of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain (/br.

tn/), is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain (a term sometimes loosely applied to the whole state), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state: the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea in the east, the English Channel in the south and the Irish Sea in the west. The United Kingdom (UK) consists of England, Wales, Scotland (who together make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland. The UKs geography is varied, and includes cliffs along some coastlines, highlands and lowlands and many islands off the coast of Scotland. The UK's form of government is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system, and its capital city is London. The current British monarchsince 6 February 1952 is Queen Elizabeth II. The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latter three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capital cities, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man are Crown dependencies and are not part of the UK. The United Kingdom has fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. Britain has been a member of the European Economic Community, and now the European Union, for over 30 years. In 1975, the question of whether Britain should stay a member was decided by a two-to-one majority in a national referendum, yet the debate about Britains membership continues.
For many years Eurosceptics argued that they did believe in Britains membership of the EU, they just wanted different terms !hen the euro was introduced, Britain decided not to ta"e part, and the financial crisis affecting the euro#one has strengthened that position $ow, such has been the shift in the political debate in the U%, many are less shy of advocating withdrawal &hey argue that there are perfectly acceptable alternatives to membership that would bring both political and economic benefits to the U% &his paper e'amines those alternatives (n population terms, (celand is smaller than the )ondon Borough of *roydon and $orway and +wit#erland are both smaller than ,reater )ondon -lthough there are a number of small states in the EU .for e'ample, *yprus, Estonia, )u'embourg and /alta0, none has a population as small as that of (celand or )iechtenstein (t is sometimes suggested that Britain should leave the EU and rejoin the European Free &rade -rea &he U% was the initiator of EF&-, was a founder member in 1234 and chose to leave it in 1256 to join the EE*7EU, a decision that was supported at the time by all the main political parties &he majority of the original EF&- members have now left and also joined the EU !hile EF&- does serve as a free trade area, it has neither the political nor the economic clout of the EU Unli"e the EU, it is not a single mar"et and it has only a limited capacity for joint action !hen the EU began the creation of the worlds largest +ingle European /ar"et in the 1284s, the remaining EF&- countries became concerned that they would be left out of the worlds largest single mar"et -s a result, it was decided to establish the European Economic -rea from 1

/ay 1229 .EE-0 -lthough the EE- was regarded in some :uarters as a means of "eeping EF&countries out of the EU, it proved in fact to be a "ind of ;launch<pad for -ustria, +weden and Finland who soon joined the EU &oday, the EF&- states (celand, )iechtenstein and $orway are members of the EE- together with the 95 EU states +wit#erland remains in EF&- but has not joined the EE(celand has applied to become a member of the EU= if it does so, it will leave EF&- and join the EU side of the EE&he purpose of the EE- is to allow the free movement of goods, services and people between the member countries &he EE-<EF&- members are consulted about proposed EU +ingle /ar"et legislation but they cannot participate in the EUs legislative process EU legislation relating to the +ingle /ar"et automatically applies in the EE-<EF&- countries .including decisions of the European *ourt of >ustice0 *ertain other EU legislation, for e'ample relating to the environment or consumers, also applies to EE-<EF&- countries &he EF&- countries have contributed since the establishment of the EE- to the EUs efforts to reduce economic disparities in Europe (n practice this has meant the wealthier EF&- countries providing substantial sums to the benefit of EU /ember +tates Between 122? and 9446 $orthern (reland was one of the beneficiaries of this @3A4 million in EF&- funding and from 944? the new /ember +tates of the EU in *entral and Eastern Europe benefited from a further @359 million of support - total of @228 A million has been allocated by EF&- for the period 9442<1? $orway and +wit#erland ma"e additional payments to poorer EU /ember +tates .see below0 &he United %ingdom is a developed country and has the worldBs si'th<largest economy by nominal ,CD and eighth<largest by purchasing power parity (t was the worldBs first industrialised country and the worldBs foremost power during the 12th and early 94th centuries &he U% remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally (t is a recognised nuclear weapons state and its military e'penditure ran"s fourth in the world

&he U% has been a permanent member of the United $ations +ecurity *ouncil since its first session in 12?3 (t has been a member of the European Union .EU0 and its predecessor the European Economic *ommunity .EE*0 since 1256= it is also a member of the *ommonwealth of $ations, the *ouncil of Europe, the ,5, the ,8, the ,94, $-&E, the Erganisation for Economic *o<operation and Cevelopment .EE*C0 and the !orld &rade Ergani#ation .!&E0 -lthough the U% was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal .with its first atomic bomb test in 12A90, the new post<war limits of BritainBs international role were illustrated by the +ue# *risis of 12A3 &he international spread of the English language ensured the continuing international influence of its literature and culture From the 1234s onward, its popular culture was also influential abroad -s a result of a shortage of wor"ers in the 12A4s, the U% government encouraged immigration from *ommonwealth countries (n the following decades, the U% became a multi<ethnic society Cespite rising living standards in the late 12A4s and 1234s, the U%Bs economic performance was not as successful as many of its competitors, such as !est ,ermany and >apan (n 1256, the U% joined the European Economic *ommunity .EE*0, and when the EE* became the European Union .EU0 in 1229, it was one of the 19 founding members

-round the end of the 94th century there were major changes to the governance of the U% with the establishment of devolved administrations for +cotland, !ales and $orthern (reland &he statutory incorporation followed acceptance of the European *onvention on Fuman Gights &he U% is still a "ey global player diplomatically and militarily (t plays leading roles in the EU, U$ and $-&E Fowever, controversy surrounds some of BritainBs overseas military deployments, particularly in -fghanistan and (ra: &he global debates of the 91st century are about issues such as energy, climate change, the environment, security and our relationship with the developing world, issues which are larger than any nation state and which re:uire common endeavour to find solutions &he European Union is the most powerful body in Europe and one of the most powerful in the world in dealing with these cross< border issues For a country of the U%s si#e, population and history, it would be hard for us to leave an organisation to which most other European nations wish to belong and which provides us with a greater share of power and influence in the world than we could hope to have on our own