Реферат: Some features of today's British life

Реферат: Some features of today's British life

ECONOMY

From 1981 to 1989 the British economy experienced eight years of sustained

growth at the annual average rate over 3%. However, subsequently Britain and

other major industrialized nations were severely affected by recession. In

Britain growth slowed to 0.6% in 1990, and in 1991 gross domestic product

(GDP) fell by 2.3%. GDP fell in 1992 as a whole by 0.4%, but it rose slightly

in the second half of the year. The recovery strengthened during the first

part of 1993; with GDP in the second quarter being 2% higher than a year

earlier; the European Commission expected Britain to be the fastest growing

of all major European economies in 1993 and1994.

Recent indications that the recovery is under may include:

· an increase in manufacturing output;

· a steady upward trend in retail sales;

· increases in new car registrations;

· record levels of exports;

· increased business and consumer confidence; and

· signs of greater activity in the housing market.

The Government’s policy is to ensure sustainable economic growth through low

inflation and sound public finances. The Gov­ernment’s economic policy is set

in the context of a medium-term financial strategy, which is revived each

year. Within this strat­egy, monetary and fiscal policies are designed to

defeat inflation. Short-term interest rates remain the essential instrument

of monetary policy.

Macroeconomic policy is directed towards keeping down the rate of inflation

as the basis for sustainable growth, while micro-economic policies seek to

improve the working of markets and encourage enterprise, efficiency and

flexibility through measures such as privatization, deregulation and tax

reforms.

The economy is now benefiting from substantially lower in­terest rates. In

September 1993 base interest rates were at 6%. They had been cut by 9

percentage points since October 1990, and were at their lowest since 1977.

INDUSTRY

Private enterprises generate over three-quarters of total do­mestic income.

Since 1979 the Government has privatized 46 major businesses and reduced the

state-owned sector of industry by about two-thirds. The Government is taking

measures to cut unnecessary regulations imposed on business, and runs a

number of schemes which provide direct assistance or advice to small and

medium-sized businesses.

In some sectors a small number of large companies and their subsidiaries are

responsible for a substantial proportion of total production, notably in the

vehicle, aerospace and transport equipment industries. Private enterprises

account for the greater part of activity in the agricultural, manufacturing,

construction, distributive, financial and miscellaneous service sectors. The

pri­vate sector contributed 75% of total domestic final expenditure in 1992,

general government 24 % and public corporations 1%.

About 250 British industrial companies in the latest reporting period each had

an annual turnover of more than £500 million. The annual turnover of the

biggest company, British Petroleum’, makes it the llth largest industrial

grouping in the world and the second largest in Europe. Five British firms are

among the top 25 European Community companies.

FINANCE

The service industries, which include finance, retailing, tour­ism and

business services, contribute about 65% of gross domestic product and over

70% of employment. Britain is responsible for some 10% of the world’s exports

of services; overseas earn­ings from services amounted to 30% of the value of

exports of manufactures in 1992. The number of employees in services rose

from over 13 million in 1982 to 15.5 million by the end of 1992, much of the

rise being accounted for by growth in parttime (principally female)

employment.

Average real disposable income per head increased by nearly three-quarters

between 1971 and 1990 and this was reflected in a rise in consumer spending

of financial, personal and leisure serv­ices and on the maintenance and

repair of consumer durables. Demand for British travel, hotel and catering

services rose as real incomes in Britain and other countries increased. The

spread of home ownership, particularly during the 1980s, increased demand for

legal and state agency services.

Britain is a major financial centre, housing some of the world’s leading

banking, insurance, securities, shipping, com­modities, futures, and other

financial services and markets. Fi­nancial services are an important source

of employment and over­seas earnings. Business services include advertising,

market re­search, management consultancy, exhibition and conference

fa­cilities, computing services and auction houses.

By the year 2000, tourism is expected to be the world’s big­gest industry,

and Britain is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. The industry

is Britain’s second largest, employing nearly 7% of the workforce. Retailing

is also a major employer and Britain has an advanced distribution network. An

important trend in retailing is the growth of out-of-town shopping centres.

