23. System of government in England, Scotland and Wales

The UK is a multi-party system and since the 1920s, the two largest political parties have been the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. England has no central government instead using elements of the British system, which is itself rapidly becoming fragmented by the spliting-off the Scottish Parliament, and to some extent. The Welsh Assembly. The Scottish Parliament is the national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood" (cf. "Westminster"), is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members who are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament. Members are elected for four-year terms under the mixed member proportional representation system. As a result, 73 Members of the Scottish Parliament represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality ("first past the post") system, with a further 56 returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven Members of the Scottish Parliament. The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales, and is also responsible for Welsh Assembly Government departments in Wales. The Assembly was formed under the Government of Wales Act 1998, by the Labour government, after a referendum in 1997 (also supported by Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats) approved its creation. There is now a legal separation of the legislative and executive functions of the National Assembly, since the passing of the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Act created a separate executive called the "Welsh Assembly Government" which performs the day to day running of government affairs and contains members of the highest elected party of the Assembly chamber.

24. Geography of England, Scotland and Wales, comperative analysis

Wales (Welsh: Cymru) comprises a peninsula in central-west Great Britain together with offshore islands of which the largest is Anglesey. It is a country of the United Kingdom. It borders England to the east, and is surrounded by sea on the other three sides: the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. Much of Wales is mountainous, particularly in three main regions: Snowdonia in the north west, the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, and the Brecon Beacons in the south. The mountains were shaped during the last ice age, the Devensian glaciation. Snowdonia contains the highest peaks, topped by Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) at 1,085 m. The 14 (or possibly 15) peaks over 914 are known collectively as the Welsh 3000s. The geography of Scotland is highly varied, from rural lowlands to barren uplands, and from large cities to uninhabited islands. Located in north-west Europe, Scotland comprises the northern one third of the island of Great Britain and over 790 surrounding islands and archipelagoes. Scotland's only land border is with England, which runs for 96 kilometres in a northeasterly direction from the Solway Firth in the west to the North Sea on the east coast. Separated by the North Channel, the island of Ireland lies 30 kilometres from the southwest tip of the Scottish mainland. The Atlantic Ocean, which fringes the coastline of western and northern Scotland and its islands, influences the temperate, maritime climate of the country. An abundance of natural resources such as coal, iron and zinc contributed significantly to the industrial growth of Scotland during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, energy is a major component of Scotland's economy. England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of mainland Britain, divided from France only by a 52 km sea gap. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to mainland Europe. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.Much of England consists of rolling hills, but it is generally more mountainous in the north with a chain of mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney, Australia, although this fact is disputed.