rthenshire*, Conwy, Denbighshire*, Flintshire*, Gwynedd,
Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire*, Neath Port Talbot, Newport,
Pembrokeshire*, Powys*, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea**, Torfaen, The
Vale of Glamorgan*, Wrexham

Dependent areas: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,
Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint
Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and
Caicos Islands

Independence: England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th
century; the union between England and Wales was enacted under the
Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284; in the Act of Union of 1707, England
and Scotland agreed to permanent union as Great Britain; the
legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in
1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a
partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of
the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the
country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
was adopted in 1927

National holiday: Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, celebrated on the
second Saturday in June (1926)

Constitution: unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and
practice

Legal system: common law tradition with early Roman and modern
continental influences; no judicial review of Acts of Parliament;
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; British
courts and legislation are increasingly subject to review by
European Union courts

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch: chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
February 1952); Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born
14 November 1948)

head of government: Prime Minister Anthony C. L. (Tony) BLAIR
(since 2 May 1997)

cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister

elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the prime minister is
the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons (assuming
there is no majority party, a prime minister would have a majority
coalition or at least a coalition that was not rejected by the
majority)

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament comprised of House of Lords
(consists of approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers and
26 clergy) and House of Commons (659 seats; members are elected by
po