The computing services industry continues to be one of the fastest-growing

sectors of the economy, and information technol­ogy is widely used in

retailing and financial services.

A notable trend in the services sector is the growth of fran­chising, an

operation in which a company owning the rights to a particular form of

trading licenses them to franchises, usually by means of an initial payment

with continuing royalties. The main areas include cleaning services, film

processing, print shops, hair-dressing and cosmetics, fitness centres,

courier delivery, car rental, engine tuning and servicing, and fast food

retailing. It is estimated that franchising’s share of total retail sales is

over 3%, a figure which is likely to increase.

DEFENCE

The strength of the regular armed forces, all volunteers, was nearly 271,000

in mid-1993 — 133,000 in the Army, 79,300 in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and

58,500 in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. There were 18,800 women personnel

— 7,500 in the Army, 6,800 in the RAF, and 4,400 in the Royal Navy.

British forces’ main military roles are to:

· ensure the protection and security of Britain and its de­pendent

territories;

· ensure against any major external threat to Britain and its allies; and

· contribute towards promoting Britain’s wider security in­terests

through the maintenance of international peace and security.

Most of Britain’s nuclear and conventional forces are commit­ted to NATO and

about 95% of defence expenditure to meeting its NATO responsibilities. In

recognition of the changed European security situation, Britain’s armed

forces are being restructured in consultation with other NATO allies.

Under these plans, the strength of the armed forces is being cut by 22%,

leaving by the mid-1990s some 119,000 in the Army, 70,000 in the RAF and

52,500 in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines. This involves reductions in

main equipment of:

· three Tornado GR1 squadrons, four Phantom squadrons, two Buccaneer

squadrons and part of a squadron of Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft;

· 12 submarines, nine destroyers and frigates and 13 mine

· countermeasures ships; and

· 327 main battle tanks.

Civilian staff employed by the Ministry of Defence will be re­duced from

169,100 in 1991 to 135,000.

As a member of NATO, Britain fully supports the Alliance’s current strategic

concept, under which its tasks are to:

· help to provide a stable security environment, in which no country

is able to intimidate or dominate any European country through the threat or

use of force;

· serve as a transatlantic forum for Allied consultations af­fecting

member states’ vital interests; deter from aggression and defend member

states against military attack; and

· preserve the strategic balance within Europe.

THE PRESS, RADIO AND TELEVISION

National Daily and Sunday Papers.

The British buy more newspapers than any other people except Swedes and the

Japa­nese. The daily press differs in two obvious ways from that of any

similar western European country. First, all over Britain most people read

“national” papers, based in London, which altogether sell more copies than

all eighty-odd provincial papers combined. Second, there is a striking

difference between the five “quality” papers’ and the six mass-circulation

popular “tabloids”.

These characteristics are still more salient with the Sunday press. Almost no

papers at all are published in Britain on Sundays except “national” ones: six

“popular”’ and five “quality” based in London. Three appear on Sundays only;

the others are associated with dailies which have the same names but

different editors, journalists and layouts. The “quality” Sunday papers

devote large sections to literature and the arts. They have colour

supplements and are in many ways more like magazines than newspapers. They

supply quite different worlds of taste and interest from the “popular”

papers.

Scotland has two important “quality” papers, “The Scots­man” in Edinburgh and

the “Glasgow Herald”.

The dominance of the national press reflects the weakness of regional

identity among the English. The gap in quality is not so much between Labour

and Conservative, as between levels of ability to read and appreciate serious

news presented seriously. Of the five quality morning papers only “The Daily

Telegraph” is solidly Conservative; nearly all its readers are Conservatives.

“The Times” and “Financial Times” have a big minority of non-Conservative

readers. Of the popular papers only the “Daily Mir­ror” regularly supports

Labour. Plenty of Labour voters read popular papers with Conservative

inclinations, but do not change their publican opinion because of what they

have read. Some of them are interested only in the human interest stories and

in sport, and may well hardly notice the reporting of political and economic

affairs.

Except in central London there are very few newspaper ki­osks in town

streets. This may be because most pavements are too narrow to have room for

them. In towns the local evening papers are sold by elderly men and women who

stand for many hours, stamping their feet to keep warm. Otherwise, newspapers

can be bought in shops or delivered to homes by boys and girls who want to

earn money by doing “paper-rounds”.

