1.
Herefordshire
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Herefordshire is a historic English county in the West Midlands. It is a county and a unitary non-metropolitan county and district, also named in legislation as the County of Herefordshire. The Welsh unitary county covering the part of Gwent next to Herefordshire is Monmouthshire, Hereford is a cathedral city and is the county town, with a population of approximately 55,800 inhabitants it is also the largest settlement. The county is one of the most rural and sparsely populated in England, the land use is predominantly agricultural and the county is well known for its fruit and cider production, and the Hereford cattle breed. From 1974 to 1998, Herefordshire was part of the former county of Hereford. Herefordshire was reconstituted both as a new district and as a new county by Statutory Instrument as defined in The Hereford and this Order established Herefordshire as a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, combining county and district functions into a single council. Herefordshire is also called a unitary district, but this is not official nomenclature. Herefordshire is officially known as an authority for local government purposes. The Lieutenancies Act 1997 made Herefordshire a ceremonial county, covering the area of the unitary district. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire NUTS2 region. The River Wye, which at 135 miles is the fifth-longest in the United Kingdom and it flows through both Hereford and Ross-on-Wye before returning to Wales. Leominster is situated on the River Lugg, a tributary of the Wye, there are two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the county. The Wye Valley is located in the valleys south of Hereford, while the Malvern Hills are in the east of the county. Herefordshire is one of the 39 historic counties of England, in 1974 it was merged with neighbouring Worcestershire to form the Hereford and Worcester administrative county. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the government districts of South Herefordshire, Hereford. However, the county was dissolved in 1998, resulting in the return of Herefordshire and Worcestershire as counties, the current ceremonial county and unitary district have broadly the same borders as the pre-1974 historic county. However this has been from a base, with only Northumberland. The population is White 98. 2%, Asian 0. 8%, Mixed 0. 7%, Black 0. 2%, gypsies and Travellers have historically been Herefordshires largest minority ethnic group
2.
Counties of England
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Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical, cultural or political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and these counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several districts. As of April 2009,27 of these counties are divided into districts and have a county council, all of England is also divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Most ceremonial counties correspond to a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county of the same name, the current arrangement is the result of incremental reform. Many of the counties have their origins in the Middle Ages, although the larger counties of Yorkshire, the geographic counties which existed before the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974 are referred to as ancient counties or historic counties. From 1889 to 1974 areas with county councils were known as administrative counties, from 1974 to 1996 the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, some of which were established only in 1974, corresponded directly with the ceremonial counties. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided into 48 postal counties until 1996, in these counties most services are provided by the county council and the district councils have a more limited role. Their areas each correspond exactly to ceremonial counties and they are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. In these counties the district councils provide the majority of services, similarly, Berkshire is a non-metropolitan county with no county council and multiple districts and maps directly to a ceremonial county. Bristol, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Rutland are ceremonial counties consisting of a county of a single district. In total, there are 39 unitary authorities that do not share the names of any of the ceremonial counties, bedfordshire and Cheshire are counties that consist of a number of unitary authorities, none of which has the same name as the ceremonial county. The City of London and Greater London are anomalous as ceremonial counties that do not correspond to any metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, large ceremonial counties often correspond to a single police force. For example, the four unitary authorities which make up Cheshire correspond to the area as the Cheshire Constabulary. Some counties are grouped together for this purpose, such as Northumberland with Tyne, in other areas a group of unitary authorities in several counties are grouped together to form police force areas, such as the Cleveland Police and Humberside Police. Greater London and the City of London each have their own forces, the Metropolitan Police Service. The fire service is operated on a basis, and the ambulance service is organised by the regions of England. Most ceremonial counties form part of a region, although Lincolnshire. Economic development is delivered using the regions, as is strategic planning, as of 2009, the largest county by area is North Yorkshire and the smallest is the City of London
3.
Flag of Hertfordshire
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The flag of Hertfordshire is the flag of the English county of Hertfordshire. The flag is a banner of the arms of Hertfordshire County Council, on 19 November 2008 the Council passed a resolution that the design is a fitting and proper emblem for the county and its people. The council subsequently registered the banner of arms as the flag of the county with the Flag Institute and it now appears on the latters registry of local flags. The blue and white lines, a traditional heraldic representation of a water course, symbolise the countys many rivers while the shield. It is a pun of Hart and ford. The Hart reclines on a field, representing Saint Alban. The pantone colours for the flag are, Blue 300 White Yellow 116 Brown 70%1405 Every single one of these is broken
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
7.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
8.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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East of England
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The East of England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999 and it includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region and its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, the southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt. The region has the lowest elevation range in the UK, North Cambridgeshire and the Essex Coast have most of the around 5% of the region which is below 10 metres above sea level. The Fens are partly in North Cambridgeshire which is notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of Holme 2.75 metres below sea level which was once Whittlesey Mere. The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft, in the far corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills. In the late 1960s, the Roskill Commission considered Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, Nuthampstead in Hertfordshire, the East of England succeeded the standard statistical region East Anglia. The East of England civil defence region was identical to todays region, England between the Wash and Thames Estuary has since post-Roman times been and continues to be known as East Anglia, including the county traversing the west of this line, Cambridgeshire. Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons, previously formed part of the South East England, as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the earliest use of the term is from 1695. Charles Davenant, in An essay upon ways and means of supplying the war, wrote, The Eleven Home Counties, then cited a list including these four. The term does not appear to have used in taxation since the 18th century. East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450 mm to 750 mm. This is usually because low pressure systems and weather fronts from the Atlantic have lost a lot of their moisture over land by the time they reach Eastern England, however the Fens in Cambridgeshire are prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area. Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds, westerly winds bring milder and, typically, wetter weather. Southerly winds usually bring mild air but chill if coming from further east than Spain, spring is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time is often changeable and occasionally showery, summer is usually warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High usually leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather. The number of storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a tropical storm usually coincides with the location of the jet stream
10.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
11.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
12.
