Unit 5

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LANDMARKS

EDWARD VII

Edward VII, King from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910, was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was Prince of Wales longer than any of his predecessors, as his reign began when he was 59 years. Before his reign, he was largely excluded from political power, personifying the kind of elegant, fashionable elite devoted mainly to their leisure. He was married to Alexandra of Denmark, but had many mistresses. Despite his reputation as a playboy, his tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes and he would come to be a popular king. The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society. Especially after his father Albert, Edward created the idea of royal public appearances as we understand them today. He would later reinvent royal diplomacy. The reign of Edward VII modernised the institutions of the Army and the Navy, yet he reinstituted traditional ceremonies. He earned the nicknames of “Uncle of Europe” and “Peacemaker”, as he achieved good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France. Edward used his fluency in French and German to shuttle across Europe and meet with major heads of state. He helped negotiate the Triple Entente between Britain, France and Russia, which played an important role in World War I. He died in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis. In the last year of his life, Edward had suffered a constitutional crisis—the Conservative majority in the House of Lords refused to pass the "People's Budget" proposed by the Liberal government of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. The crisis was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. His legacy is marked by criticism for his pursuit of self-indulgent pleasures but also praise for his affable personality and diplomatic skill.

GEORGE V

George V  was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, George was third in the line of succession behind his father, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George's father became King-Emperor of the British Empire as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910. George V's reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War, the empires of his first cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labourministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had smoking-related health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.

WWI

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was one of the Allied  Powers during the First World War of 1914-1918, fighting against the Central Powers. The state's armed forces were reorganised and increased in size because of the introdution, in January 1916, of conscription for the first time in the country's history as well as the raising of what was, at the time, the largest all-volunteer army in history, known as Kitchener's Army, of more than 2.000.000 men. The outbreak of war has generally been regarded as a socially inifying event, although this view has been challenged by more recent scholarship. In any case, responses in Great Britain in 1914 were similar to those amongst populations across Europe. On the eve of war, there was serious domestic unrest in the UK but much of the population rapidly rallied behind the government. Significant sacrifices were made in the name of defeating the Empire's enemies and many of those who could not fight contributed to philantropic and humanitarian causes. Fearing food shortages and labour shortfalls, the government passed legislation such as the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, to give it new powers. The war saw a move away from the idea of "business as usual" under Prime Minister H.H.Asquith, and towards a state of total war under the premiership of David Lloyd George; the first  time this had been seen in Britain. The war also witnessed the first aerial bombardments of cities in Britain. Newspapers played an important role in mantaining popular support for the war. Large quantities of propaganda were produced by the government under the guidance of such journalists as Charles Masterman and newspaper owners such as Lord Beaverbrook. By adapting to the changing demographics of the workforce, war-related industries grew rapidly, and production increased, as concessions were quickly made to trade unions. In that regard, the war is also credited by some with drawing women into mainstream employment for the first time. Debates continue about the impact the war had on women's emancipation, given that a large number of women were granted the vote for the first time in 1918. The experience of individual women during the war varied; much depended on locality, age, marital status and occupation.

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

In 1897 women started to demand the right to vote in national elections. Within ten years these women, the "suffragettes", had become famous for the extrememethods they were willing ot use. Many politicians who agreed with their aims were shocked by their violent methods and stopped supporting them. However, if they had not been willing to shock the public, the suffragettes might not have succeeded. The war in 1914 changed everything. Britain would have been unable to continue the war without hte women who took men's places in the factories. By 1918 29 per cent of the total workforce of Britain was female. Women had to be given the vote. But it was not until ten years later that the voting age of women came down to twenty-one, equal with men.

THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Easter Rising

Also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic while UK was heabily engaged in the IWW. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798, and the first armed action of the Irish revolutionary period. Organised by seven-man Military COuncil of the Irish REpublican Brotherhood, the Rising began on  Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers seized key location in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and gunboat. There was fierce street fighting on the rotes into the city centre, where the rebels put up stiff resistance, slowing the British advance and inflicting heavy casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery.

