The United Kingdom Portal
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2), with an estimated population of 67,596,281 people in 2022. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London, whose wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively. Other major cities include Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds.
Inhabited continuously since the Neolithic, the lands making up the modern-day UK have remained ethnically and culturally diverse. In the transitional period from the Danelaw in the late 9th century to the Norman Conquest culminating in 1066, the modern British people began to shape up, followed by the establishment of parliamentarism in the mid-13th century in both England and Scotland. With the end of the Wars of the Roses the English state stabilised, consolidated and grew ever more powerful, resulting by the 16th century in the annexation of Wales and domination of Scotland by an English ruler. Subsequently, colonies across the globe were established. Over the course of the 17th century, the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War, and the parliament in Westminster took on a leading role. In 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The UK has three distinct jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Since 1999, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own governments and parliaments which control various devolved matters. The UK is a developed country and has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP). It is a recognised nuclear state, and is ranked fourth globally in military expenditure. The UK has been a permanent member of the UN Security Council since its first session in 1946. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Council of Europe, G7, OECD, NATO, Five Eyes, AUKUS and CPTPP. (Full article...)
Featured article
The East End of London is the area of London, England, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Starting in the 19th century, the area experienced extreme overcrowding and a concentration of poor people and immigrants. Successive waves of immigration began with Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century, Bangladeshis. Many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and poor conditions throughout the East End. This brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of unions and workers associations at the end of the century. The radicalism of the East End contributed to the formation of the Labour Party and demands for the enfranchisement of women. Official attempts to address the overcrowded housing began at the beginning of the 20th century under the London County Council. World War II devastated much of the East End, with its docks, railways and industry forming a continual target, leading to dispersal of the population to new suburbs, and new housing being built in the 1950s. The final closure of the London docks in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration and the formation of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The Canary Wharf development, improved infrastructure, and the Olympic Park mean that the East End is undergoing further change, but some of its parts continue to contain some of the worst poverty in Britain. (Full article...)
Featured biography
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the Queen Consort of George VI from 1936 until his death in 1952. After her husband's death, she was known as Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her elder daughter, Elizabeth II. In 1936, she unexpectedly became Queen when her brother-in-law, Edward VIII, suddenly abdicated in order to marry his mistress, the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. During World War II, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public, so much so that, in recognition of her role as a propaganda tool, Adolf Hitler described her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe." After the war, her husband's health deteriorated and she was widowed at the age of 51. With her brother-in-law living abroad and her elder daughter now Queen at the age of 26, when Queen Mary died in 1953, Elizabeth became the senior royal and assumed a position as family matriarch. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the British Royal Family, when other members were suffering from low levels of public approval. Only after the illness and death of her own younger daughter, Princess Margaret, did she appear to grow frail. She died six weeks after Margaret, at the age of 101. (Full article...)
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- Visit the British Wikipedians' notice board.
- The noticeboard is the central forum for information and discussion on editing related to the United Kingdom.
- Comment at the British deletion sorting page.
- This page lists deletion discussions on topics relating to the United Kingdom.
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Did you know -
![](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg/47px-Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg.png)
- ... that Change UK had eleven elected members of Parliament despite never actually winning an election?
- ... that when Sarah Jane Baker was released after 30 years, she was the United Kingdom's longest serving transgender prisoner?
- ... that the 1st Armoured Division of the British Army chose a white rhinoceros on a black oval as their insignia?
- ... that the 37-metre-long (121 ft) Burnham Pier is sometimes described as the United Kingdom's shortest?
- ... that before Fred Thomas became an MP, he was the Royal Marines' light heavyweight boxing champion?
- ... that Sting wrote "We Work the Black Seam" because he felt that "the case for coal was never put to the nation" during the 1984–85 British miners' strike, which began 40 years ago today?
In the news
- 23 August 2024 – 2024 United Kingdom riots
- The United Nations recommends that the United Kingdom implement bans and auditing of hate speech, xenophobia, and far-right rhetoric following widespread destructive anti-immigration protests exacerbated by remarks by public figures and politicians. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
- 21 August 2024 – 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
- Several suspected cases of mpox clade 1b are reported in Somerset, England, United Kingdom. (Devon Live)
- 21 August 2024 –
- Four people, including three children, are killed in a house fire in Bradford, England, United Kingdom. Police say that the fire was started deliberately and that a suspect has been arrested under suspicion of murder. (BBC News)
- 19 August 2024 –
- One person is killed and fifteen others are rescued when the United Kingdom-flagged superyacht Bayesian sinks near Palermo, Italy, due to a waterspout. Six others remain missing, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch. (AP)
- A rocket engine for Rocket Factory Augsburg's launch vehicle RFA One explodes during a test launch at the SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, United Kingdom. (BBC News)
- 15 August 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The United Kingdom says that Ukraine can use British weaponry, including Challenger 2 tanks, for its military operations inside Russia. (Sky News)
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