Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching and in its majesty:

This city now doth like a garment wear

 

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare

Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky:

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

 

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendor, valley, rock or hill;

Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still.

 

4. MINERAL RESOURSES

They are not plentiful in the British Isles. But since times immemorial people have had here all necessities: coal, iron, copper, tin, silver, clay, salt, chalk. Gas and oil were discovered in the North Sea in Scotland in 1970. The oil comes ashore by a submarine pipeline 105 miles long (169 km).

Coal is still the mineral that contributes much to the development of many industries in Britain. By the absolute deposits of coal the UK claims the sixth place in the world, though now oil and gas have become major mineral resources, having a fundamental effect on the economy of Great Britain.

Among other mineral resources iron ores, found alongside coal layers, are of primary importance, but the iron content of most of ores is very low. There are also tin and cooper mines in England. Lead and silver ores are also mined. But ore-mining once very intensively developed, now takes a low percentage of the total of heavy industry in Britain.

 

5. CLIMATE

The topic which never fails to start any conversation in Britain is weather. “ We have no climate only weather ” may be heard from an Englishman. And its generally believed that England experiences weather rather than climate, because of its extreme variability. Periods of settled weather are rare. One day may be different from the next and predication cannot be made for more than a very short time ahead. Sunshine can rapidly change to rain; winds can alter their direction abruptly.

Nevertheless, Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate, milder than in any other country in the same latitudes (50°- 60°). It is due to influence of the warm current of Gulf Stream.

Britain is as far north as Canada’s Hudson Bay or Siberia. Edinburgh is 56° north of the equator, the same latitude as Moscow, yet its climate is much milder. Edinburgh and London enjoy the same temperatures in winter because of Gulf Stream, which brings warm water and air across the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, snow only falls occasionally and does not remain for long, except in the Scottish mountains, where skiing is possible.

Though the climate is subject to frequent changes extremes of temperature are rather few. Average temperatures in England and Wales vary from 4° C in January to 16 ° C in July and August. In Scotland averages are one or two degrees cooler. During a normal summer, the temperatures occasionally rises above 27 °C in the south, but temperature of 30 – 32 C and above are infrequent. Extreme minimum temperatures occasionally depend largely on local conditions? But – 7 °C may occur on a clear winter’s night, - 12 ° C is rare, and – 18 °C or below has been recorded only during exceptionally cold periods.

The prevailing winds are south-westerly. Winds are stronger in the north than in the south of the British Isles, stronger in the coast than inland, and stronger in the west than in the east. The strongest winds usually occur in winter. Occasionally during the winter months winds may bring a cold, dry, continental type of weather which, once established, may persist for many days or even weeks. Winds may bring winter cold in spring or summer and sometimes whirlwinds or hurricanes. Droughts are rare.

The wind brings rain from the Atlantic to the hills of the west. This means that the western parts of Britain are wetter than the east, which is sheltered by the mountains. London is drier than continental cities such as Hamburg, for example. Its weather may be unpredictable, but it is not particularly wet. Generally, all parts of the British Isles get a lot of rain in all seasons.

The annual rainfall is about 1100 mm, the mountainous areas of the west and north having far more rain than the lowlands of the south and east. Rain is fairly well distributed throughout the year, but on average March to June are the driest months and September and January the wettest.

The distribution of sunshine over Britain shows a general decrease from the south to north from the coast to inland. The average daily duration of sunshine varies from 5 hours in the north-west Scotland to 8 hours in the Isles of Wight during the months of the longest daylight (May, June, and July). And during the months of the shortest daylight – November, December and January – sunshine is at minimum, with an average of half an hour a day in some parts of Highlands of Scotland and two hours a day on the south coast of England.

So it may be said that English has main three features: it mild, humid and changeable. It means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild, so that there are places in the south where people have never seen snow. Cornwall (a part of south-western England) is called British Riviera as resemblance to the continental Riviera is impressive: the exceptionally mild climate which allows subtropical flowers and trees flourish, the sparkling blue sea, luxuriantly coloured landscape and yachting resorts. And there is Scottish Riviera – in the east of Scottish Highlands. The name is pardonable exaggeration for the Morey coast with many beaches of firm sands and red sandstone cliffs and flat cattle feeding on green pastures.