Anglo - Irish Treaty

Commonly known as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great BRitain and Ireland. Was an agreement between the gorvenment of  the UK of Great BRitain and Ireland and representatives of the Irish REpublic that concluded the Irish War of Independence. It provided for the establishment of the Irish Free State within a year as a self-governing dominion within the "community of nations known as the British Empire", a status "the same as that of the Dominion of Canada". It also provided Northern Ireland, which had been created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, an option to opt out of the Irish Free State, which it exercised.  The agreement was signed in London on 6 December 1921, by representatives of the British government (which included Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was head of the British delegates) and by representatives of the Irish Republic including Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith.

Partition

The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct jurisdictions, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. It took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Today the former is still known as Northern Ireland and forms part of the United Kingdom, while the latter is now a sovereign state also named Ireland and sometimes called the Republic of Ireland.

Civil War

Was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire.   The civil war was waged between two opposing groups, Irish republicans and Irish nationalists, over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The forces of the Provisional Government (which became the Free State in December 1922) supported the Treaty, while the Republican opposition saw it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic.

WORLD WAR II

Ireland was in 1939 nominally a Dominion of the British Empire and a member of the Commonwealth. The nation had gained de facto independence from Britain after the Anglo-Irish War, and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 declared Ireland to be a 'sovereign, independent, democratic state'. The Statute of Westminster meant that unlike in World War I, Britain's entry into the war no longer automatically included its dominions. Relations between Ireland and Britain had been strained for many years; until 1938 the two states had engaged in the Anglo-Irish Trade War. The Emergency was the state of emergency which existed in the state of Ireland during the Second World War. The state of Ireland remained neutral throughout the war. "The Emergency" has been used metonymically in historical and cultural commentary to refer to the state during the war. The state of emergency was proclaimed by Dáil Éireann on 2 September 1939, allowing the passage of the Emergency Powers Act 1939 by the Oireachtas the following day. This gave sweeping new powers to the government for the duration of the Emergency, including internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and government control of the economy. The Emergency Powers Act lapsed on 2 September 1946. Although the state of emergency itself was not rescinded until 1 September 1976, no emergency legislation was ever in force after 1946 to exploit this anomaly. The contribution of the British Empire and Commonwealth in terms of manpower and materiel was critical to the Allied war effort. From September 1939 to mid-1942 Britain led Allied efforts in almost every global military theatre. Commonwealth forces totalling close to 15 million serving men and women, fought the German, Italian, Japanese and other Axisarmies, air forces and navies across Europe, Africa, Asia, and in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Commonwealth forces fought in Britain, and across Northwestern Europe in the effort to slow or stop the Axis advance. Commonwealth airforces fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill over Britain, and its armies fought and destroyed Italian forces in North and East Africa and occupied several overseas colonies of German-occupied European nations.  The Commonwealth defeated, held back or slowed the Axis powers for three years while mobilizing their globally integrated economy, military, and industrial infrastructure to build what became, by 1942, the most extensive military apparatus of the war. Although the British Empire and the Commonwealth countries all emerged from the war as victors, and the conquered territories were returned to British rule, the costs of the war and the nationalist fervour that it had stoked became a catalyst for the decolonisation which took place in the following decades.

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution, that is governed within the

framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitucional monarchy, in which the monarch, is the head of state while the prime minister of the United Kingdom, is the head of government.

The Constitution

The United Kingdom does not have one specific constitucional document named as such. Instead, the so-called constitution of the United Kingdom, or British constitution, is a sum of laws and principles that make up the country's body politic. The British constitution primarly draws from four sources: statute law, common law, parliamentary conventions and works of authority.

The Crown

The British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the chief of state of the United Kingdom. Tough she takes little direct part in government, the Crown remains the fount in which ultimate executive power over government lies. These powers are known as royal prerogative and can be used for a vast amount of things, such as the issue or withdrawal of passports, to the dismissal of the Prime Minister or even the declaration of war.

