Working In The UK

Living In The UK

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country,[6][7] spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small . Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.[8][9] Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and unitary consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, and Wales.[10] It is governed by a parliamentary system with its seat of government in London, the capital, but with three devolved national administrations in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively. The Channel Island bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are Crown Dependencies which means they are constitutionally tied to the British Monarch but are not part of the UK.[11] The UK has fourteen overseas territories,[12] all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height in 1922 encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface, the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies.
Following a period of global economic slowdown and industrial strife in the 1970s, the 1980s saw the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues and growth. The premiership of Margaret Thatcher marked a significant change of direction from the post-war political and economic consensus; a path that has continued under the New Labour of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown since 1997.

The United Kingdom was one of the 12 members of the European Union at its in 1992 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Prior to that, it had been a of the EU's forerunner, the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1973. The attitude of the present Labour government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed,[26] with the Official Opposition, the Conservative Party, favouring fewer powers and competencies being transferred to the EU.[27] The end of the 20th century saw major changes to the governance of the UK with the establishment of devolved national administrations for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales following pre-legislative referenda.[28]

The UK is a developed country, with the world's sixth largest economy by nominal GDP and the seventh largest by purchasing power .[4] It was the world's first industrialised country[13] and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries,[14] but the economic and social cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished its leading role in global affairs. The UK nevertheless remains a major power with strong economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and has the third highest defence spending in the world. It is a Member State of the European Union, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, G8, G20, NATO, OECD, and the World Trade Organization.