More suitable this name is to one of the most fascinating spots on the western coast of Scottish Highlands – the Inver ewe Garden which possesses a constant element of surprise. The Inver ewe Garden houses a wide variety of plants ranging from alpine to subtropical.

 

LECTURE 3

Topic: POPULATION (DEMOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND)

List of questions:

1. Ancestors. Waves of invasion

2. Language and nationalities

3. Religion and Church

4. Density of population. Distribution

5. Social rates

6. Gender

7. Migration waves

Literature:

1. Нестеров Н.М. Страноведение: Великобритания. Ростов на Дону, «Феникс», 2006.

2. Михайлов Н.Н. Лингвострановедение Англии. М., «Академия», 2003.

3. Артемова А.Ф. Великобритания. Книга для чтения по страноведению. М, «АСТ: Восток-Запад», 2006.

4. Томахин Г.Д. По странам изучаемого языка. М., «Просвещение», 1998.

5. M. Pugh A History of Britain. Oxford, 2001.

6. M. Vaughan-Rees In Britain. Lnd., 1999.

 

1. ANCESTORS. WAVES OF INVASION

The people who now live in Britain are descended from various peoples who inhabited the British Isles many years ago. From the earliest times known a long succession of invaders and colonizers moved to the British Isles as they lay within the easy reach of the continent. The first settlers on the British Isles were Iberians who came from the Iberian Peninsula (the area of Spain and Portugal) between 3000 and 2000 BC. The Iberians stayed comparatively long before they were attacked, slain or driven away westwards by the numerous Celtic tribes (Picts, Scots and Britons), which came from Central Europe and the Rhine valley in the period between the 6^th and 3^rd centuries BC. Their culture goes back to about 1200 BC. Between 500 and 250 BC, they were the most powerful people north of the Alps. They were pagan, with priests known as Druids. They later converted to the Christianity. It was the Celtic missionaries who spread the Christian religion through Scotland and northern England. The Celts were famous artists, known for their sophisticated designs, which are found in their elaborate jewelry, decorated crosses and illuminated manuscripts.

In the middle of the 1^st century AD Britain was successfully invaded by the Romans who stayed on the island for four centuries, living in the military camps, building towns, roads, walls and bridges, so that to defend their gains from other invaders. The Romans set up their capital in London (Londinium) and built major cities in Bath, Chester and York. The cities contained beautiful buildings, squires and public baths. Fine villas were built for Celtic aristocrats who accepted Roman rule.

The Roman invasion was not completely peaceful. In AD 60, the Iceni, a tribe led by Queen Boudicca, destroyed three cities, including London. The Romans stopped the rebellion brutally and Boudicca killed herself.

The tribes of Scotland never completely surrendered to the Romans. As a result in AD 122, Emperor Hadrian built a long wall to defend the border between England and Scotland. Hadrian wall was overrun several times by Scottish tribes and was finally abandoned in AD 383. By then, the Roman Empire was collapsing and Roman legions had left to fight the tribes on the continent. After the Roman legions left Britain at the beginning of the 5^th century to defend their own Empire from the Barbarians, the British Isles were almost immediately attacked by numerous invaders from all sides. Germanic tribes – the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles attacked Britain from the south and east, Danes and Norsemen from Scandinavia in the north-east. Again the native population was driven to the west (Wales) and north (Scotland). These tribes gave the name to the country, and their language formed the basis of the Old English language.

The Celts fled north and west taking ancient arts and languages with them. Celtic languages disappeared from most of Europe, but are still spoken in parts of Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Celtic Christians later returned to England from Ireland and Scotland as missionaries. The Anglo-Saxons in south of England were converted to Christians following the arrival of Saint Augustine of Rome in AD 597. As Christianity spread churches and monasteries were built all over England.

