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Perhaps the most obvious political division in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is between the four countries (from largest to smallest in population): EnglandEngland, ScotlandScotland, WalesWales, and Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland. Each country has varying degrees of powerpower over education and taxes ( 5). If we were to zoom up from Britain, we could say something about the CommonwealthCommonwealth (Cromwell)Commonwealth as perhaps the largest element of political division (and imagine its historical size by keeping in mind the famous saying that “the sun never sets on the British EmpireBritish Empire”), but let’s save the Empire and the Commonwealth for a later chapter ( 6) and be satisfied for now just with those divisions that are relevant just for the UK.

constituencies, countiescounties, shiresshires, …Just as the US is divided into congressional districtscongressional districts with one district sending one representative to the House of RepresentativesHouse of Representatives, Britain is also divided into constituencies with each constituencyconstituency sending one member to the House of CommonsHouse of Commons in WestminsterWestminster. There are also older divisions into countiescounties or shiresshires, some of which like EssexEssex, SussexSussex, and KentKent go all the way back to Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon times ( 2). In the MidlandsMidlands area of EnglandEngland [29]especially you can see the old name for county “shire” in the county names of LeicestershireLeicestershire (don’t let the spelling keep you from the easy correct pronunciation: only three syllables les-tuh-shuh), NottinghamshireNottinghamshire, where Robin HoodRobin Hood came from, and WorcestershireWorcestershire (hard to spell, easy to pronounce in only three syllables: wu-stuh-shuh), where the sauce still comes from. The British government has attempted to reform the complicated local government system and has created new “unitary authorities” or “unitary councils,” which haven’t always been accepted by people used to old county names. You can still often connect old cities with their corresponding counties: GloucesterGloucester with GloucestershireGloucestershire, NottinghamNottingham with Nottinghamshire, and LeicesterLeicester (les-tuh) with Leicestershire of course. The connection between city and county names is thus actually quite simple although the political divisions of powerpower and responsibility are enormously complicated.

Fig. 1.7

WestminsterWestminster sign

and boroughsboroughsThere are also divisions within larger cities, the most famous perhaps are the boroughsboroughs of LondonLondon like the Royal Borough of KensingtonKensington and ChelseaChelsea or WestminsterWestminster. Actually the City of Westminster is also a borough in spite of its name and in spite of the signs you can still find in London. Keep Westminster in mind; you’ll be hearing about it again in several different contexts later.

Speaking of cities …