Irish Briton
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Irish migration to Great Britain has occurred from the earliest recorded history to the present. There has been a movement of people between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain due to their proximity. This tide has ebbed and flowed in response to politics, economics, today, Ireland is divided between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from Ireland or have Irish ancestry and it is estimated that as many as six million people living in the UK have at least one Irish grandparent. The Irish diaspora refers to Irish people and their descendants who live outside Ireland and this article refers to those who reside in Great Britain, the largest island and principal territory of the United Kingdom. During the Dark Ages, significant Irish settlement of western Britain took place and this is based mostly on medieval writings from the 9th and 10th centuries. However, recently some archeologists have argued against this view, saying there is no archeological or placename evidence for a migration or a takeover by a small group of elites. Due to the growth of Dál Riata, in size and influence, Scotland became almost wholly Gaelic-speaking until Northumbrian English began to replace Gaelic in the Lowlands. Gaelic remained the dominant languages of the Highlands into the 19th century, modwenna and others were significant in the following century. Some English monarchs, such as Oswiu of Northumbria, Aldfrith and Harold Godwinson were either raised in or sought refuge in Ireland, alfred the Great may have spent some of his childhood in Ireland. In the year 902 Vikings who had forced out of Ireland were given permission by the English to settle in Wirral. An Irish historical record known as The Three Fragments refers to a group of settlers living among these Vikings as Irishmen. Historically, Irish immigrants to the United Kingdom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were considered over-represented amongst those appearing in court, some notable people born in Ireland who settled in Great Britain between the 16th and 19th centuries, Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde, died 1635. Richard Brinsley Sheridan George Monro, 1700–57, arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Thomas Moore, died 1852. It is estimated more than one million people died. A further wave of emigration to England also took place between the 1930s, and 1960s by Irish escaping poor economic conditions following the establishment of the Irish Free State. This was furthered by the labour shortage in Britain during the mid-20th century. Irelands population fell from more than 8 million to just 6.5 million between 1841 and 1851, a century later it had dropped to 4.3 million
13.
Other White
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The category does not comprise a single ethnic group but is instead a method of identification for white people who are not represented by other white census categories. This means that the Other White group contains a collection of people with different countries of birth, religions. Along with White British and White Irish, the category does not appear in Northern Ireland, in the 2001 UK Census, the majority of people living in England and Wales ticking the Other White ethnic group specified their ethnicity as European. Four out of five of the Other White category were born overseas, a third were born in a Western European country other than the UK, and one in seven were born in an Eastern European country. The Other White group is largely of working age, with one in ten aged over 65. This does vary according to the country of birth, with people born in the UK being disproportionately young. Polish and Italian respondents had a proportion of over 65s. A wide number of religions are represented in the Other White group, classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom
14.
British Indian
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The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, today, Indians comprise about 1.4 million people in the UK, making them the single largest visible ethnic minority population in the country. They make up the largest subgroup of British Asians, and are one of the largest Indian communities in the Indian diaspora, mainly due to the Indian-British relations. The British Indian community is the sixth largest in the Indian diaspora, behind the Indian communities in the United States, Saudi Arabia, British Indians are socioeconomically affluent and are primarily members of the middle class. A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2011 found British Indians have among the lowest poverty rates among all groups in Britain. Studies have shown that Indians are more likely to be employed in professional and managerial occupations, No one knows the earliest settlement of Indians in Great Britain for certain. If the Romani, often known by the exonym Gypsies, are regarded as South Asian, the Romanichal and Kale originated in what is now North India and Pakistan, and began migrating westward around 1000 C. E. mixing with Southwest Asians and continental Europeans over the centuries. Romani began arriving in numbers in Western Europe during the 16th century. People from India have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Initially these were men from the Indo-Portuguese or Luso-Asian communities of the subcontinent, including men from Bombay, Goa, Cochin, Madras, later Muslim Bengalis and men from Ratnagiri were hired. Many were then refused passage back and had no alternative than to settle in London, there were also some ayahs, domestic servants and nannies of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to Britain when their stay in South Asia came to an end. British soldiers would sometimes marry Indian women and send their mixed race children back to Britain. Indian wives of British soldiers would sometimes ask for passage home after being abandoned or widowed if they did accompany their children, in 1835, Bridget Peter a native of the Madras region lost her husband, a British soldier serving in His Majestys 1st Foot Regiment. She petitioned the Directors from Chelsea Hospital in a state of destitution and they paid to return her and her three children to India. The Navigation Act of 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships, in 1797,13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford. During the 19th century, the East India Company brought thousands of Indian lascars, scholars and workers to Britain largely to work on ships and it is estimated 8,000 Indians lived in Britain permanently prior to the 1950s. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascar seamen, naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous early Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomet, in 1810, he founded Londons first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House
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British Pakistanis
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British Pakistanis are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, the majority of British Pakistanis originate from the Azad Kashmir and Punjab regions, with a smaller number from other parts of Pakistan including Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The UK is home to the largest Pakistani community in Europe, British Pakistanis are the second largest ethnic minority population in the United Kingdom and also make up the second largest subgroup of British Asians. In addition, they are the second largest overseas Pakistani community, due to the historical relations between the two countries, immigration to the UK from the region which is now Pakistan began in small numbers in the mid-nineteenth century. This was made easier as Pakistan was a member of the Commonwealth, Pakistani immigrants helped to resolve labour shortages in the British steel and textile industries. Doctors from Pakistan were recruited by the National Health Service in the 1960s, the British Pakistani population has grown from about 10,000 in 1951 to over 1.1 million in 2011. The vast majority of live in England, with a sizable number in Scotland and smaller numbers in Wales. The most diverse Pakistani population is in London which comprises Punjabis, Mirpuri Kashmiris, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Muhajirs, Saraikis, Baloch and others. The majority of British Pakistanis are Muslim, around 90 per cent of those living in England, the majority are Sunni Muslims, with a significant minority of Shia Muslims. The UK also has one of the largest overseas Christian Pakistani communities, since their settlement, British Pakistanis have had diverse contributions and influence on British society, politics, culture, economy and sport. A large number of British Pakistanis have traditionally been self-employed, with a significant number working in the industry or in family-run businesses of the retail sector. The earliest period of Asian migration to Britain has not been ascertained, immigration from what is now Pakistan to the United Kingdom began long before the independence of Pakistan in 1947. These immigrants were often the first Asians to be seen in British port cities and were perceived as indolent due to their reliance on Christian charities. Despite this, most early Pakistani immigrants married local white British women because there were few South Asian women in Britain at the time. During the colonial era, Asians continued coming to Britain as seamen, traders, students, domestic workers, cricketers, political officials and visitors, South Asian seamen sometimes settled after ill treatment or being abandoned by ship masters. Many early Pakistanis came to the UK as scholars and studied at major British institutions, an example of such a person is Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah came to the UK in 1892 and started an apprenticeship at Grahams Shipping and Trading Company, after completing his apprenticeship, Jinnah joined Lincolns Inn where he trained as a barrister. At 19, Jinnah became the youngest person from South Asia to be called to the bar in Britain, most early Pakistani settlers and their families moved from port towns to the Midlands, as Britain declared war on Germany in 1939
16.