Most of the newspapers are owned by big companies, some of which have vast

interests in other things, ranging from travel agencies to Canadian forests.

Some have been dominated by strong individuals. The greatest of the press

“barons” have not been British in origin, but have come to Britain from

Canada, Australia or Czechoslovakia. The most influential innovator of modern

times is partly Indian, and spent his early years in India. He pioneered the

introduction of new technology in printing.

Among the “quality” papers the strongly Conservative “Daily Telegraph” sells

more than twice as many copies as any of the others. It costs less to buy and

its reporting of events is very thorough. The “Financial Times” has a

narrower appeal, but is not narrowly restricted to business news. “The

Guardian” has an old liberal tradition, and is in general a paper of the

Left.

The most famous of all British newspapers is “The Times”. It is not now, and

has never been, an organ of the government, and has no link with any party.

In 1981 it and “The Sunday Times”’ were taken over by the international press

company of the Australian Rupert Murdoch, which also owns two of the most

“popular” of the national papers. Its editorial independence is protected by

a super­visory body, but in the 1980s it has on the whole been sympathetic to

the Conservative government. The published letters to the editor have often

been influential, and some lead to, prolonged discussion in further letters.

Under the Murdoch regime it has continued a movement away from its old

austerity.

The popular newspapers are now commonly called “tabloids”, a word first used

for pharmaceutical substances compressed into pills. The tabloid newspapers

compress the news, and are printed on small sheets of paper. They use

enormous headlines for the leading items of each day, which are one day

political, one day to do with crime, one day sport, one day some odd

happening. They have their pages of political report and comment, short,

often over-simplified but vigorously written and (nowadays) generally

responsible. They thrive on sensational stories and excitement.

The two archetypal popular papers, the “Daily Mail”’ and “Daily Express” were

both built up by individual tycoons in the early 20th century. Both

had a feeling for the taste of a newly-literate public: if a man bites a dog,

that’s news. The “Daily Ex­press” was built up by a man born in Canada. He

became a great man in the land, a close friend and associate of Winston

Churchill, and a powerful minister in his War Cabinet. The circulation of the

“Daily Express” at one time exceeded four million copies a day. Now the first

Lord Beaverbrook is dead, and the daily sales are not much more than half of

their highest figure. The history of the “Daily Mail”, with its more

conventional conservatism, is not greatly different.

In popular journalism the “Daily Mirror” became a serious ri­val of the

“Express” and “Mail” in the 1940s. It was always tab­loid, and always devoted

more space to picture than to text. It was also a pioneer with strip

cartoons. After the Second World War it regularly supported the Labour Party.

It soon outdid the “Daily Express” in size of headlines, short sentences and

explora­tion of excitement. It also became the biggest-selling daily

news­paper. For many years its sales were about four million; some­times well

above.

Until the 1960s the old “Daily Herald” was an important daily paper

reflecting the views of the trade unions and the La­bour Party. Then it went

through several changes, until in the 1970s its successor, “The Sun”, was

taken over by Mr Murdoch’s company. In its new tabloid form it became a

right-wing rival to the “Daily Mirror”, with huge headlines and some nudity.

In the 1980s its sales reached four million and exceeded the “Daily Mirror”.

Mr Murdoch’s News International already owned “The News of the World”’, a

Sunday paper which has continued to give special emphasis to scandals. But by

1990 its sales were only two-thirds of their former highest figure of eight

million.

For a very long time the press has been free from any gov­ernmental

interference. There has been no censorship, no subsidy. But for several

decades it has seemed that some newspapers have abused their freedom. In

competing with one another to get sto­ries to satisfy a public taste for

scandal, reporters and photogra­phers have been tempted to harass individuals

who have for one reason or another been involved, directly or indirectly, in

events which could excite public curiosity. Prominent people of all kinds, as

well as obscure people who come into the news as victims of crimes or

accidents, have been pursued into their homes for pho­tographs and

interviews.

Local and Regional Papers.

