My England

Topic : My England - Land & People.

England ( ang. England, Language 1 of 4 historic countries in great britain ) staroangielski Englaland, it biggest and to composition (warehouse) united kingdom of great britain part entering najludniejsza and northern ireland. It inhabits england 83% all-out population of state. Region occupies islands of great britain 2/3 and it owns land-based borders with wales on west and on midnight (north) scotland. North sea pours with (from) part remaining , irish sea, atlantic ocean and english channel. City is capital of england london.
Land

Position

England includes south-east part of island of great britain. It borders from midnight (north) with scotland but from west with wales. It is separated from continental europe english channel part < frequent > ( ) English Channel and north sea.

Administrative distribution

Regions are highest unit of local government of england. England is divided on 9 regions, at least each consists from which (who) with (from) one county internally. Lowest degrees of administrations build (create) complicated (elaborate) system very, counties are elements which (who) counties, metropolitan counties metropolitan counties, homogeneous authorities unitary authority, districts districts, districts and are divided on 39 counties gminas england civil parishes .Historycznie. Though this existing distribution administrative has been changed from the middle ages from half XX century (age), it exists in consciousness of population still and in daily life. Greatest cities enter to composition of (warehouse of) county, but are divided on equivalent of district boroughs.

Geography

England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 52 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap.
Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, the Fens, much of which has been drained for agricultural use.
The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. For the official definition of a UK (and therefore English) city, see City status in the United Kingdom. However, by any definition London is by far the largest urban area in England and one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Birmingham is the second largest, both in terms of the city itself and its urban conurbation. A number of other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Hull.
The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.
The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney, Australia, although this fact is disputed (see harbours for a list of other large natural harbours).

Climate

England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, though the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below ?5 C (23 F) or rise above 30 C (86 F). The prevailing wind is from the southwest, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east and warmest in the south, which is closest to the European mainland. Snowfall can occur in Winter and early Spring, though it is not that common away from high ground.
The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 C (101.3 F) on August 10, 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is ?26.1 C (?15.0 F) on January 10, 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire.

A satellite view of England and Wales.

People

Politics

There has not been a Government of England since 1707 when the Kingdom of England merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, although both kingdoms had been ruled by a single monarch since 1603 under James I. Prior to the Acts of Union 1707, England was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England.
The Scottish and Welsh governing institutions were created by the UK parliament along with strong support from the majority of people of Scotland and Wales, and are not independent of the rest of Britain. However, this gave each country a separate and distinct political identity, leaving England (83% of the UK population) as the only part of Britain directly ruled in nearly all matters by the British government in London. In Cornwall, a region of England claiming a distinct national identity, there has been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by nationalist parties such as Mebyon Kernow.

The Palace of Westminster, Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Regarding parliamentary matters, a long-standing anomaly called the West Lothian question has come to the fore. Before Scottish devolution, purely-Scottish matters were debated at Westminster, but subject to a convention that only Scottish MPs could vote on them. The "Question" was that there was no "reverse" convention: Scottish MPs could and did vote on issues relating only to England and Wales. Welsh devolution has removed the anomaly for Wales, but not for England: Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote on English issues, but Scottish and Welsh issues are not debated at Westminster at all. This problem is exacerbated by an over-representation of Scottish MPs in the government, sometimes referred to as the Scottish mafia; as of September 2006, seven of the twenty-three Cabinet members are Scottish, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary.
In terms of national administration, England's affairs are managed by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament, a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage, and the mostly unelected Regional Assemblies (a kind of nascent executive for each English Region).
There are calls for a devolved English Parliament, and some English people and parties go further by calling for the dissolution of the Union entirely. However, the approach favoured by the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to the Regions of England. Lord Falconer claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom. Referendums would decide whether people wanted to vote for directly-elected regional

English people

As an ethnic group, the English trace their heritage to the Romano-Britons, Anglo-Saxons, the Danish-Vikings that formed the Danelaw during the time of Alfred the Great and the Normans.
Regardless of ethnic connotations, the simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. It has, however, been a notoriously complicated, emotive and controversial identity to delimit.
Centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state. The English frequently include their neighbours in the wider term of "British", while the Scots and Welsh tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. This reflects a more subtle form of English-specific patriotism in England; St George's Day, the country's national day, is barely celebrated.
It is believed by some historians that the 'natural culture' of England contains the legacies of Brythonic tribes of Celts and Anglo-Saxons that appeared in waves of gradual migration. It also is seen as being influenced by the Scandinavian legends such as Beowulf, and by the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a common early location for English identity.
The Scandinavian influences of the Normans are also hotly disputed as the Norse occupants of Normandy spent three to five generations in (Post Roman Frankia) France before advancing to England. Due to the inefficiency in determining the German population of England, which was greatly diminished by William the Conqueror, exactly how many of the Normans took "Celtic" wives preceding this invasion is unknown, and the issue may very well be unsolvable.
Modern celebration of English identity is often found around its sports, one field in which the British Home Nations often compete individually. The English Association football team, Rugby Union team and Cricket team often cause increases in the popularity of celebrating Englishness.
According to research and the analysis of names in Britain in 2006, the town of Ripley in Derbyshire has the highest proportion of people of ethnic-English origin. The analysis put 42.2 million adult voters in mainland Britain into 200 ethnic groups, based on both given names and surnames. Of Ripley's inhabitants, 88.5% have an English-ethnic background. Heanor, also in Derbyshire, was in second place, followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and Boston, Lincolnshire.

Education

There is a long history of the promotion of education in England in schools, colleges and universities. England is home to the oldest existing schools in the English speaking world: The King's School, Canterbury and The King's School, Rochester, believed to be founded in the sixth and seventh century respectively. There are at least eight existing schools in England which were founded in the first millennium. Most of these ancient institutions are fee-paying schools, however there are also very early examples of state schools in England, most notably Beverley Grammar School founded in 700.

The chapel of King's College, Cambridge University. Cambridge and Oxford University are two of the most famous and successful universities in the world.

State and private schools and colleges have continued side by side since that time. Other famous English schools include Eton College (founded 1440), Harrow School (1572) and Winchester School (1382). England is also home to the two oldest universities in the English speaking world: Oxford University (twelfth century) and Cambridge University (early thirteenth century). There are more than ninety universities in England and many of these (most notably the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London) consist of autonomous colleges many of which are world famous in their own right, for example University College, Oxford (founded 1249), Peterhouse, Cambridge (1284) and the London School of Economics (1895).
The education system in England is run by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The education is split into two main types; State schools which are funded through taxation and free to all, and private schools, which provide a paid-for education on top of taxes (also known as "Public" or "Independent" schools).
Education is the responsibility of Department for Education and Skills at national level and, in the case of publicly funded compulsory education, of Local Education Authorities. The education structures for Wales and Northern Ireland are broadly similar to the English system, but there are significant differences of emphasis in the depth and breadth of teaching objectives in Scotland. Traditionally the English system emphasises depth of education, whereas the Scottish system emphasises breadth.