British Bangladeshi
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British Bangladeshis are people of Bangladeshi origin who reside in the United Kingdom having immigrated to the UK and attained citizenship through naturalisation or whose ancestors did so. They are also known as British Bengalis, in reference to the ethnic group from that region. Large numbers of Bangladeshis immigrated to the UK, primarily from Sylhet, located in the north-east of the country, the largest concentration is in London, primarily in the east London boroughs, of which Tower Hamlets has the highest proportion. This large diaspora in London leads people in Bangladesh to refer to British Bangladeshis as Londonis, Bangladeshis form one of the UKs largest group of people of overseas descent and are also one of the countrys youngest and fastest growing communities. The 2011 UK Census recorded nearly half-a-million residents of Bangladeshi ethnicity, Bangladeshis form a largely homogeneous community. Rates of unemployment are typically high, there is overcrowding, British Bangladeshis have the highest overall relative poverty rate of any ethnic group in the UK with 65% of Bangladeshis living in low income households. Bengalis had been present in Britain as early as the 19th century, some ancestors of British Bangladeshis went to the UK before World War I. Author Caroline Adams records that in 1925 a lost Bengali man was searching for other Bengali settlers in London and they mainly immigrated to the United Kingdom to find work, achieve a better standard of living, and to escape conflict. During the pre-state years, the 1950s and 1960s, Bengali men immigrated to London in search of employment, most settled in Tower Hamlets, particularly around Spitalfields and Brick Lane. In 1971, Bangladesh fought for its independence from Pakistan in what was known as the Bangladesh Liberation War, in the region of Sylhet, this led some people to join the Mukti Bahini, or Liberation Army. In the 1970s, changes in immigration laws encouraged a new wave of Bangladeshis to come to the UK, job opportunities were initially limited to low paid sectors, with unskilled and semi-skilled work in small factories and the textile trade being common. When the Indian restaurant concept became popular, some Sylhetis started to open cafes, from these small beginnings a network of Bangladeshi restaurants, shops and other small businesses became established in Brick Lane and surrounding areas. The influence of Bangladeshi culture and diversity began to develop across the East London boroughs, the early immigrants lived and worked mainly in cramped basements and attics within the Tower Hamlets area. The men were illiterate, poorly educated, and spoke little English, so they could not interact well with the English-speaking population. Some became targets for businessmen, who sold their properties to Sylhetis, by the late 1970s, the Brick Lane area had become predominantly Bengali, replacing the former Jewish community which had declined. Jews migrated to outlying suburbs of London, as integrated with the majority British population. Jewish bakeries were turned into houses, jewellery shops became sari stores. The synagogue at the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane became the Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque and this building represents the history of successive communities of immigrants in this part of London
17.
British Chinese
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They opened restaurants on the ports. Most British Chinese are descended from people who were themselves overseas Chinese when they came to Britain, most are from former British colonies, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mauritius. People from mainland China and Taiwan and their descendants constitute a minor proportion of the British Chinese community. Chinese communities are found in major cities including London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast. The first recorded Chinese person in Britain was Shen Fu Tsong, Shen was the first person to catalogue the Chinese collection in the Bodleian Library. The King was so taken with him he had his portrait painted, the portrait of Shen hangs in the Queens collection. The first settlement of Chinese people in the United Kingdom dates from the early 19th century, because many of the Chinese settlers were originally seamen, the first settlements started in the port cities of Liverpool, Cardiff and London. In London, the Limehouse area became the site of one of the first Chinatowns established in Britain, a Chinese seaman known as John Anthony took on this lucrative role looking after Chinese sailors for the East India Shipping Company in the late 18th and early 19th century. By 1805, Anthony had amassed both the fortune and the influence to become the first Chinese man to be naturalised as a British citizen—an act so rare it actually required an Act of Parliament. British shipping companies first started employing Chinese sailors during the Napoleonic Wars to replace the British sailors who had called up to the Royal Navy. They soon discovered that they worked for less, did not drink to excess, conditions aboard ship appalled Lee Cheong, for instance, when he visited his fathers quarters, The smell. I remember the smell and the cramped conditions. I remember going down below, rows and rows of bunks, knapsacks and all sorts of junk stuffed in every nook, lots and lots of people milling around. I couldn’t think of anything worse than those sorts of conditions, with the advent of steam in the 1860s, the recruitment of Chinese seamen increased on the trading routes from the Far East. The first Chinese student to graduate from a British university was Wong Fun who received his MD in 1855 from Edinburgh, many Chinese graduates did indeed return to make a significant contribution to their country, but some stayed. The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important celebration for Chinese and it links overseas Chinese and their descendants to their heritage, even though they live thousands of miles away from their ancestral homelands. Celebrations in London are famous for colourful parades, fireworks, the route starts in the Strand and goes along Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue. Other activities include a show in Trafalgar Square with dragon and lion dances and traditional
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British African-Caribbean people
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British African Caribbean people are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily natives or indigenous to Africa. African-Caribbean people are present throughout the United Kingdom with by far the largest concentrations in London, pauls in Bristol, or Handsworth and Aston in Birmingham or Moss Side in Manchester. According to the 2011 census, the largest number of African-Caribbean people are found in Croydon, there is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately. The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of African-Caribbean for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting not Afro-Caribbean, New World slavery was originally focused on the extraction of gold and other precious raw materials. Africans were then set to work on the vast cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations in the Americas for the economic benefit of these colonial powers. One impact of the American Revolution was the historical development of African-American and African-Caribbean people. Whereas the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws, slavery did not exist under English common law and was prohibited in England. Slaves cannot breathe in England, if their lungs receive our air and they touch our country, and their shackles fall. Thats noble, and bespeaks a nation proud, spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein. There are records of small communities in the ports of Cardiff, Liverpool, London and these communities were formed by freed slaves following the abolition of slavery. Typical occupations of the migrants were footmen or coachmen. Walter Tull, footballer and soldier, Andrew Watson, footballer, Robert Wedderburn, Spencean revolutionary Nathaniel Wells, landowner and yeomanry officer. The growing Caribbean presence in the British military led to approximately 15,000 migrants arriving in the north-west of England around the time of World War I to work in munitions factories. The Jamaican poet and communist activist, Claude McKay came to England following the First World War and became the first Black British journalist, in February 1941,345 West Indian workers were brought to work in and around Liverpool. They were generally better skilled than the local Black British, there was some tension between them and West Africans who had settled in the area. Since World War II, many African-Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe, especially to the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. As a result of the losses during the war, the British government began to mass immigration from the countries of the British Empire. The British Nationality Act 1948 gave British citizenship to all living in Commonwealth countries
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British Arabs
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British Arabs are British people citizens or residents of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity from Arab countries. Unlike Black British or Asian British, the term British Arab was not one of those employed in government ethnicity categorisations used in the 2001 UK Census and for national statistics. As a result, community members are believed to have been under-counted in previous population estimates according to the National Association of British Arabs and this absence of a separate Arab category in the UK census obliged many to select other ethnicity categories. In the late 2000s, the British government announced that an Arab ethnicity category would be added to the 2011 UK Census for the first time, as a result,240,545 British Arabs were reported in the 2011 Census in England and Wales. It also notes that how many of the individual identities responded in the general Arab box is uncertain so there may be overlap in the numbers, it found 366,769 Arabs in England. British Arabs is used as an ethnic designation by the National Association of British Arabs. It is also employed by academics, and in the media, as of 2011, the National Association of British Arabs estimates that there are around 366,769 first and second generation British Arabs. The majority originate from Somalia, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, most live in the Greater London area, and many are either businesspeople, recent immigrants or students. There are also sizable and long-established Yemeni Arab communities living in both Cardiff and the South Shields area, the latter near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a diverse community, British Arabs are represented in the business and media fields, among other areas. Miladi s survey of 146 community members during the summer of 2001 reported Al-Jazeera as being the respondents preferred news outlet, additionally,2010 was a breakthrough year in terms of political participation. Several British Arabs ran for and/or were appointed to office as community representatives, according to the 2011 Census, the religious breakdown of Arabs in England and Wales can be seen in the table below