About AD 790, the Vikings started to invade England. The Norsemen, who came from Norway, mainly settled in Scotland and Ireland. The north and east of England were settled by Danes. The Vikings were excellent traders and navigators. They traded in silk and furs as far as Russia. In 1016, became part of the Scandinavian empire under King Cnut.

In 1066, England was again facing invasion from the north and the south. In September, King Harold II marched north to defeat his half-brother, King of Norway, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Just three weeks later, he himself was defeated at Hastings by another invader of Viking origin, William Duke of Normandy, from northern France. The last in the long succession of invaders on the British Isles were the Normans, the Norsemen who had assimilated in France. In 1066, led by Duke of Normandy (who went into history as William the Conqueror), they crossed the Channel and conquered England, subduing the Anglo-Saxons. England became a strong centralized country under military rule. Castles appeared all over England to enforce Norman rule. England has never been invaded since 1066. William was a harsh ruler: he destroyed many villages to make sure the English people did not rebel. The Normans’ power was absolute and the language of the new rulers, Norman-French, has had a lasting effect on English. For almost two centuries there were two languages, two nations and two cultures in the country. Norman-French was the language of the ruling class, the official language of the country, while Anglo-Saxon (Old English) was spoken by the majority of the oppressed native population. The victorious Normans gradually broke their ties with France and by the 13^th century had mingled in blood and language with Anglo-Saxons and united into one nation, speaking one language, born as a result of the marriage of two nations and the two languages. The New English (Middle English) greatly enriched and changed under the influence of Norman-French, had become the language of educated classes and the official language of the state by the end of the 13^th century. The 14^th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in that language.

So all these people left traces of themselves – not only archeological fragments but also place names, parts of the language and physical features such as hair colour and height. The fact that the British people are descendants of many nations is reflected in the nationalities, national character and languages of the peoples, inhabiting the British Isles today. They are the English, the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish who constitute the British nation and collectively are called “the British”, or “Britons”.

The mixture of nations must not be overlooked. It is inaccurate to refer to the British as English. This mistake is made all over the world – when talking about English. Such reference may hurt the Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish. Thus everybody from the UK is British, but only people from England are English.

 

2. LANGUAGES AND NATIONALITIES

The total population of the UK is over 59 million (59554000) people. The UK is inhabited by the English – 49856 million, who constitute about 83% of the total population, the Scots – 5057 million (8, 5%), the Welsh – 2938 million (about 5%), the Irish – 1703 million, constituting 2, 9% of the total population. Among other nationalities inhabiting the UK there are Gaels, Jews, Poles, Germans, Italians, Chinese as well as migrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and African countries.

English is the official language of the country. Besides standard literary English there are many regional and social dialects. They are not as numerous as in Italy or Germany, for example. Besides, the vocabulary of the dialects died out, but the accents and few bits of distinctive grammar remain. And it is the accents which gives visitors with knowledge of the English language problems and even a shock. Some accents are so strong that they present problems for the British, too.

English is the language predominantly spoken in all four parts of the UK. Wales, however, is bilingual as a result of the long struggle of the Welsh to preserve their language. Welsh is the first language of the majority of the population in most western counties. The Welsh language is the survival of ancient Celtic, one of Europe’s oldest languages. It was banned from use by Henry VIII after the Act of Union of 1535, by which he united England and Wales under one parliament. But the language lived on in the homes and in the arts and it continued to be the language of worship. In 1847 education commissioners preparing a report for the government in Westminster visited schools in Wales. There they heard children using their native Welsh language, which they attacked as immoral and backward. From then on a campaign to stamp out the use of Welsh was rigorous pursued, often by the Welsh themselves. Pupils overheard slipping into the Welsh language were forced to wear wooden boards around their necks bearing the words “Welsh Not”. The commission’s report, bound between blue covers, was never really forgiven and has passed into Welsh history as the “Treason of the Blue Books”. Only in 1967 the Welsh Language Act was passed to affirm the equal validity of Welsh with English in the administration of justice and conduct of government business through Wales. For about 550000 people welsh is the first language, many others speak it fluently as English.

