets of Northern Ireland.
Faced with these conflicting demands the British government chose a compromise and organised a partition of Ireland. The southern 26 counties would form an independent "free state", while the 6 north-eastern counties would remain a part of the UK. This is what happened in 1921, bringing to an end 700 years of British rule in southern Ireland.
Unlike the other nations in the UK, Northern Ireland was given its own Parliament to deal with Northern Irish internal affairs, based at Stormont, just outside Belfast. The problem was that just as Ireland had not been purely "Republican" (for an independent Irish Republic) so in the 6 northern counties the population was not purely "Loyalist" or "Unionist" (for union with Great Britain, loyal to the British Crown). Nearly 40% of the population were Catholic Irish, many of whom resented the North's separation from the south. To worsen the situation, the protestants, being the majority, controlled the local democratically-elected parliament, and used that power to support their own economic and social dominance in the province. Catholics found it harder to get jobs, or to benefit from social programmes such as public housing. Understandably resentment grew, and the armed conflict known as the "troubles" developed.
● General Introduction 
● History
● The Troubles
● Towards a Solution?
The Troubles
The Presence of British Soldiers in Northern Ireland
Following the example of Black Americans, in the 1960s Catholics in Northern Ireland began a Civil Rights Movement, campaigning for equality, often marching in the streets. Groups of Protestants began to organise counter-demonstrations, and rioting broke out. Protestant mobs attacked catholic areas. The police (The Royal Ulster Constabulary, RUC) were overwhelmed by the fighting, and the Northern Irish Prime Minister asked London for soldiers to help restore order. In 1969, the first British soldiers were seen on Northern Irish streets. They have been there ever since.
They came first to protect the Catholic people, and news film of the time shows them being offered cups of tea by grateful Catholics, however, the longer they stayed, the more they were seen as the symbol of British rule in Northern Ireland. The IRA at this time split. The Official IRA thought enough progress had been made that they could concentrate on a political process, and run candidates for elections, but a strong faction felt that armed force was the only way to get the British out, and separated from the officials, calling themselves the "Provisional IRA". It is this group which has continued the conflict for the last 25 years, and it is them that are usually referred to by talk about the IRA.
In the early 1970s the IRA carried out a campaign of bombing and shooting, usually targeting the security forces, but often bombing city-centres. Usually they gave warnings, but not always. The British Security forces were strengthened, with up to 20 000 soldiers, and 10 000 armed police in the province. They were forced to patrol in bullet-proof armoured cars, and to fortify police-stations and barracks, always being under threat of the IRA's activities. The Protestants formed their own illegal "paramilitary" groups and took revenge on Catholics, often murdering individuals at random. Catholics in mainly Protestant areas, and Protestants in mainly Catholic areas were threatened, and sometimes their houses burned down, causing each to flee. The result is that now Northern Irish cities are "ghettoised" into exclusively Protestant and exclusively Catholic areas. As their children also attend separate schools the two communities hardly mix at all. In 1971 the Northern Irish government took the desperate step of imprisoning terrorist suspects from both sides without trial, a policy known as internment. This suspension of civil rights caused anger on both sides, and, if anything, intensified the conflict (The policy was ended in 1975, and is now seen as a major mistake in the handling of the crisis).
Bloody Sunday
In the following year, 1972, 468 people were killed in Northern Ireland, the worst year of the troubles. These included 13 Catholics who had been taking part in a peaceful (though banned) civil rights march. They were shot dead by British soldiers. This was a key event in strengthening Catholic opposition to the British presence. This day has now been mythologised as "Bloody Sunday", an important symbol of British oppression.
THE TROUBLES IN NUMBERS: 1969—MAY 1994
Total Deaths
3147
of which: Civilians (including aramilitaries)
2202
 	British Forces (police and army)
945
Killed by: Republican paramilitary
58%
 	Loyalist paramilitary
27.7%
 	British forces
10.9%
While attempting to maintain normality through a massive and increasingly effective security presence the government looked for political solutions to the troubles. In 1973, an agreement was reached between the main political parties in Northern Ireland, and importantly, the British and Irish governments. This led to a new form for the Northern Irish Parliament, with a Power-Sharing mechanism to allow the minority Catholic population political influence. This, especially the Irish involvement, outraged the Protestant majority, leading to a massive and prolonged strike by the Protestant workforce, eventually leading to the collapse of the power-sharing group.
At this point the British government decided that the Northern Irish parliament could not govern the province effectively, and suspended it, replacing it with "direct-rule" from London. This is still the situation today. The IRA's bombing campaign extended to the mainland of Great Britain, but even so the troubles settled down to a peculiar level of semi-acceptability. People had got used to it. Both sides continued the conflict, but the British forces kept the scale down to a lower level than in the early 1970s, and through the late 1970s and the 1980s the death rate averaged around 90 per year. It didn't get worse, but neither could anyone see an end to it. A visitor to Belfast from England in the 1980s found a city which looked very much like home, but then might be shocked by seeing a police patrol with two armed policemen (shocking in itself to the British, whose police do not carry guns) protected by perhaps ten heavily armed British soldiers walking on both sides of the street ahead of and behind the policemen, looking through their guns' telescopic sights for any sign of danger. Meanwhile the people of Belfast would be walking amongst them, doing their shopping, taking their children to school, apparently hardly noticing the military force in their midst, the armoured car cruising by. Life went on.
● General Introduction 
● History
● The Troubles
● Towards a Solution?
Towards a Solution?
Sinn Fein Members Celebrate Election Victory
The most important events in the 1980s were firstly the flare-up around the hunger-strikers, in which, during the 1980s, convicted IRA prisoners campaigned for the status of being "political prisoners" by starving themselves. One of them ran for parliament and was duly elected before he died. Margaret Thatcher's government did not give in to this demand for political status and 11 prisoners starved to death. This event revitalised the political campaign of Sinn Fein, the legal political party which supports the IRA's right to fight. Its leaders spoke of a twin campaign for union with Ireland, both political and military, which they called the policy of "The Bullet and the Ballot Box".
The British government still felt that involving the Southern Irish in Northern Irish affairs was the right way to proceed despite the disaster of power-sharing in the 1970s. It should not be thought that the Irish government supports the IRA: they do not (following independence in 1921 a civil war was fought between the Irish government's forces and the IRA which the Irish government won, executing 3 times as many IRA men as the British ever had). The IRA is thus an illegal organisation there too, and the British and Irish governments work together on a range of security matters. Nevertheless, the Irish do seek to protect the rights of Catholics in Northern Ireland, and it is still a part of the Irish constitution that they claim sovereignty over the 6 northern counties also, which makes the Protestants of the north suspicious of their intentions. However, in 1985 the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed between the two governments, giving the Irish a right to consultation on Northern Irish matters. Again, huge Protestant protest followed with the "Ulster says No" campaign. This time the government did not give in and the Anglo-Irish agreement is still in effect. A series of big bombs in London in the late 1980s and early 1990s increased pressure on the British government to come up with a solution.
John Major
10 Downing Street
This pressure, and the more clearly political campaign of Sinn Fein, combined with the closer cooperation between the two governments, is what in 1993 enabled John Major and the Irish Prime Minister jointly to produce the Downing-Street Declaration which said that Britain had "no selfish or strategic interest" in Northern Ireland, and that "it is for the people of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts" to decide its future, "to bring about a united Ireland if that is their wish". All parties which established "a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods" were invited to join talks about the future.
MAIN POLITICAL GROUPINGS
 	NATIONALISTS	UNIONISTS
 	[Want union with Ireland]	[Want union with UK]
Constitutional: SDLP DSocial Democratic UUP — Ulster Unionist Party
(legal) and Labour Party DUP — Democratic Unionist Party
 	Sinn Fein
Paramilitary IRA — Irish Republican UVF — Ulster Volunteer Force
(illegal) Army
 	INLA — Irish National	UDA — Ulster Defence Association
 	Liberation Army
John Hume
Gerry Adams
Through the actions of a constitutional Nationalist politician, John Hume, leader of the SDLP, and the leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, in August 1994, to most peoples' surprise, the IRA declared a ceasefire. Protestant paramilitary groups did the same. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the problem was not solved, though for the moment no one was being killed.
The problem lay in the "commitment to peaceful methods" aspect of the possible talks. The British government felt that to make the Sinn Fein presence at the talks acceptable to the Unionist politicians, the IRA should hand over at least some of its weapons to show its seriousness. The IRA saw this as surrender, and refused. Time went on with various unsuccessful attempts to get over this hurdle. After 18 months of peace, the IRA's patience broke. They ended their ceasefire and set off two explosions in London, killing a number of people. At the moment of writing (April 1996) this is how the situation stands. Britain has offered Sinn Fein a place at talks planned to begin in June, if the IRA will declare another ceasefire. They have not done so. Province-wide elections are planned under a complex formula to ensure a wide range of representation on the body which will carry out these talks, in an attempt to give them legitimacy. Without the participation of Sinn Fein and the IRA it is hard to see them succeeding. Northern Ireland is poised on the brink—a new peaceful future, or a return to the violence that has claimed 3150 lives so far.
==英3府 政府==
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:府。
The Government of the United Kingdom
● The Monarchy
● The Parliament
● The Birth of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
● The British Government Today
● The Constitution 
● Parliament
● The Monarchy 
● The House of Lords
Text
Britain is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be traced over a thousand years. Other countries also have long political histories but these histories are marked by periods of sudden, and often violent, change. Although Britain too has had its periods of political instability, in contrast to say, France, the United States, or China, the process of state-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution. This long, unbroken history is still apparent in Britain's current political institutions and in its political culture.
The Monarchy
Queen Elizabeth II
The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy (rule by the king). This dates back to the Saxons who ruled from the fifth century AD until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The present Queen, Elizabeth II, is directly descended from King Egbert, who united England under his rule in 829.
Oliver Cromwell
 
The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine of the "divine right of kings". It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects. Because of this divine right, although there were sometimes battles between different families who insisted they were the legitimate heirs to the throne, the actual existence of the monarchy has seldom been questioned. For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or queen as the head of state, although there was one brief exception. In the 17th century there was a civil war in England between republican "roundheads" (so-called because the men defied popular fashion and wore their hair cut very short) led by Oliver Cromwell, who wanted to abolish the monarchy, and royalists who wanted it to continue. The Roundheads succeeded in ousting the monarch, Charles I, in 1642 and ruled for just eighteen years before the monarchy was restored.
While the King in theory had God on his side, in practice even in medieval times it was thought that he should not exercise absolute power. Instead, the sovereign should be willing to receive advice from prominent men. The monarch's willingness to do this led to many battles between the king and other powerful groups like the Church and powerful, land-owning feudal barons.
King John
The Parliament
The Parliament Building
Henry IV
The word "parliament" comes from the verb "to parley", that is, to discuss or talk. The term was first used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and towns which the king occasionally summoned if he wanted to raise money. Traditionally, medieval kings were supposed to meet their own royal expenses out of their own wealth. If extra resources were needed—for example, if a king wanted to wage a war, which he frequently did—he would try to persuade the Great Council, a gathering of leading, wealthy barons which met several times a year, to give him some extra money. By the 13th Century, kings found they could not make ends meet by asking for money from this quite small group, and so they widened the Great Council to include representatives of counties, cities and towns, to get them to contribute to his projects. It was in this way that the Great Council came to include both those who were summoned "by name" (the House of Lords) and representatives of communities (the House of Commons). These two houses exist today and collectively we call them the Parliament. The Commons quickly gained in political strength. They were willing to help the King by raising taxes and passing laws, but in return they wanted an increasing say in what the king was doing. In recognition of this, Henry IV decreed in 1407 that all money grants should be considered and approved by the Commons before being considered by the Lords, a formula which is almost the same today. The Commons also acquired law-making powers by the 15th century, a prerogative which had once belonged only to the King and his Councilors.
The civil war which brought the Roundheads to power in the 17th century was rooted in a dispute over the power of the king vis-a-vis Parliament. James I and his successor Charles I both insisted on their divine right as kings. They felt Parliament, representing the community, had no real political right to exist, but only existed because the king allowed it to do so. It was the effort to reassert the rights of Parliament that led to the civil war. The royalist armies were defeated and King Charles I was executed in 1649. But by 1660, Charles I's son was restored to the throne as Charles II.
William of Orange
The next King, James II , having apparently learned little from the experience of the previous decades, also tried to govern without the consent of Parliament. Leading politicians and church authorities asked James' son-in-law, William of Orange, to replace him. In return, William promised these representatives that he would declare governing without parliamentary consent to be illegal. This might have led to another civil war, but James ran away and William took over. In 1689 Parliament passed the Bill of Rights which ensured that the King would never be able to ignore Parliament.
The Birth of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
To ensure good relations between Crown and Parliament, the king or queen met regularly with a group of important Parliamentarians, a group which became known as the Cabinet. While Cabinet ministers were appointed by the sovereign, they had to have enough support in the House of Commons to enable them to persuade Parliament to pass laws and vote for taxes.
George I
UK Premier Blair
In 1714, the ruling Queen died without producing an heir to the throne and so Britain had to "import" a member of the royal family from Germany to rule Britain. The new King George I spoke English very badly and was not very interested in politics anyway, so he left the job of chairing cabinet meetings to one of his ministers. In time he came to be called the prime minister.
 
While a king or queen who was interested in politics remained very influential, the Parliament was slowly becoming more powerful, especially as it became more organised. In 1832, when a system for choosing the House of Commons by popular election replaced the monarch's job of appointing representatives, the modern political system was born. Members of Parliament (MPs) assembled themselves into groups which eventually would become political parties, organised groups which presented their policies and ideas to the electorate for approval. The party with the most supporters in the Commons forms the government, and by tradition, the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister.
The British Government Today
From this brief history we can see that British government today is deeply influenced by its long past. Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. While the official head of state is the Queen, her powers are largely traditional and symbolic. The government at national and locals levels is elected by the people and governs according to British constitutional principles.
Because of Britain's imperial past, when many other corners of the globe were ruled from London, we find similar systems of government in many former colonies. Other countries which are governed according to the principles of British parliamentary democracy are Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India. All but India recognise the Queen as their head of state, and a representative of the Crown, called the Governor-General, is present in such constitutional monarchies in order to fulfil the role of the monarch.
The Constitution
British governance today is based upon the terms and conditions of the constitution. Israel and Britain are the only two countries without written constitutions of the sort which most countries have. Instead of having one particular document which lists out the basic principles of how a country should be governed, the foundations of the British state are laid out in statute law, that is, laws passed by Parliament; the common laws, which are laws which have been established through common practice in the courts, not because Parliament has written them; and conventions, which are rules and practices which do not exist legally, but are nevertheless regarded as vital to the workings of government.
Parliament
Parliament has a number of different functions. First and foremost, it passes laws. Another important function is that it provides the means of carrying on the work of government by voting for taxation. Its other roles are to scrutinise government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day.
Parliament is supreme in the British state because it alone has the power to change the terms of the Constitution. For example, the decision for Britain to join the European Union(EU) required a constitutional change because it meant recognising that EU law would in particular cases be more important than British law.
 
There are no legal restraints upon Parliament. It can make or change laws, change or overturn established conventions or even prolong its own life without consulting the electorate. However, it does not assert its supremacy, but bears the common law in mind and acts according to precedent.
Queen Opens Parliament
Strictly speaking, the Parliament today consists of the Queen, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. These three institutions must all agree to pass any given legislation.
However, most everyday references to Parliament refer to the workings of the Lords and/or the Commons, with the Monarchy regarded as a separate institution. This is because even though the Queen must consent to pass a law, this consent is given as a matter of course. The last royal refusal was in 1707.
The Monarchy
The role of the monarch today is primarily to symbolise the tradition and unity of the British state. Obviously the prime minister and governing party at any given time will only represent the part of the population that voted in their favour. The Queen, however, because she is non-political, belongs to everybody. Under the terms of the constitution her other roles are as follows: she is legally head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces and "supreme governor" of the Church of England.
State Visit
Royal family
Prince Charles
Andrew
Charles and Diana
In a 1988 poll, most Britons felt the Queen's most important job was to represent Britain at home and abroad; her second most important job was to set standards of good citizenship and family life. While the Queen has indeed led an exemplary life, her children have been criticised for their poor behaviour. Her successor and son, Prince Charles, divorced his wife, Princess Diana. Stories came out in the press alleging that they had both been having extramarital affairs. Her middle son, Andrew, also divorced his wife, Sarah Ferguson (popularly known as Fergie). Andrew and Fergie in particular were both criticised for their jet-setting lifestyles and the way they squandered money.
While the Queen is independently wealthy, much of the financial support for the Royal Family comes from the taxpayer, supposedly in recognisance of the fact that the royal family fulfils its role on behalf of the British people. This had led to great controversy in recent years. In 1992, after Andrew and Fergie had separated, newspapers published a picture of a topless Fergie and her "financial advisor", a wealthy Texan, lounging around a swimming pool. People were outraged because their tax money was used to support such decadence. Shortly afterwards, Charles and Diana also announced they were separating and allegations about their extramarital affairs began to appear in the press.
Criticism of the Queen's children led to a more general criticism about the monarchy and the debate came to a head in November 1992 when a fire did a great deal of damage to Windsor Castle. The government immediately offered 50 million pounds' worth of taxpayers' money to pay for repairs. The electorate was very angry: Britain was in a recession and basic things like hospitals and schools had been forced to cut their services because public money was so scarce. They thought it was very unfair that the Queen, who is incredibly wealthy and does not have to pay taxes herself, should not have to pay for at least part of the repairs. The taxpayer was already paying for the running costs of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, three other palaces, a royal yacht, a royal train and a royal plane. As a result of the controversy, the Queen offered to start paying taxes and to accept less public money to support her family. She also began to open Buckingham Palace to tourists in the summer months in order to raise money to pay for repairs. Her willingness to give in to popular demands once again endeared her to her subjects, although her children still remain quite unpopular.
Windsor Castle
Buckingham Palace
Changing Guards
A less well known role of the Queen, which is nevertheless very important to British politics, is that of a confidante to the Prime Minister. Every Tuesday the Prime Minister attends the Queen privately at Buckingham Palace. In her 40 years on the throne, the Queen has had weekly chats with 9 different Prime Ministers and they have said that her long experience and her political neutrality make her a good source of informed observation on the day to day problems of governance.
Interestingly, it is said that the Queen gets on much better with Labour Prime Ministers than with Conservative Prime Ministers.
The House of Lords
Below the Queen is the House of Lords. It consists of the Lords Spiritual, who are the Archbishops and most prominent bishops of the Church of England; and the Lords Temporal, which refers to everyone else. Lords, usually called peers, are not elected and are not considered to represent anyone besides themselves. They sit in the Lords either because they have inherited the seat from their forefathers (peerages can only be passed through the male line) or because they have been appointed by the sovereign, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister (a practice created in 1958). These latter are called life peers.
