!!!United Kingdom: Government
||Country name|''conventional long form'': United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; note - the island of Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales \\ ''conventional short form'': United Kingdom \\ ''abbreviation'': UK \\ ''etymology'': self-descriptive country name; the designation "Great Britain," in the sense of "Larger Britain," dates back to medieval times and was used to distinguish the island from "Little Britain," or Brittany in modern France; the name Ireland derives from the Gaelic "Eriu," the matron goddess of Ireland (goddess of the land) \\ 
||Government type|parliamentary constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
||Capital|London[{GoogleMap location='London' zoom='6'}] \\ ''geographic coordinates'': 51 30 N, 0 05 W \\ ''time difference'': UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time) \\ ''daylight saving time'': +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October \\  \\ ''__note__'': applies to the United Kingdom proper, not to its overseas dependencies or territories \\ 
||Administrative divisions|''England'': 27 two-tier counties, 32 London boroughs and 1 City of London or Greater London, 36 metropolitan districts, 56 unitary authorities (including 4 single-tier counties*) \\ ''two-tier counties'': Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Worcestershire \\ ''London boroughs and City of London or Greater London'': Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, City of London, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, Westminster \\ ''metropolitan districts'': Barnsley, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Calderdale, Coventry, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Kirklees, Knowlsey, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham, Salford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sheffield, Solihull, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Sunderland, Tameside, Trafford, Wakefield, Walsall, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton \\ ''unitary authorities'': Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, The Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen, Wrexham \\ ''Northern Ireland'': 5 borough councils, 4 district councils, 2 city councils \\ ''borough councils'': Antrim and Newtownabbey; Ards and North Down; Armagh, Banbridge, and Craigavon; Causeway Coast and Glens; Mid and East Antrim \\ ''district councils'': Derry and Strabane; Fermanagh and Omagh; Mid Ulster; Newry, Murne, and Down \\ ''city councils'': Belfast; Lisburn and Castlereagh \\ ''Scotland'': 32 council areas \\ ''council areas'': Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, The Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian \\ ''Wales'': 22 unitary authorities \\ 
||Dependent areas|Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands
||Independence|12 April 1927 (Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act establishes current name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland); notable earlier dates: 927 (minor English kingdoms united); 3 March 1284 (enactment of the Statute of Rhuddlan uniting England and Wales); 1536 (Act of Union formally incorporates England and Wales); 1 May 1707 (Acts of Union formally unite England and Scotland as Great Britain); 1 January 1801 (Acts of Union formally unite Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland); 6 December 1921 (Anglo-Irish Treaty formalizes partition of Ireland; six counties remain part of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland)
||National holiday|the UK does not celebrate one particular national holiday
||Constitution|''history'': unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice \\ ''amendments'': proposed as a "bill" for an "Act of Parliament" by the government or by members of the House of Commons or by the House of Lords; passage requires agreement by both houses and by the monarch (Royal Assent); note - recent additions include the Human Rights Act of 1998, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, and the House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 (2016) \\ 
||Legal system|common law system; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998
||International law organization participation|accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
||Citizenship|''citizenship by birth'': no \\ ''citizenship by descent only'': at least one parent must be a citizen of the United Kingdom \\ ''dual citizenship recognized'': yes \\ ''residency requirement for naturalization'': 5 years \\ 
||Suffrage|18 years of age; universal
||Executive branch|''chief of state'': Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948) \\ ''head of government'': Prime Minister Theresa MAY (since 13 July 2016) \\ ''cabinet'': Cabinet appointed by the prime minister \\ ''elections/appointments'': the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition usually becomes the prime minister; Theresea MAY (Conservative) assumed office 13 July 2016 \\ 
