Topic London

London is situated upon both banks of the River Thames. London dominates the life of Britain. It is the chief port of the country and the most important commercial, manufacturing and cultural centre. There is little heavy industry in London , but there is a wide range of light industry in Greater London.

The most characteristic parts of London are: the City, the West End, the East End, and Westminster.

The city is the oldest part of London. It is the financial centre of the UK with many banks, offices, and Stock Exchange. The City has its own police force and courts of law, and during the working day upward of half a million people earn their living there in the commercial heart of the capital. But by the weekend the City is populated by just 5.000 residents.

The West End is the most fashionable part of London. It is the West End where the University of London is centered with Bloomsbury as London’s student quarter. The main shopping streets are Piccadilly, Regent Street and Oxford Street.

The East End of London is unattractive in appearance, but very important to the country’s commerce. It is situated to the east of the City. The area nowadays not only attracts top name commercial, banking and business interest, but is also thousands of new residents, a lot of housing, restoration and conservation projects plus a superb range of shopping, leisure and water sports’ attractions.

Westminster is the political centre. The best known streets here are Whitehall with important government offices, and Downing Street. Street with the London residence of Prime Minister and the place where the Cabinet meets.

Topic British Economy

The British economic system is now a complex combination of several systems, and pure capitalism is probably a smaller element than in any other West European country.

About one-third of all goods and services are produced by central or local government or by state-owned corporations. Most energy production is socialised: production and distribution of electricity and gas, production of coal, production and distribution of oil, the iron and steel producing industry.

The state owns the railways, most buses, most public transport aeroplanes, nearly all important airports, water supply, radio, two of four television channels, posts and telephones. Local authorities, with state support, are responsible for roads, for the welfare services, and for ninety per cent of education.

The other two-thirds of the economy is within the private sector, shared between public companies, private companies and individuals.

The structure of British industry has changed greatly. In 1900, coal mining, textiles, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were its foundations. Since 1930 British industrial growth has been concentrated newer industries: chemicals, electrical goods, vehicles, aircraft, furniture and other consumer-durables. Now Britain produced high quality expensive goods, which has always been characteristic of its industry. Britain produced and exports cotton and woollen goods, leather goods, and articles made of various kinds of synthetic (man-made) materials.

The industries which have grown, in number of people employed, are banking, finance, insurance, the Law, advertising, educational, health and social welfare services, and other functions not involving the production of goods for use. Four million people were employed in these in 1960, eight million in 1980.

In contrast to industry, British agriculture has been consistently almost the most efficient in Europe. The grain crops and vegetables are grown in all part of the country, especially in the south.

The greater part of land is used for sheep and cattle breeding and pig raising. Sheep and cattle breeding are still developed in Great Britain.