The Kingdom Islands And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? William Blake (From the Preface to Milton.)

Police poster in London rail station

The United Kingdom can be a confusing place, even for the British. Start with the name. In fact the head of state is a "Queen," not a "King." So perhaps we should call it the "United Queendom." Or, to use gender-inclusive language, the "United Monarchdom." And if you think that that sounds absurd, ask yourself what could be more absurd than an aspiring democracy describing itself in terms of fifteenth century power structures.

If you are not British you may be used to calling this land Great Britain, Britain or England. In fact, the United Kingdom has two parts - Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That's where the "United" comes in. Great Britain (Britain for short) is composed of three nations, Scotland, Wales and England, with a population of 60M. Until 1999 there was just one government for all three. No more.

England

England is the largest (130,360 sq. km.), most populous, most powerful, richest part of the Kingdom. A third of the population of Britain is crowded into the 16 per cent of the land area that is south east England. Its population has increased by more than 10.5 percent since 1971. This is the richest part of Britain and the gap between it and the rest is expanding rapidly. Between 1995 and 2001, 60 percent of new jobs in the UK were in south east England.

The United Kingdom parliament sits in London, the capital city of England, but unlike Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, England has no representatiave assembly of its own.

Nine million acres of England and Wales are owned by 135,000 people, many of them members of the officially recognised hereditary aristocracy. In Who Owns Britain Kevin Cahill attributes Ireland’s recent economic advances in part to the wider ownership of land in that country. "Irish acres are now one third more valuable than English acres," he writes, "and Irish economic growth four times higher than . . . in England."

Scotland the brave

Scotland's 5 million people now have their own sub-legislature. They already had distinct legal and educational systems. Now the Scottish Parliament has control of policy on health (except for regulation of drugs and abortion), agriculture, social housing, land use, policing and some aspects of transportation. Defence, foreign affairs and the broad management of the economy remain the responsibility of the government in London.

Opinion polls have shown as many as 50% of Scots in favour of independence for Scotland. Almost 2 in 3 Scots, one poll suggested, believe that Scotland will be independent from Britain by 2009. However, in the first election to the Scottish Parliament the anti-independence parties won 91 of the 129 seats. Scottish National Party candidates were elected to just 56 seats.

The BBC has rejected the idea of a separate news broadcast for Scotland, following lobbying against the change by the Labour Party. Opponents of the idea believe that as national institution the BBC helps to keep Britain united. Scottish newspapers and the Scottish National Party condemned the decision. One member of the Corporation's broadcasting council for Scotland resigned in protest.

"God grant that Marshall Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition crush
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to crush
God save the Queen."

A verse from the unexpurgated British national anthem.

Cymru

Wales, (Cymru in Welsh) where 0.5 million of the 2.6 million population speak the Welsh language, has a legislative Assembly that gives that nation significantly less autonomy than Scotland. The Assembly has limited powers and no ability to raise revenue.

The Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, surprised many by winning 17 of the 60 seats in the new Assembly. However, the other 43 seats were taken by non-nationalist parties.

Northern Ireland

Then there are the six counties of Ireland, with a population of 1.6 million, that remained tied to Great Britain when the other 26 counties broke free in 1921.(These six counties are known in Britain as Northern Ireland, or Ulster, or The Province.)

This union of Northern Ireland with Britain is opposed by nationalists and supported by Unionists and "loyalists." When people from Britian and Unionists & "loyalists" from Northern Ireland talk about Northern Irish matters they often refer to Britain somewhat oddly as "the mainland," rather than as "Britain." They are apparently fearful that using the correct name will draw attention to the truth that the counties of Northern Ireland have never been integrated into Great Britain in the way in which Scotland and Wales are.

For many years about two-thirds of the population was Protestant and one-third Catholic. This allowed Protestant domination of the Catholic minority. Now population experts estimate that Catholics make up 46 per cent or more of the population. They could become a majority by 2010.

