United Kingdom 2001
Yearbook 2001
UK. A foot-and-mouth disease epizooty broke out in February when infected animals were found in a swing yard in Essex, southern England. In an attempt to stop the spread of the virus – which affects cows, pigs, sheep and goats – mass slaughter was started by herds where infection was detected. All transport of live animals was initially stopped and people were urged to stay away from the countryside. Not only did agriculture hit hard, but also the tourism industry. The EU imposed a temporary export ban on live animals, meat and milk products from the United Kingdom. Up to and including September, 2,030 confirmed cases had been found in various parts of the UK. In eight months, nearly four million animals were killed. The carcasses were burnt, causing concern that carcinogens such as dioxin would spread through the smoke. Images of animals that were burned on large bonfires were spread throughout the world. The last case was discovered on September 30 at a farm in Cumbria. Epizootin was estimated to have cost the UK between £ 800 and £ 2.4 billion.
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As a result of the foot-and-mouth disease, the parliamentary and municipal elections were held on June 7, a month later than planned. Most judges assumed that Labor’s electoral victory was given and the electoral movement became rather paralyzed. The Conservative Party and its leader William Hague promised lower taxes, a more restrictive asylum policy and claimed that Blair was trying to trick the British into giving up the pound and joining the EU’s currency union. Both Labor and the Liberal Democrats promised new investments in health care and education. The Liberal Democrats were the only party to advocate for a tax increase, while Labor said it was prepared for increased cooperation with the private sector in, for example. care. Labor’s top politicians were accused of avoiding ordinary voters who wanted to express their dissatisfaction with, among other things, long care queues. See thedressexplorer.com for United Kingdom culture.
Labor won reassurance and received, with just under 42% of the vote, 413 of the 659 seats. The Conservatives received just over 32% of the vote and stayed on 166 seats. However, they did well in the municipal elections. The Liberal Democrats supported almost 19% of the electorate and passed with six seats to 52, which was seen as a success for Charles Kennedy who made his first election as party leader. After the election defeat, Hague resigned as party leader. The battle over who would succeed him was between the popular EU friend Kenneth Clark and the relatively unknown Iain Duncan Smith from the party’s right. For the first time, all party members got to vote for their leader, and it was Duncan Smith who took over after Hague in September.
Following the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington on September 11, Britain was the strongest country behind the United States. A special war cabinet was set up in early October, and when the United States fought against Afghanistan, British forces also participated.
The Labor government quickly passed a tightening of terrorist legislation, which was approved by Parliament on December 14. The new laws meant, among other things, that the police were given the right to detain suspected foreign terrorists indefinitely and that the British authorities should have greater transparency in the finances of different groups. Critics argued that the laws posed a threat to civil liberties and rights. However, Parliament had rejected a proposal that would make it a criminal offense to “instill religious hatred”. With the support of the law, British police soon after arrested at least eight people suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.
Britain was in the lead of the international peacekeeping force to be sent to Afghanistan. Several hundred British soldiers – of the promised 1,500 – were in Afghanistan before the turn of the year.
1990 Exit Thatcher
The increasingly fierce internal tensions in the Conservative party ended in November that Thatcher had to step down as party chairman and prime minister. She was replaced on both posts by her former minister John Major. At his deployment, he declared that he was in favor of a “human face” capitalism – in contrast to the “hard-headed capitalism of the” Jerndam.
In 1991, Major officially removed the hated poll tax and took a number of steps aimed at providing legal protection to sick people, women workers, consumers and the family. Nevertheless, a number of the programs Thatcher had launched – including the privatization of health care.
In European politics, the Prime Minister distanced himself from the hard line of his predecessor and joined 91 EU monetary union agreements. But the close and almost unconditional alliance with the United States remained unchanged. was expressed during Britain’s participation in the Gulf War.
The government succeeded in reducing inflation from 10% in 1990 to 3.8% in 91, and at the same time the interest rate fell from 15% to 9.5%, but production continued to hit hard. In 91, industrial production declined compared to the previous year, and the number of smaller companies that had to close increased dramatically. At the same time, unemployment continued its rising trend. By the end of 91, it had reached over 9%. It now began to hit skilled groups and the middle classes, which had hitherto supported Thatcher’s neoliberal economic policies.
Despite Major’s huge popularity – he became the country’s historically most popular politician after Winston Churchill – this could not slow the party’s decline. In the regional elections at the end of 91, the Conservatives lost 800 city council posts and a number of traditional Conservative municipalities. The Labor Party, in turn, went over 400 seats, and the Liberal Democrats also rose dramatically.
In September 91, the most violent riots erupted since 76. It was predominantly young people demonstrating in widely different cities such as Cardiff, Newcastle, Birmingham and Oxford. During the same period, figures from Scotland Yard showed that racial violence was on the rise.
In 92, for the fourth time in a row, the Conservatives won the parliamentary elections, getting 336 seats out of 651. At the election, Gerry Adams – Sinn Fein’s chairman – lost his seat in parliament. The Northern Irish Republicans are linked to the IRA, and subsequently a series of violent bombs sprang up in London.
From 1993, the Conservatives again began to notice voter decline in local or supplementary elections. The reason was partly the worsening economic crisis and partly the rising unemployment that now affected about 3 million workers. On December 15, London signed a joint declaration with Ireland on the situation in Northern Ireland. It should pave the way for peace talks.
Despite improving the economy, the Conservatives failed to increase their popularity through 1994. GDP rose 3% and 2.5 million were unemployed, equivalent to 9%. A number of scandals such as the illegal financing of a dam project in Malaysia further frustrated the Conservatives. In Parliament, the minimum age for gay relations was reduced from 21 to 18 years.
In 95, unemployment fell to 2.2 million, but otherwise the financial situation remained somewhat unchanged. Still, the Major government was unable to increase its popularity. The year before, Tony Blair had taken over the leadership of Labor and had initiated a “modernization” of the party’s program, which included implied that the references to socialism and collective ownership of the means of production were deleted.
1997 Exit Torries
Through 96 Labor went ahead in a series of supplementary elections, and the course was set for victory in the May 1 97 elections. an internal leadership crisis. It got only 30% of the vote against the Labor Party’s 43.1% – the biggest difference this century.
In June, Blair announced the preparation of a new round of talks on Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister declared that Sinn Fein would also be able to participate in these – six weeks after the IRA declared a ceasefire. It was declared on July 20, and Republicans were therefore able to take part in the negotiations that began on September 15.
The death of Princess Diana in a traffic accident in Paris on August 31 touched the British people deeply and brought the British royal house into the defensive. For the first time in many years, a strong criticism of the monarchy was manifested after the royal house initially refused to take the death seriously.
In October, Finance Minister Gordon Brown declared that the United Kingdom would not introduce the Euro as a currency from 1 January 1999, but that it could become an option after the next parliamentary elections in 2002. Together with Denmark, Britain is the only country in the EU to officially have granted permission not to participate in EMU.
In 1997, local referendums were held in Wales and Scotland on greater powers for local parliaments, and in contrast to 1979, extended autonomy was adopted. At the beginning of 98 negotiations on Northern Ireland led to the conclusion of a peace agreement. It was sent to a referendum in May and received support from 70% of the population in Northern Ireland. The affiliation was almost total among Catholics, but there was also a majority among Protestants. Parallel to the vote in Northern Ireland, a referendum was held in Ireland. Here, 95% of the population voted for Ireland to abandon its constitutional territorial requirements on Northern Ireland, leaving it to Ulster’s own people to decide his future. The two Northern Irish leaders, unionist David Trimble and nationalist John Hume, received the Nobel Prize in December for their work for peace in Northern Ireland.
According to the Peace Agreement, Northern Ireland, along with Wales and Scotland, must have a local parliament elected by direct election.
At the request of the Spanish judiciary, Scotland’s former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, detained Chile in August in a sanatorium following a back surgery. However, after a lengthy legal process that lasted over 1½ years, Pinochet was released. Interior Minister Jack Straw stated that Pinochet’s poor health would not be able to cope with the hardships of an extradition to Spain and a subsequent trial.
Throughout 1999, the Northern Irish Unionists and Nationalists were preparing for the establishment of a joint government. This was deployed in December of that year. The government was led by Prime Minister David Trimble. Sinn Fein. Nationalist leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness joined the government until February 2000. However, then Trimble’s Ulster Unionists resigned, which brought down the government. The supremacy conferred on the province in December now returned to London.
Population 2001
According to Countryaah, the population of United Kingdom in 2001 was 60,287,843, ranking number 21 in the world. The population growth rate was 0.460% yearly, and the population density was 249.1959 people per km2.
