United Kingdom

H

Environmental Issues

Environmental protection is an important issue in the United Kingdom because as a highly populated and technologically advanced nation grows the environment suffers. Compared to many other industrialized nations, the country has a relatively good record of protecting the environment. Much environmental activity involves ordinary citizens at the local level, while the national government provides leadership, goals, and direction, particularly through the secretary of state for the environment. The United Kingdom, along with other prospering nations, has contributed funds and expertise toward global efforts to preserve the environment. In 2004, 15.3 percent of the United Kingdom was protected by national parks, regional parks, and smaller protected areas.

As the world’s first industrialized society, Britain has a long history of dealing with environmental problems. Contamination from sewerage, impure water supplies, and filthy streets from massive horse traffic were all problems handled with success before World War I broke out in 1914. Air pollution from smoke remained a major problem until the Clean Air Act was passed in 1955, a measure that reduced industrial pollution by three-quarters. The increased substitution of gas and electricity for coal as a source of energy further reduced air pollution, both from industry and homes. In recent decades, however, the large increase in the number of motor vehicles has erased many of the gains achieved by the Clean Air Act. River pollution has been more difficult to deal with. This is partly because local sewerage authorities, which were among the worst polluters, were represented on the boards regulating pollution in the rivers. In 1989 a National Rivers Authority was created that has no connection with potential polluters, and Britain’s rivers are slowly improving.

Since the 1940s one of the most serious environmental problems has been disposal of radioactive waste, including the dismantling of nuclear power stations after they become obsolete. The country’s early nuclear industry disposed of radioactive waste by ocean dumping, leaving a legacy of contamination, particularly in the Irish Sea. Another serious environmental issue is the pressure to develop more land. To maintain productive agricultural land and viable agricultural communities, Britain has severely restricted urban and suburban development in some areas. As a result, land prices are extremely high.

III

People and Society of the United Kingdom

Britain has a diverse population that includes people with connections to every continent of the world. The ethnic origins of this population have been complicated by immigration, intermarriage, and the constant relocation of people in this highly developed industrial and technological society. Nevertheless, a few particulars about the historical formation of the population are noteworthy.

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A

Early Ethnic Groups

Britain’s predominant historical stock is called Anglo-Saxon. Germanic peoples from Europe—the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes—arrived in Britain in massive numbers between the 5th and 7th centuries ad (see Ancient Britain).These people tended to be tall, blond, and blue-eyed. Their language became the foundation of the basic, short, everyday words in modern English. These groups invaded and overwhelmed Roman Britain, choosing to settle on the plains of England because of the mild climate and good soils. Native Britons fought the great flood of Germanic peoples, and many Britons who survived fled west to the hill country. These refugees and native Britons were Celts who had absorbed the earliest peoples on the island, the prehistoric people known as Iberians. Celts tended to be shorter than Anglo-Saxons and have rounder heads. Most had darker hair, but a strikingly high percentage of Celts had red hair.

After the Anglo-Saxon conquest, the Celts remained in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the West Country (the southwestern peninsula of Britain), where Celtic languages are still used to some extent and Celtic culture is still celebrated. This geographic separation between the Germanic Anglo-Saxons and the Celts has broken down over the centuries as people have migrated and intermarried.

A substantial number of Scandinavians raided and settled in Great Britain and Ireland during the 9th century. By then the Anglo-Saxons had established agricultural and Christian communities, and eventually they succeeded in subduing and integrating the Scandinavians into their kingdoms. In 1066 the Normans, French-speaking invaders of Norse origin, conquered England, adding yet another ethnic component. Although the Normans were the last major group to add their stock to the British population, waves of other foreigners and refugees have immigrated to Britain for religious, political, and economic reasons. Protestant French (see Huguenots) sought refuge in the 17th century, sailors of African ancestry came in the 18th century, and Jews from central and eastern Europe immigrated in the late 19th century and during the 1930s and late 1940s.

B

Immigration After World War II

Most British people attribute their origins to the early invaders, calling themselves English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, or Ulsterites. The Ulsterites are an ethnically controversial group—some claim they are Scottish and others identify themselves as Protestant Irish. The remaining share of the population consists of minorities who arrived, for the most part, in the decades following the end of World War II in 1945.

These minorities—Chinese, Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Africans, and Caribbean people of African ancestry—came to Britain in substantial numbers after 1945. Immigration from the South Asian subcontinent (India and Pakistan) stabilized in the 1990s, but immigration from African countries continued to rise. By the late 1990s more than half of the people in these categories had been born in the United Kingdom. These newer ethnic groups tend to live in the more urban and industrial areas of England, especially in London, Birmingham, and Leeds. In 2004 the right to work in Britain was opened to people in central Europe and the Baltic countries, and they began to form the latest group of immigrants.

Although population censuses have been taken in the United Kingdom every decade since 1801, the 1991 census was the first to include a question on ethnic origin. In the 2001 census just over 92 percent of the population was described as white. Asian Indians made up 1.8 percent of the British population; Pakistanis, 1.3 percent; Caribbeans, 1 percent; Africans, 0.8 percent; Bangladeshis, 0.5 percent; and Chinese, 0.4 percent.

The United Kingdom is generally a prosperous, well-educated, and tolerant society, and ethnic differences have sparked relatively little violence and hostility. Local and national government programs exist to seek fairness and justice for ethnic minorities. Educational programs and the law bolster equal opportunity. The Race Relations Act of 1976 makes it illegal to discriminate against any person because of race, color, nationality, or origin, and it is a criminal offense to incite racial hatred. However, class tensions and racial unrest—especially conflict between white police forces and nonwhite immigrants—have flared from time to time in crowded and impoverished urban neighborhoods. In addition, high unemployment rates have made it difficult for immigrants to find jobs. Tensions heightened in July 2005 after four young British Muslims were implicated in the suicide bombings of three underground trains and a bus in London. Although the bombings were linked to Britain’s participation in the U.S.-Iraq War, some politicians sought to tighten British immigration policy in the aftermath of the bombings.

In late 2007 the government unveiled substantial reforms to the entry criteria for people wishing to work, train, or study in the United Kingdom. The new criteria utilized a points-based system, which set a threshold for points needed for entry and awarded points according to the skills and earning potential of applicants. The new system replaced work permits and other entry schemes. In addition, all low-skilled workers from countries outside the European Union (EU) were to be denied entry. Workers from within the EU were not required to obtain permission prior to entry.

C

Demographic Trends

From the 18th century until well into the 19th century, Britain’s population soared as the death rate dropped and the birth rate remained high. During this period the total population increased from approximately 6 million in the 1760s to 26 million in the 1870s. Toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century the birth rate stabilized and the death rate remained low. The population took on the characteristics of a modern, developed, and prosperous state. Family size decreased and the median age of the population rose. Compared to the rest of the world, the UK has a smaller percentage of younger people and a higher percentage of older people, with more than 20 percent over the age of 60; those under the age of 15 years make up only 13 percent of the population. Life expectancy in 2007 was 76 years for men and 81.3 years for women. Britain’s population has been growing slowly, slower than the average for countries in the European Union.