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Classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom
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According to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom was around 63,182,000. It is the 22nd-largest in the world and its overall population density is 259 people per square kilometre, with England having a significantly higher population density than Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This population growth through natural change has been accompanied in the past two decades by growth through net international migration into the UK, the United Kingdoms assumed high literacy rate is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900. Parents are obliged to have their children educated from the ages of 5 to 16, about 40% of British students go on to post-secondary education. The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the churches in their respective countries. The UKs population is predominantly White British, historically, British people were thought to be descended mainly from the different ethnic stocks that settled there before the 11th century, pre-Celtic, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman. Although Celtic languages are spoken in Scotland, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland. In North and West Wales, Welsh is widely spoken as a first language, but much less so in the South East of the country, during the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The proportion of the born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5 per thousand in 1730–1749 to 31.8 per thousand in 1810–1829. According to Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore, the population of England and Wales, the first Census in 1801 revealed that the population of Great Britain was 10.5 million. In 1800, the population of Ireland was between 4.5 and 5.5 million, the 1841 UK Census counted the population of England and Wales to be 15.9 million. Irelands population was 8.2 million in 1841, the population of Scotland was 2.6 million. The Great Irish Famine, which began in the 1840s, caused the deaths of one million Irish people, mass emigration became entrenched as a result of the famine and the population continued to decline until the mid-20th century. The population of England had almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, ireland’s population decreased rapidly, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901. The estimated population of the United Kingdom in the 2011 census was 63.182 million of whom 31. 029m were male and 32. 153m female. Based on the 2011 census the population of England was 53. 012m, Scotland was estimated at 5. 295m, Wales was 3. 063m and Northern Ireland 1. 811m. The mid-2015 population estimates for the UK was 65. 1m – approximately 54. 8m for England,5. 4m for Scotland,3. 1m for Wales and 1. 9m for Northern Ireland. The UK Office for National Statistics 2012-based National Population Projections indicated that, if recent trends continue and this is an average annual growth rate of 0. 6% per annum
21.
Non-metropolitan county
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A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.4 million, the term shire county is, however, an unofficial usage. Many of the non-metropolitan counties bear historic names and most end in the suffix -shire such as Wiltshire or Staffordshire, of the remainder, some counties had the -shire ending and have lost it over time, such as Devon and Somerset. Shire county is, strictly, a dual-language tautology since the French-derived county means the same as the older Anglo-Saxon word shire, prior to 1974 local government had been divided between single-tier county boroughs and two-tier administrative counties which were subdivided into municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts. The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London, each county was divided into anywhere between two and fourteen non-metropolitan districts. As originally constituted, the counties were largely based on existing counties. Some counties were based on areas surrounding large county boroughs or were formed by the mergers of smaller counties, examples of the first category are Avon and Cleveland. Examples of the category are Hereford and Worcester and Cumbria. The Royal Mail adopted the counties for purposes in most areas. A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the structure of the non-metropolitan counties. It was anticipated that a system of unitary authorities would entirely replace the two-tier system, the Commission faced competing claims from former county boroughs wishing to regain unitary status and advocates for the restoration of such small counties as Herefordshire and Rutland. The review led to the introduction of local government in some areas. In the majority of unitary authorities an existing district council took over powers from the county council, the 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county, with the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of counties for these purposes. A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government, while a number of new county counties were created, several of the new authorities continued to have the boundaries set in 1974
22.
Hertfordshire County Council
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Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the elections in 2013, it consists of 77 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party and it is a member of the East of England Local Government Association. Elections are held four years, interspersed by three years of elections to the ten district councils in the county. Conservative candidates represent most of the rural areas, and almost all of eastern Hertfordshire is Conservative-controlled. Three Rivers and Watford are Liberal Democrat strong areas, whilst Stevenage is Labours strongest area, all seats in the districts of Broxbourne and East Hertfordshire are represented by Conservative councillors. The Cabinet consists of the Leader of the Council and other Executive Members, Official Hertfordshire County Council website Official Hertfordshire County Council careers website
23.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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Hertford
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Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2011 census put the population of Hertford at about 26,000, the earliest reference to the town appears in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede in 731 AD, which refers to Herutford. Herut is the Old English spelling of hart, meaning a fully mature stag, the Domesday Book of 1086 gives a spelling of Hertforde. Hertford has been the county town of Hertfordshire since Saxon times when it was governed by the kings reeves, by the 13th century, the reeves had been replaced by a bailiff, elected by the burgesses. Charters of 1554 and 1589 established a council of eleven chief burgesses. Another charter of 1605 changed the title to mayor. In 1835, Hertford became a Municipal Corporation, the ratepayers elected twelve councillors, since 1974, Hertford has been within the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire. The headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council is at County Hall in Hertford. East Herts District Councils offices almost adjoin County Hall, and there is also a Hertford Town Council based at Hertford Castle. Hertford is at the confluence of four valleys, the Rib, Beane and Mimram join the River Lea at Hertford to flow south toward the Thames as the Lee Navigation. The town centre still has its medieval layout with many timber-framed buildings hidden under later frontages, Hertford suffers from traffic problems despite the existence of the 1960s A414 bypass called Gascoyne Way which passes close to the town centre. Plans have long existed to connect the A10 with the A414, nevertheless, the town retains very much a country-town feel, despite lying only 19.2 miles north of Central London. This is aided by its proximity to towns such as Harlow, Bishops Stortford. Possibly the first mention of the town was in 673 A. D. the first synod of a number of the bishops in England was held either in Hertford or at Hartford and it was called by Theodore of Tarsus, decisions included the calculation of the date of Easter. In 912 AD, Edward the Elder built two burhs close by the ford over the River Lea as a defence against Danish incursions, by the time of the Domesday Book, Hertford had two churches, two markets and three mills. The Normans began work on Hertford Castle, and Hertford Priory was founded by Ralph de Limesy, king Henry II rebuilt the castle in stone, but in 1216, during the First Barons War, it was besieged and captured after 25 days by Prince Louis of France. The castle was visited by English royalty and in 1358, Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II. The priory was dissolved in 1536 and subsequently demolished and in 1563, Hertford grew and prospered as a market and county town, communication was improved by the construction of the Lea Navigation Canal in 1767 and the arrival of the railway in 1843. A fair amount of employment in the town is centred on County Hall, Wallfields and McMullens Brewery, many residents commute to work in London
25.