"There's nothing like the monarch. She's the one thing that binds the union together. And what's important is she's not perceived as English."
Steven King, adviser to Unionist Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble. Quoted May 2002, The Financial Times

The Union flag is no longer flown outside police stations on public holidays. The police force is no longer called The Royal Ulster Constabulary. And police officers no longer have to swear their allegiance to queen Liz Windsor.

In May 1998 over 70% of the Northern Ireland electorate voted in favour of having a degree of governmental autonomy through an Assembly in which nationalists and supporters of union with Britain would share power. They also voted to have a council of ministers from north and south of the border to promote cross-border policy making. In December 1999 the internal government of Northern Ireland was passed from London to the Assembly. At the same time a governing executive composed of Unionist, "loyalist" and "nationalist" ministers took office. But in October 2002 the British government suspended the Assembly following claims that a Sinn Fein spy ring had been discovered in the Assembly building. The prosecution case against the alleged spies collapsed but it was not until 2007 that a new Assembly was elected.

The other islands

Britain is the mainland for some small islands that are semi-detached from the rest of the country. The adjacent Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not actually parts of the UK. Although the people of these islands are British, the islands are self-governing "Crown dependencies." Jersey issues its own passports and currency. It has a distinct legal system and its natives speak a French patois.

You might expect these islands to be an embarassment for a nation that often assumes the superiority of its ways.

On the Isle of Man, which has a population of 70,000, the local government was having law-breakers beaten long after the British government had decided that such punishments were barbaric. Homosexuality was illegal until a European Court of Human Rights Ruling and pressure from Britain forced a change in the law.

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Nazis in World War II. Some of the islanders collaborated with the occupying army by identifying Jewish neighbours and other islanders who resisted the occupation. This conflicts with the British conceit that while the French may have allowed in the German army and the Germans may have persecuted the Jews, such things could never have happened in Britain.

Conveniently the complex structure of this country allows us to pretend that although you do not need a passport to holiday there, the islands are not really a part of the unconquered and brave British peoples.

The Isle of Man despite its poor record has agreed to incorporate the the European Convention on Human Rights into its law. The Channel Islands have been exempted. In the Channel Island of Sark there is no divorce and women members of the parliament have to cover their heads. The main islands do not have political parties. The social system has been described as feudal.

In January of 1998 the British government ordered an enquiry into the regulation of the banking systems in the islands. The financial systems allow companies registered there to avoid filing annual accounts or disclosing their ownership. All of the islands are havens for businesses and individuals that want to avoid British taxes. They tailor their tax rates to help companies avoid British taxes. The Financial Times estimated in early 2000 that together with Bermuda and the Cayman Islands these dependencies cost Britain £1bn a year in tax revenue.

The tiny Jersey, with a population of 85,000, has 80 banks from 16 countries and 335 investment funds. Guernsey is similarly well provided with financial institutions. About 10% of the population work for them. Sark has a population of only 575 and no motor cars, but 23,000 businesses are registered there! One Sark resident has been registered as a director of 3,000 companies. The Isle of Man crams 1,781 banks, 192 insurance companies and 102 investment funds into its few square miles.

Local politicians sit on the boards of banks that they regulate. The islands' banks are also alleged to be much used for money-laundering. Drug dealers from Britain and Ireland are ferried by taxi from the airport in Manx, Isle of Man to the island's discreet banks, carrying bags full of cash.

According to British press reports in June 2000 only pressure from the British government kept the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, together with the overseas territory of Gibraltar, off an OECD financial task force list of countries accused of failing to stem money flows from drug trafficking, embezzlement of international aid and other organised crime through their banking systems. Instead they were placed on a list of states whose actions were under surveillance.

By March of 2002 the two Channel Islands had joined the Isle of Man in agreeing, in the words of the Financial Times, "to improve transparency and exchange of information providing rich nations did the same."

Jersey, a prime holiday resort, also has a serious narcotics problem. The head of the island's Alcohol and Drugs Service estimates that out of a population of 85,000 there are 2,000 heroin users. However, the stress that Jersey puts on rehabilitation rather than punishment, means that the waiting time for detox programmes is only 48 hours.

Colonies & erstwhile colonies
A different kingdom
The national anthem

Top