The Celtic language still exists as Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland some 100000 people, mainly in the highlands and western coastal regions and the Hebrides, are able to speak the Scottish form of Gaelic. A few families in Northern Ireland speak the Irish form of Gaelic. French is still the official language of Jersey (the Channel Isles) and on the Isle of Man. It is used for ceremonial and official procedure. Both French and English are used in courts.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Germanic influence the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded England in AD 350, came from Germany, Denmark and Netherlands. They spoke a Germanic language which became the basis of Old English. Even today, words used in Modern English for ordinary objects are mostly Anglo-Saxon, in origin. Germanic languages, such as Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish have very similar words for the objects. Words of Germanic origin are usually short (often just one syllable) and tend to be informal in modern English.

The French influence English also has many similarities with Romance languages, whose origin is Latin. Norman-French was used as the language of government. Words of Latin origin are usually longer than words of Germanic origin and often have meaning in English than in the original Romance language. Norman-French words did not enter English immediately. When the Normans invaded in 1066, ordinary people still spoke English. Imagine a Norman feast. The English would look after the cattle and cook the meat, still calling the cattle by their English names. The Normans, when they saw the cooked meat arrive at the table, would use French ones. This explains why the English language now has different words for cattle and meal cooked from meat.

Example: pig – pork; sheep – mutton; cow – beef.

The classical influence Two centuries later came the Renaissance: there was a revival of interest in ancient culture, Greek and Latin. Some Latin words already existed because of the influence of Norman-French, but thousands more words of Latin origin flooded into English. This explains why modern English has pairs of words which mean almost the same thing, such as base which came into English from Norman-French, and basis, which came into English during the Renaissance. The Latin words were joined by hundreds of Greek words.

At the same time, it became more popular throughout Europe to use your mother tongue, not Latin, for written documents: the Bible, in particular, began to be read in the language of the country. By the 17^th century, it became possible to describe something in English with words of Germanic, Latin and Greek origin. This is still true today.

1. RELIGION AND CHURCH

There is a paradox about religion in Britain. On the hand this is officially a Christian country, where Church and state are linked. On the other, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs form quite a large part of the population and the British pride themselves in tolerance and adaptability. At the same time, many small religious groups and sects appear to be growing, while most young people have no religious beliefs at all.

The link between Church and state is something unique to Britain; no other Western country has anything quite like it. The Queen is not only the symbolic head of state, but she is also the head of the Church of England; British coins have a portrait of the monarch with the letters FD (from the Latin fidei defensor, Defender of the Faith). In most modern countries there is strict separation between the Government and religion. How did this strange situation come about in Britain?

It was partly the result of a historical accident. King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry again but the Pope would not agree. So, in the early 1530s, Henry broke away from Rome, and the Church of England became independent. It was still Catholic, but it then began to adopt many of the new Protestant ideas from Germany, such as man’s ability to speak to God without intercession of priests.

Under Queen Elizabeth I, the Church became officially Protestant, and the Roman Catholic Church was persecuted – they were forced to go to the Protestant church service, and much of their money was confiscated. Even today a Catholic may not become king or queen.

As a result, bishops of the Church of England are appointed by the Queen, even if she does not use her own judgment but always accepted the advice of those in the Church. The bishops sit in the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament – so, in theory at least, they are part of the government of the country. Prayers are said at the Opening of Parliament in November each year. Religious education is compulsory in schools, and one quarter of all primary schools are Church schools. All state schools are required by law to have a collective act of worship which is predominantly Christian.

Of course, organized Christianity is in decline in most countries. The Church of England is no exception. A hundred years ago about 60 per cent of the population went to church on a Sunday, and today the figure is less than 10 per cent. People used to know the Bible so well that their everyday language was full of quotations from it; British children at the beginning of the third millennium do not even know the simplest Bible stories. The Church itself has quietly given up talking about many of its own basic beliefs: the virgin birth, heaven and hell, the resurrection of the body.

