15 Role of Britain in the world

Americans seem strangely oblivious to historic developments in Europe these days that could mean a profound change in this country’s relations with Europe as a whole, and with Britain in particular. The process of European integration is reaching a new stage, with not only Economic and Monetary Union but also the beginning of a common security and defense policy. No one seriously questions the wisdom and enlightened statesmanship of the U.S. policy that has supported European integration over many decades. But the contemporary phase of that process is bringing us into uncharted territory. It raises major questions about the future cohesion of the Atlantic Alliance and about the future of the "special relationship" that the United States has long enjoyed with Britain. The Anglo-American tradition embodies a very special conception of political and economic liberty, as well as a certain seriousness about international security and, indeed, about the moral unity of the West. These Anglo-American values as thoroughly vindicated by history and, therefore, worthy of the most vigorous defense.

Since the Eisenhower era, the United States has been urging Britain into Europe, initially to strengthen the resolve of the Europeans as Cold Warriors and more recently out of habit and to be a force for good government in Europe. Today, all polls in Britain show that about 70% of people in the U.K. do not want to go farther into the EU, although about half believe that the country may ultimately do so anyway. EUROPE helped bring down two of Britain’s recent prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. But at least they were casualties of weighty conflicts over their country’s future in the European Union (EU). On June 4th Gordon Brown may be mortally wounded by nothing grander than election results for the European Parliament.

The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly parts of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace. The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organisation through which countries with diverse social, political, and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status. Its activities are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General; biennial Meetings between Commonwealth Heads of Government; and the Commonwealth Foundation, which facilitates activities of non-governmental organisations in the so-called 'Commonwealth Family'. The symbol of this free association is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II is also the monarch, separately, of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, informally called the Commonwealth realms. As each realm is an independent kingdom, the Queen, as monarch, holds a distinct title for each, though, by a Prime Ministers' Conference in 1952, all include the style Head of the Commonwealth at the end; for example: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. Beyond the realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have separate heads of state: thirty-two members are republics, and five members have distinct monarchs: the Sultan of Brunei; the King of Lesotho; the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (or King) of Malaysia; the King of Swaziland; and the King of Tonga.

Working with Belarus

The UK is a leading member of the European Union. The 27 current member states of the EU have agreed to work together on issues of common interest, where collective and co-ordinated initiatives can be more effective than individual state action. UK relations with Belarus are conducted within the framework of the EU Common Position towards Belarus.

The UK also enjoys bilateral co-operation with Belarus in a range of areas. Following an intense period of negotiations, the two countries concluded an Agreement on conditions for the recuperation of Belarusian minors in the UK. The Agreement, which came into force on May 22, now makes it possible for British charitable organizations to resume their valuable work.

British Ambassador Nigel Gould-Davies said: “I am delighted that we have reached this important agreement. This will directly benefit thousands of Belarusian children. The Belarusian authorities have indicated their readiness to discuss additional issues, in particular the age limit for respite visits that has been introduced. The present agreement will help facilitate further dialogue”.

The British Embassy will be also deploying its unique mobile biometric project to collect biometric fingerprints from children in the regions, saving them a long journey to Minsk. Cordon Braun:

I believe that our ties with America founded on values we share constitute our most important bilateral relationship,And it is good for Britain, for EU,that the relationships with USA became stronger.Part of the ED try to isolate Belarus after condemning elections in March.the EU has already imposed a visa ban on 30 officials, recently Western governments pay much attention to the ? of Belarus, practically in each high level meeting of EU it is discussed.

BRITISH ECONOMY

Today Britain is no longer the leading industrial nation of the world, which it was during the last century. Today Britain is 6th in size of its gross domestic product(GDP).Britain's share in world trade is about 4%, which means that she is also the 5th largest trading nation in the world. Trade with the countries of the European Union, Commonwealth countries.

British economy based on private enterprise. The policy of the government is aimed at encouraging & expanding the private sector. Result: 751 of the economy is controlled by the private sector which employs 3/4of the labour force. Less than 2% of working population is engaged in agriculture. Due to large-scale mechanization productivity in agriculture is very high: it supplies nearly 2/3 of the countries food. The general location of industry: 80% Of industrial production –England. In Wales, Scotland & Northem Ireland level of industry is lower than in England. This gap between England & the outlying regions increased because of the decline of the traditional industries, which are heavily concentrating in Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland. GB may be divided into 8 economic regions: 1) the South industrial & agricultural region 2}the Midlands 3)Lancashire 4)Yorkshire 5)the North 6)Scotland 7) Wales & Northern Ireland

THE SOUTH ECONOMIC REGION The most: important region in terms of industry & agriculture. Includes: all the South of England, both the South-East & the South-West. London -centre of everything (called the London City Region). Clothing, furniture-making & jewellery. London's industries: electrical engineering, instrument production, radio engineering, aircraft production, the motor-car industry, London -centre of the service industries, tourism.

OXFORD: educational centre; a large motor works were built in its suburb. CAMBRIDGE: its industries connected with electronics & printing. LUTON: major centre of car production. The Thames valley is an area of concentration of electronic engineering/ microelectronics. The South -major agricultural region of GB.