The Goverment: Executive Branch

The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution, that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state while the prime minister of the United Kingdom, currently Theresa May, is the head of government. The executive power is in the hands of the British government, on behalf of and by the consent of the monarch, as well as by the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Northern Ireland Executive. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies. The UK political system is a multi-party system. Since the 1920s, the two largest political participation have been the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Before the Labour Party rose in British politics, the Liberal Party was the other major political party along with the Conservatives. The executive branch is the part of government with authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state. It executes, or enforces, the law. The idea of separation of powers in a liberal democracy means that there is an executive, legislative and judicial branch, with authority thus distributed among these branches, so as to protect individual liberty in response to the possibility of tyrannical leadership. So, the legislature makes the laws, the judiciary interprets the laws, whilst the executive enforces the law. The executive branch of government consists of leaders of offices, with the top leadership roles including the ‘Head of State’ (the Queen, a ceremonial position), the ‘Head of Government’ (the Prime Minister, and the de facto leader), in addition to a defence minister, an interior minister (the Home Secretary), a foreign minister, a finance minister (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and a justice minister. The effectiveness of the checks and balances on the power of the executive provided by the legislature (in both the House of Commons and House of Lords) and the judiciary. The civil service works with the executive and how the power of the executive itself is balanced with the power of the Prime Minister.

House of Commons:

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.

The Government is solely responsible to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of the Commons.

The House of Commons of England evolved in the 13th and 14th centuries. It eventually became the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland in 1707, and assumed the title of "House of Commons of Great Britain and Ireland" after the political union with Ireland at the start of the 19th century. The "United Kingdom" referred to was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1800, and became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922. Accordingly, the House of Commons assumed its current title.

Although popularly considered to refer to the fact its members are commoners, the actual name of the House of Commons comes from the Norman French word for communities – communes.

House of Lords:

The House of Lords of the United Kingdom, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster.

Unlike the elected House of Commons, all members of the House of Lords (excluding 90 hereditary peers elected among themselves and two peers who are ex officio members) are appointed.The membership of the House of Lords is drawn from the peerage and is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the established Church of England. Of the Lords Temporal, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. However, they also include some hereditary peers including four dukes.

The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have been approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends Bills from the Commons. While it is unable to prevent Bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay Bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the House of Commons that is independent from the electoral process. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons.

The House of Lords developed from the "Great Council" (Magnum Concilium) that advised the King during medieval times. This royal council came to be composed of ecclesiastics, noblemen, and representatives of the counties of England and Wales (afterwards, representatives of the boroughs as well). The first English Parliament is often considered to be the "Model Parliament" (held in 1295), which included archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and representatives of the shires and boroughs of it.

How do bills get passed? 

1. Once a bill has been introduced, it get's read for the first time. This is something that is done as a form of etiquette. 
2. At the second reading, the bill can be debated, or if necessary, rejected. 
3. Next, the bill gets sent off to each House, where both must agree. 
4. When the third reading begins, the House of Lords can make further amendments. They then must vote as to whether or not the bill is to be passed. 
5. If the House of Lords passes the bill, then it gets sent to the House of Commons, where they must also pass the bill for it to become a law. 
6. When both Houses have passed it, it may be prevented for the Royal Assent. The Royal Assent is when a Monarch agree's to pass the bill. 

The electoral party system:

The system of political parties, which has existed in one form or another since at least the 18th century, is an essential element in the working of the constitution. Since the Second World War, all the Governments in the UK have been formed by either the Labour Party or the Conservative Party.

Nearly all MPs represent political parties. The party with the most MPs after a general election normally forms the Government. The next largest party becomes the official Opposition. If an MP does not have a political party, they are known as an 'Independent'.

Members of the House of Lords are organised on a party basis in much the same way as the House of Commons but with important differences: Members of the Lords do not represent constituencies and many are not members of a political party. Lords who do not support one of the three main parties are known as Crossbenchers or Independent Peers. There is also a small number who are not affiliated to any of the main groups.

The effectiveness of the party system in Parliament depends on the relationship between the Government and the Opposition parties. In general, Opposition parties aim to: contribute to the creation of policy and legislation through constructive criticism, oppose government proposals they disagree with, and put forward their own policies in order to improve their chances of winning the next general election

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Primary and Secondary Education

-Primary

Elementary schools were publicly funded schools which provided a basic standard of education for children aged from six to 14 between 1870 and 1944. These were set up to enable children to receive manual training and elementary instruction and provided a restricted curriculum with the emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic. Before 1944 around 80 per cent of the school population attended elementary schools through to the age of 14. The remainder transferred either to secondary school or junior technical school at age 11. The school system was changed with the introduction of the Education Act 1944. Education was restructured into three progressive stages which were known as primary education, secondary education and further education.  Primary schools are often subdivided into infant schools for children from four to seven and junior schools for ages seven to 11. 