The Church of England has tried to modernize itself in various ways. Vicars no longer condemn gay men or lesbians, or couples live together without being married. Rock music sometimes replaces the traditional organ-played hymns. And very significant, since 1994 women can become priests; this question caused serious division within the Church, and some members left and joined the Roman Catholics.

British people have not given up the Church together. There is still a sort of nostalgic respect for the music, the buildings and the ritual.

At Christmas, groups of people go out signing carols, and the churches fill up midnight mass on Christmas Eve. About half of all weddings still take place in church, and a quarter of all children are baptized. Almost all funerals have a Christian element, at least some prayers and hymns.

According to denomination the overwhelming majority of the residents of Britain belong to the Protestants, the rest forming the Catholic and Presbyterian minorities. Only 17% of the adult population of Britain belongs to one of the Christian churches, and this proportion continues to decline. There are regional variations with the marked tendency: the further from London, the greater the attendance. In England only 13% of the adult population is members of the church, in Wales – 23%, in Scotland – 37% and in Northern Ireland no fewer than 80%.

Today there is complete freedom of practice, regardless of religion or sect. but it was not always so. Until the mid – 19^th century those who did not belong to the Church of England, the official, “established”, or state church, were barred from some public offices. The state Church still plays a powerful role in national life in spite of the relatively small numbers of people who are its active members.

There are two state Churches in Britain: the Church of England or Anglican Church and the Church of Scotland.

England was converted to Christianity in 597 AD when Roman Pope sent St. Augustine with 40 monks to Britain to baptize King Ethlbert of Kent and so pave the way for the conversion of all England to Christianity. By the 8^th century England was a Christian country under the influence of the Roman Church.

The 40 Roman monks landed in Kent in Saxon town of Cantwara-byrig – “the borough of the men of Kent”, present Canterbury, which became the cradle of Christianity in Saxon England. Canterbury Cathedral, which was built in the same year and for 350 years was the destination of countless pilgrims, today is the Mother Church of Anglicans throughout the world.

In 1533 King Henry VIII, had broken away from Rome and declared himself head of the Church of England (the Protestant state Church). Ever since 1534 the monarch has been Head of the Church of England. No one may take the throne who is not a member of the Church of England, which includes a wide variety of Protestant belief. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most spiritual leader of the Church of England and is Primate of All England. He is the head of the Anglican Communion, composed of various independent churches which have grown out of the Church of England in various parts of the world.

There are other Christian Churches – the Free, or Nonconformist Churches. They are distinguished by having no bishops or episcopacy and they all admit both men and women to their ministry. The main ones among them are: the Methodist Union, the Baptist, the United Reformed Church and the Salvation Army. These all tend towards strong evangelicalism. In addition there are smaller groups and sects.

The Church of Scotland, unlike the Church of England, is subject neither to the Crown, nor to the Parliament, and takes pride in its independence from state authority, for which it fought in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Its churches are plain, there is no alter, only a table. The emphasis is on the pulpit, where the gospel is preached. The Church of Scotland is more democratic.

The Roman Catholic Church returned to Britain in 1850. The English Protestant prejudice that to be Catholic is to be “not quite English” has really disappeared in the recent years. Since 1850 the Roman Catholic Church has grown rapidly with about 5, 7 million members of whom 1,4 million are regular attendees. Its senior English cleric is the Archbishop of Westminster.

Among other religions the oldest is Judaism. The Jewish community counts 300000 members, of whom only 80000 are actual synagogue members. The Jewish community is aging and diminishing on account of assimilation and relatively low birth rate. The Jews are divided into different religious groups. The majorities, about 200000, is Orthodox and belong to the United Synagogues.

There are also recently established religious groups: Hindus (1 million), Buddhism, Muslims (1, 5 million) and Sikhs. There are over 1000 mosques and prayer centers, of which the most important the London Central Mosque at Regent’s Park. About 900000 Muslims regularly attend these mosques.

The Church of England has always been closely identified with the ruling establishment and authority. It is used to be known as “Tory Party at prayer”. And though it has been gradually distancing itself from the ruling establishment over the recent years, the Church of England remains overwhelming middle and upper class in its composition.