Local morning papers have suffered from the universal penetration of the

London-based na­tional press. Less than 20 survive in the whole England, and

their combined circulation is much less than that of “The Sun” alone. Among

local daily papers those published in the evenings are much more important.

Each of about 70 towns has one, selling only within a radius of 50 to 100

kilometres. The two London evening papers, the “News” and “Standard”,

together sold two million copies in 1980, but they could not survive, and

merged into one, now called “The London Evening Standard”.

Most local daily papers belong to one or other of the big press empires,

which leave their local editors to decide editorial policy. Mostly they try

to avoid any appearance of regular parti­sanship, giving equal weight to each

major political party. They give heavy weight to local news and defend local

interests and local industries.

The total circulation of all provincial daily newspapers, morning and evening

together, is around eight million: about half as great as that of the

national papers. In spite of this, some pro­vincial papers are quite

prosperous. They do not need their own foreign correspondents; they receive

massive local advertising, particularly about things for sale.

The truly local papers are weekly. They are not taken very seriously, being

mostly bought for the useful information con­tained in their advertisements.

But for a foreign visitor wishing to learn something of the flavour of a

local community, the weekly local paper can be useful. Some of these papers

are now given away, not sold out but supported by the advertising.

The Weekly and Periodical Press.

Good English writing is often to be found in the weekly political and

literary journals, all based in London, all with nationwide circulations in

the tens of thousands. “The Economist”, founded in 1841, probably has no

equal everywhere. It has a coloured cover and a few photographs inside, so

that it looks like “Time”’, “Newsweek” or “Der Spiegel”, but its reports have

more depth and breadth than any these. It covers world affairs, and even its

American section is more informative about America than its American

equivalents. Although by no means “popular”, it is vigorous in its comments,

and deserves the respect in which it is generally held. “Spectator” is a

weekly journal of opinion. It regularly contains well-written articles, often

politically slanted. It devotes nearly half its space to literature and the

arts.

“The Times” has three weekly supplements, all appeared and sold separately. The

“Literary Supplement” is devoted almost entirely to book reviews, and covers

all kinds of new literature. It makes good use of academic contributors, and

has at last, unlike “The Economist”, abandoned its old tradition of anonymous

re­views. “New Scientist”4, published by the company which owns the

“Daily Mirror”, has good and serious articles about scientific research, often

written by academics yet useful for the general reader.

One old British institution, the satirical weekly “Punch”’, sur­vives, more

abrasive than in an earlier generation yet finding it hard to keep the place

it once had in a more secure social system. Its attraction, particularly for

one intellectual youth, has been sur­passed by a new rival, “Private Eye”,

founded in 1962 by people who, not long before, had run a pupils’ magazine in

Shrewsbury School. Its scandalous material is admirably written on atrocious

paper and its circulation rivals that of “The Economist”.

Glossy weekly or monthly illustrated magazines cater either for women or for

any of a thousand special interests. Almost all are based in London, with

national circulations, and the women’s magazines sell millions of copies.

These, along with commercial television, are the great educators of demand

for the new and better goods offered by the modern consumer society. In any

big newsagent’s shop the long rows of brightly covered magazines seem to go

on for ever; beyond the large variety of appeals to women and teenage girls

come those concerned with yachting, tennis, model railways, gardening and

cars. For every activity there is a magazine, supported mainly by its

advertisers, and from time to time the police bring a pile of pornographic

magazines to local magistrates, who have the difficult task of deciding

whether they are sufficiently offensive to be banned.

These specialist magazines are not cheap. They live off an in­finite variety

of taste, curiosity and interest. Their production, week by week and month by

month, represents a fabulous amount of effort and of felled trees. Television

has not killed the desire to read.

Radio and Television.

Since the 1970s 98% of British households have had television sets able to

receive four channels, two put out by the BBC, two by commercial companies.

Commer­cial satellite and cable TV began to grow significantly in 1989-1990,

and by 1991 the two main companies operating in Britain had joined together

as British Sky Broadcasting. By 1991 about one household in ten had the

equipment to receive this material.

Every household with TV must by law pay for a licence, which costs about the

same for a year as a popular newspaper every day.