-Secondary

Students at both state schools and independent schools typically take GCSE examinations, which mark the end of compulsory education in school. Above school-leaving age, the independent and state sectors are similarly structured. In the 16–18 age group, sixth form education is not compulsory, but mandatory education or training until the age of 18 was phased in under the Education and Skills Act 2008, with 16-year-olds in 2013 and for 17-year-olds in September 2015. While students may still leave school on the last Friday in June, they must remain in education of some form until their 18th birthday. Students over 16 typically study in the sixth form of a school, in a separate sixth form college, or in a Further Education (FE) College. Courses at FE colleges, referred to as further education courses, can also be studied by adults over 18. Students typically study Level 3 qualifications such as A-levels, BTEC National awards and level 3 NVQs. Some 16–18 students will be encouraged to study Key Skills in Communication, Application of Number, and Information Technology at this time.

Higher education

Higher education in England is provided by Higher Education (HE) colleges, university colleges, universities and private colleges. Students normally enter higher education as undergraduates from age 18 onwards, and can study for a wide variety of vocational and academic qualifications, including certificates of higher education and higher national certificates at level 4, diplomas of higher education, higher national diplomas and foundation degrees at level 5, bachelor's degrees at level 6, and integrated master's degrees and degrees in medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science at level 7. Historically, undergraduate education outside a small number of private colleges and universities has been largely state-financed since the 1960s, with a small contribution from top-up fees introduced in the 1990s,however fees of up to £9,000 per annum have been charged from October 2012. There is a perceived hierarchy among universities, with the Russell Group seen as being composed of the country's more prestigious universities

THE MEDIA

The growth of cinema at the start of the century followed by the arrival of radio in the 1920s and regular television broadcasts from the mid-1930s onwards meant people could be informed and entertained on a huge scale.

THE PRESS:

• 2OTH CENTURY → After the war, the major newspapers engaged in a large-scale circulation race. Sales in the millions depended on popular stories, with a strong human interesting theme, as well as detailed sports reports with the latest scores. The niche was dominated by The Times and, to a lesser extent, The Daily Telegraph.Consolidation was rampant, as local dailies were bought up and added to chains based in London. The Times was long the most influential prestige newspaper, although far from having the largest circulation. The large papers were all mildly conservative but none were organs of the Conservative Party. The Liberals lost nearly all their media and Labour had one small captive outlet, The Daily Herald. The largely lower-middle-class readership wanted entertainment not political guidance.
• 21ST CENTURY → The News International phone hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving the News of the World and other British newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corporation. Employees of the newspaper were convicted of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of publishing stories. Advertiser boycotts contributed to the closure of the News of the World. During the early 21st century, many newspapers saw a rapid decline in circulation. The sector's advertising revenues fell 15% during 2015 alone, with estimates of a further 20% drop over the course of 2016.

RADIO AND TELEVISION:

• RADIO → In 1904, The U.S. Patent Office reversed its decision, awarding Marconi a patent for the invention of radio, possibly influenced by Marconi's financial backers in the States, who included Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie. This also allowed the U.S. government (among others) to avoid having to pay the royalties that were being claimed by Tesla for use of his patents. In 1907, Marconi established the first commercial transatlantic radio communications service, between Clifden, Ireland and Glace Bay, Newfoundland. In the early 1960s, VOR systems finally became widespread for aircraftnavigation; before that, aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation. (AM stations are still marked on U.S. aviation charts). In 1960 Sony introduced their first transistorized radio, small enough to fit in a vest pocket, and able to be powered by a small battery. It was durable, because there were no tubes to burn out. Over the next twenty years, transistors displaced tubes almost completely except for picture tubes and very high power or very high frequency uses.

• TELEVISION →The invention of the television was the work of many individuals in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Individuals and corporations competed in various parts of the world to deliver a device that superseded previous technology. Many were compelled to capitalize on the invention and make profit, while some wanted to change the world through visual and audio communication technology.
  Television in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most viewing. There are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced a year at a cost of £2.6 billion. Since 24 October 2012, all television broadcasts in the United Kingdom are in a digital format, following the end of analogue transmissions in Northern Ireland. Digital content is delivered via terrestrial, satellite and cable as well as over IP.
  Although a private company at first, the BBC became a not-for-profit organisation when it gained its royal charter in 1927. The BBC was the UK's first broadcaster and is licensed to operate by the government.