To the west of Wales and northern England and to the southeast of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, while southwestern England, the northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, and western Scotland face the Atlantic Ocean. From the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, it is about 600 miles (1,000 km). Sports governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.537 Every four years the Home Nations make a combined team known as the British and Irish Lions which tours Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
North-west of England film and TV itinerary
The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales. The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world’s foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914.
The budget followed weeks of messy mixed messaging and political acrimony that continued into the minutes before Reeves stood in the House of Commons. Other measures included a mansion tax, changes to the capital gains tax regime, higher gambling taxes, a new levy on electric car use and a cut to tax-free provisions for private pensions. The biggest change in terms of money raised is freezing the thresholds at which earners pay Britain’s different tax levels for a further three years from 2028, meaning as wages rise, more people fall into higher tax brackets. A court found a health trust had failed to provide safe care for Ellame at Worthing Hospital. Though previous attempts at uniting the two kingdoms within Great Britain in 1606, 1667 and 1689 had proved unsuccessful, the attempt initiated in 1705 led to the Treaty of Union of 1706 being agreed and ratified by both parliaments.
Relations between these constituent states and England have been marked by controversy and, at times, open rebellion and even warfare. These tensions relaxed somewhat during the late 20th century, when devolved assemblies were introduced in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The UK has a highly developed social market economy.262263 With an estimated nominal GDP of £2.765 trillion in 2024,264 it is the sixth-largest national economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe. Since 2022 the UK has been both the non gamstop casinos world’s fourth-largest exporter266 and fourth-largest importer267 of goods and services.
Nine ways the Budget could affect you if you’re under 25
Despite an uptick in inflation in 2025, the inflation rate is expected to fall to 2.5 percent in 2026, and two percent between 2027 and 2029. One of the main consequences of high inflation and low wage growth throughout 2022 and 2023 was an increase in industrial action in the UK. In December 2022, for example, there were approximately 830,000 working days lost due to labor disputes. Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors.
Between 2021 and 2023, inflation surged in the UK, reaching a 41-year-high of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although inflation fell to more usual levels by 2024, prices in the UK had already increased by over 20 percent relative to the start of the crisis. The two main drivers of price increases during this time were food and energy inflation, two of the main spending areas of UK households. Although food and energy prices came down quite sharply in 2023, underlying core inflation, which measures prices rises without food and energy, remained slightly above the headline inflation rate throughout 2024, suggesting some aspects of inflation had become embedded in the UK economy. The UK’s high inflation, and cost of living crisis in 2022 had its origins in the COVID-19 pandemic.
England’s highest mountain is Scafell Pike, at 978 metres (3,209 ft) in the Lake District; its largest island is the Isle of Wight. The UK inflation rate was 3.6 percent in October 2025, down from 3.8 percent in the previous two months, which was the fastest rate of inflation since January 2024. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. Due to this long period of high inflation, UK consumer prices have increased by over 20 percent in the last three years.
- A line running from the mouth of the River Exe, in the southwest, to that of the Tees, in the northeast, is a crude expression of this division.
- As of the most recent month, prices were rising fastest in the education sector, at 7.5percent, with prices increasing at the slowest rate in the clothing and footwear sector.
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,m is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland.
- While the retail price index is still a popular method of calculating inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) is the current main measurement of inflation in the UK.
Hitting fiscal targets, such as reducing the national debt, will require a careful balancing of the books from the current government, and the possibility for either spending cuts or tax rises. Although Labour ruled out raising the main government tax sources, Income Tax, National Insurance, and VAT, at the 2024 election, they did raise National Insurance for employers (rather than employees) and also cut Winter Fuel allowances for large numbers of pensioners. Less than a year after implementing cuts to Winter Fuel, the government performed a U-Turn on the issue, and will make it widely available by the winter of 2025. The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape.
Britain’s unpopular center-left Labour government sought to seize the political narrative Wednesday with a tax-raising budget that it hopes will boost economic growth, reduce child poverty and ease cost-of-living pressures. The Roman departure between 383 and 410 was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement beginning around 450. After the Wars of the Roses, the Kingdom of England began to flourish, resulting in the 16th-century annexation of Wales and the establishment of the British Empire. Over the 17th century the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War. In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
This statistic is using original data from the Office for National Statistics and includes copyright material from © Crown, licensed under the Open Government License v3.0. The north of England has many mountains and lakes, like Windermere, the largest lake in England. A dynamic port city with a colourful past, Belfast is a vibrant cultural hub on Northern Ireland’s eastern coast. A quirky seaside city filled with diverse cuisine, vintage shopping and adrenaline-fuelled adventure.