||Legislative branch|''description'': bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Lords (membership not fixed (as of December 2016 there were 809 lords eligible for taking part in the work of the House of Lords consisting of 692 life peers, 91 hereditary peers, and 26 clergy; members appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister and non-party political members recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission) and the House of Commons (650 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by first-past-the-post vote to serve 5-year terms unless the House is dissolved earlier) \\ ''elections'': House of Lords - no elections (note - in 1999, as provided by the House of Lords Act, elections were held in the House of Lords to determine the 92 hereditary peers who would remain there; elections are held only as vacancies in the hereditary peerage arise); House of Commons - last held on 8 May 2015 (next to be held by May 2020) \\ ''election results'': House of Commons - percent of vote by party - Conservative 36.8%, Labor 30.5%, UKIP 12.7%, Lib Dems 7.9%, SNP 4.7%, Greens 3.8%, DUP 0.6%, Sinn Fein 0.6%, Plaid Cymru 0.6%, SDLP 0.3%, Ulster Unionist Party 0.4%, other 1.1%; seats by party - Conservative 330, Labor 232, SNP 56, Lib Dems 8, DUP 8, Sinn Fein 4, Plaid Cymru 3, SDLP 3, Ulster Unionist Party 2, UKIP 1, Greens 1, other 2 \\ 
||Judicial branch|''highest court(s)'': Supreme Court (consists of 12 justices including the court president and deputy president); note - the Supreme Court was established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and implemented in October 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the highest court in the United Kingdom \\ ''judge selection and term of office'': judge candidates selected by an independent committee of several judicial commissions, followed by their recommendations to the prime minister, and appointed by Her Majesty The Queen; justices appointed for life \\ ''subordinate courts'': England and Wales - Court of Appeal (civil and criminal divisions); High Court; Crown Court; County Courts; Magistrates' Courts; Scotland - Court of Sessions; Sheriff Courts; High Court of Justiciary; tribunals; Northern Ireland - Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland; High Court; county courts; magistrates' courts; specialized tribunals \\ 
||Political parties and leaders|Alliance Party (Northern Ireland) (Naomi LONG) \\ Conservative and Unionist Party (Theresa MAY) \\ Democratic Unionist Party or DUP (Northern Ireland) (Peter ROBINSON; note - expected to be replaced by Arlene FOSTER around 11 January 2016) \\ Green Party of England and Wales or Greens (Caroline LUCAS and Jonathan BARTLEY) \\ Labor (Labour) Party (Jeremy CORBYN) \\ Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) (Tim FARRON) \\ Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) (Leanne WOOD) \\ Scottish National Party or SNP (Nicola STURGEON) \\ Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) (Gerry ADAMS) \\ Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) (Colum EASTWOOD) \\ Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) (Mike NESBITT) \\ UK Independence Party or UKIP (Paul NUTTALL)
||Political pressure groups and leaders|Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament \\ Confederation of British Industry \\ National Farmers' Union \\ Trades Union Congress
||International organization participation|ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, C, CBSS (observer), CD, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, G-20, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINUSMA, MONUSCO, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Pacific Alliance (observer), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SELEC (observer), SICA (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNMISS, UNRWA, UNSC (permanent), UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
||Diplomatic representation in the US|''chief of mission'': Ambassador Sir Nigel Kim DARROCH (since 28 January 2016) \\ ''chancery'': 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 \\ ''telephone'': (1) (202) 588-6500 \\ ''FAX'': (1) (202) 588-7870 \\ ''consulate(s) general'': Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco \\ ''consulate(s)'': Orlando (FL), San Juan (PR) \\ 
||Diplomatic representation from the US|''chief of mission'': Ambassador Matthew Winthrop BARZUN (since 27 November 2013) \\ ''embassy'': 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 6AH; note - a new embassy is scheduled to open by the end of 2017 in the Nine Elms area of Wandsworth \\ ''mailing address'': PSC 801, Box 40, FPO AE 09498-4040 \\ ''telephone'': (44) (0) 20 7499-9000 \\ ''FAX'': (44) (0) 20 7629-9124 \\ ''consulate(s) general'': Belfast, Edinburgh \\ 
||Flag description|blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, and British overseas territories
||National symbol(s)|lion (Britain in general); lion, Tudor rose, oak (England); lion, unicorn, thistle (Scotland); dragon, daffodil, leek (Wales); shamrock, flax (Northern Ireland); national colors: red, white, blue (Britain in general); red, white (England); blue, white (Scotland); red, white, green (Wales)
||National anthem|''name'': "God Save the Queen" \\ ''lyrics/music'': unknown \\  \\ ''__note__'': in use since 1745; by tradition, the song serves as both the national and royal anthem of the UK; it is known as either "God Save the Queen" or "God Save the King," depending on the gender of the reigning monarch; it also serves as the royal anthem of many Commonwealth nations \\