Big Ben
Because peers are appointed or given the right by their birth into a particular family, in Parliament they speak and vote as individuals, not as representatives of the greater interests of the country—although of course civic-minded peers do try to serve their country rather than their own interests. Unlike those who serve in the House of Commons, they do not receive salaries and many do not attend Parliament at all. In 1993 there were 1 213 Lords: 776 were hereditary peers, 391 were life peers,20 were Law Lords (a special group chosen to assist the House in its judicial duties) and the remainder were Lords Spiritual. Only 375 on average regularly attended the sittings.
Nowadays the composition of the House of Lords is seen as being both sexist and elitist because of the way the majority of peerages are passed down through aristocratic patrilineal lines. It is very likely that efforts will be made to reform the House of Lords to make it a more effective and modern institution in the next decade.
Finally, there is the House of Commons which currently consists of about 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected by the people to represent them. MPs represent voters in a particular area, known as a constituency or seat. The number of seats varies a little bit because of changes in the population. MPs are only allowed to sit for the lifetime of the parliament, that is, the length of time between General Elections when a new set of MPs is elected. However, MPs can be reelected a limitless number of times and so popular MPs have veritable careers as parliamentarians. Unlike the Lords, MPs receive a salary of about *31000 a year. This is about the same pay as an average middle class professional such as a doctor or an accountant would earn and it is thought that MPs will thus be able to identify with the "typical" voter they represent. They also receive allowances for secretaries and researchers, travel and so on.
Tony Blair's family
Most MPs belong to political parties—Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are the major ones. The Prime Minister is of course the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in a general election. His or her Cabinet nowadays consists of usually around 20 MPs in the governing party who are chosen by the Prime Minister to become government ministers in the Cabinet. The Cabinet carries out the functions of policy-making, the coordination of government departments and the supreme control of government. The House of Commons is the real centre of British political life—it is the place where elected representatives make and debate policy--and so its role is discussed in greater detail in the chapter on British Politics.
==英4阶A 政治==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk04/text04_p1.asp.htm
:政。
Politics
● General Elections
● The Political Parties
● Recent Political Trends
● Current Issues
Text
General Elections
Why are they important?
Periodic national elections are very important in the western model of democracy. In the UK the citizen's right to vote for the candidate of their choice to represent them in parliament is a right that has been struggled for over the past two hundred years. Although MPs have been elected to parliament for hundreds of years, in 1832 only 5% of the adult population were allowed to vote; by 1884 persistent political campaigning had increased this to 25%; by 1919 it was 75%; and in 1928 it reached the current level of about 99% (those excluded are Lords,3 certain categories of convicted criminals, the legally insane, and resident foreign citizens—except UK resident citizens of the Irish Republic, who may vote). The election is seen as an opportunity to influence future government policy—or, less positively, that whatever else the failings of the political system, at least the election provides the opportunity to "kick the rascals out"
When do elections occur?
A Map of World War I
An Airplane in Wold War II
Winston Churchill in Wold War II
The Cabinet Office
As you will remember from the previous chapter the British people are represented in parliament by one of 651 members of parliament representing the 651 geographical areas or "constituencies" into which the United Kingdom is divided. The party which holds a majority of those "seats" in parliament forms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister. After a government has been in power for five years it has to resign and hold a "general election", in which all British adults are given the chance to vote again for their constituency's MP. A government cannot stand for longer than five years except in exceptional circumstances (it has happened twice this century, when elections were delayed until the end of the First and Second World Wars). However, the Prime Minister can call an election sooner than five years. This can happen (as in 1979) when the government loses a "vote of no confidence" in the House of Commons. That is, an MP (usually a member of an opposition party) puts forward a statement for the MPs to vote on saying that "This house no longer has confidence in the Government". If a majority of MPs agree, then the government has effectively lost its ability to govern and is forced to resign and call a general election. An early election can also happen if the Prime Minister decides that the government is currently very popular (perhaps the economy is booming) and calls an early election hoping to win another five years rather than wait the full period and risk becoming unpopular in the meantime and losing the election.
Who can stand for election as an MP?
Anyone who is eligible vote to can stand as an MP. It is necessary only to make a deposit of 500 pounds (a quite easily obtainable amount in the UK) which is lost if the candidate does not receive at least 5% of the vote. This is supposed to stop people running just for a joke: however, no British election would be complete without its eccentric no-hopers running for parties such as the "Monster Raving Loony Party". But in most cases, if you are not the candidat put forward by one of the main political parties you are unlikely to persuade many people to vote for you. They will see it as a wasted vote even if they respect you and your ideas, because even if you were to win the seat you would be powerless in parliament against the big parties' representatives. A vote for an independent candidate effectively prevents the voter from contributing to the competition between the big parties as to which of them will form a government. There are some small parties which have electoral success—usually these are associated with the politics of a particular region, such as "The Party of Wales". But people who want to make an impact in national politics must usually join one of the big parties, and apply to be chosen as their candidate in one of the constituencies.
What happens in an election?
Once the date has been set, everyone on the "electoral register" (the list of citizens eligible to vote) receives a voting card in the mail with details of when and where to vote. The electoral register is compiled from a variety of sources, but it is the citizen's own responsibility to check they are on the list—people sometimes forget to re-register when they move house for example.
Meanwhile the political parties get their electoral campaigns under way. This involves advertisements in newspapers, door-to-door campaigning (candidates or their local supporters come and knock at people's doors trying to persuade voters to vote for them), postal deliveries of leaflets, and, for the main parties, strictly limited "party electoral broadcasts" on the television: each main party is given a few 10 minute periods of time on national TV to "sell" their policies to the public. The time is given free, and the amount of time is proportional to the percentage of the vote which the party received at the previous election. They are not allowed to buy more time as this would favour richer parties over poorer ones. Likewise the amount each candidate is allowed to spend in his constituency campaign is strictly limited (to 7000 pounds in 1992) for the same reason of fairness. Nevertheless, the national campaign, other than that on TV, is not limited, with the big three parties spending between 2 and 10 million pounds each in the 1992 election. In addition to the parties' own publicity, newspapers and TV programmes devote a great deal of time to discussing the campaign, interviewing politicians, and predicting the results: A lot of money is spent by the media on "opinion polls", in which samples of the British population are asked how they will vote, and the results are the applied to the whole country to try and guess the election result. They are often wrong!
The campaigns are not simply about telling people how good your policies are, but also about telling them how bad your opponents are. So they can be quite aggressive and critical. Many British people complain that the campaigns are too negative, that the politicians do not properly explain their own policies, but instead explain why people shouldn't vote for their opponents.
A Polling Station
On the election day people go to their local voting station(often in a public building taken over for the day, such as a school or a community centre). They give their card to the official, who checks them off on his list and hands over another card with the candidates' names listed on it. The voters take this into a private booth (secrecy is an important part of the process, as if no one knows what you voted you need feel under no pressure from anyone to vote one way or another) and put an "X" beside the name of the candidate of their choice. They then fold the card and take it to the sealed box beside the official and push it through a slit in the top.
When the voting closes at the end of the day, the counting begins. Under close supervision, teams of volunteers check the voting cards in each constituency. The results come out over a period of a few hours. Television stations devote long programmes to monitoring the process as the results are gathered in from around the country, and keep a running count of the seats won by each party. It can be quite tense and exciting in a close election. Usually by the early morning it is clear which party is going to form the next government—as soon as they have won 326 constituencies, which will give them a majority of MPs in the House of Commons. This is a time for great celebration for them and their supporters, and great disappointment for the losers.
The Political Parties
Labour Founding Date
Paddy Ashdown
There are three major national parties: The Conservative party and the Labour party are the two biggest, and any general election is really about which of those two is going to govern. But there is a third important party, the Liberal Democrats, who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes: not enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of the other two parties does so. Anyone can join any of these parties and so take part in their internal politics: it's just a question of paying a small annual fee. All encourage people to join since it means more money for their campaigns, and greater legitimacy for their policies.
National Union of Mine Workers
King's College Hospital
Redundancy Funding Project
The Labour party is the newest of these three, created by the growing trade union movement at the end of the nineteenth century. It quickly replaced the Liberal party as one of the two biggest parties (nineteenth century politics had essentially been a competition between the Liberals and the Conservatives). Labour is a socialist party. That is to say that they believe a society should be relatively equal in economic terms, and that part of the role of government is to act as a "redistributive" agent: transferring wealth from richer to poorer by means of taxing the richer part of society and providing support to the poorer part of society. As well as this redistributive role, they see the government as the right body to provide a range of public services available to all, such as health, education and public transport. The labour government that came to power in 1945 had a major effect on British society: setting up the National Health Service to provide high quality health care for all, free, "from cradle to grave"; providing a range of welfare payments (to replace or supplement wages in case of unemployment, sickness, poverty, etc.); and, most controversially, it "nationalised" (changed from private to state ownership) a wide range of industries, making the UK into a mixed economy with both private enterprises and a large state-owned sector. This remained the case for the next 34 years. All this government activity required money, so the Labour party became known as a party of high taxation levels. Its party activities are still largely funded by the trade unions.
Tory Leader William Hague
The Conservative Party is the party that spent most time in power. In the post-1945 period the party of government changed fairly frequently, as Labour government was replaced by Conservative and vice versa. From 1979 to 1997, the Conservative Party won 4 elections in row and was in power for a long period. Basically the Conservatives are seen as the party of the individual, protecting the individual's right to acquire wealth and to spend it how they choose, and so favouring economic policies which businessmen prefer, such as low taxes. They receive a lot of their party funding from big companies. But in the past this economic policy was coupled with a "fatherly" sense of obligation to the less fortunate in society, which meant that even though the "Big" government which Labour set up in the post-45 era was against their principles, they did not dismantle it when they were in power. Thus the difference between the Labour party and the Conservative party is one of degree, not an absolute. However, as we shall see in the section below, neither party has stood still, and there have been substantial recent changes in both parties.
The Liberal Democrats are the third biggest party, and to some extent may be seen as a party of the "middle", occupying the ideological ground between the two main parties. As such, at election time they may receive votes both from those who usually vote labour and from those who usually vote Conservative. Many people see them as comparatively flexible and pragmatic in their balance of the individual and the social. They emphasise the need for change in Britain's constitutional arrangements to make government more democratic and accountable.
There are small parties supporting the independence of each of the three smaller countries in the Union, though at the moment they all receive a small share of the vote at election time.
Recent Political Trends
Thatcher and Reagan
The 1970s were a decade of problems in the UK. The economy did badly, with high inflation and low growth. Big private companies started to go bankrupt, and the nationalised industries were seen as inefficient. To maintain living standards trade unions campaigned for higher pay. There were many strikes when these demands were not met, which added to the problems. Relations between workers and managers were very bad. Trade union leaders became national figures, negotiating directly with the government and apparently having a lot of power. Many people saw this influence as undemocratic. The decade culminated in the winter of 1979 when there were widespread strikes. The Labour government faced a vote of no confidence, which it lost, causing a general election. This was won by the Conservatives under their leader Margaret Thatcher, who thus became the UK's first woman Prime Minister.
Beveridge
British Petroleum
She was a radical in conservative terms, committed to the idea of small government and free-market economics, and less concerned with being "fatherly": this she dismissed as the "nanny state", encouraging laziness and discouraging entrepreneurship. As a result the 1980s saw the most substantial changes to British society since the late 1940s. Part of the change was to undo some of the work of that 1945 Labour government, because one of their major policies was the privatisation of nationalised industry: British Aerospace; British Airways; British Telecom; British Petroleum; the electricity, gas and water companies, and many others, including much public housing, were gradually sold off, until today when little remains to be sold. The policy is generally seen as a success because the privatised companies have done very well, becoming very efficient and profitable. There were negative consequences, however, as the process of becoming efficient enough for private investors to buy them involved all these huge businesses in the loss of many workers. So unemployment went up quickly in the early 1980s, from 1 million jobless to 3.5 million. So poverty has increased for the first time since the War. Government welfare payments have become less generous too. So through the 1980s many people got richer, and many got poorer: Britain became a less equal society, and many thought public services, such as health, education and transport, got worse. The leader of the liberal party described the 1980s as a time of "private affluence and public squalor". Nevertheless many businesses boomed, and simplified government regulations attracted many foreign businesses.
Part of the mechanism of change was a less redistributive taxation system : tax rates were cut, allowing people to keep more of what they earned. It was an attempt to change local government taxes which led to Mrs Thatcher's downfall, because many citizens refused to pay the new "Poll Tax" which was seen as unfair. To maintain their popularity the Conservatives abandoned the new tax and elected a new leader: John Major. He has continued Thatcher's policies, but perhaps a little less forcefully.
Faced with this national (and international) trend away from big government socialism towards free market individualism (and four successive election defeats) the Labour Party has had to change too. It has become less "socialist", giving up its commitment to "public ownership of the means of production", and is careful about suggesting policies which would need tax increases.
Thus the 1980s have seen British politics move to the "right", away from the "public" and toward the "private"; away from the "social", and toward the "individual", and all parties have had to adjust to those changes.
hare of the vote at election time.
Current Issues
Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith
Eurotower
The last four years (to 1996) have seen steady economic growth, and steadily reducing unemployment figures. These are usually good signs for a government, but as the next election approaches (summer 1997) John Major's conservatives remain unpopular: well behind Labour in the opinion polls. Part of the reason for this is that the Conservatives have been in power for so long, people are ready for a change. Also there have been a lot of stories in the news about government corruption. Additionally the Conservatives are seen as divided internally on their policy towards Europe: some pro-integration, some against. Particularly there is division on the topic of monetary union—whether the UK should give up its own currency (the pound) and join in with the rest of Europe in a new European currency (the Euro). Popular government services such as health and education are not seen to be "safe" with the Conservatives. All these factors mean that the new-look Labour Party under its new leader Tony Blair is currently more popular, and looks likely to win at the next election. But a lot can change in a few weeks, for as the ex-Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, said: "A week is a long time in politics".
Euro
The Forming of New Labour
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:经。
The UK Economy
● Absolute Decline and Relative Decline
● Recent History 
● The Current UK Economy
● Case Study: The Aerospace Industry
Text
Absolute Decline and Relative Decline
G8 Summit Meeting Held in UK
An Airfield Building in WWII
By the 1880s the British economy was dominant in the world, producing one third of the world's manufactured goods, half its coal and iron, half its cotton. The amount of British shipping was greater than that in the rest of the world put together. But even by 1900 this was no longer the case, the UK having been overtaken by both the United States and Germany; and certainly from 1945 until the present, the story of the UK economy is usually thought of as one of decline. This is understandable but rather misleading, as it has in fact been a period of steady economic growth and rapidly increasing living standards. Britain remains one of the Group of Seven large industrial economies. But there are reasons for describing this period as one of decline. Britain entered the post-war world as one of the successful allies of the Second World War, with some of its chief competitor nations such as Germany and Japan, economically destroyed. Also Britain was the centre of a still vast empire. According to the figures, the UK was second only to the United States in the international economy. Thus Britain was then in an apparently strong economic position, a position it clearly no longer occupies, which indicates some sort of decline.
But the basic positive-seeming facts describing the size of the economy, the high proportion of world trade that was British, and so on, in 1945, did not reveal important negative facts about the UK's position even then. Firstly the country had gone heavily into debt in order to finance the war, selling many of its accumulated overseas assets, and borrowing large amounts from the United States and Canada. These debts meant that the UK entered the post-war era with a major economic problem.
A Map of India
Secondly, the era of empire was over. India, popularly known as "The Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire, gained its independence in 1947, only 2 years after the end of the war. This was the largest element in the empire, providing raw materials and a big market for British goods. This relationship with India was no longer available, and the rest of the empire quickly followed India to independence, leaving Britain as just a medium-size European country, with a population only one fifth the size of the U.S.
UN Security Council
Thirdly, despite the relatively rapid and trouble-free process of decolonisation, Britain was still forced to maintain a substantial and expensive military presence in many overseas locations until the process was completed (mostly by the end of the 1960s). Also its position as one of the shapers of the post-war world required substantial military contributions—both as one of NATO's major partners, and as a member of the UN Security Council. All this had the result that Britain spent a higher proportion of its national wealth (and especially of its research and development budget) on the military than most of its competitors. Military expenditure tends not to generate an economic return in quite the same way as other industrial investment.
Fourthly, although Britain was quite badly damaged by German bombing during the war, its industry survived comparatively unaffected. This contrasted greatly with some of its competitors—especially the main losers in the conflict, Germany and Japan, who almost had to start again from nothing. This apparent disadvantage for them may have worked in their favour in that as they had to invest, they could invest in the most modern equipment and new products. British industry however could continue with its older factories and pre-war products, and given its other economic problems, did so—a problem in the long-term. It also meant that output was initially very low in these two potentially large economies: so while Britain looked securely wealthier than them in 1945, a catching-up with the UK was inevitable as they recovered.
This failure to invest sufficiently in industry also reflects a long-standing and continuing problem in the UK economy. Even without the particular circumstances of the post-war world, relatively low rates of investment (the amount of money businesses put aside from profits to reinvest in the business in new products and production methods) were characteristic of the British economy in relation to other developed economies. Economists have pointed to the lack of a close relationship between industry and banks in the UK—again a contrast, particularly with the two most successful post-war economies, Japan and Germany, where banks and industrial firms have very close links. Economic historians have suggested that this may be due to the fact that the UK was the first economy
Industrialisation
to industrialise, and industrial firms, without foreign competition, grew used to financing their own development, without need to borrow from banks. Banks therefore, not able to find good investment opportunities in the UK, looked overseas for investment opportunities. A low rate of domestic industrial investment coupled with a very high rate of overseas investment is still a characteristic of the UK economy. So, amongst European nations, Britain is the largest investor in China, but sells fewer of its own manufactured goods here than do Germany or France.
The point to note is that the comparatively strong economic position Britain found itself in 1945 was in many ways deceptive. So the decline from Britain's apparently good fortunes at that point until now is thus not as extraordinary as it might seem, being the result of already existing basic problems. And it should also be remembered that this was not an absolute decline: Britain is not poorer, or producing less than it was in 1945, in fact (like most countries) it is a lot wealthier and more productive than it was then. The problem is that though it has improved, other countries have improved more rapidly, hence the slide from being the 2nd largest economy (after the United States) to being the sixth, as it is at present. And even many smaller economies have overtaken the UK in terms of output per head of population. So the UK has experienced economic decline, but this decline is relative to some other economies rather than absolute. Nevertheless, this relative failure is a serious cause of concern to the UK governments.
Recent History
OPEC Meeting
The British economy went through a particularly bad period in the 1970s. The oil price rises at that time led to very high rates of inflation (up to 25%). This caused many workers to strike for more pay. The fall in the value of the UK currency (The Pound) even forced the Labour (socialist) government to borrow from the International Monetary Fund.
