The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

1. Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch as head of State. Its formal title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

2. “Great Britain” (England, Wales, and Scotland) came into existence when the English and Scottish crowns were united at the beginning of the seventeenth century and their parliament a century later. Wales had come under the sway of the English crown in medieval times.

3. So, too, had Ireland, but the British and Irish parliaments were not united until 1801. In 1922 the southern part of Ireland, predominantly Roman Catholic, became a separate state.

4. Northern Ireland, with its Protestant majority, chose to continue as part of the United Kingdom and had its own parliament between 1921 and 1972. The deeply rooted historical divisions between the majority Protestant and the minority Roman Catholic Communities remain a major factor in the continuing civil disturbances in Northern Ireland; the Government’s aim is to restore peace and stability and find ways of giving back to the people more control over their own affairs.

5. Political stability owes much to the monarchy, the continuity of which has been broken only once (during the brief republic in the seventeenth) in over a thousand years. Democratic government has developed from the establishment of parliament over 700 years ago. As a constitutional monarch, the Sovereign now performs the functions of an impartial head of State.

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1. The deeply rooted historical divisions between the minority Protestant and the majority Roman Catholic communities remain a major factor in the continuing civil disturbances in Northern Ireland.

2. The deeply rooted historical between the majority Protestant and the major factor in the continuing civil disturbances in Northern Ireland.

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Uk political system

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy. This means that Great Britain is governed by Parliament and the Queen is Head of Head of State.

The legislative power in the country is exercised by the Houses of Parliament. The British Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords is composed of hereditary and life peers and peeresses. The members of the House of Commons are elected by the people. They are elected from the constituencies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The House of Commons is the real governing body of the United Kingdom. The executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. The government is usually formed by the political party which is supported by the majority in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister is the majority party leader and is appointed by the Queen. The Prime Minister chooses a team of ministers; twenty of the ministers are in the Cabinet.

The second largest party becomes the official opposition with its own leader and the Shadow Cabinet. The two leading parties in Great Britain are the Conservative Party (the Tories) and the Labour Party.

The judiciary branch of the government determines common law and is independent both the legislative and the executive branches.

There is no written constitution in Great Britain, only precedents and traditions.