Unlike the press, mass broadcasting has been subject to some state control

from its early days. One agreed purpose has been to ensure that news, comment

and discussion should be balanced and impartial, free of influence by

government or advertisers. From 1926 first radio, then TV as well, were

entrusted to the BBC, which still has a board of governors appointed by the

gov­ernment. The BBC’s monopoly was ended in 1954, when an inde­pendent board

was appointed by the Home Secretary to give li­cences to broadcast

(“franchises”) to commercial TV companies financed by advertising, and called

in general independent televi­sion (ITV). These franchises have been given

only for a few years at a time, then renewed subject to various conditions.

In 1990 Parliament passed a long and complex new Broad­casting Act which made

big changes in the arrangements for commercial TV and radio. The old

Independent Broadcasting Authority, which had given, franchises to the

existing TV and radio companies, was abolished. In its place, for TV alone, a

new Independent Television Commission was set up in 1991, with the task of

awarding future franchises, early in the 1990s, either to the existing

companies or to new rivals which were prepared to pay a higher price. The

Commission also took over responsibility for licensing cable programme

services, including those satellite TV channels which are carried on cable

networks. The new law did not change the status of the BBC, but it did have

the purpose of increasing competition, both among broadcasters and among

producers. It envisaged that a new commercial TV channel, TVS, would start in

the early 1990s.

The general nature of the four TV channels functioning in 1991, seems likely

to continue, with BBC1 and ITV producing a broadly similar mixture of

programmes in competition with each other. ITV has a complex structure. Its

main news is run by one company, Independent Television News, its early

morning TV— a.m. by another. There are about a dozen regional companies which

broadcast in their regions for most each day, with up to ten minutes of

advertisements in each hour, between programmes or as interruptions at

intervals of twenty or thirty minutes. These regional companies produce some

programmes of local interest and some which they sell to other regions, so

that for much of each day the same material is put out all through the

country. Some of BBCl’s programmes are similarly produced by its re­gional

stations. BBC2 and the independent Channel 4 (which has its own company) are

both used partly for special interest pro­grammes and for such things as

complete operas.

By international standards it could reasonably be claimed that the four regular

channels together provide an above-average service, with the balance giving

something to please most tastes and preferences. Some quiz-shows and “soap

operas”’, or long-running sagas, attract large numbers of viewers and to some

ex­tent the BBC competes for success in this respect. But minority preferences

are not overlooked. In Wales there are Welsh-language programmes for the few

who want them. There are for­eign language lessons for the general pubic, as

well as the special programmes for schools and the Open University2.

BBC news has always kept a reputation for objectivity, and the independent news

service is of similar quality.

Television is probably the most important single factor in the continuous

contest for the public’s favour between the political parties. Parties and

candidates cannot buy advertising time. At intervals each channel provides

time for each of the three main political parties for party-political

broadcasts, and during an elec­tion campaign a great deal of time is provided

for parties’ elec­tion, always on an equal basis.

Minor parties get time, based partly on the number of their candidates. In

Wales and Scotland the nationalist parties get TV time on the same basis as

the three others. Studios and transmit­ters must be provided free of charge.

But often a party prefers to film a broadcast outside the studio at its own

expense, for greater impact.

BBC TV Europe broadcasts some of its own programmes by satellite, and from

1991 BBC TV International began to sell and distribute its World Service TV

news in English and some other languages.

The BBC’s Radio 4 is the main general interest radio service, with some items

run by regional studios. Radio 3 is for minority interests, including music,

“2” for light entertainment, “1” for pop music and “5” for sport, education

and children’s programmes. There are also several dozens local BBC radio

stations, covering the whole country. The world wide radio service has been

estab­lished for long time, and is the activity of the BBC to receive a

government subsidy.

The BBC runs several dozens of local radio stations, which compete with

independent commercial rivals, financed by adver­tisements. All provide a

mixture of local news and comment, with some entertainment matter, mainly pop

music, in between. In the 1990s there should be one or more new commercial

radio stations broadcasting nationwide, including one “non-pop” station,

possibly for continuous broadcasts of classical music.