(1987)

- Government
Long-form name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
abbreviated UK

Type: constitutional monarchy

Capital: London

Administrative divisions: 47 counties, 7 metropolitan counties,
26 districts, 9 regions, and 3 islands areas

England--39 counties, 7 metropolitan counties*; Avon, Bedford, Berkshire,
Buckingham, Cambridge, Cheshire, Cleveland, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derby, Devon,
Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucester, Greater London*, Greater
Manchester*, Hampshire, Hereford and Worcester, Hertford, Humberside, Isle of
Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicester, Lincoln, Merseyside*, Norfolk, Northampton,
Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottingham, Oxford, Shropshire, Somerset, South
Yorkshire*, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear*, Warwick, West Midlands*,
West Sussex, West Yorkshire*, Wiltshire

Northern Ireland--26 districts; Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena,
Ballymoney, Banbridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine,
Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn,
Londonderry, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down,
Omagh, Strabane

Scotland--9 regions, 3 islands areas*; Borders, Central, Dumfries and
Galloway, Fife, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Orkney*, Shetland*, Strathclyde,
Tayside, Western Isles*

Wales--8 counties; Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys,
South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan

Independence: 1 January 1801, United Kingdom established

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

Dependent areas: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,
Guernsey, Hong Kong (scheduled to become a Special Administrative Region
of China in 1997), Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands,
St. Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and
Caicos Islands

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

National holiday: Celebration of the Birthday of the Queen (second
Saturday in June), 10 June 1989

Executive branch: monarch, prime minister, Cabinet

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament consists of an upper house or
House of Lords and a lower house or House of Commons

Judicial branch: House of Lords

Leaders:
Chief