The United Kingdom Portal
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2), with an estimated population of nearly 67.6 million people in 2022.
In 1707, the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present name, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the "Pax Britannica" between 1815 and 1914. At its height in the 1920s, the British Empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest empire in history. However, its involvement in the First World War and the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. British influence can be observed in the legal and political systems of many of its former colonies, and British culture remains globally influential, particularly in language, literature, music and sport. English is the world's most widely spoken language and the third-most spoken native language.
The UK has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. It is a recognised nuclear state and is ranked fourth globally in military expenditure. The UK has been a permanent member of the UN Security Council since its first session in 1946. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the OECD, NATO, the Five Eyes, AUKUS and the CPTPP. (Full article...)
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The Ormulum is a 12th-century work of biblical exegesis, written in early Middle English verse by a monk named Orm (or Ormin). Because of the unique phonetic orthography adopted by the author, it preserves many details of English pronunciation at a time when the language was in flux after the Norman Conquest. Consequently, and in spite of its lack of literary merit, it is invaluable to philologists in tracing the development of the language. Orm was concerned with priests' ability to speak the vernacular, and developed an idiosyncratic spelling system to guide his readers to pronounce each vowel. He composed using a strict poetic meter which ensured that readers would know which syllables were stressed. Modern scholars use these two features to reconstruct Middle English as Orm spoke it. (Full article...)
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Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945) was an Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury. As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication crisis of 1936 he took a strong moral stance, and comments he made in a subsequent broadcast were widely condemned as uncharitable towards the departed king. In his early ministry Lang served in slum parishes in Leeds and Portsmouth before his appointment in 1901 as suffragan Bishop of Stepney in London. In 1908 Lang was nominated Archbishop of York, despite his relatively junior status as a suffragan rather than a diocesan bishop. He entered the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual and caused consternation in traditionalist circles by speaking and voting against the Lords' proposal to reject David Lloyd George's 1909 "People's Budget". This apparent radicalism was not, however, maintained in later years. At the start of World War I, Lang was heavily criticised for a speech in which he spoke sympathetically of the Kaiser. After the war he supported controversial proposals for the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, but after acceding to Canterbury he took no practical steps to resolve this issue. As Archbishop of Canterbury he presided over the 1930 Lambeth Conference, which gave limited church approval to the use of contraception. (Full article...)
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Did you know -
- ... that the London Forum, a British far-right organization, was described by an anti-fascist magazine as "[bridging] the fascist and Tory right"?
- ... that Kate Nicholl is the first lord mayor of Belfast in recent times not to be born in the United Kingdom or Ireland?
- ... that Sting wrote "We Work the Black Seam" because he felt that "the case for coal was never put to the nation" during the 1984–85 British miners' strike, which began 40 years ago today?
- ... that Graham Fraser pioneered cochlear implantation in the United Kingdom?
- ... that even though Australian citizens are no longer British subjects, they can still vote in elections and stand for parliament in the United Kingdom?
- ... that the name of the Squirrel Scouts section of the Scout Association in the United Kingdom was inspired in part by the thriving population of red squirrels on Brownsea Island, where Scouting began?
In the news
- 23 April 2024 –
- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak announces that he plans to increase the United Kingdom's defence budget to 2.5% of its GDP by 2030, totaling around £85 billion. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- 22 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The United Kingdom announces its largest ever military support package for the Ukrainian military, pledging 400 vehicles, including 162 MXT-MVs, 60 boats, 1,600 air defence missiles, 4 million rounds of firearm ammunition, and an additional £500 million in funding. (The Guardian)
- 18 April 2024 – Palestine and the United Nations, Enlargement of the United Nations
- The United States vetoes a UN Security Council resolution supporting the State of Palestine joining the United Nations. The vote was 12 in favor, the United States opposed, and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. (AP)
- 15 April 2024 – Sudan–United Kingdom relations, War in Sudan
- The United Kingdom sanctions Alkhaleej Bank and Al-Fakher Advanced Works, two companies financing the Rapid Support Forces, and Red Rock Mining, which finances the Sudanese Armed Forces. (Radio Tamazuj)
- 12 April 2024 – Iran–Israel proxy conflict
- The British government advises against all travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories due to the imminent possibility of an Iranian strike. (Middle East Monitor)
- 1 April 2024 – Israel–Hamas war
- Seven volunteers from the World Central Kitchen, including six British, Polish, Australian and Palestinian nationals and a dual American-Canadian citizen, are killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Deir el-Balah. (Al Jazeera)
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