Wight, Kent, Lancashire,
Leicester, Lincoln, Merseyside*, Norfolk, Northampton, Northumberland,
North Yorkshire, Nottingham, Oxford, Shropshire, Somerset, South
Yorkshire*, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear*, Warwick, West
Midlands*, West Sussex, West Yorkshire*, Wiltshire
Northern Ireland: 26 districts; Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena,
Ballymoney, Banbridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine,
Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady,
Lisburn, Londonderry, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and Mourne,
Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane
Scotland: 9 regions, 3 islands areas*; Borders, Central, Dumfries and
Galloway, Fife, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Orkney*, Shetland*,
Strathclyde, Tayside, Western Isles*
Wales: 8 counties; Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys,
South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan

Dependent areas: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,
Guernsey, Hong Kong (scheduled to become a Special Administrative
Region of China on 1 July 1997), Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat,
Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich
Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

Independence: 1 January 1801 (United Kingdom established)

National holiday: Celebration of the Birthday of the Queen (second
Saturday in June)

Constitution: unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and
practice

Legal system: common law tradition with early Roman and modern
continental influences; no judicial review of Acts of Parliament;
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

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 John MAJOR (since 28 November 1990)

cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament
House of Lords: consists of a 1,200-member body, four-fifths are
hereditary peers, 2 archbishops, 24 other senior bishops, serving and
retired Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, other life peers, Scottish peers
House of Commons: elections last held 9 April 1992 (next to be held by
NA April 1997); results - Conservative 41.9%, Labor 34.5%, Liberal
Democratic 17.9%, other 5.7%; seats - (651 total) Conservative 336,
Labor 271, Liberal Democr