Developments

When David Miliband took over as Foreign Secretary in June 2007, he set in hand a review of the FCO’s strategic priorities. One of the key messages of these discussions was the conclusion that the existing framework of ten international strategic priorities, dating from 2003, was no longer appropriate. Although the framework had been useful in helping the FCO plan its work and allocate its resources, there was agreement that it needed a new framework to drive its work forward.

The new strategic framework consists of three core elements:

1. A flexible global network of staff and offices, serving the whole of the UK Government.

2. Three essential services that support the British economy, British nationals abroad and managed migration for Britain. These services are delivered through UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), consular teams in Britain and overseas, and the UK Border Agency (UKBA).

3. Four policy goals:

• countering terrorism and weapons proliferation and their causes

• preventing and resolving conflict

• promoting a low carbon, high-growth, global economy

• developing effective international institutions, in particular the UN and the EU.

The Health and Social Care Bill was introduced into the UK Parliament on 19 January 2011.[25][26] The bill amounts to the most deep-rooted and extensive reworking of the structure of the National Health Service ever undertaken.[27] The bill has implications for all health organisations in the NHS, not least for NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), which will be abolished. £60 to £80 billion of commissioning will be transferred from PCTs to several hundred consortia nominally run by GPs, although in practice many consortia will be operated by private health companies.

Multiculturalism speech

On 5 February 2011 Cameron has criticised "state multiculturalism" in his first speech as prime minister on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism. At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism. "Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the prime minister said. "These are the sorts of questions we need to ask. Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations," he added.[32]

In a surprise trip to the Middle East amid violence in Libya, and chaos of protests elsewhere, Cameron said that popular uprisings now flaring across the Middle East showed the West had been wrong to support dictators and oppressive regimes. Speaking to the Kuwaiti Parliament, Mr Cameron said Britain would back democracy campaigners seeking greater rights across the Middle East. "History is sweeping through your neighbourhood," he said. "Not as a result of force and violence, but by people seeking their rights, and in the vast majority of cases doing so peacefully and bravely." He said that Britain's economic and security interests would ultimately be advanced by a more democratic Middle East

Cameron told MPs on 21 March 2011 that a “bloody massacre” was narrowly avoided by the military action in Libya. He said the decisive air strikes had enabled the citizens of Libya to determine their “destiny.” The Prime Minister fielded questions for more than an hour in a Parliamentary debate on Libya. He disclosed how close the rebel-held city of Benghazi came to being “rolled up”, along with the rest of Libya, by Col Muammar Gaddafi. Mr Cameron told the House that rapid action was needed to halt Col Gaddafi. “If we had waited for that, Benghazi would have fallen and, from that, probably Tobruk would have fallen and Gaddafi would have rolled up the whole of his country in the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said. “It’s quite clear the population of Benghazi was under heavy attack. Civilians were being killed in significant numbers [and] an exodus from the town had begun. There was an urgent need to stop the slaughter.” Cameron has backed his senior Cabinet colleagues, including Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, who have indicated that it would be legitimate to target Col Gaddafi as part of the operation.[36]

n his first major speech on immigration just before the local elections since taking power, the Prime Minister said on 13 April: “Nothing is more important to this Government than growing our economy, creating jobs and prosperity across the country.” Cameron said he wants to see "good immigration, not mass immigration" "discomfort and disjointedness" in neighbourhoods because some migrants have been unwilling to integrate or learn English. He will say that the "real issue" is "migrants are filling gaps in the labour market left wide open by a welfare system that for years has paid British people not to work". "Put simply, we will never control immigration properly unless we tackle welfare dependency," Mr Cameron said. Cameron said: "When there have been significant numbers of new people arriving in neighbourhoods, perhaps not able to speak the same language as those living there, on occasions not really wanting or even willing to integrate, that has created a kind of discomfort and disjointedness in some neighbourhoods.

Archbishop of Canterbury comments

On 8 June 2011 Rowan Williams said that the Government is committing Britain to "radical, long-term policies for which no-one voted". Writing in the New Statesman[47] magazine, Dr Rowan Williams raised concerns about the coalition's health, education and welfare reforms. He said there was "indignation" due to a lack of "proper public argument". Dr Williams said the Big Society idea was viewed with "widespread suspicion". The archbishop's article also said there was concern that the government would abandon its responsibility for tackling child poverty, illiteracy and poor access to the best schools. He also criticised the government's welfare reforms, complaining of a "quiet resurgence of the seductive language of 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor" and the steady pressure to increase "what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system".[48] In response Cameron said that he “profoundly disagreed” with Dr Rowan Williams’s claim that the Government was forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted”.said the Government was acting in a “good and moral” fashion and defended the “Big Society”, and the Coalition’s deficit reduction, welfare and education plans. “I am absolutely convinced that our policies are about actually giving people a greater responsibility and greater chances in their life, and I will defend those very vigorously,” he said. “By all means let us have a robust debate but I can tell you, it will always be a two-sided debate.”[49]