England

England has a long and interesting history, having a major impact on societies across the world, particularly in terms of language, literature, legal system and industrialisation.

The Kingdom of England, the largest constituent part of the United Kingdom, became a unified sovereign state in 927 AD, until the Act of Union with Scotland on 1 May 1707 forming Great Britain. Since that time, England has not had a separate government.

England is usually described in terms of cities, counties and geographical regions, which continue to be re-defined for various reasons.

England currently consists of 9 regions that are represented as individual constituencies in the European Parliament:-

• East (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk)
• East Midlands (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, part of Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland)
• Greater London (Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, City of London, City of Westminster, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Wandsworth)
• North East (Durham, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear)
• North West (Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside)
• South East (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex)
• South West (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire)
• West Midlands (Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire)
• Yorkshire and the Humber (East Riding of Yorkshire, part of Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire)