英國簡介課件

1、Introduction Of Britain(關(guān)于英國的簡介）Have a Preliminary UnderstandingPlease press it. A Brief Introduction to the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) was created by a group of islands lying off the north-west coast of mainland Europe. Four different nations (Englan

2、d, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) made up one state, the United Kingdom. The central government is in London, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their separate assemblies for internal affairs.A Fertile Country There are a lot of natural resources : coal, petroleum, natural gas

3、, iron ore, lead, zinc, gold, tin, limestone, salt, clay, chalk etc. , not many insects, snakes or dangerous animals in the UK. There is very little risk of earthquakes, hurricanes or other natural disasters, although flooding sometimes occurs in low areas. The British Isles have a rich history goin

4、g back thousands of years.The union flagThe union flag was first seen in 1606 and the version that we know today was drawn up by the College of Arms in 1801 to represent the Act of Union . The current flag is blazoned Azure ,the crosses saltire of St Andrew and St Patrick, quarterly per saltire , co

5、unterchanged Argent and Gules, the latter fimbriated of the second, surmounted by the Cross of St George of the third , fimbriated as the saltire .Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II (born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, and their overseas territories and

6、dependencies. She holds each crown and title equally, however she is most directly involved with the United King.dom, her oldest realm and the place of residence of the Royal Family.The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandnote (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain)

7、 is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign st

8、atethe Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The UK is a developed country and has the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and seventh-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It w

9、as the worlds first industrialized country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power with leading economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence It is a recognized nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks th

10、ird or fourth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946; it is also a member state of the European Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G8, the G20, the OECD, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and NAT

11、O.The politics of the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majestys Government, on behalf of and by the consent

12、 of the Monarch, as well as by the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Executive of Northern Ireland. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scotti

13、sh parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, the highest national court being the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The UK Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom (i.e., there is parliamentary

14、sovereignty), and Government is drawn from and answerable to it. Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. There is also a devolved Scottish Parliament and devolved Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, with varying degrees of legislative authority.House

15、 of CommonsThe Countries of the United Kingdom are divided into parliamentary constituencies of broadly equal population by the four Boundary Commissions. Each constituency elects a Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons at General Elections and, if required, at by-elections. As of 2010 t

16、here are 650 constituencies (there were 646 before that years general election. Of the 650 MPs, all but one - Lady Sylvia Harmon - belong to a political party.In modern times, all Prime Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition have been drawn from the Commons, not the Lords. Alec Douglas-Home resigne

17、d from his peerages days after becoming Prime Minister in 1963, and the last Prime Minister before him from the Lords left in 1902 (the Marques of Salisbury). One party usually has a majority in Parliament, because of the use of the First Past the Post electoral system, which has been conducive in c

18、reating the current two party system. The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government simply whether it can survive in the House of Commons, something which majority governments are expected to be able to do. In exceptional circumstances the monarch asks someone to form a govern

19、ment with a parliamentary minority which in the event of no party having a majority requires the formation of a coalition government. This option is only ever taken at a time of national emergency, such as war-time. It was given in 1916 to Andrew Bonar Law, and when he declined, to David Lloyd Georg

20、e and in 1940 to Winston Churchill. A government is not formed by a vote of the House of Commons, it is a commission from the monarch. The House of Commons gets its first chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the Speech from the Throne (the legislative programmed propo

21、sed by the new government.House of LordsThe House of Lords was previously a largely hereditary aristocratic chamber, although including life peers, and Lords Spiritual. It is currently mid-way through extensive reforms, the most recent of these being enacted in the House of Lords Act 1999. The house

22、 consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual. Lords Temporal include appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house) and ninety-two remaining hereditary peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titl

23、es which previously gave a seat in the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual represent the established Church of England and number twenty-six: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.The House of Lords currently acts to review legis

24、lation initiated by the House of Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and can exercise a suspense veto. This allows it to delay legislation if it does not approve it for twelve months. However, the use of vetoes is limited by convention and by the operation of the Parliament Acts 1911 and

25、1949: the Lords may not veto the money bills or major manifesto promises (see Salisbury convention). Persistent use of the veto can also be overturned by the Commons, under a provision of the Parliament Act 1911. Often governments will accept changes in legislation in order to avoid both the time de

26、lay, and the negative publicity of being seen to clash with the Lords. However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5 year term limit introduced by the Parliament Act 1911.The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 outlined plans for a Supreme Court

27、 of the United Kingdom to replace the role of the Law Lords.The House of Lords was replaced as the final court of appeal on civil cases within the United Kingdom on 1 October 2009, by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.Minor parties also hold seats in parliamentThe Scottish National Party, foun

28、ded in 1934, advocates for Scottish independence and has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1967. The SNP currently leads a majority government in the Scottish Parliament.Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1974. Plaid has th

29、e third-largest number of seats in the National Assembly for Wales, after Welsh Labor and the Welsh Conservative & Unionist Party, and participated with the former in the coalition agreement in the Assembly before the 2011 election.In Northern Ireland, all 18 MPs are from parties that only contest e

30、lections in Northern Ireland (except for Sinn Fin, which contests elections in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). The unionism Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the republican Sinn Fin, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), and the nonsectarian Alliance Party of N

31、orthern Ireland all gained seats in Parliament in the 2010 election, the Alliance Party for the first time. Sinn Fin has a policy of abstentionism and so its MPs refuse to take their seats in Parliament. DUP, Sinn Fin, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and the SDLP are considered the four major parti

32、es in Northern Ireland, holding the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.In the most recent general election in 2010, the result amounted to a hung parliament, and after several days of negotiations, the Labor Party left the government with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats operatin

33、g a coalition government.Social ClassBritain was once a class-ridden society. Today, multiculturalism and a changing economy are gradually eroding the British class system, but some features of the system still remain. What is Class?Sociologists define social class as the grouping of people by occup

34、ations. Doctors and lawyers and university teachers are given more status than unskilled laborers. The different positions represent different levels of power, influence and money. In days gone by your class would affect your chances of getting an education, a job, etc. and it would also affect the people who you could socialize with and marry. Today this type of thing is all-but-gone with the high-profile exception of the Royal family.The UK Economy Financial and Trade ZoneThe Evolution of the British Economy since the War The evolution of the British economy since WWII falls in