General Information
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although they form one administrative unit (with regional exceptions), they have had separate cultures, languages and political histories. Within this section are also the Channel Islands (excluding Guernsey and Jersey which have their own separate entries) and the Isle of Man which, although only dependencies of the British Crown, are included for convenience of reference. The United Kingdom section consists of a general introduction (covering the aspects which the four countries have in common), sections devoted to the four constituent countries, and sections dealing with the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Area: 242,910 sq km (93,788 sq miles).
Population: 59,500,915 (1999).
Population Density: 245.0 per sq km.
Capital: London. Population: 7,285,000 (Greater London, 1999).
GEOGRAPHY: The British landscape can be divided roughly into two kinds of terrain – highland and lowland. The highland area comprises the mountainous regions of Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and North Wales. The English Lake District in the northwest contains lakes and fells. The lowland area is broken up by sandstone and limestone hills, long valleys and basins such as the Wash on the east coast. In the southeast, the North and South Downs culminate in the White Cliffs of Dover. The coastline includes fjord-like inlets in the northwest of Scotland, spectacular cliffs and wild sandy beaches on the east coast and, further south, beaches of rock, shale and sand sometimes backed by dunes, and large areas of fenland in East Anglia.
Note: More detailed geographical descriptions of the various countries may be found under the respective entries.
Government: Constitutional monarchy. Head of State: HM Queen Elizabeth II since 1953. Head of Government: Prime Minister Tony Blair since 1997.
Language: English. Some Welsh is spoken in parts of Wales, Gaelic in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, and French and Norman French in the Channel Islands. The many ethnic minorities within the UK also speak their own languages (eg Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Greek, Cantonese, Mandarin, etc).
Religion: Predominantly Protestant (Church of England), but many other Christian denominations also: Roman Catholic, Church of Scotland, Baptist, Methodist and other free churches. There are sizeable Jewish, Muslim and Hindu minorities.
Time: GMT (GMT + 1 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).
Electricity: 240 volts AC, 50Hz. Square three-pin plugs are standard and the visitor is unlikely to come across the older round three-pin type.
Communications:
Telephone
IDD is available. Country code: 44. Outgoing international code: 00. There are numerous public call boxes. Some boxes take coins, others phonecards or credit cards. There are a number of suppliers of telecommunication networks, chiefly British Telecom and Cable & Wireless.
Mobile telephone
GSM 900 and 1800 networks. Network operators include O2 (website: www.o2.co.uk), Orange (website: www.orange.co.uk), Vodafone (website: www.vodafone.co.uk) and T-Mobile (website: www.t-mobile.co.uk).
Fax
There are many high-street bureaux in all cities. Most hotels and offices have facilities.
Internet
There are Internet cafes and centres in most urban areas. ISPs include Freeserve (website: www.freeserve.com), AOL (website: www.aol.com) and BT Internet (website: www.btopenworld.com). Some multimedia phone booths, often located at main railway stations and airports, offer touch-screen access.
Telemessage
These may be sent from a post office or from a private telephone (tel: (0800) 190 190).
Post
Stamps are available from post offices and many shops and stores. There are stamp machines outside some post offices. Post boxes are red. First-class internal mail normally reaches its destination the day after posting (except in remote areas of Scotland), and most second-class mail the day after that. International postal connections are good. Post office opening hours are Mon-Fri 0900-1730 and Sat 0900-1230, although some post offices are open much longer hours.
Press
Dominated by about ten major newspapers, UK circulation figures are amongst the highest in the world. The most influential newspapers are The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Observer (on Sunday) and The Independent. The more popular ‘tabloid’ newspapers are The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express and The Daily Mail. Most papers have an associated Sunday newspaper, though there are some independents. There are also daily regional newspapers, particularly in Scotland and the north. The London Evening Standard is produced in several editions daily, the first being at midday.
BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change.
BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice):
| MHz | 15.49 | 12.10 | 9.410 | 6.195 |
Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov):
| MHz | 15.21 | 11.82 | 9.760 | 1.197 |
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