Category: Geography & Environment

The first motorway in Britain was opened in 1959 and since then, the country has seen more motorways and more traffic than was ever envisaged. Smart motorways are an attempt to ease traffic flow in the most cost-effective way. However, they have a major downside.

Motorways generally have three lanes and a hardshoulder – a lane on the left for emergency use only, whose foundations are not designed for regular traffic. Since 2006 the Highways Agency has gradually been re-building hardshoulders in order to give four lanes for traffic without having to acquire extra land.

Stopping for emergencies is now restricted to ‘refuge areas’, provided the driver is lucky enough to be near one, as they are spaced 1.5 miles apart. The breakdown services, such as the RAC and the AA, will only come out to assist if you are parked in one of these refuge areas. They will not come to your rescue if you break down in a lane, as it is much too dangerous. Smart motorways are therefore a highly controversial introduction, requiring more Highways patrols and more surveillance cameras.

However, due to widely-expressed safety concerns, in 2023 the Government directed the Highways Agency to cancel the roll-out of more smart motorways.

(Top image: Department of Transport at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In Britain, we like to think of ourselves as ‘animal lovers’ and there are many organisations that are devoted to the care and conservation of domesticated and wild animals. One exampe is the Wildlife Aid Foundation (WAF).

This is a charity that was set up by Simon Cowell, from his home in Leatherhead, Surrey, as a ‘hobby’ back in 1980. It now admits around 20,000 injured or sick wildlife animals each year and has more than three hundred volunteers working in various roles. It has also had its own TV programme for a number of years and has earned Simon a well-deserved MBE!

Animals and birds of all kinds can be taken in and cared for in the WAF hospital while they recover. Simon and his rescue team will also come and free animals from precarious situations, such as being stuck in wire netting. Once they are certain that the animal or bird is fit and healthy, they release it back into the wild, as in this video of Simon with a buzzard, from the WAF YouTube channel:

(Top image: Twitter.com)

The UK, Great Britain, the British Isles, England… these are not just different names for the same landmass! The differences are illustrated below:-

• The British Isles refers to all of the islands, including the country of Ireland.
• The United Kingdom‘s full name is ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ and its abbreviation is ‘the UK’.
• Great Britain comprises England, Wales and Scotland (not Northern Ireland) and ‘Great’ is often omitted informally.
• England is the largest by size and population of the four constituent nations of the UK.

If this seems confusing for you non-Brits, be assured that even many of those born and raised here are not entirely sure of their own geography! Sad but true.

(Top image: pixabay.com)

Ascension Island, grouped with St. Helena and Tristan de Cunha islands, is one of fourteen British ‘overseas territories’. It is the tip of an underwater volcanic system in tropical mid-Atlantic, naturally arid with almost no native vegetation, and was once home to millions of sea birds.

The British were the first people to settle there in 1815 and Charles Darwin (1809-82) visited in 1836. His friend, the botanist Sir James Hooker (1817-1911) made his own trip there in 1843 and on his recommendation, trees and shrubs started to be imported from 1850 onwards in order to make settlement more feasible.

Today, the Island is dominated by a USA military airbase along with various tracking, transmitting and listening stations. In 1982 the Island suddenly hosted an immense increase in traffic, both airborne and maritime, when it became a stopping-off and refuelling point for those involved in the Falklands Conflict.

There is so much that is strange about this island, as this BBC article explains. It is not currently possible to fly to Ascension as a tourist other than from Johannesburg via St. Helena once a month and with a valid entry permit.

(Top image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz MD at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Within the British Isles there are three Crown Dependencies, namely:-

• the Bailiwick of Jersey
• the Bailiwick of Guernsey (including Alderney, Sark and other islands)
• the Isle of Man

Together the two Bailiwicks are known as the Channel Islands.

The Crown Dependencies are self-governing possessions of the British monarchy. In the Isle of Man the royal incumbent is called the ‘Lord of Mann’ and in the Channel Islands he or she is called the ‘Duke of Normandy’. Strange but true!

The Crown Dependencies have a special status in that they are neither their own countries nor are they part of the UK and UK law does not apply to them. Instead, they have their own legal, immigration and healthcare systems, albeit with a degree of oversight by the Crown’s representatives. However, their international and defence affairs are looked after by the UK. This situation is very similar to that of the 14 British Overseas Territories, the difference being that the BOTs are geographically well outside of the British Isles.

The featured photograph is of the Parliament (Tynwald) building, known locally as the ‘Wedding Cake’, in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man.

(Top image: Andy Stephenson at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)