England: 32 London
boroughs and 1 City of London or Greater London, 36 metropolitan counties,
46 unitary authorities.
two-tier counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire,
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham,
East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent,
Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire,
Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire,
Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex,
Wiltshire, Worcestershire
The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is one of the quintet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Over the past two decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programs. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account by far for the largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to decline in importance. Since emerging from recession in 1992, Britain's economy has enjoyed the longest period of expansion on record; growth has remained in the 2-3% range since 2004, outpacing most of Europe.
The economy's strength has complicated the Labor government's efforts to make a case for Britain to join the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Critics point out that the economy is doing well outside of EMU, and public opinion polls show a majority of Britons are opposed to the euro. The BROWN government has been speeding up the improvement of education, health services, and affordable housing at a cost in higher taxes and a widening public deficit.
Tower of London.
A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter was suspended until May 2007 due to wrangling over the peace process.