NUTS statistical regions of the United Kingdom
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NUTS2006 came into force on 1 January 2008. NUTS2010 came into force on 1 January 2012, the two areas of UKD51 and UKD21 were amended by the transfer of Halton from the latter to former to from the new areas of UKD71 and UKD61. Bedfordshire CC UKH22 was replaced by UKH24 and UKH25 NUTS2013 came into force on 1 January 2015. Thus NUTS2 of Inner London West UKI11 becoming the NUTS3 area of UKI3 and likewise, Inner London East, Outer London East and North East, Outer London South and Outer London West and North West. The NUTS3 areas are now a single or a group of two or three boroughs
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Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
27.
Three Rivers District
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Three Rivers District Council is a local government based in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, in southern England. Three Rivers is a district that elects one-third of its councillors every four years. In the 2014 elections new ward boundaries came into effect and the council was reduced from 48 to 39 seats, all seats were contested at that election although future elections will continue to be conducted in thirds. Since the by-election in January 2017, the Liberal Democrats have held a majority on the council, most of the district is within the South West Hertfordshire constituency, which is considered a safe Conservative seat and held by a Conservative MP since its creation in 1950. Parts of two wards, north of the M25, are in the St Albans constituency, which is held by the Conservative Anne Main. Three Rivers is composed of thirteen wards, each electing three councillors, Train services are provided by Chiltern Railways and the Metropolitan line of the London Underground
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Watford
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Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated 17 miles northwest of central London and inside the circumference of the M25 motorway. It is not to be confused with Watford, Northamptonshire which is 55 miles to the north, the town developed on the River Colne on land belonging to St Albans Abbey until the 16th century. During the 12th century a charter was granted allowing a market, the town grew modestly, assisted by travellers passing through to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A big house was built at Cassiobury in the 16th century and this was partly rebuilt in the 17th century and another substantial house was built nearby at The Grove. Two brewers Benskins and Sedgwicks flourished in the town until their closure in the late 20th century, Hertfordshire County Council designates Watford, along with Stevenage, to be its major sub-regional centre. Several head offices are based in Watford, both the 2006 World Golf Championship and the 2013 Bilderberg Conference took place at The Grove. Watford was created as a district under the Local Government Act 1894. The borough had 90,301 inhabitants at the time of the 2011 census, the borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District. Watford Borough Council is the authority with the Mayor of Watford as its head, one of only 18 directly elected mayors in England. Dorothy Thornhill has been the mayor since the elected system was set up in May 2002 and is both the first Liberal Democrat and the first female directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. Watford elects one Member of Parliament for the Watford constituency, prior to the establishment of this constituency in 1885 the area was part of the three-seat constituency of Hertfordshire. There is evidence of some limited prehistoric occupation around the Watford area, with a few Celtic and Roman finds, watfords High Street follows the line of this route on the northern side of the ford. The town was located on the first dry ground above the edges of the River Colne. The name Watford may have arisen from the Old English for waet, or wath, St Albans Abbey claimed rights to the manor of Cashio, which included Watford, dating from a grant by King Offa in AD793. The name Watford is first mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 1007, where Watforda is one of the marking the boundary of Oxanhaege. It is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when area was part of St Albans Abbeys manor of cashio. In the 12th century the Abbey was granted a charter allowing it to hold a market here, the town grew modestly, assisted by travellers passing through to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A big house was built at Cassiobury in the 16th century and this was partly rebuilt in the 17th century and another substantial house was built nearby at The Grove
29.
Hertsmere
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Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood, other towns in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar. The name Hertsmere was invented for the new district by combining the common abbreviation of Hertfordshire with mere, the name is reflected in the councils coat of arms, which shows a hart upon the battlements of a boundary wall. The district was awarded borough status by Royal Charter in 1977, the borough was originally in the Metropolitan Police District, despite being outside the modern Greater London boundaries. It was transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2000, Hertsmere is the location of Elstree Studios, which produces such shows as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Dancing on Ice, and is the location for the Big Brother house. Hertsmere is also the location for BBC Elstree, the site of EastEnders, the area was also home to other TV and film studios, including MGM, until this was demolished for residential development, and is now an area called Studio Way. In the 2011 census, Hertsmere polled as the second most Jewish local authority in England, the borough council currently consists of 39 elected councillors, with a third being elected at each election. As of the 2014 election there are 34 Conservative and 5 Labour councillors, until 1983 the borough was included in the parliamentary constituency of Hertfordshire South. In 1983 the constituency was renamed Hertsmere, Hertsmere had been represented in Parliament by Conservative, James Clappison since 1992. He succeeded Cecil Parkinson who had been Member of Parliament for the area since 1974 and it is now represented by the Conservative, Oliver Dowden. The areas of the former Bushey and Potters Bar urban districts are unparished
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Welwyn Hatfield
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The Borough of Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district in southern Hertfordshire, England. It covers the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, along with smaller settlements from Woolmer Green in the north to Little Heath in the south. Each of the towns has a station on the East Coast Main Line. It borders the London Borough of Enfield, the district was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the Welwyn Garden City urban district, with the Hatfield and Welwyn rural districts. It petitioned for borough status in 2005, which was agreed to by the Privy Council on 15 November 2005, in April 2006 a charter conferring borough status was granted, and the title of the council officially changed to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council on 22 May 2006. The first Mayor of the borough, John Hawkins, was chosen on 22 May, set within the London green belt, the towns still retain something of their own identities. Welwyn Garden City has a famous heritage being one of only two Garden Cities in the country, and is uniquely both Garden City and designated New Town and they function to some extent as dormitory towns for householders who work in London. The Welwyn Viaduct is an important landmark. Elections to the council are held in three out of four years, with one third of the 48 seats on the council being elected at each election. Since 1973 control of the council has alternated between the Conservative and Labour parties, with the Conservatives having controlled it since the 2002 election, at the last election in 2008 the Conservatives won 40 seats, compared to 5 for Labour and 3 for the Liberal Democrats. All other Welwyn Hatfield wards are the same for Borough and Constituency, since 2005 Welwyn Hatfield Constituency has been represented by Conservative Grant Shapps
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Borough of Broxbourne
