St. David Day and Valentine’s Day

St David (or Dewi Sant in Welsh) is the patron saint of Wales, which means he has a special place in the hearts of Welsh people.  He was born in Wales sometime between the years 462 to 512. He became a teacher and a preacher in his early life…and became an important part of Welsh religious life and a symbol of Welshness.   It is said that he died on March 1^st and this day is celebrated as the most important day in the year for Welsh people. To celebrate this day many events are held in Wales such as concerts with traditional singing and dancing. People also wear daffodils and leeks to show their Welsh spirit on this day. There are special programmers on television and radio and some people also hope to make St David’s Day a national Bank Holiday in Wales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14^th February and is named after the Christian Martyr, St Valentine, and is associated with romance and love. This idea of love and romance in connection with St Valentine began in the middle Ages.   In modern Britain we celebrate this day by sending Valentine cards to people we love. We also do other romantic things on this day like sending flowers or chocolates to the people we love.  Some couples also go out to eat for a special dinner on the evening of St Valentine’s Day.  It is also a very popular celebration in the USA and around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day

David Cameron

David Cameron is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. This is the highest job in the UK government. He has done this job since May 2010, when the conservatives won an extra 100 seats in the general election.He was born in 1966 in London but was brought up in Berkshire. He went to the famous Eton school and then Oxford University where he studied philosophy politics and economics. Since 2000 David Cameron has been the MP for Witney in Oxfordshire. He held many senior posts in the Conservative part and became a member of the shadow cabinet in 2004.  After a cabinet reshuffle he became the Shadow Education Secretary. He became Leader of the Opposition in 2005 and this meant that if the conservatives were elected he would become the Prime Minister.  At the age of 43, after the General Election in 2010 became Prime Minister, the youngest PM for almost two centuries.  His first aim was to cut the British debt which was very high. David Cameron married his wife Samantha in 1996 and they have 3 children. 

http://www.conservatives.com/People/David_Cameron.aspx

Women MPs

When Queen Victoria was alive, women did not even have the right to vote and there were many protests. One woman even died when she ran in front of a race horse in 1913. All women were given the vote at last in 1928. The first woman to be elected to the House of Commons in British Parliament was Nancy Astor in 1919. These days there are 144 female MPs and there are 504 male MPs, so we see that the majority of MPs are still men. In fact only 22 per cent of MPs are women.  The first woman Minister was Margaret Bond field in 1924, who was Under Secretary in the Ministry of Labour.  Nowadays there are more female Ministers than there used to be. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher made history by becoming the first female Prime Minister in the history of United Kingdom and she remained in office until 1990. Although she ran the country, there were still fewer women MPs than men, However women in Parliament is now an everyday part of life in Britain

http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/members-faq-page2/

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/struggle/suffragettes1/derby1/derby.html

The UK Parliaments

 There are two Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom, which are the House of Commons and the House of the Lords. The House of Commons has more power than the House of Lords. There are 659 constituencies in the UK, England has 529 because of the density of the population, Scotland has 72, Wales has 40 and Northern Ireland has 18. Not all constituencies cover the same geographical area. The political party with most MPs forms the government and the leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister. There is an unusual voting system in the UK  called “ first past the post “ which means the person who wins the most votes is elected even if there is only 1 vote more than the next candidate .

UK in the EU

The United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973 after much discussion. Some British people were worried that the British way of life would change forever.  There are some advantages and some disadvantage of belonging to the EU.

The most important advantage of belonging to the EU is that the countries that belong are less likely to go to war with each other, as they did twice in the last century. This is because the countries of the EU are tied together economically and politically. All the countries of the EU except for a few have the same currency which makes financial problems less likely. Being a member of the EU means that because it has many members it is more powerful in the world. The EU can make rules to prevent other countries from buying and selling freely from outside the European market. People can move and work freely within the union but this also can be seen as a disadvantage.

Some people think there is dangers that too much power is taken from the countries of Europe and that they are losing the ability too rule themselves. Countries like the UK have refused to use the euro as their currency because they want to keep the pound because it is part of the British way of life. It could be seen as a disadvantage to have all laws made in Brussels because each country in the European Union wants to keep its way of life and they all need different things. There are also those people who fear that the EU may lead each country to lose its own government and that everybody in Europe could be ruled from Brussels.

The European Union is known as a large world power and is important in world politics but are we losing the identity of the different countries inside it? We will see. 

http://econ.economicshelp.org/2007/03/costs-and-benefits-of-european-union.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Disadvantages-of-UK-Joining-the-Euro&id=472934