United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign state in the European Union. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, it includes the island of "Great Britain" (a term also applied loosely to refer to the whole country), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands.Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to its east, the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south-southwest. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 93,800 square miles (243,000 km²), the UK is the 80th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also is the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 64.5 million inhabitants.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. Its capital city is London, an important global city and financial centre with an urban population of 10,310,000, the fourth-largest in Europe and second-largest in the European Union. The current monarch—since 6 February 1952—is Queen Elizabeth II. The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The latter three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. The nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.

United Kingdom (disambiguation)

The United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe.

United Kingdom may also refer to:

United Kingdom (album)

United Kingdom is the fourth album by American Music Club. It was recorded primarily for the UK, where the band had a larger following than in their native USA, and consists of a mixture of studio and live tracks. The LP was produced by Tom Mallon who also produced the band's previous three LPs, The Restless Stranger, Engine and California. United Kingdom contained the song "Kathleen", the most obvious of many that Mark Eitzel has composed about his long-term muse, Kathleen Burns.

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Eitzel.

Personnel

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on state affairs.

Privy councils

Functioning privy councils

 Belgium: Crown Council of Belgium

 Bhutan: Privy Council of Bhutan

 Brunei: Privy Council of Brunei

 Canada: Queen's Privy Council for Canada

 Cambodia: Supreme Privy Council of His Majesty the King of Cambodia

 Denmark: Danish Council of State

 Norway: Norwegian Council of State

 Netherlands: Dutch Council of State

 Thailand: Privy Council of Thailand

 Tonga: Privy Council of Tonga

 United Kingdom: Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council

• Cabinet Committee of the Privy Council; the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
• Privy Council Office

Privy Council of Tonga

The Privy Council of Tonga is the highest ranking council to advise the Monarch in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is empowered to advise the King in his capacity as Head of State and Fountain of Justice under the provisions of Clause 50 ( 1 ) of the Constitution of Tonga:

" Clause 50 (1) The King shall appoint a Privy Council to provide him with advice. The Privy Council shall be composed of such people whom the King shall see fit to call to his Council."

Membership

Members of the Privy Council are appointed by the King of Tonga who is its Chairman. The Council has 3 types of members:

The Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General are automatically members of the Privy Council. The constitution doesn't set a limit on the number of members who sit on the Council and this is left to the decision of the Monarch.

Judicial functions

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

The Privy Council formally advises the sovereign on the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, and corporately (as Queen-in-Council) it issues executive instruments known as Orders in Council, which among other powers enact Acts of Parliament. The Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, and city or borough status to local authorities. Otherwise, the Privy Council's powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

Certain judicial functions are also performed by the Queen-in-Council, although in practice its actual work of hearing and deciding upon cases is carried out day-to-day by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee consists of senior judges appointed as Privy Counsellors: predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and senior judges from the Commonwealth. The Privy Council formerly acted as the High Court of Appeal for the entire British Empire (other than for the United Kingdom itself), and continues to hear appeals from the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, and some independent Commonwealth states.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established on 1 January 1801 under the terms of the Acts of Union 1800, by which the nominally separate kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were united. In 1922, twenty-six of thirty-two counties of Ireland seceded to form the Irish Free State (later becoming the Republic of Ireland) and, to reflect the change in the United Kingdom's boundaries, the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 formally amended the name of the UK Parliament to the "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

The period began with the newly formed United Kingdom defeating the French Empire in 1814 in the Napoleonic Wars. As a direct result of this, the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century. Great Britain and the northeast of Ireland industrialised rapidly, whereas the rest of Ireland did not, deepening economic and social disparities between them. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland, and increased calls for Irish land reform and the devolution of executive power. During and after the Great War, the rise of Irish nationalism and physical force republicanism eventually culminated in the Irish War of Independence, and in 1922 the partition of Ireland between the newly founded Irish Free State and the northeast, which opted to remain part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.