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The Borough of Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon, the eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea. The borough covers 20 square miles in south east Hertfordshire having a population of about 96,000, the borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Cheshunt and Hoddesdon urban districts. In Broxbourne borough, the Metropolitan Green Belt protects the surrounding countryside, the west of Broxbourne borough extends over well-wooded countryside to include Goffs Oak and the popular Lee Valley Park which marks the eastern boundary. Although urbanised with industrial and commercial activity, the area retains much of its rural character and is liked by people commuting to London. Most of Broxbourne is classified as part of the Greater London Urban Area, the borough is twinned with the Sicilian city of Sutera. There are 600 companies in the borough, with warehousing and distribution sectors being particularly well represented, the main industrial areas are around Waltham Cross and the Essex Road area of Hoddesdon. Employing 200 people on a 23-acre site to produce 86,000 newspapers per hour on each of its printing presses. Broxbourne Council Broxbourne population change through time
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East Hertfordshire
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East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council has offices in Bishops Stortford and Hertford, the other main towns in the district are Ware, Buntingford, and Sawbridgeworth. Of these five towns, all except Buntingford fall within the parliamentary constituency of Hertford and Stortford. Buntingford is part of the North East Hertfordshire constituency, East Herts, as its council is officially known, is bordered by North Hertfordshire, Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield, and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, and by Epping Forest, Harlow, and Uttlesford in Essex. By area it is the largest of the ten local government districts in Hertfordshire, in the 2006 edition of the Channel 4 Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK, East Hertfordshire was rated the seventh best district to live in. In 2012 Halifax voted East Herts the 9th best place to live, the district contains only one motorway - a small stretch of the M11 at Bishops Stortford. The major roads within the district include, A10 - from London to Cambridge, enters after Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, a414 - from Welwyn to Harlow, through Hertford, where it forms the Hertford by-pass. A602 -, connecting at A10 at Ware with the A1 at Stevenage, a120 - connecting the A10 at Standon with the M11 at Bishops Stortford. None of the roads are classified as trunk roads. Therefore, they are maintained by Hertfordshire County Council while responsibility for the M11 rests with the Highways Agency, stansted Airport is just beyond the edge of the district near Bishops Stortford, but officially sits within Uttlesford district in neighbouring Essex. Many of the towns have rail services into London at Kings Cross, Moorgate. The districts biggest employer is the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which has a research, the company also has large offices in neighbouring Stevenage and Harlow. See List of civil parishes in Hertfordshire
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Stevenage
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Stevenage /ˈstiːvənᵻdʒ/ is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1, Stevenage is roughly 32.9 miles north of central London. Its population has increased significantly over the last century, the population was 1,430 in 1801,4,049 in 1901,79,715 in 2001 and 83,957 in 2011. The largest increase occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, after Stevenage was designated a new town under the New Towns Act of 1946, the current population is now estimated to be around 84,000. Two films were set in and around Stevenage, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, spy Game was partly filmed in Stevenage but set in Washington, D. C. The 1959 film Serious Charge was also filmed in Stevenage, Stevenage may derive from Old English stiþen āc / stiðen āc / stithen ac meaning the stiff oak. The name was recorded as Stithenæce, c.1060 and Stigenace in 1086 in the Domesday Book, Stevenage lies near the line of the Roman road from Verulamium to Baldock. Some Romano-British remains were discovered during the building of the New Town, the most substantial evidence of activity from Roman times is Six Hills, six tumuli by the side of the old Great North Road – presumably the burial places of a local family. A little to the east of the Roman sites the first Saxon camp was made in a clearing in the woods where the church, manor house, settlements also sprang up in Chells, Broadwater and Shephall. In the Domesday Book the Lord of the Manor was the Abbot of Westminster Abbey, the settlement had moved down to the Great North Road and in 1281 it was granted a Royal Charter to hold a weekly market and annual fair. The earliest part of St Nicholas Church dates from the 12th century, the known list of priests or rectors is relatively complete from 1213. The remains of a moated homestead in Whomerley Wood is an 80-yard-square trench almost 5 feet wide in parts. It was probably the home of Ralph de Homle, and both Roman and later pottery has been found there, around 1500 the Church was much improved, with decorative woodwork and the addition of a clerestory. In 1558 Thomas Alleyne, a rector of the town, founded a grammar school for boys, Alleynes Grammar School. Francis Cammaerts was headmaster of the school from 1952 to 1961, the school, which was a mixed comprehensive school and is now an Academy as of 2013, still exists on its original site at the north end of the High Street. It was intended to move the school to Great Ashby, Stevenages prosperity came in part from the North Road, which was turnpiked in the early 18th century. Many inns in the High Street served the stage coaches,21 of which passed through Stevenage each day in 1800, in 1857 the Great Northern Railway was constructed, and the era of the stage coach had ended. Stevenage grew only slowly throughout the 19th century and a church was constructed at the south end of the High Street
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St Albans City and District
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St Albans City and District is a local authority district in Hertfordshire in the East of England region. The main urban settlements are St Albans and Harpenden, the council offices are in St Albans. The municipal borough had had city status since 1877 and it was granted to the district by letters patent on 9 July 1974. The largest urban settlement is St Albans, followed in size by Harpenden, with settlements at Redbourn, Wheathamstead, London Colney, Chiswell Green. The M1 motorway, the M25 motorway, the A414 road, there are rail routes to London St Pancras from St Albans City railway station and to Watford from St Albans Abbey railway station. Local government responsibilities are divided among Hertfordshire County Council, St Albans City and District Council, Hertfordshire County Council is responsible for education, transport, fire and public safety, social care and libraries. Parish council responsibilities include allotments, youth projects, leisure facilities, open spaces, traffic calming, the main offices of St Albans City and District Council are in St Albans. There are 58 elected councillors, representing twenty electoral wards,18 wards elect three councillors each, two elect two each. There is currently no overall control of the council by any political party and its present composition is, Conservative -30, Liberal Democrats -16, Labour -8, Green Party -1, Independent -3. The party group leaders are, Conservatives – Cllr Julian Daly, Liberal Democrats – Cllr Chris White, Labour – Cllr Roma Mills, Independent, the wards electing two members are denoted with an obelisk. Elections to the council are held in three out of four years, with one third of seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the first election in 1973, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats have had periods in control, the Conservatives had a majority from 1973 to 1984, and then again from 1998 to 1991 after a period of no overall control. The Liberal Democrats won control in 1994 but lost their majority in 1999 and they had control from 2006 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2011. In the 2011 election the Conservatives took half the seats, with 29 councillors, St Albans has had a Mayor for over 450 years since the Charter of 1553. Under modern arrangements, there is an Executive Cabinet of eight senior councillors, a list of past Mayors is available on the St Albans City and District Council website. There are parish councils in Colney Heath, Harpenden, Harpenden Rural, London Colney, Redbourn, St Michael, St Stephen, Sandridge, the town of St Albans is unparished but local affairs are overseen by a City Neighbourhoods Committee. The City and District of St Albans has a local economy, is an excellent location for rail, road and airports. The District also benefits from the proximity of the University of Hertfordshire, based close by at Hatfield, St Albans has a highly skilled workforce, with the 4th highest proportion of managers, senior officials and professional occupations in the country
