ABOUT BRITAIN

The UK is made up of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland. The population of the UK is approximately 60.6 million.
Capital cities
London (England);
Edinburgh (Scotland);
Cardiff (Wales);
Belfast (Northern Ireland).
Note: The Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland, or Eire) is an independent country and NOT part of the UK. Its capital is Dublin.
TimeThe standard time is Greenwich Meantime – GMT. This is five and a half hours behind IST. At the end of March, the clock goes ahead by one hour – to four and a half hours behind IST. The clocks go back to GMT in October.
HolidaysThe main public holidays (known as bank holidays) are:
New Year’s Day – January 1
Good Friday
Easter
MondayMay Day - first Monday in May
Spring Bank Holiday – last Monday in May
August Bank Holiday – last Monday in August
Christmas Day – December 25
Boxing Day – December 26 (Christians in other parts of the world call this St Stephen’s Day).
CurrencyBritain’s unit of currency is the pound (sterling) – GBP. The symbol for the pound sterling is £.
British money is based on the decimal system – there are one hundred pence to each pound. Coins have the values of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. Notes have the values of £5, £10, £20 and £50. Amounts including pounds and pence are written as £1.50 (one pound and 50 pence).
One million pounds is £1,000,000 (one thousand thousand). Our style is to write this in copy as £1 million, or in a headline as £1m. £2,500,000 would be £2.5 million in copy of £2.5m in a headline.
A billion in the UK is one thousand million. It is written £1 billion or £1bn in a headline. Tens and hundreds of thousands are written as just that - £10,000; £250,000 etc. They don’t have a special term.
Weights and measuresHistorically Britain used the Imperial System, but new regulations make use of the metric system compulsory with the exception of a few items - for example distance and speed are measured in miles and miles per hour.
So we buy 1kg of potatoes or 1 litre of milk or 10 litres of petrol (fuel) but drive a distance of 10 miles, or drive at a speed of 30mph (miles per hour). One exception is a pint of beer in a public house (pub) – though we measure other liquids, such as milk, in litres.
ReligionThe official religion in Britain is Christianity as practised by the Anglican Church. Followers of this branch of Christianity are known as Protestants and make up the majority of the population, although there are also many Roman Catholics. Christians constitute about 71% of the population, but Britain is a multi-faith society and all other religions, including; Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism are freely practised. About 23% of Britons follow no particular religion.