IMF Headquarters
British industry, notably the car industry, appeared to be doing badly, with increasing imports relative to exports. All these negative economic facts led to a change of government at the next general election, in 1979, when the British people voted in the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher, with the promise of a radical programme of reform. Bureaucracy was reduced (foreign exchange controls were lifted, rules governing banks loosened, for example). And throughout the 1980s an extensive programme of privatisation was carried out, with many state-owned businesses (such as steel, telecom, gas, aerospace) joining the private sector. It seemed in some ways to be successful in that inflation came under control, and businesses, especially the newly privatised businesses, made profits. The negative aspect was a rapid increase in unemployment, rising to almost 12% at its worst. So while companies were more efficient, producing the same amount with less workers, and therefore being able to pay higher wages and make higher profits, the cost was paid by the unemployed who had to live on low incomes from state support. The national economy as a whole continued to grow at lower rates than its competitors. In the recession 1990—1992, the economy even shrunk by 2.3%.
The Image of the Euro
Since then however, the picture has been brighter, with four years of steady growth, at rates higher than that in the rest of the European Union. Unemployment has now fallen to 7.7%, which is among the lowest in the European Union. Inflation has remained under control at very low levels. Investment has increased, encouraged by low interest rates. Britain's membership of the EU has also made it an attractive location for inward investment by companies from outside the EU (especially the U.S. and Japan), of which it has received a larger share than any other EU country. Overall it is second only to the U.S. as a destination for international direct investment. It is also itself a major source of international investment—in fact it is the second biggest international investor in the world (1995).
The Current UK Economy
National economies can be broken down into three main areas: "primary" industries, such as agriculture, fishing, and mining; "secondary" industries, which manufacture complex goods from those primary products; and tertiary industries, often described as services, such as banking, insurance, tourism, and the selling of goods.
Sheep in UK
BSE (Mad Cow Disease)
A North Sea Oil Rig
A Shell Gas Station
Britain's agricultural sector is small (producing 1.4% of the national wealth) but efficient, producing 58% of the UK's food needs with only 2% of its workforce. Three quarters of Britain's land is used for agriculture, with about a quarter of that under crops—wheat and barley are the two commonest. The rest is grazing for animals, including cattle (both dairy and beef), though sheep are the most numerous livestock. The beef industry has been hit badly by BSE disease in cattle leading to a 1996 ban on beef exports. The best agricultural land is in the south-east of England.
The fishing industry provides 55% of the UK demand for fish. Scottish ports land the majority of the fish caught.
Energy production is an important part of the UK economy, accounting for 5% of the national wealth. Since the 1970s, when oil and gas were discovered under the North Sea, Britain has become a major oil and gas producer, in addition to its older coal mining industry, which now only accounts for about 1/4 of energy supplies, the rest being divided between oil, gas, and nuclear energy. This abundance of energy resources means that the UK has become an overall exporter of energy. The technology required to extract oil from the difficult offshore conditions has given UK companies a strong position in the offshore oil industry around the world. Three of the biggest ten companies in Britain are to be found in the energy sector: Shell (half Dutch), British Petroleum (BP), and British Gas. The world's largest mining company, RTZ, is a UK company which operates mines all over the world.
In the secondary sector of the economy, manufacturing industry remains important, producing 22% of national wealth. British companies are active in all major fields of manufacturing industry, but are particularly strong in pharmaceuticals (the British company Glaxo-Wellcome is the biggest drug company in the world), chemicals (ICI is the second largest paint manufacturer in the world), aerospace (overall the UK industry is third in size in the world) and food and drink (Scotch whisky being a major export).
ICI Products
Whiskey
Britain has a big electronics industry (the fourth largest in the world) but like the car industry (which includes Ford, GM, Peugeot, Nissan, Toyota) this is in many cases foreign-owned. Britain's last major independent car company, Rover, was recently bought by the German company BMW. A high-technology engineering industry has developed around the motor-racing
Rover Cars
A BMW Car
business, with many of the world's racing cars, both for Formula One, and the American Indycar series, being designed and built in Britain. McClaren and Williams are two of the most successful of these companies. The recently privatised British Steel is the world's fourth largest steel company.
The Liberty Design Company
Like most developed economies Britain has seen a relative shrinking of the importance of secondary industry and a spectacular growth in tertiary or service industries, which now produce 65% of national wealth. A lot of this is domestic activity such as retailing, tourism and so on, but Britain is also a major international provider of services, accounting for about 10% of the world's exports of such services. 70% of the UK's workforce are employed in the service sector. The financial sector is an important part of this service industry, as London is one of the top three financial centres in the world. It has the greatest concentration of foreign banks in the world, accounts for 20% of all international bank-loans, and is the world's largest foreign exchange market. As well as banking, dealing in commodities and insurance are important processes in "The City"—the name given to the historic area at the centre of London where all this business is concentrated, at the heart of which is the London Stock Exchange, one of the busiest share-dealing centres in the world. Advertising is another major business service in which UK companies are highly successful.
● Absolute Decline and Relative Decline
● Recent History 
● The Current UK Economy
● Case Study: The Aerospace Industry
Case Study: The Aerospace Industry
After those of the U.S. and Russia, the UK's aerospace industry is the next largest, capable of producing the full range of aerospace products from civil and military aircraft (including helicopters) to missiles, satellites, and jet engines. It produces 2% of UK national output, accounting for 8% of manufactured export goods.
The first powered flight in the world was made by the Wright Brothers in the U.S. in 1903. It was 1908 when the first such flight was made in the UK. But only a few years later came the First World War which forced the rapid development of the aviation industry, and by 1918 the British industry was the biggest and most sophisticated in the world, producing 1250 aircraft each month.
A Rolls Royce Car
After the war the new aircraft types provided the base for the development of the civil aviation industry. A converted First World War bomber crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1919, and a civil airline, Imperial Airways, was started in 1924. International air races provided an incentive for technological development, and a British plane, the Supermarine S6B, powered by a Rolls Royce engine, broke many speed records. Rolls Royce became the most successful aero-engine manufacturer at this time. The aircraft-building industry was reduced to a few major companies by a series of mergers.
One of the most significant developments of the inter-war period was the development of radar by the UK's Marconi company in 1922. And when Englishman Frank Whittle developed the world's first practical jet engine in 1937, the foundations had been laid for the three major branches of the aviation industry: aircraft, engines and aviation electronics, with British companies prominent in each field.
A Spitfire Fighter
Sadly, in 1939 war came again to provide another spurt of technological change, with many successful British aircraft designs in action, such as the Spitfire fighter and Lancaster bomber, and culminating in the jet-powered Meteor. The Rolls Royce Merlin engine became the best-selling aero-engine of all time with 166 000 produced. The wartime government, seeing the importance that the aircraft industry had gained (it employed 1.8 million workers by the end of the war), planned a range of civil aviation types to take over from wartime production. These included the world's first jet-powered civil airliner: The Comet.
However, the years following the Second World War were problematic for the UK industry. It continued to produce the full-range of products, even selling some of its aircraft to the United States. But in most markets British companies were in head on competition with American companies such as
A Boeing B52
Boeing and McDonnel-Douglas, which were larger, having the advantage of being preferential customers for the enormous U.S. market, both civil and military. The British industry merged into two main aircraft groups: the British Aircraft Corporation, and Hawker-Siddeley Aviation, with Rolls-Royce as the main engine builder, and Westland in helicopters. Nevertheless British civil airliners of the 1960s such as the Trident and the VC10 sold much less well than their American equivalents. Nor did British military aircraft sell very well overseas, with the exception of the unique Vertical Take-off and Landing Harrier, bought by the U.S. Marines amongst others.
The answer to the problem lay in collaborative projects with other European aircraft manufacturers which faced the same problems. The first of these was between Britain and France to produce the world's first supersonic civil airliner, Concorde. The aircraft was a technical success but a commercial failure, only 16 being built for British Airways and Air France. However the successful collaboration led to more such programmes between Britain and France, including the Jaguar combat aircraft, and three types of helicopter, including the Lynx, which holds the world speed record for helicopters.
Many other collaborative programmes between Britain and other European countries developed, including the Tornado combat aircraft—a project between Britain, Germany, and Italy. The current European Fighter Aircraft is another such venture. Westland have developed their latest helicopter in association with an Italian company.
But the most successful programme has been in civil airliners where the Airbus series of aircraft has effectively competed with American companies. This is an ongoing programme between France, Germany, Britain and Spain. British companies build the wings. British Aerospace build their own range of regional jets, including the successful 146 (popular with Chinese airlines) famous for being the quietest jet airliner. It is likely that these smaller aircraft will go into a European joint-venture too.
The industry has been through some major changes of ownership in the last twenty-five years. Rolls-Royce, in attempting to build a revolutionary new engine for the American company, Lockheed, went bankrupt, and had to be rescued by the government in 1971. BAC and Hawker Siddeley were also nationalised—as one company, British Aerospace, in 1977 by the Labour government. But both Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace were privatised in the 1980s by the Conservatives and have since been very successful both in individual projects and in international joint-ventures. The third main arm of the current industry is GEC Avionics, producing a wide range of electronic systems including the technologically advanced cockpit of the latest Boeing 777 airliner. Smaller companies produce a wide range of equipment from ejection seats to landing gears.
The Aerospace industry is now profitable,with over 300 companies employing 170 000 people. Its overseas sales accounted for around 12% of total world aerospace exports. It has been through difficult times, particularly in the 1970s, moving in and out of public ownership. But it has found success in links with Europe—a pattern it shares with the rest of the UK economy.
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文。
British Literature
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
Text
In this chapter we will consider one aspect of Britain's artistic output, that for which it is perhaps best known: literature. The major literature competition, the annual Booker Prize, is televised as an important national event, causing a great deal of discussion: the novel which wins, or is even short-listed for the prize, is likely to become a best-seller. The rich variety of theatre performance available in London is one of its main attractions to visitors
Early Writing
Much early British writing was concerned with Christianity: Anglo-Saxons produced beautifully illustrated (or "illuminated") versions of the Bible: the most famous of these is the Book of Kells, partly written on the Scottish island of Iona. Today it is kept in the library of Trinity College in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Outside of the church, few people in this period were literate. Even today early British literature (that dating from before the sixteenth century), is little read outside of university literature departments, because the English language then was rather different—closer to its German roots—making it quite difficult even for native English speakers to read today. But there are a few well-known literary works from those times. One of the oldest of these early "Old English" literary works is a long poem from Anglo-Saxon times called Beowulf. It tells the story of the 6th century Swedish warrior Beowulf. The scene of Beowulf is not England but Denmark. The poem tells how the great feasting hall of King Hrothgar, the Dane, is raided repeatedly by Grendel, a frightful sea monster. Beowulf comes from Sweden to aid Hrothgar. He slays Grendel and, in an undersea struggle, also kills Grendel's equally dangerous mother. In later years Beowulf, king of his own land, dies in the act of killing a fire dragon that is menacing his people.
Wife of Bath
With the Norman Conquest in 1066 Britain entered the Middle Ages (1066—1485), and the language of the royal court became French. So literature of that period was written in French or Latin. But one work from these times often studied today by middle school and college students is The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343—1400). He was the first court poet to write in English. Written in a more recognizable version of English (known as "Middle English") than Beowulf, it is made up of a series of stories told by pilgrims to entertain each other on their way to the important Christian Church at Canterbury in south-east England. It is notable for its diversity, both in the range of social types amongst the 31 pilgrims, and the range in style of the stories they tell. "The Wife of Bath's Tale," for example, is a romance concerning King Arthur's times.
King Arthur and His Noble Knights
The legend of King Arthur became established in literary form with the publication in 1138 of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, a Latin work which, though calling itself a work of history, invented material to fill the broad gaps in the historical records. The stories of King Arthur's court, his knights and their famous round table, and the quest for the Holy Grail in the 5th century, are mostly inventions around a very few vague "facts". The best-known version of this story comes from around 1470 when Thomas Malory completed his Le Morte D'Arthur (Death of Arthur), making the story of Arthur's Queen Guinevere, and her love affair with his best friend and greatest knight Sir Lancelot, the stuff of the British imagination for centuries to come. Locations mentioned in the legends such as the ruined castle at Tintagel in Cornwall are popular tourist destinations.
Text
In this chapter we will consider one aspect of Britain's artistic output, that for which it is perhaps best known: literature. The major literature competition, the annual Booker Prizei, is televised as an important national event, causing a great deal of discussion: the novel which wins, or is even short-listed for the prize, is likely to become a best-seller.The rich variety of theatre performance available in London is one of its main attractions to visitors.
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
Elizabethan Drama
There was a general flowering of cultural and intellectual life in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries which is known as "The Renaissance" ("rebirth"). In British culture one of the most successful and long-lasting expressions of this development lay in drama. The first professional theatre opened in London in 1576, and others followed, producing the work of many notable playwrights, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonsonv, and, of course, William Shakespeare.
Marlowe (1564—1593) was the earliest of this great trio, and his style is thought to have been a great influence on Shakespeare. His most famous play is The Tragical History of Dr Faustus, the story of a man who sold his soul to the devil in return for power. It is thought that Marlowe had another career as a government agent, and that his death by murder in a Deptford (part of London) pub may have had something to do with that political activity.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564—1616) is probably the best-known literary figure in the world, but little is known of his life. He came from a middle-class family in Stratford-upon-Avon, but somehow he became a successful playwright and director of a theatre company in London. Records show him as a shareholder in the famous Globe Theatre (which has recently been faithfully reconstructed and puts on Shakespearean plays in the style which Shakespeare knew) and wealthy enough to buy his father the largest house in Stratford. Shakespeare's plays fall into categories, or classes. He excels
Romeo and Juliet
in each kind. The tragedies include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Among the comedies are The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. His history plays, based on English history, include Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra are tragedies on classical themes. Among the best-known are Hamlet, the most-performed play in the world: the story of a Danish prince seeking revenge upon his uncle for the murder of his father; and Romeo and Juliet, the story of two young lovers from feuding families which ends in a tragic double suicide.
Hamlet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Elizabethan drama, and Shakespeare in particular, is considered to be among the earliest work to display a "modern" perception of the world: full of moral doubts and political insecurities, where the right of those who wield power to do so is put in question.
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
17th Century
Literature cannot really be divided into exact periods. Any such divisions actually overlap and blend into one another. Thus the late Elizabethans are also Jacobeans. This term comes from the Latin form of the name of King James I, Jacobus.
A permanent monument of English literature style commemorates James's name. He ordered the translation of the Holy Scriptures known as the King James Bible (1611). This was not the first English translation. It owed a debt to the earlier versions done by William Tyndale (1492-1535) and Miles Coverdale (1488-1568). There was also the Bible of the English College at Douai, France, which is still the chief English text used by Roman Catholics. There have been many translations since, especially mid-20th-century ones that clarify many passages in the light of modern scholarship and recently found ancient manuscripts. Yet the King James Version will probably never be matched for majesty of language. For many generations it exerted a greater influence on style and standards of taste than any other single work in English.
The Essays of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) made popular in English a literary form widely practiced afterward. Bacon was a public figure and statesman of importance under both Elizabeth and James, rising to the high post of Lord Chancellor. A scandal ended his public service in 1621. He devoted the rest of his life wholly to literature and scholarship. The Novum Organum (1620), written in Latin sets forth a new method of approaching knowledge. The New Atlantis (1627) is a study in political philosophy. These are representative of a large body of Bacon's work. Yet it is the most informal and casual of his works, the Essays (first published in 1597, and issued in final form in 1625), that is read most often.
John Milton
Paradise Lost
The literary giant of the 17th century, John Milton (1608-74), was much bound up in Puritan Revolution. His literary talents showed themselves in early works. The twin poems "L'Allegro" and "I Penseroso" present two different views of life-that of the lively man and that of the thoughtful man. Religious and political disputes also interested Milton, and he wrote many pamphlets on these subjects. The most famous of them is Areopagitica. The title comes from the Areopagus, a Greek place of debate. Areopagitica gives one of the most eloquent of all pleas for freedom of the press. Milton took the side of Parliament in the Civil War and wrote pamphlets supporting the king's execution. During the protectorate he served as Latin secretary to Cromwell, composing many state documents in that language. When Charles II come to the throne in 1660, Milton's position was endangered. He was heavily fined. During his retirement from public life he produced his masterpieces: the epic Paradise Lost (1667)，its sequel, Paradise Regained (1671), and the poetic tragedy Samson Agonistes (1671).
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
18th Century
Eighteenth-century English literature is marked by a rather large shift from the mood and tone of 17th-century literature. For one thing, a second great political disturbance took place in the late 17th century. This was the revolution of 1688. King James II tried to make Catholicism the official religion of England. After a struggle, he was forced to give up the throne and withdraw to the Continent. Both of the English political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, offered the throne to Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary as co-monarchs. Together they ruled England from 1689 until Mary's death in 1694. William died in 1702.
Intellectual activity sets the 18th century apart. It was an age of wit, when great thinkers and writers argued. It was an age of skepticism, when thinking men questioned all facts and beliefs. Conversationalists and letter writers flourished in literary circles and gathered in London clubs. The first important dictionary of the language was produced. The theater was lively, with a great number of satirical comedies. Satire, making fun of people and things, expressed the spirit of the time. Prominent on the stage, satire also found a powerful medium in a form that came to full growth in this century-the novel.
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Irish-born, became a priest of the Church of Ireland and later dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. He spent a number of his early years in England, and he was interested in English politics all his life. His name is linked with the fanciful account of four voyages known to us as Gulliver's Travels (1726). The first voyage is to Lilliput, the land of tiny people, and the second to Brobdingnag, the land of giants. The simplified versions of the stories of these two voyages appeal to children. Yet the whole of Gulliver's adventures form the most bitter and hard-thrusting satire in the English language. It touches every vice, folly, and mere weakness of mankind. Gulliver's Travels reaches a powerful climax in its fourth part. The human race, represented by filthy creatures called Yahoos is shown as inferior to a noble breed of thinking, talking, high-minded horses known as Houyhnhnms.
Robert Burns
Scotland produced a much-loved poet, Robert Burns (1759-96), who wrote in Scottish dialect. Among the most cherished of his poems are "The Cotter's Saturday Night," "Holy Willie's Prayer", "Tam O'Shanter," "To a Mouse," and "To a Louse." Among his songs are "Comin' thro' the Rye" and "Auld Lang Syne." He remains the beloved fold poet of Scotland.
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) led an active life as a journalist and political pamphleteer. More than once his opinions carried him into prison. He wrote many books, including the novel Moll Flanders (1722). Defoe's first and greatest novel appeared in 1719. This was Robinson Crusoe, the most famous tale of shipwreck and solitary survival in all literature.