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Dacorum
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The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and the western part of Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001 and its name was taken from the old hundred of Dacorum which covered approximately the same area. The name Dacorum comes from Latin and it means hundred of the Dacians, the latter word was used mistakenly in the Middle Ages for Danes. This happened because of a legend asserting that certain tribes from Dacia had migrated to Denmark. The hundred of Dacorum was first recorded in 1196, although it has existed since the 9th and 10th centuries, in 1086, the Domesday Book records the hundreds of Tring and Danais in places that became parts of the hundred of Dacorum. In 1974, the district of Dacorum was formed under the Local Government Act 1972. The district was granted borough status in 1984, Hemel Hempstead had maintained Charter Trustees from 1974 to 1984. The amalgamation of the local authorities was symbolised in the seven oak leaves which surround a tudor rose on the Dacorum coat of arms. The borough is parished, apart from Hemel Hempstead. Dacorum Borough Council consists of 51 elected members, representing twenty-five electoral wards,14 of the wards elect two councillors each. Six, indicated below, elect three councillors each, five, also shown below, elect one each. The council is controlled by the Conservatives, who hold 46 of the 51 seats. The Liberal Democrats hold 3, and Labour hold 2, wards electing three members are denoted with an asterisk. Those electing one member are denoted with an obelus, primary schools in Dacorum The Dacorum Heritage Trust The Trust is the museum organisation for the Borough of Dacorum. Dacorum Borough Council - official website Dacorum Emergency Night Shelter - Night Shelter, Day Centre, Foodbank, Rent Aid, warehouse
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Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire
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The county of Hertfordshire in England is divided into eleven Parliamentary constituencies. Each of the eleven elects a Member of Parliament to represent it at the United Kingdom Parliament in Westminster, as of the 2015 general election, all of Hertfordshires eleven MPs are Conservatives. The county currently has two urban borough constituencies – Broxbourne and Watford – while the nine are classed as more rural county constituencies. Hertfordshire has been represented in Parliament since 1290, the number of MPs and the geographic areas they have represented have changed considerably, with some of the bigger changes occurring in 1832,1885,1974,1983 and 1997. Since the last constituency elections in 2005, some boundaries have altered slightly. The present ones are based upon recommendations made by the Boundary Commission for England, Hertfordshire was first represented in the English parliament in the thirteenth century, during the reign of King Edward I. Edward held a meeting of Parliament in the county in 1295, by 1307, the countys representation in parliament consisted of two representatives, known as Knights of the Shire, who represented the county as a whole. In addition, the city of St Albans and borough of Hertford elected two representatives of their own. Parliaments role evolved over the five centuries, from a body existing primarily to advise the monarch on taxation. However, Hertfordshires constituency makeup within it remained unchanged until 1852, the next change came in the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. The constituency of Hertfordshire itself was abolished, with the county represented by the constituencies of Hertford, the re-established St Albans, following the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885, Hertfordshires Parliamentary boundaries remained the same until 1950. However, the demographics of voters in the county changed significantly, the next national boundary change affecting Hertfordshire came into effect for the February 1974 election. Four new constituencies were introduced, however three of these were replaced at the national boundary change in 1983, as were Hitchin. Prior to these acts Parliament consisted of fewer constituencies, with some represented by several MPs and those which were represented by several Members of Parliament are listed below, with the increase or reduction in representation being implemented at general elections held in those years. Each constituency is made up of a series of whole or partial local government wards, nine constituencies are designated as county constituencies, while two are considered borough constituencies. County constituencies are generally larger and more rural, and therefore county constituency Parliamentary candidates are allowed to spend more per head than their borough counterparts, at the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party gained two seats from Labour. By holding their existing nine seats, they returned an MP in every Hertfordshire constituency. The seat with the smallest majority was Watford, where Richard Harrington defeated Sal Brinton of the Liberal Democrats by 1,425 votes, the safest seat was Hertsmere, where James Clappison received 17,605 votes more than his nearest rival
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Hertfordshire Constabulary
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Hertfordshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Hertfordshire in England. Its headquarters is in Welwyn Garden City, since June 2011 the force has been headed by Chief Constable Andy Bliss. Its manpower consists of over 3,900 police officers and staff, the Constabulary was founded in 1841, under the County Police Act, five years after the Hertford Borough Police and St Albans Borough Police had been formed. In 1889, the Hertford Borough Police force was merged into Hertfordshire, the first Constables were working-class men and were paid at the level of an agricultural labourer. In Victorian times, officers were entitled to only one rest day in four to six weeks and were entitled to only one weeks unpaid annual leave a year. A ten-hour working day was the norm and no meal breaks were allowed, there were strict constraints on an officers private life too. St Albans Constabulary remained independent until 1947, then being absorbed into the Hertfordshire Constabulary, finally, it was in 2000 that the current force boundaries came into place with the addition of Hertsmere and Broxbourne transferred from the Metropolitan Police. In 2006 proposals were made by Charles Clarke, the then Home Secretary, however, in July 2006, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled that police force mergers would not be forced through by the central government. However, with the recession beginning in 2008 the force began working on collaboration with neighbouring forces. Working collaboratively in this way protected local policing by officers, but enabled specialist units to work across. Further collaborative work is underway with call handling, control and dispatch, human resources, for the foreseeable future, the Constabularly looks likely to remain an independent force. Ultimately, the decision for any full merger of the three forces will be in the hands of the Police and Crime Commissioners, and thereby in turn, Local policing is overseen by the Local Policing Command, headed by a Chief Superintendent. The county is sub-divided into 10 Community Safety Partnerships, which correspond to the local Borough. The 10 CSPs, each headed by a Chief Inspector are, Watford, Three Rivers, Dacorum, Welwyn and Hatfield, St Albans, Hertsmere, East Herts, Broxbourne, Stevenage and North Herts. Each CSP has, 5x Intervention and Response Teams, Each team is headed by a sergeant and aligned to a shift pattern, Intervention teams respond to 999 and non emergency calls and perform general patrol duties. Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Combined teams of PCs and PCSOs covering local, Each Ward/Neighbourhood has at least one PC and PCSO to maintain an up-to-date knowledge of local issues and to address them. Each town is headed by a Sergeant, with an Inspector supervising on a CSP level, Local Crime Unit, Team of Detectives with a remit covering burglaries to assaults. Local policing is supplemented by an array of specialist units, some of which are collaborated with Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, the unit also provides a Specialist Firearms Officer capability for hostage rescue and close protection
