UK Profile Part one: Culture

1.         Popular Sports-The most popular sport is association football (soccer to us).In terms of league play the most popular league is the Barclays Premier League with teams such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur. Another popular sport is tennis. They host The Championships Wimbledon, a world renowned tennis tournament and one of four grand slam tournaments. Andy Murray, a Scottish tennis player who recently won the tournament, is tremendously popular.

2.       Music-The United Kingdom has a tremendous history of influential music. They were leaders during both the Baroque and Classical eras. There is also a strong history of English, Northern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk music. More recently, but still historical, one of the most influential bands on American music came from the UK, The Beatles. More recently still, the invention of dubstep, rappers such as Tinie Tempah, and Ed Sheeran are all modern influential musicians from the UK.

3.       Food-Traditional UK food was cooked simply to bring out the full flavor of the dish, rather than use sauces to disguise flavor. More recently however, it has received an influence from Indian cuisine to include more spices. Each individual country within the UK has its own specific cuisine as well. England is famous for its Sunday Roast and Fish and Chips dishes.

4.       Major Religions and/or Spiritual Beliefs-The UK has a large variety of religions. That being said it was created as an Anglican Christian country, which remains its largest religion. Others include Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Hinduism.

5.       National Holidays and Traditional Customs-The UK has very few holidays and share several with the U.S. with the obvious exceptions of Thanksgiving and Independence Day. New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Christmas Day are all either common law holidays or bank holidays.

6.       Popular TV Shows or Movies-Several popular TV Shows have origins in the U.K. including Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Top Gear. Also Harry Potter, with all three of the main characters being huge stars. The list of current, influential UK actors is incredibly long including people such as Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Jeremy Clarkson, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie.

7.       Online News Sources-The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is a very famous example of a UK news source that also covers events from all around the world as well. It also has a UK specific section (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk/). The Telegraph is another news source with roots in the UK and a specific UK section (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/).

8.       Online Forums for Expatriates- (http://www.expatforum.com/expats/britain-expat-forum-expats-living-uk/) is the UK specific section of a large online forum for expatriates. It is for expatriates from other countries, while (http://britishexpats.com/forum/) is a country specific forum for UK expatriates around the world.

9.       Type of Government-The UK has  a parliamentary government with two houses, the appointed House of Lords and the elected House of Commons. The UK has three major political parties the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats. Combined these three parties claimed 622 of 650 seats in the House of Commons. The current Prime Minister of the UK is David Cameron. The Labour Party is led by Ed Miliband, the Liberal Democrats by Lord Jim Wallace, and the Conservative Party by the Prime Minister David Cameron.