keeley英国简介(英文版)

2021年1月12日发(作者：尤道恒)
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A Brief Introduction of the United Kingdom


The full name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland. It is a complicated name for what is in many ways a
complicated country. There’re four parts, England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland, which complete to the set.
Here, as follows, are a few aspects of the United Kingdom.
1. Politics
The Government of the United Kingdom
(1) The Monarchy
The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy cruel by the king.
This dates back to the Saxon who ruled from the 5th century AD until the
Norman Conguest in 1066.
The power of the monarchy was largely derived form the ancient
doctrine of the ‘divine right of kings”. It was held that the sovereign derived
his authority from God, not from his subjects.
While the king in theory had God on his side, in practice even in
medieval times it was thought that he should not exercise absolute power.
(2) The Parliament
The word “parliament” comes from the verb “the parley”, that is to
discuss or talk. The term was first used officially in 1236 to describe the
gathering of feudal barons and representatives from countries and towns
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which the occasionally summoned if he wanted to raise money.
The Great Council came to include both those who were summoned “by
name” (the House of Lords) and representatives of communities (the House
of Commons). These two houses exist today and collectively we call them the
parliament. The Commons quickly gained in political strength. They were
willing to help the king by raising taxes and passing laws, but in return they
wanted an increasing say in what the king was doing.
The parliament became the most powerful institute in Britain was after
the Revolutional War.
Parliament has a number of different functions. First and foremost, it
passes laws. Another important function is that it provides the means of
carrying on the work of government by voting for taxation. Its other roles are
to scrutinize government policy, administration and expenditure and to
debate the majority issues of the day.
Parliament is supreme in the British state because it alone has the power
to change the terms of the constitution.
There are no legal restraints upon parliament. It can make or change laws.
Change or overturn established conventions or even prolong its own life
without consulting the electorate. However, it does not assert its supremacy,
but bears the common law in mind and acts according to precedent..
Each Parliament lasts for 5 years.
The Upper house has no right to decide, it only has the right to pass the
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bills passed by the Lower House.
The party which holds a majority of those “seats” in parliament forms the
government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister. After a government
has been in power for 5 years it has to resign and hold a “general election”,
in which al British adults are give the chance to vote again for their
constituency’s MP. A government cannot stand for longer than 5years except
in exceptional circumstances. However, the Prime Minister can call an election
sooner than 5years. This can happen when the government loses a “vote of
no confidence” in the House of Commons. That is, an MP puts forward a
statement for the MPs to vote on saying that “This house no longer ha
confidence in the government.”
(3) The Political Parties
There are three major national parties: The conservative party and the
Labour party are the two biggest, and any general election is really about
which of those two is going to govern. But there’s a third important party, the
Liberal Democrats, who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes: not
enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of
the other two parties does so.
The Labour party is the newest of these three, created by the growing
trade union movement at the end of nineteenth century. It quickly replaced
the Laberal party as one of the two biggest parties. Labour is a socialist party.
That is to say that they believe a society should be relatively equal in
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economic terms, and the part of the role of government is to act as a
“redistributive” agent. The Conservative party is the party that spent most
time in power, basically the Conservative are seen as the party of the
individual, protecting the individual’s right to acquire wealth and to spend it
how they choose , and so favouring economic policies which businessmen
prefer, such as low taxes. They receive a lot of their party funding from big
companies.
2. Religion
(1) Queen or king is the leader as well as the bishop of the High Church.
(2) 20% of British citizen claims to be Roman Catholics.
(3) 40% of Scotland citizen believe in Roman Catholic.
(4) Two established churches: Church of London; Church of Scotland.
(5) Roman Catholic churches.
(6) Free Churches.
3. Culture
Here, I will emphasis on one aspect of Britain’s artistic output, that for
which it is perhaps best known: Literature.
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Early Writing
Much early British writing was concerned with Christianity: Anglo-Saxons
produced beautifully illustrated versions of the Bible: the most famous of
these is the book of keels, party written on the Scottish island of lona.
⑵ Elizabethan Drama
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