Robison Crusoe
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
The Romantic Period
Roughly the first third of the 19th century makes up English literature's romantic period. Writers of romantic literature are more concerned with imagination and feeling than with the power of reason, which marked the 18th century. Perhaps the rather violent and ugly world about them drove 19th-century writers to a literary refuge. Napoleon's wars had racked Europe. The Industrial revolution had changed England into a nation of factories.
William Wordsworth
Two poets offered what had been called romantic poetry's "Declaration of Independence." This was a volume of poems called Lyrical Ballads (1798), written by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Wordsworth's verses are about country scenes and country people. Representative of his other work is the long autobiographical poem The Prelude and such shorter poems as "My Heart Leaps up When I Behold" and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," also called "Daffodils." Wordsworth's poetry varies widely. Some is written in plain language, and in other poems the style is complex. Both Wordsworth and his good friend Coleridge were distinguished for writings on criticism and principles of poetry. Coleridge's major work of this sort is the autobiographical Biographia Literaria (1817). The most famous of his poems is "The Rime of Ancient Mariner."
Lord Byron
Three men brought the Romantic Movement to its height. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), traveled widely in Europe, part of the time an exile because of scandals related to his marriage. At the age of 36 he died of a fever in Greece, where he had gone as a volunteer to fight for Greek independence. His large body of work includes the partly autobiographical Childe Harold's Pilgrimage(1812-18), written for the most part, Byron said, "amidst the scenes which is attempts to describe." Don Juan owed its title and parts of its story to the old legend of the great lover. Byron retells the story in the form of satire.
John Keats
John Keats (1795-1821) came from origins as plain as Byron's were aristocratic. His father kept a livery stable. It is fortunate that Keats's genius showed itself early, since he died of tuberculosis in Rome at the age of 25. Keats was superb at pictorial poetry-painting a picture with words. His art is nowhere greater than in the two poems "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale."
Percy Bysshe Shelley's writing has a wide range. The lovely musical quality of his work appears in the fine verses of "Ode to the West Wind" and "To a Skylark." "The Revolt of Islam," renamed as "The Rise of Islam," preaches revolution, and Defense of Poetry (1812) upholds the place of imagination and love in the arts. The long poem Adonais (1812) is a beautiful lament written on the death of Keats. A month before his 30th birthday Shelley drowned while sailing in the Mediterranean. His ashes lie in the same Roman cemetery where Keats is buried.
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
The Nineteenth Century Novel
This spirit of Romanticism also occurred in the novel, notably in Mary Shelley's (the poet Shelley's wife) Frankenstein (1818), the story of science gone wrong through the disastrous consequences of an arrogant scientist's (Dr. Frankenstein) attempts to create life. In the process he only creates a monster. But the novel's sympathies are with the monster's struggle to make sense of his existence in a world that rejects him.
Rob Roy
In Scotland there developed a type of romanticism different from that of Byron, Keats and Shelley. Its spokesman was Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whose voice has a worldwide influence and popularity. Most of Scott's themes came from medieval and Scottish history. He wrote a number of romantic novels. Waverley (1814), Rob Roy (1817), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), and Ivanhoe (1820) are but a few of his widely read novels. Scott had a great influence on such American writers as James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. His novels remain popular today, and several have been the subjects of Hollywood films.
Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote six novels published between 1811 and 1818. These stories (often set in the pretty southwest town of Bath) of middle-class women in search of husbands are known for their fine writing and subtle characterization. Austen is often called the last of the 18-century novelists because of her crisp, controlled studies of manners. The novel of manners pictures in detail the manners and customs of a certain social class. Jane Austen, who excelled at this form of writing, is indeed one of the greatest of all English novelists. A delightful, almost flawless stylist, she has devoted admirers of her Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), and Emma (1816), among other works. In the spirit of the 18th century, rationality is praised, but in the contemporary spirit of Romanticism, this is balanced with imaginative and the personal. This balance is seen in the title of Sense and Sensibility, which was recently made into a highly successful film by a Taiwan director, Ang Lee. Pride and Prejudice has been made into films and TV dramas.
Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester
Perhaps the most famous literary family in British history are the Bronte sisters, and they too were influenced by the Romantic movement. They were three daughters (Charlotte , Emily and Ann) of the vicar of a village church in Haworth in Yorkshire, and as such, poor, but educated and respectable. They had a brother who was a failed painter and alcoholic, and two other sisters who died in childhood. All were tragically to die before their father. Given their short lives they did not produce much, but among their works are some of the best-loved novels in English: Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights (both 1847) being the most successful. Both have been filmed several times. Their novels reflect both their local geography: the wild high moors of the Yorkshire hills, which their home backed onto, and their uncertain economic position, because of which they could not hope for a respectable marriage of equals, being too poor. Thus Jane Eyre tells the story of an orphan, who has a loveless childhood at a terrible boarding school, and who goes to work for a rich man as a governess to his child. He becomes attracted to her because of her independence and free spirit. However, he has a secret in his past: a mad former wife locked up in the attic of his house. When the secret was discovered, Jane runs away. Later she becomes the object of a vicar's attentions, who wishes to marry her as he feels she will make a suitable wife for a missionary. But in true romantic fashion, this worthy but passionless lover is rejected, and Jane returns to the darker, but passionately romantic, figure of her previous employer, Mr. Rochester.
Charles Dickens
The Brontes had trouble getting published, and in fact had to use male pseudonyms in order to gain acceptance. But one of Charlotte's friends was another female novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell. She represents a more realistic aspect of the 19th century novel, concerned with social comment, not just personal freedom. A vicar's daughter from Manchester, she was concerned　with the situation of the workers in the new industrial cities. Her novel North and South describes the division that this economic change was emphasizing in British society at that time, both in terms of class, and geography—the north was the industrial part of England, and those in the south, where power lay,remained ignorant of it. She was supported in her work by the greatest British storyteller of the 19th century, Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
Dickens too was concerned with the state of the nation, and having suffered as a child worker himself when his father was imprisoned for debt, he had personal reasons for bringing the suffering of the poor to light. He wrote many well-known novels, including Pickwick Papers (1835-1837), which showed a rare comic gift, Oliver Twist (1837-1839), the story of an orphan child drawn into crime in the London underworld, David Copperfield (1849-1850), his own favorite book, and Great Expectations (1860-1861), which traces the growth of Philip Pip from a boy of shallow dreams to a man of depth and character. Great Expectations is regarded by many as Dickens's greatest achievement.
Kidnapped
Later in the nineteenth century Robert Louis Stevenson also wrote Scottish historical romances, The adventures in Treasure Island (1883) and Kidnapped (1886) thrill readers young and old. Steveson was also a master of the short novel. His most famous one was The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story again concerned with the conflict between the rational and the emotional, sensual side of man's nature, represented in the single person of the scientist Dr Jekyll, who transforms himself into the wild Mr. Hyde.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) lived well into the 20th century but did his major work as a novelist in the 19th century. Among his better-known novels are The Return of the Native (1878), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896). These books fall into the prose group that Hardy called novels of character and environment. They offer powerful, realistic studies of life. Although Hardy ranks high as a novelist, we should not overlook the fact that he was a first-class poet. As a prose writer he is the last of the 19th century. As a poet he belongs to the 20th century.
● Early Writing
● Elizabethan Drama
● 17th Century 
● 18th Century
● The Romantic Period
● The Nineteenth Century Novel
● Twentieth Century Literature
Twentieth Century Literature
Any summary of the complex 20th century is difficult. It has seen wars and revolutions. Breakthroughs in science have affected millions of lives. Never have so many words and ideas been printed or passed on, through radio and television.
The 20th century marked the end of the British Empire, which was replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations. Yet English civilization and culture continue to have a strong influence on the rest of the world. The heritage of English literature forms an outstanding part of that culture.
Twentieth century literature can be broadly divided into two stylistic periods: Modernism, and Postmodernism. These periods roughly correspond to literature written before the Second World War (1939–1945) and literature written after it. Both are characterized by a high degree of experimentation.
Modernism in literature can be seen as a reaction against the nineteenth century forms discussed above, which can be thought of as assuming understanding between writer and reader, resulting in the simple communication of an agreed version of the "world". This approach to writing is known as "Realism." Instead, Modernist writers express the difficulty they see in understanding and communicating how the world works. Often, therefore, Modernist writing seems disorganized, hard to understand. It often portrays the action from the viewpoint of a single confused individual, rather than from the viewpoint of an all-knowing impersonal narrator outside the action.
One of the most famous of English Modernist writers is Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). He was raised in Poland, but became a sailor, and ended up as the captain of a British ship. He got British citizenship and settled in England, where he wrote his books in English. They are Modernist in their concerns with moral uncertainty: what is right? And in their concerns with factual uncertainty: what is true? Conrad's most famous novel is The Heart of Darkness (1902), a story of a riverboat journey in central Africa to investigate an exploitative European ivory trader called Mr.Kurtz. The journey is a symbolic one representing the darkness at the heart of man. Mr Kurtz's last words, "The horror! The horror!" are among the best known in English literature. A film based on the novel has been made by the well-known American director, Francis Ford Coppola, but set in Vietnam in the 1960s, and called Apocalypse Now.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is another writer associated with Modernism, and one of the most famous writers of the century. She was part of the intellectual "Bloomsbury group" named after the fashionable area of London in which they lived, which included other writers, philosophers, painters, and the economist, J. M. Keynes. Her work was concerned with the individual consciousness, especially the female consciousness. Her novels have become important to feminists for the way they show women's personalities to be limited by society. Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando(1928) are among her best-known books. She sometimes used what has been called the "stream of consciousness" technique: the apparently unorganized flow of thought onto page. Woolf also wrote a great deal of literary criticism and numerous essays including A Room of One's Own (1929).
Less experimental, D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), and E. M. Forster (1879-1970) both wrote novels in this period which are critical of the modern world. Lawrence felt that society forced too many rules on people and kept them from living a full, natural life. His forceful writing on daring themes shocked many. Sons and Lovers (1913), based partly on his own life, is one of his finest novels. The novels of E. M. Forster concerned themselves with personal relations. In his most notable book, A Passage to India (1924), Forster examined the relationships between Englishmen and Indians. In Howard's End (1910—recently made into a very successful film) he contrasts the artistic, romantic Schlegel sisters with the forceful, unethical business-people, the Wilcoxes. But in what we might see as a typical move for a British writer, the two families are brought together to create a new "hybrid."
D.H. Lawrence's Home
A Passage to India
Moving into the post-war period, one of the most famous novels in English appeared. George Orwell's 1984 (1948) is a powerful satire on the totalitarian tendency in modern states. It is set in an extremely unpleasant England ruled absolutely by "Big Brother." This depressing story is characteristic of the post-war years, and begins "Postmodernism." The horrors of the Second World War undermined ideas of human progress, and of meaning in life, however well hidden. So while Modernists were scientists of human existence, looking for buried meaning below confusing surfaces, Postmodernists can be thought of as abandoning that search. Meaning does not exist outside of the human head, likewise it does not exist inside a book, waiting to be discovered, instead it is made in the process of reading a book, or of making sense of the world.
So writers like John Fowles play a game with the reader, constantly demonstrating the fictionality of their writing, and inviting the reader to put together different pieces freely. Fowles' most successful novel, The French Lieutenant's Woman (1968), set in the small holiday resort of Lyme Regis, describes a Victorian gentleman's education into his own freedom by the mysterious girl, Sarah. It was also made into a well-known film. The story's main postmodern "trick" is that the reader is offered a choice of endings.
Not all writers can be squeezed into the definitions Modern or Postmodern. Many post-war writers continue traditional themes: Graham Greene (1904—1991) wrote novels of morally and religiously troubled expatriates, sometimes concerned with spies. Spy fiction in general is one of the strong points of contemporary British fiction: the best known is John Le Carre. His novels (such as Smiley's People—1980) have been made into internationally distributed TV serials. In popular fiction, Ian Fleming's fantastic James Bond stories are even better known, especially for their numerous film versions.
Among the newer novelists are William Golding (1911-), John Braine (1922-), Kingsley Amis (1922-) and Maragret Drabble (1939-). Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) was an immediate success in England and soon found a wide audience in the United States, and The Spire (1964) is an interesting later work. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.
Rushdie
To look at a list of the most respected contemporary British writers is to be struck by the variety of many of their origins: Salman Rushdie (India), Grace Nichols (Guyana), Kazio Ishiguro (Japan), V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad) amongst many others. This too is an aspect of the postmodern world: a mixing of cultures on a grand scale. But this mixture, this "hybridity" as I have called it, has always been a part of British writing, with its multinational and class-divided internal status, its imperial past, and its current highly international economy. British literature continues to reflect that complexity.
==英10体节A 体育==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk07/text07_p1.asp.htm
:体。
Sports in Britain
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Text
Introduction
Having a drink at the local pub, going for a walk in the country, working in the garden or watching sports on the telly (television)-these are all ways in which many British people like to relax on weekends or when their daily shifts at work have ended. Such activities tell us about how modern Brits like to spend their free time; but if we look more closely, we can see these activities are not just recent inventions, but are deeply rooted in the British experience over centuries. Going to a public house for a glass of ale, working the land or going to watch a ball game were familiar activities in Shakespeare's time. If today's British person were to be transported 500 years into the past, he or she would find many familiar pursuits and games played in rough but recognisable forms. And because many of the sports we see played throughout the world today were born in Britain, the history of such activities is of interest to people everywhere.
In the past, Britain was a mainly agricultural society with most people involved in farming. Britain was also a very religious society and the influence of the Christian Church on peoples' lives was very great. Such influences are still evident in today's sports and leisure activities. One very obvious example is how Sunday—the day of the week when everyone traditionally went to Church—is still the day that most people have off in the UK. In recent years the government has changed the laws and now some shops and pubs are allowed to open on Sundays, but such changes are very recent and very controversial.
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Football
Beckham vs Hendrie
The idea of sports having seasons-like the football season-also comes from the natural rhythms of an agricultural society, where the timing of harvests and the general weather affected how people spent their time. Football is a boisterous sport still played in winter and early spring when the weather is cool and often wet. In the winter, bad weather kept people in doors and there was not so much work to do on the farm. Men used to doing hard, physical labour found they needed to release their energies and so got together regularly to play rough, fast games like football. There are legends that suggest that games like football and rugby actually derived from the "sport" of ancient warriors celebrating victory by kicking around the decapitated head of an enemy. There is a similar grisly tale told about origins of bowling: it is said that in ancient times, Scottish warriors rolled the skulls of their enemies along the grass for sport.
While all social classes used to join in the local football match, during the Renaissance the idea began to emerge that some sports were too rough for aristocratic young men. One influential writer of the era described football as "nothing but beastly fury and extreme violence" and not at all suitable for gentlemen. In Shakespeare's time, football was played in the cities as well as the countryside. Visitors from abroad sometimes complained about stumbling into the midst of a rough and dangerous game when walking the streets of London, while local householders and merchants were troubled by having their windows broken by stray footballs. Drinking hard went along with playing hard and at half-time, players and spectators often got very drunk which led to even more unrefined behaviour.
Football hooligans from England have caused headaches for police in other countries.
Football hooligans from England have caused headaches for police in other countries.
Today, violence is still associated with football. "Football hooligans", supporters of rival teams, sometimes clash before, during and after matches and occasionally run riot through the town, breaking windows and beating each other up. Some football fans paint their faces and sing or chant football songs and it is not too difficult to imagine their warrior-ancestors. While football violence gets a lot of attention, before big matches when trouble is expected, police patrol the streets, pubs near the football grounds are closed, and shops lock their doors and shutter their windows. The selling of tickets, the seating in stadiums and security in general is more strictly controlled and every effort is made to ensure that spectators can just sit down and enjoy the game, which they do in their millions. Over 20 million tickets are sold to Football Association (FA) games each season. The FA is the league or association that the major teams compete in, for a trophy title known as the FA Cup.
The Manchester United's victory
The Manchester United's Victory
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Tennis
A more gentle sport that is a sure sign that summer has arrived is the popular game of tennis. Wimbledon, actually a London suburb, is where the world's best players gather to compete on grass courts. It is one of the major events of the British sporting calendar and probably the most famous tennis event in the world. Besides actually watching the tennis matches, other activities closely associated with the "Wimbledon fortnight" are eating strawberries and cream, drinking champagne and hoping that it doesn't rain.
Wimbledon Tennis Party
Tennis was invented in Britain and it owes its origins, literally, to the Church. Church records indicate that by the mid-fifteenth century, people were making a game of bouncing a ball off the side of their local churches or cathedrals, first using the hand, and later a racquet. This was called "tenys". Such antics sometimes offended the clergy who complained that the dignity and tranquillity of the church was shattered by such games, but they also illustrate how central the church was to community life.
Wimbledon 1910
It seems our ancestors had many of the same problems as we do today when we want to play ball. Football, archery, tennis and other sports were frequently played in church yards which were often the only flat, green, grassy areas in the village suitable for sports. Sometimes this annoyed the clergy, but at other times it was tolerated. Certainly nowadays noisy games would not be considered appropriate to be played around churches, but perhaps one hundred years from now such practices will be back in fashion.
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Cricket
In England, the sound of summer is said to be the sound of "leather on willow"-the ball hitting a cricket bat. If you picked up London newspaper in 1700, you could read an advertisement that said a cricket match was going to be held on Clapham Common in London on Easter Monday.
Cricket was one of the very first team sports in Britain to have organised rules and to be played according to the same rules nationally. By 1787 the rules were fixed, a full century before national rules were fixed for other sports like tennis, rugby and football. (In other sports, each local village or county played by different rules, and even today Americans and Canadians play football according to different rules). The reason that fixed rules were applied to cricket so early on was a financial one: aristocrats loved betting on cricket matches and if people were going to risk money on a game, they wanted to ensure that the game would be played fairly.
Before the Victorian era, and in modern Britain, people from all walks of life play cricket, but in the nineteenth century, cricket became a sport associated with the upper classes. It was a kind of a "snob" game played by boys who attended public schools. Cricket also became popular in places where the public school system was adapted, like in the colonies of Australia, New Zealand, India and Pakistan.
As generations of public school boys grew up to become the civil servants and rulers of the UK and its colonies, cricket became associated with a set of moral values, in particular the idea of "fair play" which characterised British government. Sir Ian Bancroft, a high level civil servant in the 1980s, remembered that when he began his career in Whitehall, one day his government minister was so angry that he threw the telephone at him. Sir Ian said he knew exactly how to respond: "having played cricket I was able to catch it and hand it back to him politely."
British English is still full of references and phrases to cricket which those not familiar with the game will be baffled by. To be "on a sticky wicket" is to face difficulties: to "throw a googly" is to act unpredictably. And if someone tells you that what you are doing is "not cricket" it means that you are not behaving ethicly or honourably in a situation, whereas if you are "playing with a straight bat", you are an honest person.
The rules of cricket are as obscure as the language. With most sports, you can understand what is going on by simply watching for a while, but with cricket this is not the case. However, whether you understand the game or not, it is enjoyable to watch. An American writer described "the vast green fields adorned with immaculate white-clad figures moving in obscure, complex patterns…" It is a very distinctive sport: the players wear white trousers and appear quite formally dressed. Spectators gather around the "green", a large field, in chairs, enjoying the sun, sipping drinks and watching the teams play. Another unusual thing about cricket is that matches do not last just a few hours. They can go on for days: you will often hear references to "5 day test matches" for example. To people familiar with competitive team sports matches which only last a few hours, the notion that in Britain they play a game that can last five days seems amazing, but it is true.
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Golf
The game of golf was invented by the Scottish and today avid golfers around the world dream of playing on the famous and ancient golf course at St Andrews, not far from Edinburgh. The Scots took their recreation seriously: by the sixteenth century, golf was already so popular that the Archbishop of St Andrews was only allowed to keep his rabbit warrens on the links (golf course) as long as his rabbit-raising activities didn't interfere with people who wanted to play golf. And while many students of British history have heard of Mary Queen of Scots, the tragic and beautiful queen who was beheaded in the sixteenth century during a controversy over the succession to the throne, few know that she liked to play golf. Indeed, she became the object of gossip and criticism because she was seen out on the links shortly after the death of her second husband. It was felt she should still be in deep mourning for him, not indulging in one of her pleasurable pursuits. Some four centuries later, another British royal, Prince Andrew's wife "Fergie" was criticised in the newspapers for going snow-skiing instead of being at home to look after her children.
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
A Mounted Knight Going to a Hunting Meet
The true sport of British Kings (and Queens) is not skiing or golfing, but horse racing. Organised national horse races have been held throughout Britain for hundreds of years. At the heart of medieval life was the horse, a symbol of authority and wealth and necessary to travelling, hunting and warfare. The age of English chivalry is full of stories, songs, poems and depictions of the brave Knight on his steed. History records that knights raced for 3 miles in the year 1190, for a prize purse of 40. In fact, racing was not a good sport for knights who were clad in heavy iron armour. Medieval tournaments more commonly had activities to show off the bravery and military prowess of the knights, such as jousting. Sports which involve the riding of horses are still considered rather snobbish or aristocratic sports because of course the average British family cannot afford to own a horse. However, there are stables which rent horses and offer riding lessons at affordable prices. And of course just about everyone can afford to place a bet on a horse race now and then.
There are two kinds of horse racing: flat racing, where horses and riders compete on a flat, oval track; and steeplechasing, which is racing either across the countryside, or around a course designed to represent the obstacles you might encounter in the countryside (hedges, ponds, hills, and so on). The Grand National is the world's most famous
Steeplechasing
Steeplechasing
steeplechase. Established in 1837, in recent years the Grand National has become increasingly controversial because of the dangers involved. Every year some horses (and riders too) can be injured in trying to negotiate a jump for example. Badly hurt horses are usually shot, and animal lovers find it unacceptable that animals should be hurt and killed just for our enjoyment. Now the Grand National course is designed to be difficult enough to be exciting, but not so difficult as to cause serious injuries.
While it is the sport of kings, kings and commoners alike enjoy betting on the horses. In any town centre you can go into a betting shop (sometimes called a "turf accountant") and place a bet ("have a flutter") on the horses. The Queen, who enjoys riding, also enjoys betting on the horses and often attends the major races. Even though she is extremely rich, she gets very excited when the horse she has placed her money on wins.
RoyalAscot 2002
The biggest social event associated with horse racing is the Royal Ascot, where people dress up and go to show off how fashionable they are as well to watch the races and place their bets. Women especially wear very elaborate and exotic hats and after the races, the television and newspapers will often have stories featuring the sorts of hats and outfits that were worn.
Another horsy sport associated with the aristocracy is equestrianism, sports which can involve riding skills such as show jumping and carriage driving, as well as speed. Princess Anne, the Queen's daughter, is a skilled rider and indeed was a member of the British Olympic team in her youth.
Hunting for wild game was born of necessity, but it developed into a recreational pursuit in medieval England. It became so popular that great lords surrounded their houses with deer parks where they could go hunting conveniently. They sometimes arranged for the servants to herd the deer into a corner of the park so that even the delicate aristocratic ladies could take their bows and arrows and bag a deer for dinner. Many of the ancient manor houses you can still visit in Britain have their herds of deer, although now these are more for decoration than for sport.
Steeplechasing
Hunting
More common than hunting within an enclosed park was chasing an animal across the countryside on horseback, with a spear, arrows, and dogs and servants to assist. In the Middle Ages, the boar was the favourite quarry, and later the wolf. Both were hunted into near extinction. Modern hunters usually chase foxes nowadays: their medieval forebears would sneer at such an insignificant quarry. Hunting foxes and rabbits is also disapproved of by many British animal lovers who think such "blood sports" are unnecessarily cruel.
A hunting meet is a very exciting thing to watch: huntsmen and women mounted, traditionally clad in red jackets, white jodhpurs and high boots, on their beautiful horses surrounded by barking, excited hunting dogs and anxious servants, charge across the green fields and hedgerows of the countryside. But as the reason for all this activity is to chase and kill a tiny rabbit or fox.
Animal Rights groups find this an unacceptable recreation for a society that is supposed to be civilised. There have been recent attempts to pass laws in Parliament to ban blood sports. These attempts have been defeated by narrow margins. Since many MPs and Lords are from wealthy families which enjoy hunting, they tend to vote against these efforts to ban one of their pastimes. Some extremist animal rights groups are known as "hunt saboteurs" who disrupt hunts by laying false trails to distract the dogs which track the quarry; make noise to scare the horses; and generally make nuisances of themselves in order to prevent the hunt from proceeding.
● Introduction
● Football
● Tennis
● Cricket
● Golf
● Horse Racing,Hunting and Equestrianism
● Fishing
Fishing
A Fishing Match
Fishing, sometimes called angling, is by a long chalk the most popular participation sport in the UK. Sometimes called angling, it combines sport, the tranquillity and beauty of being outdoors, and sometimes the joy of being able to eat the catch! There are over 4 million anglers in Britain, but it is interesting to note that male anglers outnumber female anglers by about 10 to 1. Salmon and trout are caught in the rivers and lakes (lochs) of Scotland and there is also a lot of sea-fishing.
==英10体节 节日==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk08/text08_p1.asp.htm
:节。
British Holidays and Festivals
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Text
Introduction
Knowing a little bit about British holidays and customs and their origins is a good way of understanding what Britons find important in their lives and communities. Throughout the year the British celebrate many holidays which reflect the religious, historical, social and cultural diversity of their country. Some holidays are celebrated throughout the country and mark important events of the Christian calendar. Other holidays are based on local customs and traditions which reflect the variety of experience in different regions. What almost all of the holidays have in common—whether they are local, regional or national—is that they provide an opportunity for families and friends to get together to visit, eat, exchange good wishes and enjoy each other's company and hospitality.
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Religious Holidays
St. Paul's Cathedral,London
Although Britain remains a mainly Christian nation, most Britons do not go to church regularly or engage in Christian worship. Because of immigration and changing beliefs, most of the world's religions are practised in Britain, with sizeable Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities and numerous smaller groups. The result is that although many Christian festivals are observed they have been adapted to fit the needs of a modern, secular society. It is not unusual to find non-Christians as well as Christians participating in some of the activities surrounding Christmas and Easter.
Hindu Shiva
Jewish
A Mosque
Sikh Music
Christmas (December 25) is the biggest and best loved British holiday. Schools close for the holiday period, as do shops and offices, so people can spend time at home with their families. While Christmas has a Christian meaning—it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ—celebrations of the Winter Solstice have taken place since ancient times and some "Christian" traditions such as decorating the house with evergreen plants like holly and ivy, or kissing under a twig of mistletoe, are actually Celtic or pagan traditions. Nowadays, Christmas is celebrated by most Britons by exchanging gifts and Christmas cards, preparing holiday foods, and decorating homes and workplaces with coloured lights, Christmas trees and ornaments.
There are three Christmas traditions which are particularly British: one is the Christmas Pantomime, a comical musical play. The "panto" is usually based on a version of a traditional children's story like Cinderella, written to include songs and jokes which can be enjoyed by adults and children. The main male character—the "principal boy"—is played by a young woman.
In the days when women wore long skirts, it was considered rather naughty to see a woman appear in an outfit which revealed the shape of her legs. The main female character is a middle-aged, often ugly woman called "the Dame." The Dame is played by a man, often a famous actor or sportsman. When he appears in heavy make up, skirts and woman's shoes, it is considered very humorous. The audience is encouraged to cheer the hero on and boo when the villain appears.
Another British Christmas tradition is to hear the Queen give her Christmas message to her realm over the television and radio. The British Queen is also the Queen of other nations, like Canada and Australia, and so her message is broadcast to her millions of subjects throughout the world. She usually talks about the year that has passed and expresses her hopes for the future.
A third British tradition, which is also celebrated in countries with British heritages, is Boxing Day, which falls on the day after Christmas. Traditionally, it was on Boxing Day that people gave Christmas gifts or money to their staff or servants. Now that most British people do not have servants, this custom is no longer observed and most people cannot even tell you what one is supposed to do on Boxing Day. Some think it involves the sport of boxing and others think it has something to do with the Boxer uprising in China. However, a new Boxing Day custom has emerged, in the cities at least: shopping. Shops open up to sell off all their Christmas stock decorations, food, cards and gift items at low prices. But for most people, however, Boxing Day is a day for visiting, eating and relaxing.
For church goers it is Easter, not Christmas, which is the most important Christian festival. Easter commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It occurs in the spring, when schools and universities close for a break. While Christians attend many church services over the Easter period, for most people the main symbol of Easter is the Easter egg, originally a
Easter Eggs
Easter Bunny
Christian symbol of new life. Nowadays people give each other chocolate or candy Easter Eggs which are often very large, elaborate and expensive. In 1995 it was estimated that Britons would spend 300 million pounds on Easter candy. Rabbits and chicks are also animals traditionally associated with Easter and widely appear in chocolate form around this time.
Christmas and Easter have been adopted and celebrated by non-Christian people who emphasise the secular rather than the religious aspects of the holidays. There are also many non-Christian festivals which are observed by people with different beliefs and many schools and workplaces will allow such people to take time off to allow them to celebrate a particular special day. For example, there are about 1.5 million Muslims in Britain, many who observe traditional Islamic festivals such as Ramadan, a fast which lasts 29 days during which nothing can be eaten or drunk between dawn and nightfall, and ends with a festival. There are also Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and even Pagan groups which observe days which are important to their communities. In London, the overseas Chinese community marks Chinese New Year with dragon dances, fireworks, parades and family celebrations.
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
National Holidays
One of Britain's most impressive and colourful festivals happens on the second Saturday in June when the Queen's Birthday is officially celebrated by "trooping the colour" around Buckingham Palace in London. The UK, unlike most countries, does not have a "national day," but the pomp and ceremony surrounding the Queen inspecting her troops draws hundreds of people. The ceremony derives from old military traditions in which regimental flags were paraded before the monarch. In the 18th century such pageantry used to occur daily, but early in Victoria's reign it was decided that this ceremony should only be held on the sovereign's birthday. British diplomats abroad will often have a special party or event to celebrate the Queen's birthday.
Queen Victoria
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Holidays in the 4 Nations
It is in the local festivals of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland that the distinctive cultural and political identities of the four nations of the United Kingdom can be seen. Many festivals and customs have been invented, adopted and used to serve political or religious functions in times of conflict. For example the historic battles between the Protestants and Catholics in the 17th century are commemorated, often with symbolic or even real violence, in England and Northern Ireland. Special days in Scotland and Wales demonstrate their national pride in their unique languages and cultures and remind us that there is much more to the UK than "the English" and "England".
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
England
The English do not celebrate their famous writers or battles or patron saints, although they have all these things. However, one truly English holiday is Bonfire Night—sometimes called Guy Fawkes Night—celebrated in the early autumn. While many people do not do anything special on Bonfire Night, nearly everyone knows this poem: 
Remember, Remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
On the evening of 5 November 1605, a plan to blow up the British Parliament, kill the Protestant King and replace him with a Catholic king was discovered. One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was found in the cellars of Westminster with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He and the other members of his gang were arrested, tortured and killed. Protestant politicians decided that the Gunpowder Plot had failed because God wanted the Protestants to continue to rule England. Parliament passed a legal act calling for a "Public Thanksgiving to Almighty God" for revealing the plot, to be held on the anniversary of the event. Nowadays, English people still celebrate this event in the traditional way. In early November, gangs of small children appear on British streets, often with a straw effigy called the "Guy". They beg for money from passing adults, sometimes singing: 
Penny for the Guy
Hit him in the eye
Stick him up a lamppost
And there let him die.
The money they receive is spent on fireworks to be set off on Bonfire Night. Most communities have public bonfires, where people gather to cook potatoes and sausages in the fire and watch fireworks displays. Traditionally a "guy" is thrown on the bonfire, although this is falling out of practice because some people feel it is too frightening for small children and others feel that it is inappropriate, as it reminds Catholics of how they were persecuted in the past.
The biggest Bonfire Night celebration is held in the small medieval town of Lewes, where torchlight parades wind through the narrow streets. The paraders wear costumes and carry models of severed heads on pikes, often dripping blood, which represent Protestantism's enemies. When the paraders reach the Bonfire, fireworks are used to fight mock battles between Catholics and Protestants. At the end of these battles, giant effigies of the Pope and Guy Fawkes are blown up with fireworks.
Pope's Residence in Rome
The Present Pope John Paul II
In London, the cellars of Parliament are still symbolically searched by candlelight by the Beefeaters (the Royal Guard). During the search for Guy Fawkes in 1605, the last cellar contained a wine merchant. The guards asked him to open his wine barrels to see if he was hiding gunpowder in them. The Beefeaters still continue this tradition, with their search of the cellars ending with a drinking session.
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Northern Ireland
Battle of the Boyne
Another festival which comes from the 17th century battles between Catholics and Protestants is the Protestant celebration of their victory at the Battle of the Boyne (12 July) in 1690. The Catholic King James II was forced off the throne in 1688. William of Orange, affectionately known as King Billy, was invited to take the throne and James was driven into exile. With the help of the French and the Irish—both Catholic nations—James tried to retake the throne but his forces were defeated by King Billy on the banks of the Boyne River in County Kildare, now a part of Ireland (Eire).
The Battle Plan
The Orange March
King Billy's victory is particularly important to Northern Irish Protestants because it symbolises the Protestant "right" to be in Ireland and the defeat of Catholicism as the national religion. The Twelfth is the high point of what is known as the Marching Season, when Protestant "Orangemen" take to the streets wearing their traditional uniforms of bowler hats, black suits and orange sashes, marching through the streets singing, banging drums and playing in marching bands. The Orangemen often clash—verbally, legally or sometimes violently—with the Catholics as they attempt to parade through Catholic neighbourhoods, symbolically asserting their continued dominance over the Irish. During Orange Marches there is a massive police and army presence surrounding the parades and the atmosphere can be very tense.
St. Patrick's Day
Northern Irish Catholics celebrate the birthday of the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick, on March 17 each year. Patrick was a Catholic bishop who lived in the 5th century and is thought to have brought Christianity to Ireland. He lived in Great Britain, but at the age of 16 was captured by Irish raiders, taken to Ireland and made a slave. He eventually escaped and returned to Britain, where he had a dream in which the Irish begged him to return. Although his memories of years of slavery in Ireland made him hesitate, he followed this call and had a very successful missionary career.
According to popular legend, St Patrick drove snakes (the christian symbol of evil) out of Ireland. In another legend it is said that he used the three leafed clover, or shamrock, to explain the Christian trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) to the pagan Irish. The shamrock is a popular symbol to wear on St Patrick's Day, and it is also considered very lucky to wear something green. St Patrick's Day is celebrated very enthusiastically by Americans. The large Irish communities of the eastern United States hold parades and parties to remind them of their ancestral home.
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey from the Outside
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Scotland
The Military Tatto
While most British people welcome the coming of the New Year with parties, in Scotland, New Year's Eve called Hogmanay (31 December)—is the major winter celebration, and overshadows Christmas (called Yule in Scotland) which is a very quiet affair. How Hogmanay is celebrated varies throughout Scotland, but one widely practised custom is "first footing". There is a superstitious belief that the first person to cross the threshold of a household in the New Year can bring luck and prosperity: the appearance of a young, preferably dark haired and handsome man, is considered particularly lucky. First footers often bring a bottle of spirits, alcohol, a lump of coal or a peat as a gift and are given a "dram of whisky" as their reward.
Each year Scottish people all over the world celebrate their most beloved national poet, Robert Burns (1759—1796), by holding a Burns Supper on the evening of his birthday (25 January).
Burns wrote mainly in the Scots dialect and his poems drew on older traditions of Scottish folk songs and stories and so have a wide popular appeal. It is said Burns is more popular in Russia than in England because in his work he championed the rights of ordinary men and women.
A Piper
Burns nights are celebrated with suppers of haggis and whisky and his poems are recited throughout the evening. A haggis is a loaf of mutton, spices and oatmeal which has been boiled in a sheep's stomach and is carried in to the assembled diners with great ceremony. A bagpiper enters the dining room, followed by the chef carrying the haggis, who lays it in front of the guest of honour. Then the haggis is punctured with a dagger or sword and Burn's "Address to a Haggis" is recited: 
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, (sonsie = jolly)
Great chieftain o' the pudden race.
Above them all ye take your place...
Halloween (31 October) is a Scottish festival that comes from the great feast of the pagan Celts which marked the arrival of the winter half of the year. Halloween is notable for showing the darker, supernatural side of Celtic custom—communion with the dead, mischief, fortune-telling and masquerades are common practices. Children make "turnip lanterns." Turnips are hollowed out and holes are cut to make eyes, nose and mouth. Then candles are placed inside the turnip and it is set in the windows to scare away witches and other evil spirits.
Traditionally on Halloween the young men of the village would wear strange, sometimes transvestite costumes, disguise their voices and go about the village, representing the spirits of the dead. Bonfires to burn witches and drive away evil spirits were lit. Nowadays, the bonfires and costumes are still a part of Halloween, especially for children.
A Crystal Ball
For girls, Halloween was an opportunity to use magic spells to see into the future and especially to find out who they would marry. There were many methods: pairs of nuts, peas or orange pips were placed in a fire: if they burned quietly together, the couple would be happy, but if they sparked or rolled apart, the marriage was ill-starred. Blindfolded girls dipped their hands into bowls of water: if the water was clean, the husband would be a fine young man; if dirty, a widower; if empty, then the girl would remain unmarried. Magic spells were used to divine the identity of future husbands. In a dim room, an apple was cut into pieces in front of a mirror: the girl would hold a piece on a fork over the shoulder, where the ghost of the husband would take shape.