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Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
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Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
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Southern England
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Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, refers roughly to the southern counties of England. The extent of area can take a number of different interpretations depending on the context, including geographical, cultural, political. Geographically, the extent of the south of England may vary from the southern one-third of the country, to the southern half, the South is often considered a principal cultural area of England, along with the Midlands and Northern England. Many consider the area to have a distinct identity from the rest of England, however without universal agreement on cultural, political. For statistical purposes, Southern England is divided into four regions, South West England, South East England, London, combined, these have a total area of 62,042 square kilometres, and a population of 28 million. People often apply the term loosely, without deeper consideration of the geographical identities of Southern England. This can cause confusion over the depth of affiliation between its areas, as in much of the rest of England, people tend to have a deeper affiliation to their county or city. Thus, residents of Essex are unlikely to feel much affinity with people in Oxfordshire, similarly, there is a strong distinction between natives of the south-west and south-east. The sport of rugby experienced a schism in 1895 with many based in Yorkshire, Lancashire and surrounding areas breaking from the Rugby Football Union. The disagreement that led to the split was over the issue of professional payments, there is a perception that league is the code of rugby played in the north, whilst union is the code played in the south. In most definitions, Southern England includes all the counties on/near the English Channel, the exact northern extent varies and as with most geographical regions, people sometimes debate the boundaries. Despite these definitions, the boundary is generally taken to correspond to an imaginary line from the Severn Estuary to the Wash
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Bedfordshire
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Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It is a county and a historic county, covered by three unitary authorities, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, and Luton. Bedfordshire is bordered by Cambridgeshire to the east/northeast, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the east/southeast. It is the fourteenth most densely populated county of England, with half the population of the county living in the two largest built-up areas, Luton and the county town, Bedford. The highest elevation point is 243 metres on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns, the traditional nickname for people from Bedfordshire is Clangers, deriving from a local dish comprising a suet crust pastry filled with meat in one end and jam in the other. The first recorded use of the name in 1011 was Bedanfordscir, meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means Bedas ford. Bedfordshire was historically divided into nine hundreds, Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton, Flitt, Manshead, Redbournestoke, Stodden, Willey, Wixamtree, along with the liberty and borough of Bedford. There have been changes to the county boundary, for example, in 1897 Kensworth. The southern end of the county is on the ridge known as the Chiltern Hills. The remainder is part of the drainage basin of the River Great Ouse. Most of Bedfordshires rocks are clays and sandstones from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, local clay has been used for brick-making of Fletton style bricks in the Marston Vale. The Greensand Ridge is an escarpment across the county from near Leighton Buzzard to near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire is relatively dry, being situated in the east of England. Average annual rainfall is 597.6 millimetres at Bedford, october is the wettest month with 62.5 millimetres, February the driest with 36.7 millimetres. While there is little difference from month to month there are more wet days in autumn and winter but often heavier individual falls in spring and summer, of note were the 1998 Easter floods. Average temperatures in Bedford range from a low of 0.8 °C overnight in February to a high of 22.1 °C during the day in July, in the last 20 years the highest temperature recorded was 35.9 °C. The lowest temperature on record in Bedfordshire is −20.6 °C at Woburn on 25 February 1947, the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner is Kathryn Holloway who is a member of the Conservative Party. For local government purposes, Bedfordshire is divided into three authorities, the boroughs of Bedford and Luton, and the District of Central Bedfordshire. Bedfordshire County Council was abolished on 1 April 2009, although the three continue to form a county for ceremonial functions such as lieutenancy and High Sheriff
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Cambridgeshire
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The city of Cambridge is the county town. It contains most of the known as Silicon Fen. Local government is divided between Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, which is a unitary authority. Cambridgeshire is noted as the site of Flag Fen in Fengate, one of the earliest-known Neolithic permanent settlements in the United Kingdom, compared in importance to Balbridie in Aberdeen, Scotland. A great quantity of archaeological finds from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, most items were found in Isleham. Cambridgeshire was recorded in the Domesday Book as Grantbridgeshire, covering a large part of East Anglia, Cambridgeshire today is the result of several local government unifications. In 1965, these two counties were merged to form Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Under the Local Government Act 1972 this merged with the county to the west, Huntingdon, the resulting county was called simply Cambridgeshire. Since 1998, the City of Peterborough has been a separately administered area and it is associated with Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes such as Lieutenancy, and joint functions such as policing and the fire service. In 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife unofficially designated Cambridgeshires county flower as the Pasqueflower, the Cambridgeshire Regiment, the county-based army unit, fought in the Boer War of South Africa, the First World War and Second World War. Due to the flat terrain and proximity to the continent, during the Second World War the military built many airfields here for RAF Bomber Command, RAF Fighter Command. In recognition of this collaboration, the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial is located in Madingley and it is the only WWII burial ground in England for American servicemen who died during that event. Most English counties have nicknames for their people, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire, the traditional nicknames for people from Cambridgeshire are Cambridgeshire Camel or Cambridgeshire Crane, referring to the wildfowl that were once abundant in the fens. The term Fenners was often applied to those who come from the country to the north of Cambridge. Since the late 20th century, this term is considered to be derogatory and has been discouraged in use, original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies. See also Geology of Cambridgeshire Large areas of the county are extremely low-lying, the highest point is in the village of Great Chishill at 146 m above sea level. Other prominent hills are Little Trees Hill and Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Downs, Rivey Hill above Linton, Rowleys Hill, AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. The RAF has several stations in the Huntingdon and St Ives area, RAF Waterbeach,6 miles north of Cambridge, is a former RAF airfield, now used as an army barracks
United Kingdom
England
listen)[n 1]; often abbreviated Herts) is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region.
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Hertfordshire
