Country background

CULTURAL TRADITIONS AND BUSINESS COMMUNICATION STYLE OF THE UNINED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NOTHERN IRELAND

LECTURE 2

England is only one part of the entity known as “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Most of the United Kingdom’s international business is conducted through England. Britain refers to the island on which England, Wales, and Scotland are located. Although the English are in the habit of referring to all natives of Britain as "Brits", this term is not appreciated by many Welsh, Irish, and Scots. Northern Ireland shares the island of Eire with the Republic of Ireland. It is both incorrect and insulting to call someone from Eire a "Brit."

History. Britain was first brought into contact with the world when it was invaded by Rome in the first century B.C. Rome ruled much of the region until the fifth century A.D. Various tribes from Europe and Scandinavia - the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - invaded after the Romans departed. In 1066, the Normans invaded from France. The Normans transformed the region, making it a feudal kingdom.

Britain was frequently at war with continental powers over the next several centuries. Because it is an island, Britain had a tremendous defensive advantage. They realized they needed a strong navy to protect themselves, and this navy made the British Empire possible. Great Britain was the strongest of the European powers in the nineteenth century, with many territories abroad. The Industrial Revolution first arose on British soil. In 1926, the United Kingdom granted autonomy to New Zealand, Australia, and Canada; later in this century, it granted independence to India, Egypt, and its African colonies.

The First World War marked the end of the Victorian way of life. The Second World War ushered in the dismantling of the British Empire. After the war, many sectors of the British economy were nationalized. Britain did not fully recover from the destruction of World War II until the 1960s.

During the 1980s, Conservative Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher privatized many services, undoing some of the postwar nationalization policies. In 1997, Tony Blair was elected prime minister, and the Labour Party assumed power in government once again. He was re-elected in 2001, and strongly supported the U.S. campaign against terrorism. Great Britain's devolution of powers has continued over the last decade. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh opened in 1999, as did the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff.

Type of Government. England has unwritten constitution which consists partly of statutes and partly of common law and practice. The monarch is the chief of state, while the prime minister is the head of government. In practice, it is the Cabinet (selected from Parliament by the prime minister) that has power, rather than the monarch. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. The Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with the Commons having more real power. The Commons is elected by universal suffrage every five years, although the prime minister may ask the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections at any time. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, the English judiciary cannot review the constitutionality of legislation. For current government data, check at http://www.parliament.uk.

Language and education. English is spoken in 104 countries besides the United Kingdom. Some of these are: Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada. While there is a "Standard Oxbridge" or "BBC English accent" that most foreigners recognize, there are a multitude of dialects as well: Cockney, West Country, East Anglia and others. In the United Kingdom overall, Welsh is spoken by about 26 percent of the population of Wales, and a Scottish form of Gaelic is used by approximately 60,000 people in Scotland.

Britain boasts some of the finest educational institutions in the world. A large portion of tax revenue is spent on the educational system. Schooling is free and compulsory from age five to age sixteen. Literacy is 99 percent, and school attendance is almost 100 percent. There are over forty universities in the United Kingdom, and many professional schools.

Religion. England has an official religion - the Anglican Church, or Church of England. Most English belong to this church, which was founded when King Henry VIII decided to split from the Roman Catholic Church during his reign. The Church no longer has political power. Other religions represented in England are Roman Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. Scotland also has an official religion, the Church of Scotland. However, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have official religions.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11