GEOGRAPHY of the UNITED KINGDOM

But what is Britain? The British Isles The United Kingdom Ireland Great Britain Northern Ireland England Republic of Ireland Scotland Wales Isle of Man Guernsey Jersey

What is common in these places? Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn Islands (Ducie, Henderson and Oeno); South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; St Helena; St Helena Dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha); and the Turks and Caicos Islands British overseas territories The Isle of Man, Channel Islands Direct dependencies

An association of 53 nations united by ties The Commonwealth An association of 53 nations united by ties to former British rule

The Commonwealth created to ease the process of British decolonization. 2.328 billion people (1/3 of the world population, 1/4 of its total landmass) Voluntary membership, the government of any member nation can withdraw at any time, without consequence or obligation. Countries have no legal obligations to one another and are entirely separate entities.

The Commonwealth Criteria for joining the Commonwealth: recognize Elizabeth II as the head of the Commonwealth. racial equality, the embrace of world peace, liberty, human rights, equality, and free trade. The only member-states to have been neither a British colony nor have any link with a current member-state are Mozambique and Rwanda Currently, South Sudan is the only country vying for membership. Three states have been suspended: Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

Aberdeen Inverness Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Newcastle Liverpool Manchester Leeds Birmingham Oxford Cambridge London Canterbury Dover Belfast Dublin Swansea Cardiff Brighton Southampton Portsmouth Plymouth

Isle of Man The Channel Islands Isles of Scilly Isle of Wight Orkney Irish Sea Celtic Sea English Channel Strait of Dover North Sea Atlantic Ocean The Minch Firth of Forth The Wash Bristol Channel Thames Severn Avon Laugh Neagh Isle of Man The Channel Islands Isles of Scilly Isle of Wight Orkney Shetland The Hebrides Anglesey

Cornwall Cambrian Mountains Pennines Northwest Highlands Grampian Mountains Southern Uplands Lake District Dartmoor Exmoor Snowdonia

Dialects If she know she got it coming cushy she ain’t got to bother, have she? (Berkshire) I seed the advertisement in the newspaper and our Dad said to I, ‘If thee carsn’t do that as good as some of the men, that’s a poor job’. (Gloucestershire) All them men had all to get motor transport for to get till it, and come in their own cars and one thing and another, so there must be something in a drum for all them people for to go for to hear them drums. (Belfast)

Dialects And there were never a betterer mental arithmetic reckoner than my father, but not with a pen. Well, he could set ‘em down, but not write letters, nor my mother couldn’t — not till I got big enough — even write her name, and we learned her just to write it, and that were all they could do them days. (West Yorkshire) We used to have cookers out there and everything, and we used to cook our trotters there — all come up in trays, all jelly — they used to nosh ‘em there like. It was really beautiful. (London) One of the teachers, the teacher what I had last — I were only about five and I were staying to school dinners — and she made me eat a big load of mashed potatoes. (Lancashire)

Dialects I was sitting here writing a letter to dear Willie’s mother. Her’s up to Brent, her was working but now her of course has gone. And I was blowed right up there. (Devon) I’m not sprucing you. They knew every kid in the village, and if they come through the village and they see you, they always used to call you ‘master’, and you always used to touch your cap and call them ‘sir’. (Sussex) A good boss was a good boss. He were paying for the stuff that I were supposed to make perfect or as near perfect as possible. It’s his money. It’s his building. It’s all that. He’s kept your childer for so many year. Well you work for him, style of thing — hasn’t he? (Lancashire)

Dialects I usually just sub, but then again. I’m a defender. I likes playing defender more than anything else. (Plymouth) I used to work in Marks and Spencer’s. We’ve always kept friends with the people in there, you know. And then I worked on the station for nineteen year. (Carlisle) When I heard the knocking I never thought nothing like that could ever happen. (Norwich)

Flags

Coat of Arms

The National Anthem God save our gracious Queen! Long live our noble Queen! God save the Queen! Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us: God save the Queen! Thy choicest gifts in store, On her be pleased to pour; Long may she reign: May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause, To sing with heart and voice, God save the Queen! (when the monarch is male, the last two lines of the third stanza are changed to: ”With heart and voice to sing, God save the King.”) O Lord our God arise, Scatter her enemies, And make them fall: Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On Thee our hopes we fix: God save us all.

National Symbols England Scotland Wales Ireland Rose St. George (23 April) Thistle St. Andrew (30 November) Leek, Daffodil St. David (1 March) Shamrock St. Patrick (17 March)

R O S A C E J A C K D A F F O D I L O T N G T H I S T E L E K H A L W E B N M I S T L E T O A S E E G B O X I N G U Y T U R K E Y P A T R I C K N D R E W P O Y H I K Y O G M A N A Y T I C K S H A M R O C K A N A K E