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Wales
Wales has some of the oldest and richest literary, musical and poetic traditions in Europe. Poems written in the traditional Welsh language and style are governed by ancient codes and conventions which can be traced back to the Druids, who instituted rigid rules of composition to help them to correctly memorise and pass on poems and stories. In pre-14th century Wales, to become a bard or harper required years of study and was considered a profession, like law or medicine.
A Girl at Eisteddford
This poetic tradition has been celebrated for centuries in eisteddfod, a Welsh word meaning a gathering where people recite verses and sing songs. In 1536 Wales was officially joined with England (it had been controlled by England for hundreds of years) and English became the national language. Speaking Welsh was seen as a bad thing. As recently as the 19th century, Welsh schoolchildren could be punished for speaking Welsh. The Welsh language began to die, but Welsh speakers fought hard to preserve it. One way they accomplished this was to celebrate their culture and their language each August with a really large Eisteddfod which would remind people throughout the UK of Wales' special cultural heritage. Now about 19% of Welsh people speak the Welsh language and after years of decline, the number is slowly rising. Children now attend bilingual schools, there is a Welsh language television station, official functions are conducted in Welsh or English, and the Eisteddfod is now the largest popular festival of music making and poetry writing in Europe.
A Bard
At the Eisteddfod, tents and pavilions are erected around a big open space: in the different tents competitions are held to find the best choirs, translators, essayists and poets. The judges of the competitions dress in the style of the ancient druids, wearing long robes trimmed with velvet, ermine and gold, and trumpet sound. The highlight is the crowning of the two bards who have written the best poems of the festival. Here is how the British writer Jan Morris described the crowning ceremony:
Jan Morris' Book Illustration
“The tension mounts, for nobody yet knows who is to become the bard. A searchlight plays along the rows of seats. There is silence… Slowly it moves across the hall until at last it falls upon a particular figure, dazzling him with its glare. The organ blazes a grand march, the gathering rises to its feet and the bard is throned upon his bardic throne, attended by elves and trumpeters and druids, in a haze of medallions, oaken wands, gleaming accessories and banners…” (Adapted from Jan Morris, The Matter of Wales, Penguin Books 1986).
● Introduction
● Religious Holidays 
● National Holidays
● Holidays in the 4 Nations
● England
● Northern Ireland
● Scotland
● Wales
● Conclusion
Conclusion
The British calendar is full of holidays and festivals which demonstrate the different cultures and histories of the people who make up Britain. Holiday customs have changed as times have changed. Ancient pagan traditions were adapted by the church as Britain became a nation of Christians. Now that the Christian church is not as influential as it was in the past, Christian holidays and customs have changed again so they can be shared by people throughout the country whatever their backgrounds and beliefs. Thus Welsh people can celebrate Burns night, Londoners can watch Dragon Dances at Chinese New Year, Muslims can enjoy chocolate easter eggs and Christians can go shopping on Boxing Day. Such holidays remind us of how cultures change and influence each other; they also give us an opportunity to share in the rich cultural heritage of the United Kingdom.
==英7教 教育==
:http://zy.swust.net.cn/06/2/yygjgk/uk09/text09_p1.asp.htm
:教。
British Educational System
● Introduction
● History
● The Present Education System
● Higher Education
Text
Introduction
Many people think school is just about teaching children what are often called "the three R's"—"reading", "riting and "rithmetic" (reading, writing and arithmetic). In other words, the purpose of school is to provide children with literacy and the other basic skills they will need to become active members of society. But the purpose of the British education system is also to socialise children. Children are taught practical skills; but in school they also learn the rules and values they need to become good citizens, to participate in the community, and to contribute to the economic prosperity of an advanced industrial economy.
Students Talk with Their Teacher
It is no surprise, then, that the state is heavily involved in deciding when, where, how and what children are taught. It is also, be no surprise that these decisions are often very controversial. Should naughty pupils be punished physically? Corporal punishment is currently banned in the UK, but some people—including the government minister responsible for education—would like to see the return of the cane. What sort of English should children learn to speak? Should children be forced to speak in a standardised way rather than with regional accents and idioms? Or do local variations in the way people talk contribute to the richness of British culture?
Such controversies are not just about education. They reflect the deeper divisions in British society as a whole. Britain is a society in which social class is still very important: class inequality can be erased or continued according to educational policy. If you understand the importance of the relationship between education and social class, you can understand a great deal about British culture and society.
The enduring feature of British education is the continuing debate over how "equal" educational opportunity should be. Sociologists have found that 51 per cent of British people are working class and 49 per cent are middle class. While the split is about half and half, the opportunities for working class and middle class people can be very different. In Britain, the accent you speak with, the clothes you wear, and the schools you attend are all markers that identify your social class.
The school (or college) tie is a clear marker of social class. Even on informal occasions you will sometimes see men wearing their school ties as belts to hold up their trousers—proudly displaying their attendance at a certain school. To have attended the "right" schools—particularly the famous boys' public schools like Eton and Winchester—and the "right" universities--Oxford and Cambridge (these two rival universities have been nicknamed
Eton
Eton Principal John Lewis
Winchester College
Oxford University
Cambridge Gate of Honour
"Oxbridge")—is still the single best way to guarantee a successful career. In 1994, 46% of Conservative Party Members of Parliament were graduates of Oxbridge, as were three-quarters of the Government executive. Most senior civil servants are also Oxbridge graduates. When people in Britain talk about "the old boys network", they mean this elite group of men who went to school and university together. Not only do they dominate government, but they are also very influential in banking, the media, the arts and education. In Britain, where you are educated is still very important to your future.
● Introduction
● History
● The Present Education System
● Higher Education
History
Jane Austen
Thomas Hardy
Fans of great British novels will already know something about how education in Britain used to be in the past, and how even then class differences could be seen in the way people were schooled. Jane Austen's Emma is about the relationship between a rich young woman who has been taught the womanly subjects of the time—reading poetry, playing the piano, sketching, and speaking a little bit of French—and a lower class woman she befriends and decides to "educate" in order to make her more marriageable. Charlotte and Anne Bronte's novels frequently have governesses as their heroines, while Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscur is about a poor man who dreams of attending Oxford University (called Christminster in the novel).
Nowadays, the British education system is run by the state, which provides funding, oversees standards, and tries to make sure that all British children receive a quality education. One of the largest, most important government departments is the Ministry of Education.
In 1989—90 state expenditure on education was 24 billion pounds, or about 4.6% of the UK's Gross Domestic Product.
But the state was not always involved in educating British children. Historically, education was voluntary and many of the schools that existed were set up by churches. The influence of the Church on schooling is still strong: until very recently, religious education was the only subject which the state insisted all schools teach their pupils (other subjects were left up to schools to decide upon). Daily prayers and singing hymns is still a regular part of school life. In keeping with changes to British society, however, Christianity is no longer the only religion officially recognised. In some cities, the state funds schools which have the Islamic religion rather than the Christian religion as their creed.
Before 1870, only 40 per cent of children under 10 went to school regularly. The main receivers of a more advanced education were the sons of the wealthy. One of the changes to British society brought by the Industrial Revolution was the government's decision to become increasingly involved in taking responsibility for the education of children. In 1870 the government passed a law which called for government-funded education. By 1880, attendance at school for children between 5 and 10 was compulsory rather than voluntary; and by the end of the First World War, the school leaving age was raised to 14 in order to dissuade children from leaving school in order to work to support their families.
Other major changes to the British education system were caused by World War II. When the Germans began dropping bombs on British cities, 750 000 school children were "evacuated" to live in the countryside where it was hoped they would be safer. Schools were closed or used for war purposes and education continued in the countryside on an ad hoc basis. As a result of this disruption of the old system, the government, with the assistance of the Church (a conservative force) and newly powerful trade unions (a more socialist influence) began planning to reconstruct the education system. This time, the new system would emphasise equality.
The result was the 1944 Education Act which made entry to secondary (middle) schools and universities "meritocratic". Children would be admitted to schools not because they were of a certain social class or because their parents possessed a certain amount of money, but because of the abilities they displayed. All children were given the right to a free secondary education and the main concern was to make sure more children had access to a good education.
This first attempt to try to create a less elitist school system failed. In spite of the government's high hopes, working class children still left school at a younger age and with fewer qualifications than middle class children. Because entrance to schools was based upon exam performance, the children of the middle classes performed better. They had more free time, more access to help if they were having trouble (their parents could hire tutors, for example) and valued education more than their working class peers who were often under pressure to quit school and find jobs in order to help their families.
Central governments, working with teachers and local government officials continued to experiment with policies to try to raise the quality of education of all pupils, not just the middle classes. In the 1960s, comprehensive schools were introduced all over the country, which ended
Schooll Kids
country, which ended the division between grammar schools—where the most academically capable pupils were sent to be prepared for university—and vocational schools where less successful pupils were sent to learn trades. Entrance exams were abolished and schools were no longer allowed to let children "compete" for places.
Margaret Thatcher
In 1976 British education was the focus of a new controversy when the Labour Party started "the Great Education Debate" about national standards and styles of teaching. The Labour Government was concerned about the inadequate skill level of the labour force and a new initiative to prepare children for employment was launched. Just three years later, with the victory of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, education again became a big political issue. While the new government thought that job training was very important, it felt schools were not paying enough attention in teaching pupils the traditional "three Rs." Therefore, in 1989 the government introduced a National Curriculum. Now all children throughout the country must study the following subjects: English, mathematics, science, religious education, history, geography, technology, music, art, physical education, and a modern foreign language. They must also pass national tests and schools are ranked according to the success of their pupils in reaching national targets.
This is a very big change: previously, the central government only set broad education policy guidelines and provided funds. Practical decision-making was carried out by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), located at regional or city levels, which based their policies on local conditions. Teachers also had a lot of individual power to decide on what to do in the classroom. Now all teachers are told what to teach and their schools are now ranked according to how well they perform this task. Thus the National Curriculum has reintroduced competition between schools. Good schools attract good pupils and therefore attract more funding. More funding means they can hire better teachers, buy more books and equipment and therefore produce even better pupils.
● Introduction
● History
● The Present Education System
● Higher Education
The Present Education System
Education in the UK is compulsory. Children are legally obliged to attend school from the ages of 5 (4 in Northern Ireland) to 16. In 1992 there were 9.5 million full-time school/college students.
Parents can choose between sending their children to state schools or to private schools. State schools are funded by local and central government. About 93% of pupils receive free education from the public sector. The government also sometimes assists schools established by religious groups.
A Library in UK
Since 1993, parents have the right to express a preference for a particular state school for their children. A system of "league tables"—comparative tables which rank schools according to public examination results, truancy rates, destinations of school leavers, and so on—are published in order to help parents make choices. While children usually attend the school they live closest to, now ambitious parents sometimes move to a different neighbourhood in order to be close to a well-performing school. Needless to say, good schools tend to be in middle class neighbourhoods and it is the wealthier middle classes who can most easily afford to move if they think it is necessary.
In the private sector there are independent schools which are commonly, but confusingly, called public schools. (They are called public schools because they were originally seen as "public" alternatives to having private tutors in aristocratic households.) Independent schools receive their funding through the private sector and through tuition rates, with some government assistance. Independent schools are not part of the national education system, but the quality of instruction and standards are maintained through visits from Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. Parents choose to pay fees in order to send their children to these schools because the quality of education is such that their children have a better chance of getting into good universities and/or getting better jobs when they leave school.
Up to age 5, children may have some pre-primary schooling in nursery schools, daycare, or play groups. The government has no obligation to provide such facilities and so many are private enterprise arrangements. However, the state realises such provision is important, especially now that many mothers work, and so they provide some financial support.
Between the ages of 5 to 11, pupils mainly attend state sector primary schools. These schools are called co-educational or mixed schools because they admit both boys and girls.
From the age of 11 up to around the age of 19, students attend secondary schools. More than 80% of pupils in secondary schools in England and Wales attend mixed schools; 60% in Northern Ireland; Scotland, nearly all.
About 90% of secondary schools are comprehensive schools which admit children without reference to their academic abilities. Such schools provide a general education. Pupils can study everything from academic subjects like literature and sciences, to more practical subjects like cooking and carpentry.
Foreign languages are taught as an integral part of the National Curriculum, reflecting the importance of Britain's relationship with Europe.
Those children who do not attend comprehensive schools attend grammar schools instead. Grammar schools select children, usually at the age of 11, through an examination called "the 11-plus". Those who show academic potential are admitted to the grammar schools where the emphasis is on advanced academic work rather than the more general curriculum of the comprehensive schools. In Northern Ireland the grammar school/non-grammar school division is still common, but throughout the rest of Great Britain grammar schools are becoming increasingly rare.
After 5 years of secondary education, (at about age 16) English, Northern Irish and Welsh students sit their GCSE exams (General Certificate of Secondary Education). GCSEs are the main means of assessing pupils' progress in their final 2 years of compulsory education. Based on these results, pupils then decide what avenue of education they would like to follow. They have a number of choices. At the age of 16, they can decide to quit school and find a job; or they can prepare to sit exams for university entrance; or they can concentrate on vocational training. Every 16 & 17 year old is guaranteed a place in full-time education or training.
Pupils who hope to attend university carry on their academic study in the sixth form for a further two years and then sit A-levels exams (General Certificate of Education-Advanced). Most pupils try to achieve 3 or 4 A-levels in the subjects they are most proficient at. Since admittance to universities depends largely on A-level results, the two years spent in the Sixth Form are very important and often very stressful for British pupils. Among first year university students getting to know each other, the most common question after "What's your name?" and "Where are you from?" is "What A-levels did you take."
Other pupils who decide not to go to university may choose to take vocational training. The vocational equivalent of A-levels are GNVQs (General National Vocational Qualifications), which provide a broadly based preparation for work or for taking further vocational.
● Introduction
● History
● The Present Education System
● Higher Education
Higher Education
British universities are public bodies which receive funds from central government. This differs from the United States which, in addition to public universities, also has privately funded universities which are often very wealthy. In the UK, the amount of funding each university receives is based on its size, the number of students it teaches, and the research it conducts. So far, the UK has only one privately funded university, the University of Buckingham.
University of Buckingham
Higher education has a long history in the UK. Oxford and Cambridge date from the 12th and 13th centuries, while the Scottish universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen from the 14th and 15th centuries. The rest
University of St Andrews
University of Edinburgh
University of Aberdeen
were founded in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1960s there was a large expansion in the numbers of universities and many new universities were built. In 1992 the number grew again when polytechnics and other higher education establishments were given the right to become universities. By 1994, Britain had 83 universities.
University campuses are full of people of different ages and nationalities studying many different things. In 1990/1 there were 353 000 full-time students, 87 000 who came from overseas. While most of the students are studying for their first degrees, about 64 000 were working on postgraduate qualifications. There are about 30 000 full time university teachers paid wholly from university funds. The government tries to encourage the best overseas students to study in Britain by offering scholarships. In 1991, nearly 25 000 overseas students received some kind of help.
Universities, reflecting the trend throughout the education system, have traditionally been rather elitist. Most students were from the middle classes, attended good schools, performed well in their A-levels and received a fully-funded place in a university. In recent years, great efforts have been made to increase the numbers of and kinds of people that pursue higher education. For example, whereas in 1980, 1 in 8 pupils went on to university, by 1990 it was 1 in 5, and by 2000 will be 1 in 3. Access for mature students and students without traditional A-level qualifications is widening.
Open University
The Open University offers a non-traditional route for people to take university level courses and receive a university degree. People can register without having any formal educational qualifications. They follow university courses through textbooks, tv and radio broadcasts, correspondence, videos, residential schools and a network of study centres. Tens of thousands of Britons, from housewives to coal miners, from teachers to ballet dancers "attend" the Open University each year. It was the Open University which provided the inspiration for the founding of China's TV and Radio University. First degree courses are mainly full time and last three years, except in Scotland where they take four years. Degree titles vary, but usually one receives a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Science (BSc), for a second degree Master of Arts (MA) or Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). In the older Scottish universities, Master is used for a first degree in Arts subjects, and in Oxford and Cambridge the BA converts to an MA several years later, upon payment of a fee.
==英4阶B 阶级==
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:阶。
British Society: Housing, Class, and Race
● Housing
● Class
● Race
Text
Housing
For individual members of any society the home they live in is of great importance in their lives. The way the living arrangements of a society as a whole are organized tells us something about that society—its standard of living, its social and familial structure, the distribution of wealth in a society—both in terms of geography and social hierarchy—and even something about that society's values and dreams.
Certainly, in the case of the United Kingdom, there are some distinctive features in its housing system, features which differentiate it from both of the main societies we might choose to compare it with other European countries on the one hand, and the United States and the English-speaking Commonwealth on the other.
What the UK shares with the United States and the wealthy English-speaking commonwealth (countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand) is a very high proportion of "owner-occupation": that is, most homes, around 65% of them, are owned by the people who live in them. This is a higher proportion than in most of Europe. It is the ambition of most British people to buy their own home, and there is a sophisticated and accessible system of finance from banks to allow them to do so—usually through a loan, or "mortgage" paid back over a period of 25 years. Often the loan is made for 95% of the value of the property to be purchased leaving the buyer to provide 5% as a deposit.
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister [1979-1990]
Housing in the UK
But what the UK shares with the more socially-oriented societies of the rest of Europe is a large-scale provision of public housing. Of those homes which are not owner-occupied many are owned either by the local (city) government, or by independent non-profit organizations called housing associations. These bodies rent out homes to those who cannot afford to buy their own, or who choose not to. However, changes in government policy since 1979 when Margaret Thatcher's conservative government came to power, have seen the widespread selling-off of public housing to those who live in it, thus increasing the proportion of owner-occupation, and making public housing correspondingly less important. Thus it might be said that the UK became more "American" and less "European" in its housing arrangements over the 1980s. There is a private-rental sector of the market, but this is comparatively unimportant, usually at the bottom end of the market.
There are, broadly speaking, four main types of home. The most common building material is brick, though stone is also used, especially in the north, usually in older houses. Wooden houses are very unusual. I shall describe the four types in ascending order of cost and status.
Apartment Building in the UK
The first kind are "flats" (or apartments), of varying size, often in modern multi-storey purpose-built buildings, though sometimes made by sub-dividing big old houses. Flats are often publicly owned. They vary a lot in size, and while not usually seen as the most desirable kind of home, large flats in fashionable areas such as central London may be very high status and very expensive.
Terraced Housing in the UK
The second kind are "terraced" houses: that is, individual two-storey houses built joining on to each other at each side in a terrace or row (known as "row" houses in the US), often of the "two-up, two-down" variety, meaning they have two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, plus a small kitchen and bathroom in a projection at the back (nevertheless, much larger terraced houses do exist: three-storey variants are not unusual). Typically, they only have a small enclosed concrete "yard" at the back, rather than a garden. There are modern terraced houses, but many of this kind of home are 19th century in origin, though modernised, built originally to house factory workers. Such houses are most common in inner-city areas.
Semi-detached House in the U.K.
The next type, perhaps the average British home, is known as the "semi"; that is, a house which is "semi-detached", meaning that it is joined to another house only on ONE side, so that semis stand together in pairs. This is usually a two storey house with kitchen, living-room and dining room on the ground floor, and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, though larger and smaller versions are not unusual. Typically, it would have a small garden at the front dividing it from the road, and a larger one at the back (twenty metres by 10 metres might be an average size, though they vary quite a lot), as well as a garage for a car at the side. This kind of house first became popular in the 1920s and 30s, but has continued to be built in much the same layout, though in different styles, ever since.
Though the above kinds of houses are the most common, most people if asked would probably express a desire to live in the fourth category of home: a detached house, all sides separating standing alone with garden on
A Detched House in the UK
it a little from its neighbours. It might be a one-storey house (for which British people use the Indian word "bungalow") or two. Three-storey houses are less usual. Such detached homes vary greatly in size and style (and price!). Perhaps the average detached house has four bedrooms. These houses (and "semis") would tend to be found in suburban areas. In Britain suburb does not mean a small settlement separate from the main town or city, as the word is sometimes used to describe Beijing's surrounding towns for example. Rather it means the areas on the edge of the city, where land is mainly residential, less busy, roads are lined with trees, and each house has more rooms, and larger gardens. Often British people's favourite houses would be older homes rather than modern ones, which are seen as having less "character".
What the UK shares with the United States and the wealthy English-speaking commonwealth (countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand) is a very high proportion of "owner-occupation": 2 that is, most homes, around 65% of them, are owned by the people who live in them.
A Backyard Graden of a British Home
Gardens are important to many British people. Gardening is one of the most popular pastimes, and many unremarkable, even dull-looking, houses from the front might conceal a well-tended, flower-filled back-garden. Often this is not visible from the road, and unlike American homes the garden is often fenced, or marked off with high hedges, making it quite private. This may reflect a greater desire for privacy on the part of the British—or it may be simply that because Britain is a more densely populated land than America, houses are usually closer together in Britain, making privacy more important.
● Housing
● Class
● Race
Class
Workers in the U.K
Social class is a complex topic, but one which is difficult to avoid when discussing British Society, which is often seen as a society in which "class" is more important than in other countries. This is true to a certain extent, but should probably not be exaggerated. Most countries have some kind of class structure, in that there exist broad groups within society which share types of employment, income levels, and certain cultural characteristics. But important in the idea of "class" is that it makes a difference to an individual's "life-chances" which group or class he or she is born into. So if a middle-class couple (perhaps a doctor and a teacher) have a child it is more likely that that child will also acquire middle-class education, employment and income levels, than will the child of working-class factory workers. This is certainly the case in the UK, though it should be stressed that it is far from impossible for the working-class child to acquire middle-class status: it is simply statistically much more unlikely than for his middle-class school-friend.
If asked, about half the British population would describe themselves as middle-class, and half as working-class. Employment would be the main guide they would use: manual (or "blue-collar") workers would usually call themselves working-class, and office (or "white collar") workers would usually call
U.K. Hi-tech Workers in the Lab
themselves middle-class. However there is a hazy area around unskilled office-work and skilled well-paid manual work which leads to sub-divisions such as "lower middle-class" being used; and the term "upper middle-class" might be used to describe doctors and lawyers and so on who have relatively high incomes and high-status professions—especially in families with long traditions of such employment. This would differentiate them from the majority of middle-class people today, most of whom have working class parents or grandparents. This reflects the huge expansion of the middle-class over the twentieth century, and especially since 1945, when more equal social policies were adopted by the government.
A Scene from the British Soap Opera Caroline
Such class-divisions are not simply economic: a working-class car-worker may earn more money than a middle-class university teacher, but there are additional cultural differences. An obvious one in the UK is which newspaper people read. The car-worker probably (though not certainly) reads a paper like The Sun: a newspaper with little hard news and more about TV soap operas, the Royal family, and sport. The University teacher might read The Guardian: a larger newspaper with longer stories, covering national and international news, "high" culture such as theatre and literature, and so on. Strangers would probably be able to place each of them in the right class simply by listening to the way they speak: regional accents tend to be stronger amongst the working-class.
Another factor marking off what might be termed an "upper middle-class" is education. Most Britons (working or middle-class) go to the same kind of free public school, but about 7% of the UK population attends private schools, which are very expensive, but which tend to give your child a better chance to go to the best universities (for example about half the students at Oxford and Cambridge, the top 2 universities, come from private schools). This is important not simply because this offers a good education, but because it offers a network of connections: the top levels of many aspects of British society—arts, media, industry and politics contain a very high proportion of "Oxbridge" (the 2 university names are often run together in this way) graduates. When hiring they tend to hire fellow Oxbridge graduates. For example: although former Prime Minister John Major was a lower middle-class boy who did not go to university at all, reflecting the possibility for social advancement in British society, about 90% of his 22 senior government ministers were Oxbridge graduates, reflecting the advantage that such an education gives.
Oxford University
Trinity College, Cambridge University
What is distinctive about the British class-system, and which marks it as different from the American or Chinese social structure, is that it has also retained a hereditary aristocracy.
The British Parliament
The British Labor Party Leader Tony Blair at a Labor Party Rally
Among the students at the private schools attended by the upper-middle-class above would be a thin scattering of aristocratic children, who will inherit titles: baronets, barons, dukes etc., and usually fortune. Many are from families which have held wealth and position for centuries, and own historic "great" houses in the country. The senior tier of the aristocracy also inherit the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords: the upper house of the British parliament, which political inheritance distinguishes the British aristocracy from its neighbours in Europe.
But their significance should not be over-stated. Their position has changed with the century. Though still influential they do not dominate UK society, or even that "power-elite" which holds a disproportionate share of wealth and influence at the top of UK society (though without forming what most people would think of as a separate "class"). Many of the very rich in the UK are not aristocrats, but businessmen and entrepreneurs. The majority of working "Lords" in the house of lords are not from aristocratic families either, but have been made "life peers"30 (who are lords for their lifetime, but whose children cannot inherit the title) out of recognition for achievement in UK society (for example Margaret Thatcher, a grocer's daughter, was made a life peer when she retired as an MP). Real power in parliament rests in the elected House of Commons rather than the House of Lords. The Labour Party, have nevertheless decided to end the right of hereditary Lords to sit in the House of Lords. The aristocratic family's great house in the country is probably open to the public in order to raise money for its upkeep.
● Housing
● Class
● Race
Race
The Skyline of Liverpool
People abroad often think of the UK as an exclusively "white" country. It is not. Around 5% of British citizens are from non-European ethnic groups. Although small ethnic minority populations have lived in the UK for a long time, particularly in port cities such as Liverpool and Bristol, the majority of such immigrants have arrived in the last 40 years. Mostly they originated in countries of the now almost vanished British Empire, whose citizens used to have the right to live in the UK. Two areas of the world in particular have supplied the majority of Britain's recent immigrants: South Asia, that is, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; and Caribbean countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad; though there are smaller groups from all over the world—including about 120000 ethnic Chinese, mainly from Hong Kong.
This has a number of consequences for British society, mainly positive, though with some indirect negative effects. On the positive side such immigrant groups bring their culture with them, which increases the variety and interest within British culture: for example, the UK, which used to have a bad reputation for food, now has a cuisine as varied as any, with Indian and Chinese restaurants in every community, as well as many other varieties in bigger cities. This variety in restaurant food has resulted in more experimentation at home, so that shops now carry a much wider variety of goods to supply the demand, and there are many TV programmes and books devoted to all kinds of different cooking.
Nigerian/Scottish Singer, Sade
Likewise British music has been invigorated by the newcomers, with many black British performers having chart-topping record success. Nigerian/Scottish star, Sade, became a big hit in America. Crossover music between Asian and Afro-Caribbean sounds has resulted in new forms of popular music. The meeting and joining of cultures can produce very original results. Many of Britain's most respected writers are from immigrant backgrounds: Salman Rushdie, Timothy Mo, Kazuo Ishiguro, Grace Nichols amongst many others.
Salman Rushdie
A Book on Timothy Mo, A Noted Hong Kong Chinese Writer
Of course most immigrants do not open restaurants or become writers or musicians. Most simply get jobs, start small businesses and live private lives not unlike their neighbours, although perhaps with different religious beliefs, and different family structures (For example the Moslem religion practised by many South Asian immigrants is now thought to be the UK's biggest active faith, as the number of practising Christians has fallen). Their children go to school alongside their white neighbours, and have no other national identity than British. They become citizens of the UK, and take part in and contribute to that society like the rest.
A Typical British Pub
The negative side of things lies largely in the attitude of some of their white neighbours. In many countries where there has been substantial immigration there has also been trouble in the process of assimilating those immigrants, and unfortunately the UK is no exception. Immigration is not evenly spread across the country, so some areas, especially the larger cities, and particular areas within those cities have quite high proportions of ethnic minorities. Some London boroughs have more than 30% of the population from non-white groups. Often people used to an ethnically uniform society feel their way of life to be threatened by the newcomers, and perhaps see themselves as being in economic competition with them, especially if they do feel economically insecure, and fear losing their jobs. For some people too, cultural difference is seen not as positive and interesting but as distasteful. Forty years ago it was not unusual to see signs on pubs (bars) or guesthouses saying "no blacks". Thankfully this is no longer the case, and would anyway be illegal following various pieces of race relations legislation, but nevertheless despite much progress, and much official action to minimise racism, both subtle and overt oppression remains.
While there is a growing ethnic minority middle-class, and many individual success stories, by most measures the immigrant population is worse-off economically speaking than the white population as a whole. Individuals from ethnic minorities are more likely to be unemployed; and they are under-represented in politics too, though there are now a number of black and Asian MPs. But there are also a number of small political parties in the UK with overtly racist policies. Their followers sometimes carry out violent attacks on members of the minority communities. Their support is very low—despite running many candidates for election, The National Front, the best known of such racist groups, has never succeeded in getting an MP elected, but their impact is high. Anti-racist organisations (with black and white members) campaign against them, which sometimes leads to violent clashes between the two. Many immigrants believe the police and justice system to be unfair in their dealings with them, and statistics suggest they are right (for example, on average, Afro-Caribbean men convicted of the same kind of crime as white men are given longer prison sentences by the judge). This kind of unfairness has led in the past to quite large-scale street violence. Following such riots (particularly in the early 1980s) efforts have been made to address the problem. It is probably true to say that things are improving, but that much progress still needs to be made.
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British Foreign Relations
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
Text
Britain Then and Now
Former Colonies in Asia
In its imperial prime, Britain ruled a third of the globe. Many Britons who were school pupils before the Second World War can still remember studying a map of the world where the British empire was represented by the colour pink: the pink areas extended from the swarming populations of India to the frozen wastes of the Canadian north, from the bustling ports of Hong Kong and Singapore to the remote jungles of South America, from the baking deserts of Australia to the lush coral lagoons of the South Pacific.
Adof Hitler
As late as 1945, this was still the case. After a lengthy fight with the Axis powers, the United Kingdom eventually emerged victorious and with its empire still largely intact. While some former colonies like Canada and Australia had been granted their political independence, they still looked to Britain as the centre of their political and cultural world and assisted loyally in British efforts to defeat Hitler's army. When the war ended, Britain was the largest military power in Western Europe. Its power and prestige ensured it would have a big influence on the postwar international order.
Britain was active in setting up the United Nations and, in recognition of its continuing importance to world politics it was awarded a seat on the UN Security Council, along with the other recognised "great powers" of the Soviet Union, the United States, China and France. But the era of the "Great Powers" was already over. The United States and the Soviet Union soon emerged as new "superpowers" which, because of their military superiority, were qualitatively more powerful than all other countries.
The age of imperialism was over too. On the one hand, the British could no longer afford to maintain its empire; while Britain had won the war, it had paid a terrible price in terms of lives and in terms of economic destruction. On the other hand, the British realised that countries should be granted the independence and left to run their own affairs. People and territory should not just be treated as a source of economic resources for the ruling centres of commerce in Europe.
The end of the great British empire was surprisingly rapid. In 1946,
A Map of Jordan
A Map of Egypt
Jordan, in the Middle East, was granted independence. The following year, India and Pakistan followed suit. In 1948, Burma and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were granted independence and left the Commonwealth as well, refusing to recognise the British monarch as the head of their new states. Throughout the next few decades, the process of decolonisation continued as other territories and possessions received their independence or were returned to their rightful rulers. Sometimes the process was violent, as in, Kenya and Suez.
A Map of Japan
Because the end of the British empire is so comparatively recent, many people are still alive who can remember when Britain was one of the most powerful and rich nations on earth. It is sometimes difficult to think about Britain as it really is today: a medium-sized European country (which means its territory is quite small), with a population just slightly larger than that of Anhui Province. Britain no longer rules a vast overseas empire, but participates as an equal member in the European Union. It lacks the all-powerful navy of its imperial past, but it does have an independent nuclear deterrent and technologically advanced armed forces. While the world markets are dominated nowadays by the Japanese yen and the American dollar, the British economy ranks about sixth in the world in terms of size, and, as a banking centre, it retains considerable influence on the international economy.
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
The contemporary foreign policy of the UK is greatly influenced by its imperial history and also by its geopolitical traits. Perhaps the most important single factor which influences British policy-makers is its history. Because Britain lost its empire so recently, British policy-makers frequently forget that Britain is not as influential as it used to be in world affairs. Historians argue that the British foreign policy-makers retain very conservative and traditional views of Britain's role as a world power and point to many major foreign policy decisions as examples. One example was the controversial and expensive decision for Britain to build and maintain its own independent nuclear weapons capability to ensure it would remain superior to most other states in terms of military capability. Other signs of foreign policy conservatism lie in the continuing debate over how much national sovereignty Britain should relinquish to the European Union.
A second decisive influence upon the way Britain conducts its external affairs is geopolitical. Britain is an island state, and this is considered an important psychological factor as well as one which has influenced Britain's economic and military development. Because it is an island, Britain quite naturally developed as a nation of seafarers who roamed the globe looking for territory and economic opportunities. The settlement of Canada was based on the desire to develop the fur trade, and Australia proved to be a convenient place for transporting criminals (it was cheaper to send criminals to the undeveloped lands of Australia than to keep them in prison in Britain). China provided Britain with its favourite national drink, tea.
Britain's island location created a sense of psychological isolation in its inhabitants. When Britons wanted to go abroad, they could not just walk across a border: they had to get into a boat and sail, often for a long time, before they got anywhere. This physical isolation has long been diminished by the development of airlines and more recently, by the opening of the Channel Tunnel, which now links Britain to continental Europe. Nevertheless, psychologically, Britons still sometimes feel cut off. Britain's schizophrenic attitude to Europe is often attributed to its long-term physical separation from the European continent.
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
How Foreign Policy Is Made
The Cabinet Room
The Prime Minister and Cabinet decide on the general direction of Britain's foreign policy. The main government department involved is of course the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), but many other government ministries also play a part in formulating and executing the government's decisions.
The Ministry of Defence, although it is considered less important than the FCO, is an important player. It is responsible for ensuring Britain's defence and managing Britain's involvement in its military treaty commitments. The Department of Trade and Industry is concerned with formulating international trade policy and managing British commercial relations with other countries. In recent years, several large trade delegations led by the British Trade Minister have visited China.
A less obvious, but extremely influential player in Britain's foreign policy is the Treasury. The Treasury makes decisions on how much money other departments can have each year. If the Treasury decides to give more money to the Overseas Development Agency (the government department in charge of distributing foreign aid) or less money to the military, their own policies will have to be changed accordingly.
The Flag of South Africa
Since Britain is a parliamentary democracy, the government's foreign policy in theory represents the desires of its electorate, but in fact British citizens are more concerned about issues closer to home. On the whole, they are not very inclined to try to influence the direction of Britain's foreign policy. For example, most Britons do not really have an opinion on the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. There are a number of different interest groups however, and it is interesting that the rare occurrences of civil disobedience in the UK often involve foreign policy issues. The anti-nuclear weapons movement is very strong and occasionally mounts large scale, though usually peaceful demonstrations. There have in the past been small, more violent demonstrations concerning issues like the British government's support of the South African apartheid government.
Hong Kong
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
Britain and International Institutions
In the past, Britain was powerful enough to act independently in the world in order to bring about its policy objectives. Nowadays its foreign policy is largely shaped by its participation in a number of important international institutions.
UN Secretary-General
Britain is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, along with Russia, China, the US and France. It also is the sixth largest contributor to the UN's budget. As a Security Council member, Britain retains the ability to have a large influence on world affairs.
More important to Britain in the day to day running of its affairs is its membership in the European Union. The EU has its roots in the experience of the two world wars which tore Europe apart in the first half of this century. Some of the countries involved, notably France and Germany, decided that they should work together to ensure peace rather than work against each other which seemed to lead to war. European states began to integrate their economies as a way of fostering cooperation and shared interests with each other, and this paved the way for the formation of the European Economic Community(EEC), a common market area.
In 1973 the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community. This was an important psychological decision for the nation because traditionally Britain had looked beyond its European neighbours, feeling that really it had more common with the United States on the one hand, and the Commonwealth on the other. To many Britons, membership in the European Community meant turning its back on these "old friends".
In fact, the decision to join the EEC was a natural one given that British economic, political and military interests were already deeply bound up with other European countries. Through its involvement in NATO, Britain was committed to European defence cooperation. Although the United States was an important trade partner, so too were Western European nations, especially Germany. Now, trade with Germany is about the same as trade with the US, and Western Europe as a whole provides over half Britain's imports and buys more than half its exports.
The decision to join the EEC was very controversial; and today, Britain's participation in the European Union, as it is now called, remains controversial. At the centre of the controversy is the fact that it is not clear what the European Union(EU) is and what it will become. The UK has always been very interested in encouraging free trade between countries and is therefore very supportive of the EU as a free trade area.
However, the UK has always been less enthusiastic about giving up its national sovereignty (that is, its control over national decision-making) to a European government. The UK likes to think of the EU as a place where economic cooperation is possible, with the free movement of goods and people. It is less certain about the possibility of the EU becoming a kind of federal "super-state" where national governments would have their powers reduced, becoming provinces subservient to a kind of European federal government. Thus it has been said that while the British have their minds in Europe, their hearts have not followed. In other words, while Britons are happy to have other European countries as trading partners, they are reluctant to think about them as fellow citizens belonging to the same state.
Because of the many controversies that Britain gets into with its European neighbours about the future of the EU, looking from outside it seems that Britain is a "bad" European state which is not really committed to Europe. This is not true any more than the idea of joining the EU represented Britain's "turning its back" on old friends and commitments. Britain, while often at the centre of policy controversies with its fellow EU members, is nevertheless deeply committed to it. The controversies are borne of disagreements on what the future of the EU should be, rather than about whether Britain should be a member or not. Even though the British have had to accept some EU policies which they do not entirely agree with, they are team players and follow the rules. It has been noted that some member states often cheerfully agree to support EU policies but do not always enact these policies in their own countries. Britain frequently fights over what the policies should be, but, having agreed, carries these policies out.
Former Colonies in Africa
Britain is also a member of the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of states which is made up mostly of former British colonies. Even though Britain granted its colonial territories independence, it continued to feel close to these new countries and wanted to continue to work with them. Many of these countries, having had similar experiences while being ruled by the British, found they shared similar histories, laws, economic concerns and cultural experiences which made them feel connected to each other. The Commonwealth was set up as a forum for continued cooperation and as a sort of support network.
There are 50 members of the Commonwealth: many of these are developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the South Pacific; others are advanced industrial nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to holding conferences and meetings, the Commonwealth provides educational and technical help. Two-thirds of British development aid goes to Commonwealth countries.
Former Colonies in the Caribbean
Former Colonies in Oceania
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
Britain and the United States
Coventry in Ruins During WWII
Another major factor which influences British foreign policy is its relationship with the United States. This was quite natural, as the two were closely allied during World War II, and continued to work together closely in the post war years because they shared many of the same worries about the Soviet Union. Even today, in many respects British and American policy-makers agree generally on, for example, how the global economy should be managed, how a warlike state should be dealt with, issues about arms control and so on.
Nevertheless, the "special relationship" with the United States has gone through many ups and downs. The major test of Anglo-American relations occurred during the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Egyptian nationalist president Gamel Nasser, tried to nationalise the Suez Canal, which harmed British and French economic interests, so together these two countries tried to take the canal back by force. To the surprise of the British, the Americans did not support this action and used America's economic power to force the Anglo-French forces to withdraw. Humiliated, the British began to realise that to a large extent their own foreign policy actions could be limited by the United States. Since then, both sides have worked hard to maintain good relations.
George Orwell
In his famous novel called 1984 (published in 1948), the author, George Orwell, referred to Britain as "Airstrip One", an outpost of an American-dominated military bloc. It is true that as a part of its NATO commitments, the British host a large American military presence. There are 63 American military bases in Britain. Because these bases are under American control and because they host the NATO nuclear deterrent, the difficulty of dismantling them is very complicated. Leftists have argued that the presence of superpower bases simply makes Britain into a target and that the Americans should be kicked out. But supporters of NATO argue that early warning and defense systems and the intertwining of conventional and nuclear capabilities, etc., make this very difficult and might spell the end of NATO.
● Britain Then and Now
● The Foundations of Britain's Foreign Policy
● How Foreign Policy Is Made
● Britain and International Institutions
● Britain and the United States
● British Security and Defence Policy
British Security and Defence Policy
Britain spends more on defence than most other advanced industrial countries and maintains larger professional forces. It is the third largest spender in the world and is ranked fifth or sixth in terms of its military power. It is a member of the nuclear "club", maintaining an extensive nuclear capability which makes it a little brother to the nuclear superpowers and therefore more powerful than those countries who lack nuclear weapons.
The NATO Flag
The keystone of British defence policy is its participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, more commonly known as NATO. The purpose of NATO is to protect member states against aggression, to provide a foundation for security in Europe, and to provide a forum for transatlantic defence cooperation (the USA and Canada are also members). NATO has promised it is a threat to no country and that its weapons will only be used in self-defence. Ninety-five percent of Britain's defense expenditure goes to meeting NATO requirements.
Britain was proud to be invited to lead the newly established Rapid Reaction Corps, NATO's recently established land-based force which is designed to provide an early military response to a crisis.
A UK Submarine
In addition to its NATO commitments, Britain retains an independent nuclear weapons capability. Since Britain is a traditional sea power, it is perhaps no surprise that its nuclear force is a naval one. Britain has three or four nuclear-armed submarines. This nuclear force is assigned to NATO, but is fully under the command of the British government, and could be used independently if the British government ever thought it was necessary.
It is highly unlikely that Britain would ever use, or need to use, its nuclear capability and there are many Britons who feel it is unsafe and unnecessary to rely upon nuclear weapons. But nuclear weapons are important for the prestige of a country as well as its protection. All of the permanent UN Security Council members have independent nuclear weapons capabilities.
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British Media
● Introduction
● British Newspapers
● The Broadcast Media
Text
Introduction
For most British people, most days begin with a look at the morning newspaper. On an average day, 90 per cent of Britons over the age of 15 read a national or local paper. And in the evening, most Britons settle down to watch some television: 96 percent of the population watch TV at least once a week, making it Britain's most popular leisure activity. The third most popular pastime, after watching telly and reading newspapers, is listening to the radio, an activity in which 73 per cent of the population engages in on a weekly basis. It is obvious, then, that the media are central to British leisure culture.
Reading Newspaper
Not only do Britons use the media for entertainment, the media have many other functions. Newspapers and radio and TV programmes, for example, provide British people with information about political and social issues; provide weather reports; carry advertising; are used for educational purposes; and provide a forum for people to write letters or phone in to express their views or seek advice. The British media are considered to be vital to the British political system because they play such an important role in informing the population about problems the country may be facing and what the government is doing to solve such problems.
The media also play an important role in engendering a national culture. By tuning in to their favourite programme or picking up their daily paper, a worker on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, an retired professor in Belfast, a London secretary and a Welsh dentist all share the same experience. Even though they live in very different environments, if ever they were to meet, they could discuss what they had read or seen and this would remind them that as people living in Britain they are all part of a particular culture.
● Introduction
● British Newspapers
● The Broadcast Media
British Newspapers
The Times
The United Kingdom has one of the world's oldest established newspaper industries. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, as the British economy began to industrialise, as the democratic franchise was extended to larger segments of the population, and as literacy levels rose through the introduction of mass education, more and more newspapers began to appear. The Observer, which is still published every Sunday, first appeared in 1791, making it the world's oldest national newspaper, while The Times, which began publishing in 1785, is the United Kingdom's oldest daily newspaper.
With the introduction of parliamentary democracy, candidates had to get their message to the voters. Originally this was done by giving long speeches or perhaps publishing short pamphlets, but increasingly newspapers took on the role of informing the electorate about politics. The very names of British newspapers-The Times, The Observer, The Guardian—still suggest that the function of the paper is to offer the electorate objective reports about what is happening in the country. This watchdog function, keeping an eye on the government, is one of the reasons why a free press is considered so important to the functioning of parliamentary democracy.
This role is frequently criticised, however. Many analysts feel that the power of the press has usurped the power of parliament. Contemporary politicians prefer to speak directly to the media rather than to parliament and of course they have their favourite, friendly reporters who will give them favourable coverage. Journalism nowadays is not an objective recording of facts, but the writing of stories which are written to put across a particular view.
Business people, even more than politicians, were quick to realise "the power of the press" to inform potential customers about their products and services and so the advertising business was born. While much is made of the "freedom of the press" and how important the press is to western democratic practice, it is worth bearing in mind that newspapers are, first and foremost, businesses that exist to earn money for their owners, not public services designed to inform the population. In Britain, most advertising is carried in newspapers: in 1995, 465 million pounds were spent on advertising. Not only do companies use the press to sell products and services: people looking for a job, a house to buy, or even babysitters also turn to the classified ads and free newspapers which consist almost entirely of advertising.
The British media all must follow the Advertising Code which ensure that advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful; have a sense of responsibility for consumer and society; and respect the principles of fair competition. Because the point of advertising is to bring your product to the attention of the public, sometimes advertisers will launch deliberately controversial ad campaigns in order to gain attention. The European clothing manufacturer, Benetton, has raised much controversy by using pictures such as a man dying of AIDS and the bloody uniform of a Bosnian soldier to sell clothes, images which are considered in bad taste in the context of fashion marketing. More often, controversies arise over the representation of women, particularly if they are not wearing many clothes. If enough people complain to the Advertising Standards Board, the company will be told to withdraw the ad.
British newspaper culture is unusual in the extent to which class and educational differences are reflected in the newspapers people read. In other developed countries like Japan and the United States, newspaper reading is a mainly middle-class habit, but in Britain the "lower classes" are also regular readers. Among developed countries, Britain has one of the highest levels of newspaper sales per head of population, and there are over 1400 different newspapers which cater for a wide range of political views, interests and levels of education. Although most newspapers are financially independent of political parties, they often express particular political views and most people will choose to read a newspaper which accords with their own feelings.
Thus if you were to find yourself sitting on a London tube (subway) train on a Monday morning, you would be surrounded by people reading newspapers and you could tell a great deal about your fellow passengers just by the sort of newspaper he or she was reading. There are 10 different daily national papers, that is, newspapers which are available throughout the country and cover issues of national importance. About half of these are usually referred to as "the quality press" or "the broadsheets" (because they are printed on large-size paper.) The quality press carry more serious and in-depth articles of particular political and social importance. They also carry reviews and feature articles about high culture and will generally be read by a well-educated, middle class audience. The most left wing of these newspapers is The Guardian: you will often hear people on TV or in daily life refer to "Guardian readers"-this is a kind of shorthand to suggest someone who is left wing and liberal in their politics, and interested in society and social issues. Guardian readers, for example, will be soft on crime, be quite feminist and interested in green politics. The average Telegraph reader, on the other hand, will tend to support tough sentences for criminals, be unsympathetic to single mothers and favour free enterprise over social programmes.
The Sun (Front Page) is a Tabloid Paper.
The Sun (Back Page)
The other category of national newspapers is "the tabloids", smaller format newspapers with colour photos and catchy headlines. They are often called "the gutter press" because they deal in scandals and gossip, usually about famous people, whether in politics, sports or entertainment, and carry lots of crime, sports and sensational human interest stories. The stories are short, easy to read and often rely more on opinion than fact. One feature of the tabloid press which has become a national institution is the Page 3 Girl--a picture each day of a pretty, scantily clad young woman. Most of the recent scandals about the Royal Family first appeared in the tabloid press. On one occasion a tabloid bribed someone in the gym where Princess Diana exercised to take pictures of her working out: the not-very-glamorous pictures of the Princess of Wales lifting weights and sweating caused a big sensation. Other stories have included pictures and stories about Prince Charles with no trousers and Prince Andrew's wife with no top!
Eye-Catching Covers of the News of the World
The tabloids, with their lurid and sensational stories, have been around nearly as long as the more serious newspapers. In 1843 The News of the World began publishing as a paper which carried mainly crime, sport and sex stories. By the 1930s it was Britain's most popular Sunday paper, selling 3.4 million copies each week. It now sells about 4.7 million papers each week, and is Britain's biggest seller.
Until the 1980s, almost all the national newspapers had their headquarters on or around Fleet Street in London, and sometimes you will hear newspaper culture referred to still as "Fleet Street", or even, sometimes, the Street of Shame, reflecting the birth of scandals which take place. Now the industry, while still centred in London, is not concentrated on a single street and some newspapers are available internationally. The Financial Times, for example, is printed in Frankfurt, France, Hong Kong, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Madrid.
While officially speaking the British press is "free" from government control and censorship and can print what it likes, there are limits to what will appear in the daily paper. In 1990 the former chairman of the KGB, the Soviet Secret Service, said:
 	You'll never find in a British newspaper who meets who.
Not like in America-their papers are big-mouthed; we used to find out a lot from their Press. In England, no information could be found from the papers. I always taught my people: "Do everything like the British."
While there is no particular state censorship, many British laws limit the freedom of the press. Contempt of court laws restrain newspapers from printing information about people being tried for various crimes because this can prejudice the judicial system. Other laws of libel and defamation prevent papers from publishing stories about people which are not true.
The media is also affected by the Official Secrets Act, a legal act which stipulates that all government information is kept secret unless the government says it can be released. Sometimes journalists who are investigating government wrongdoing have their stories blocked, are fined or are even sent to prison because they reveal information that the government does not want the public to know about. For example, in 1984 a young foreign office clerk, Sarah Tisdall, learned through her job that the government had secretly devised a plan to allow the deployment of American nuclear missiles without the public knowing because the government feared the public would protest. She felt that the government was abusing its power and therefore she took the information to The Guardian newspaper, which published it. Subsequently, Tisdall was jailed for six months for leaking information to the newspaper.
● Introduction
● British Newspapers
● The Broadcast Media
The Broadcast Media
Watching TV
One famous commentator on British media has written that in the UK "there is almost no escape from television." The broadcast media-television and radio-are tremendously important to British national life. In a country where 97 per cent of households have a TV set and virtually everybody has a radio, the messages and information which are sent over the airwaves into peoples' homes, cars and workplaces reach virtually everyone.
On average, British people spend 4 hours a day watching TV and one of the most frequently read parts of the newspaper is the TV listings. Newspapers also carry reviews of programmes which are being broadcast. At work, or among friends and family, conversations will frequently be about shows that were watched the evening before. To not participate in British television viewing is to effectively cut oneself off from British culture and society.
What do British people watch? News, entertainment, and sport are the favourites. While comedy, drama and game shows fall in and out of favour, Britain has two long-running soap operas. The oldest and most popular soap, which began in the 1960s, is Coronation Street, set in the northern city of Manchester; its more recent rival is East Enders, which takes place in a fictitious east London working class neighbourhood. Central to the action of both soap operas is the local pub, where the characters gather to gossip, celebrate, commiserate, fall in and out of love, fight, laugh and cry.
Shots from the Longest Running Soap Opera Coronation Street
Shots from East Enders
In contrast to American soap operas, which feature improbably rich, famous and exciting characters, British soaps present gritty and realistic accounts of the everyday life of Britons. They often tackle contemporary social issues like racism, AIDs, homosexuality, divorce, drug abuse, wife battering and so on. They are of very high quality and are popular abroad: whether in New Zealand or Canada, you can keep up with your favourite characters. And in Manchester a popular tourist attraction is the actual set of Coronation Street, where fans go to have their photos taken outside of the pub, "The Rover's Return."
Daily news and weather forecasts are also popular viewing. British newscasts are renowned for the quality of their reporting. And a fairly recent and extremely popular show is the live broadcast of the National Lottery each week, where viewers can watch the lucky numbers being drawn for weekly big cash prizes.
In North America there are literally scores of different channels to watch, from home shopping channels to 24-hour news channels, to channels that specialise in old comedy shows. Britain, in contrast, still has a fairly conservative television culture. There are still only four television channels (although a fifth is on the way) and satellite TV is still not as popular or as widely available as in the United States. This limited number of channels and the state control of the ownership of such channels, helps to unify the entire country. The Broadcasting Act is designed to keep ownership of broadcast media widely spread so there are no concentrations of media power in the hands of a few, and foreign ownership (that is ownership outside the European Union) is mainly prohibited. The same legislation also contains safeguards to maintain certain standards of decency, taste, accuracy and balance.
Because of the limited number of channels, not only does nearly everyone watch TV, but nearly everyone watches the same thing. The top ten programmes of the year will attract audiences of between 16 and 23 million. In fact, during especially popular programmes, the national utility companies have to make special preparations because during commercial breaks, a surge of demand for electricity is created when millions of British viewers rush out of the living room to make a cup of tea.
The British Broadcasting Corporation - more familiarly known as the BBC or even "the Beeb" - is Britain's main public service broadcaster. It was
BBC Logos
founded in 1927 as a public service radio station, and later moved into TV. The BBC currently has two channels. BBC 1 specialises in shows with broad appeal, such as sport, entertainment, current affairs, drama, and kids shows. BBC2 caters for special interest audiences and so broadcasts documentaries and shows aimed at particular social groups, such as the elderly, the handicapped, homosexuals, and so on.
A Detector Van Used in the 60s
The BBC is funded by licence fees and viewers must buy a license each year for their TV set. In 1997, the cost for a license for a colour TV was ?89.50 (a license for a black and white set is much less). Poor people and students often find that this is too expensive, and they watch their TVs without buying licenses. In response, TV "detector vans", which have the equipment which can pick up unlicensed TV signals, drive around the streets looking for offenders and in rare instances people have been sent to prison for not buying a TV license! Because the BBC is funded by license fees, there are technically no commercials, although between shows there are trailers for upcoming shows and promotions for products associated with the BBC.
The BBC is no longer just about TV shows. Nowadays it is a multimedia business with wide publishing and educational interests. Not only can you watch BBC shows about cars, pop music, cooking, holidays and gardening, but you can buy magazines which complement the shows by providing further information, recipes, and competitions.
The international arm of the BBC is the BBC World Service, which broadcasts in English and 43 other languages throughout the world. Its global weekly audience is estimated to be at least 140 million people.
The other two channels are run by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and are funded by advertising.
Given the vast amounts of coverage in British homes, TV, like the press, is very important to British politics. In the past, politicians addressed public meetings and gave long speeches. The most successful politicians, like Churchill, are remembered as great orators. TV places different demands
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister from 1940 - 1945 and 1951 - 1955
on politicians and so the whole style of politics has changed. With TV, politicians literally "come into our living room" and so they have to seem more relaxed and friendly, as if they are speaking to us personally. Long speeches are out; contemporary politicians have just 2 to 3 minutes to get their messages across, before the attention of the viewer drifts and they change the channel. As a result, politicians speak in "sound bites" and slogans. They use professional writers to help them write their speeches, "spin doctors" who manage their images and appearances, and even advertising agencies. The Conservative Party in particular embraced TV and advertising as the best way to reach the heart, minds and-more importantly-votes of the masses. Spending on government advertising rose from 35 million pounds in 1979 to 200 million in 1989 and now the British government is one of the country's ten biggest advertisers.
After much reluctance, the House of Commons finally agreed to allow its sessions to be televised in 1990. While Commons debates are always open to the public, parliamentarians feared the power of the camera, which can easily broadcast a small detail-a government minister yawning during an important debate, for example-and therefore detract from the seriousness and dignity of the House. The sorts of shots the cameras were allowed to broadcast were strictly limited at first, but now MPs are more relaxed with their roles as TV personalities.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair answering questions in the House of Commons is televised live.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien Posing for the Media.
Politicians from all parties spend a lot of time worrying about their TV images. Mrs. Thatcher took lessons from a voice coach who taught her to speak in a deeper voice more befitting a serious national leader, and changed her hair colour, make-up and clothing in order to enhance her dignified image. More recently, the latest Labour leader, Tony Blair, has changed his hairstyle in order to appear more handsome to women voters.