Most working class people in England and Wales belong to the Nonconformist, or “Free” Churches. Generally speaking, 45% of the British people are Anglican; 9% - Catholic; 4% - Presbyterian; 3% - Muslim; 2% - Methodist; 1% - Hindu, other and non-religious make 36%.

 

2. DENSITY OF POPULATION. DISTRIBUTION

With over 59 million people the UK claims the 14^th place in the world as to its population. Since 1801 until 1991 censuses of the people of the UK has been taken regularly every 10 years (except 1941). In 1901 the British population was 38, 2 million, at the end of the 17^th century it was about 6, 5 million and only 2 million at the end of the 11^th century. The growth of the population was rapidly from the middle of the 18^th century to the end of the 19^th when the average number of live born children per married couple amounted to 6 – 7.

Britain has always been a densely populated country. According to the latest full census taken in 2003 the population density in Britain is 246 per sq km. Britain is the third in Europe (after the Netherlands) – 383 and Belgium – 325). The world extremes are: Hong Kong – 5436 people per sq. km and Botswana – 2 per sq. km. Though density in Great Britain is very high, the country is populated very unevenly. England is most thickly peopled part; its density is 361 per sq. km. The second is Wales – 142 per sq. km, then the Northern Ireland – 125 per sq. km. Scotland is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Europe. There one can motor for hours without seeing another person. The density per sq.km in Scotland is 65 people. Densities of more than 500 people are found in the main industrial areas (such as Midlands and south-east England), the density of Greater London being 4238 people per sq. km.

Britain is highly urbanized country, 90 per cent of its population lives in cities and towns, and only 10 per cent are rural inhabitants. There are 8 major metropolitan areas known as conurbations which accommodate a third of Great Britain’s people while comprising less than 3 per cent of the total land area. They are: Greater London, Central Clydeside, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Most of the mountainous part, including much of Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland and the central Pennies, are very sparsely populated.

As in many other developed countries the recent trend shows a movement of people away from the main conurbations (particular their centers) to the surroundings suburbs.

 

3. SOCIAL RATES. SOCIAL MAKE UP

In 60s there was a marked tendency for earlier marriages: young people married in their late teens or early 20. The trend of the 60s towards earlier marriages was reversed at the beginning of the 70s. Since then there has been a slow increase in the average age for the first marriages, which in England and Wales is now just over 26 for men and 24 for women.

Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe. The European average is 6, 9 per thousand. The divorce rate in Britain has been increasing steadily, about 167 700 divorces were grated in the UK in 2002, 2, 5 per cent more than in 2001. In 1988 it was 129 for every 1000 married couple in England and Wales, while in 1961 only 2. Nowadays one in almost every two marriages ends in divorce. The rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland are much lower.

The image of the traditional British household of the 50s with 3 – 4 children in a family has changed. Nowadays only 7% of British families consist of 5 or more people. The average British couple today has only 1, 8 children. 29% of the married couples have no children; 28% - have children; 29% - one member families (widows or divorced men), 10% - lone parent families with children. The great majority of single parents are women. There has also been a sharp rise in the rate of illegitimacy. More than 2/5 of all birth were babies born outside marriage – non-marital babies, compared with 12% in 1980.

Another feature of the present British family, common to many other Western European countries, has been a considerable increase in cohabitation. 18% of unmarried people aged between 16 – 59 are leaving with someone without being officially married.

In Britain you can get married in a church or in a registry office. But the proportion of the population who are married has decreased. In 1971 71% 0f men and 68% of women aged 16 and over in England and Wales were married; in 2002 this was 54% of men and 50% of women. Over the same period the proportion that were single or divorced increased, while the proportion of those who were widowed remained fairly constant. First marriages account 83% of all marriages in 1970 but for only 59% in 2002.

As in many other developed countries, the fertility rate (63 births per 1000 women of childbearing age) is low compared with past rates and it remains below the level required for the long-term replacement of the population. Such factors as later marriages, postponement of childbirth, effective contraception, voluntary sterilization of men and women has contributed to the relatively low birth rate.

Birth rate tendencies have brought noticeable changes in the age distribution. There is a marked decline in the proportion of young people under 16 and an increase in the proportion of elderly people, especially those aged 85 and over. Between 1971 and 2003 there was an 18% decrease in the number of children aged under16. In contrast there was 28% increase in the number of people aged 65 and over. Projections suggest that this aging trend continue. The British population is already one of the oldest in Europe, and it is slowly getting older.

Sex distribution is also different. There are nearly 106 female to every 100 males in average in Britain. Total births of boys naturally exceed those of girls by about 6%. But boy babies on an average are more delicate and difficult to rear than girls. So stillbirth and mortality rates at almost all ages are higher for males. Because of their higher mortality there is a turning point at about 50 years age, at which the number of women exceeds the number of men. The imbalance increases with age, among elderly over 70 years old there are 18 women to every 10 men. A rising standard of living and development in medical technology and practice have contributed large declines in mortality rates over the last 100 years. Death rates are higher for males than females in almost all age groups, but the gap between the sexes has narrowed in recent decades.

 

4. SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM

“We are, by our occupations, education, and habits of life, divided into different species, which regard one another, for the most part, with scorn and malignity” wrote the 18^th – century man of letters, Dr Johnson.

Every country in the world has a class system. But in some way, for some reason, the question of class seems to have a special meaning for the British. This is reflected in the image abroad. Hollywood films have featured lots of upper-class Englishmen always snobbish and usually cruel and stupid. The whole world knows the stereotype of the English gentlemen or lord, often with monocle and tweed jacket, sipping whisky and reading the Times. British class-ridden reputation goes back a long away: in 1755, a French traveler named Jean Rouquet wrote: “The Englishman always has in his hand an accurate pair of scales in which he scrupulously weighs up the birth and rank and wealth of the people he meets”.

The British themselves are obsessed with the issue: it is at the centre of countless novels, plays and films’ and the topic come up again and again in the news media. A vast proportion of British humour is based on the interaction between upper and working classes. Public figures occasionally state that the class system is at the root of the country’s problems, or alternatively that the class system is dead.

The strangest feature of class in Britain is that it is not entirely dependent on money. It seems that you can in certain circumstances be high class but poor, or low class and rich. This is important clue to the conundrum: the system must be based on something historical which does not exactly match present conditions. And that is precisely what Britain has: the Royal family and all the dukes, earls and barons are a relic of feudalism. Although these vestiges of the old aristocracy add up to very small numbers of the population, they set the tone for the rest of the class structure. At least 200 years ago, the commercial middle class triumphed over the old land-owning nobles (and Napoleon called the British “a nation of shopkeepers”), but in terms of style and attitude the victory has been the other way round.

A note of caution here: official statistics treat class as a strictly economic distinction. Government figures have mostly been based on a six-point scale of employment types, which is used by market-researches and advertisers.

A Upper middle class (e.g. top managers, doctors and lawyers)

B Middle class (e.g. middle managers, teachers)

C1 Lower middle class (e.g. officer workers)

C2 Skilled working class (e.g. electricians, car mechanics)

D Unskilled working class (e.g. Farm or building labourers)

E Residuals (e.g. unemployed)

Marketing people are the ultimate experts in questions of class – they have to make sure that advertisements for Mercedes cars and Rolex watches go in newspapers read by As and Bs, and advertisements for cut-price cigarettes and car batteries appear where they will be seen by the Cs, Ds and Es.

However, unlike government statisticians, but in common with the rest of the British public, marketing people know that there are many other indicators of social class. Upper class people cook French food for an evening meal which they call dinner or supper, and they drink wine with it; they watch tennis or rugby; they read Times or Daily Telegraph, they name their children Piers or Edward and their daughters Rebecca or Sophie; they listen to classical music; and they buy stocks and shares. Working class people microwave supermarket meals for an evening meal which they call tea, and they drink tea with it; they watch snooker and football; they read the Sun or Daily Mirror, they name their sons Darren or Paul, and their daughters Ashley or Lizzie; they listen to pop music; and they buy lottery tickets.

These are stereotypes, of course, which are humorous and only half true. The two really important indicators of class are education and accent. George Bernard Shaw wrote a satire on the linguistic aspects of class in his play Pygmalion, in which a professor Higgins takes a poor Cockney flower-girl, Eliza Doolittle, and turns her into an upper-class lady by training her to speak with the right accent. Shaw writes: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.” In simple terms, the higher the class, the more resembles that of the royal family.

Whereas most people have regional accents, the upper class speaks in exactly the same way from the south-east of England to the north-west of Scotland. This would seem a remarkable achievement, considering that children normally take on the accent of their surrounding community rather than that of their parents. The explanation is the school they go to. The most central unifying feature of the upper class is that its members go to private school, fee paying schools. Just 7 per cent of pupils in Britain are at private schools, which are quite expensive: the top ones such as Eton (for boys) and Roedean (for girls) cost £15,000 per year. So it is actually quite difficult to maintain your position in the upper class without a lot of money.

The British class system could be dismissed as just a piece of folklore, which makes a visit to the country all the more fun. But unfortunately it seems to get in the way of economic progress because important jobs do not always go to the most able people. While the rest of the world long ago decided that meritocracy was the way to develop successfully, relics of the feudal system still hold Britain back.

GENDER

Many women would argue that there is a different half of the nation which gets less than its share of power, freedom and wealth – female sex. In spite of the considerable changes in social attitude since 1945, particularly since the feminist revolution which began in the 1960s, women are significantly disadvantaged. Men continue to control the positions of power and wealth and are slow to share these with women. In spite of having a female monarch and having a female Prime minister for over a decade, only 6, 2 % of seats in the Commons are held by women. In local government women hold 20% of available seats. As to the senior positions of power in the country none are held by women: no women among judges forming the highest Court of Appeal, out of 304 permanents. Between 1900 and 1990, only two secretaries have been women, no woman has ever been appointed as a Police Chief Constable. Fewer than 3% of university professors are women, only 2% of surgeons are women, and there are only few successful women in business and industry. Women are paid less than men. On average women earns 2/3 and ¾ of man’s pay. Although the Equal Opportunities Act, requiring equal pay and conditions for women, came into effect in 1975, little has changed since then.

In the 1980s the conservative government encouraged young mothers to stay at homes with their children, but this was largely ignored.

In 1931 less than 10% of married women were in employment: over the last 30 years the proportion of married women working has increased from 21% to 49%. About a ¼ of women with children under the age of 5 and about 2/3 of women with school age children go out to work.

Women generally are spending a large proportion of their lives in paid employment. It is now normal for a woman to be in full-time work until the birth of the first child, and increasingly high proportion of women return to work after having a child, although this may be to a part-time job. Women are also returning to work more quickly after having a child. Britain has a high percentage of working mothers compared to some other countries (e.g. Italy, Ireland, and Japan) but provisions for maternity leave and child care are amongst the lowest in Europe.

 

YOUNG PEOPLE

Despite media reports, not all young people in Britain are punks or football hooligans. There is a wide cross-section of youth from the Young conservatives to Rastafarians, from skinheads to pupils at expensive private schools.

19^th –century Victorian attitudes about how children should be brought up have largely disappeared and for many children family life has become more relaxed and less strict. Many young people in Britain have a considerable amount of freedom and the things they are interested in reflect this: music, television, sex, fashion and money predominate. Being independent and free to choose are priorities. Attitudes towards religion and marriage have changed. Ever since the media discovered the world of teenager, films, videos, TV programs and magazines have been all marketed towards the young.

There are a number of social problems associated with being young: some schools have problems with discipline and motivation; crime and drug-taking in some areas have reached serious levels. During the 1980s unemployment among school-leavers was a particular problem, with many facing a bleak feature with little hope of finding a reasonable job.

For many young people leaving home is a route to independence, although for some this may be financially impossible. Most young couples hope to be able to have their own house or flat: in modern Britain financial pressures are much more likely to restrict this than family pressure.