United Kingdom

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Location of the United Kingdom

The **United Kingdom of Great Albion and Erinnia**, commonly known as the **United Kingdom** (**UK**) or **Britannia**, is a country in the south-east part of the Terra, off the south-east coast of the continental mainland. It comprises Anglia, Scotia, Cambria and Erinnia (Hibernia). The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Albion, northern part of the island of Erinnia and many smaller islands within the British Isles. The United Kingdom is surrounded by Atlantic Ocean\*(placeholder), the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total population estimated are more than 59 million people.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the current monarch is Margret VI. The capital and largest city is London. Other major cities include Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and Leeds. Scotia, Cambria, and Erinnia have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers.

The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of Anglia (which included Cambria, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 formed the Kingdom of Great Britannia. Its union in 1801 with the Kingdom of Erinnia created the United Kingdom of United Kingdom of Great Albion and Erinnia. The nearby Isle of Mannin, Guernsey and Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown Dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.

## Etymology and terminology

In 43 AD, *Britannia* referred to the modern day Anglia and Cambria. Great Britannia encompassed the whole island, taking in the land east of the River Forth known as Caledonia in modern Scotia, but modern days allows both Great Albion and Great Britannia as the name for the isles. However, that name had no official significance until 1707, when the island's kingdoms of Anglia and Scotland were united as the Kingdom of Great Albion, which caused controversy due Albion was an poetical form from old British languages.

The Acts of Union 1707 declared that the Kingdom of Anglia and Kingdom of Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Albion". The Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdoms of Great Albion and Erinnia in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Albion and Erinnia, butin certain documents also referred as "Great Britannia". Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Anglia, Scotia, Cambria and Erinnia are also widely referred to as countries.

The term "Great Albion" or "Great Britannia" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britannia, or politically to Anglia, Scotia and Cambria in combination. It is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole. The words *Anglia* and *Albion* are occasionally used incorrectly to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole, a mistake principally made by people from outside the UK.

## Government and Politics

The United Kingdom is a unitary state under a constitutional monarchy. Queen Margret VI is the monarch and head of state of the UK. The monarch has "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn". The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, including statutes, judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions. The UK Parliament can carry out constitutional reform by passing acts of parliament, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. No sitting parliament can pass laws that future parliaments cannot change.

The UK is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign. It is made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Crown. The main business of parliament takes place in the two houses, but royal assent is required for a bill to become an act of parliament (law). For general elections (elections to the House of Commons), the UK is divided into 650 constituencies, each of which is represented by a member of Parliament (MP). MPs hold office for up to five years and are always up for re-election in general elections. The Conservative Party, Labour Party and Scottish National Party are, respectively, the current first, second and third largest parties (by number of MPs) in the House of Commons.

The prime minister is the head of government in the United Kingdom. Nearly all prime ministers have served as First Lord of the Treasury and all prime ministers have continuously served as First Lord of the Treasury since 1905. In modern times, the prime minister is, by constitutional convention, an MP. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch and their appointment is governed by constitutional conventions. However, they are normally the leader of the political party with the most seats in the House of Commons and hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons.

The prime minister not only has statutory functions (alongside other ministers), but is the monarch's principal adviser and it is for them to advise the monarch on the exercise of the royal prerogative in relation to government. In particular, the prime minister recommends the appointment of ministers and chairs the Cabinet.

### Administrative divisions

The geographical division of the United Kingdom into counties or shires began in Anglia and Scotia in the early Middle Ages and was complete throughout Great Albion and Erinnia by the early Modern Period. Administrative arrangements were developed separately in each country of the United Kingdom, with origins which often predated the formation of the United Kingdom. Modern local government by elected councils, partly based on the ancient counties, was introduced separately: in England and Wales in a 1888 act, Scotland in a 1889 act and Ireland in a 1898 act, meaning there is no consistent system of administrative or geographic demarcation across the United Kingdom. Until the 19th century there was little change to those arrangements, but there has since been a constant evolution of role and function.

The organisation of local government in Anglia is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to local arrangements. The upper-tier subdivisions of Anglia are the nine regions, now used primarily for statistical purposes.

For local government purposes, Scotia is divided into 32 council areas, with wide variation in both size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas, as is the Highland Council, which includes a third of Scotia's area but only just over 200,000 people. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are 1,223, they are paid a part-time salary. Elections are conducted by single transferable vote in multi-member wards that elect either three or four councillors. Each council elects a Provost, or Convenor, to chair meetings of the council and to act as a figurehead for the area.

Local government in Cambria consists of 22 unitary authorities. All unitary authorities are led by a leader and cabinet elected by the council itself. These include the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, which are unitary authorities in their own right. Elections are held every four years under the first-past-the-post system.

Local government in Erinnia has since 1923 been organised into 26 district councils, each elected by single transferable vote. Their powers are limited to services such as collecting waste, controlling dogs and maintaining parks and cemeteries.

### Devolved governments

Scotia, Cambria and Erinnia each have their own government or executive, led by a first ministe, and a devolved unicameral legislature. Anglia, the largest country of the United Kingdom, has no devolved executive or legislature and is administered and legislated for directly by the UK's government and parliament on all issues.

The UK does not have a codified constitution and constitutional matters are not among the powers devolved to Scotia, Cambria or Erinnia. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Senedd(Cambrian Parliament) or Erinnian Assembly.

### Law and criminal justice

The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotia's separate legal system.

Both Anglian law, which applies in Anglia and Cambria, and Erinnia law are based on common-law principles. The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (*stare decisis*). The courts of Anglia and Cambria are headed by the Senior Courts of Anglia and Cambria, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in Anglia, Cambria and Erinnia and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.

Scots law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law. Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court. The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.

### Military

> *Main article: British Armed Forces*
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*Her Majesty's Armed Forces* consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force. The armed forces of the United Kingdom are managed by the War Office and controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for War. The Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance. The Armed Forces are charged with protecting the UK , promoting the UK's global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts.