SBK2 Qs&As

86. What is the title of H. V. Morton's 1942 book in which he contrasts pre-war England with wartime England?

- "I Saw Two Englands".

88. What is the title of H. V. Morton's 1927 book in which he purposely 'skirts Black England' in order to see its 'real north' of ancient cities and countryside?

- "In Search of England".

28. What is the full title of the 1982 BCCCS book which brought a critical Black perspective to the reading of a wide range of cultural texts, effectively extending the intellectual boundaries of a new discursive terrain for a Black British culture?

- "The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain".

24. In which book was the English language, for the first time in its history, thoroughly nationalised and standardised, and who was its editor?

- "The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles", by a Scot - James A.H. Murray (in 1879).

75. What is the name of the national anthem of Wales, and which is the traditional Welsh instrument?

- (Old) Land of My Fathers; the harp.

67. What was the name of the 1948 Act that granted the inhabitants of the UK the status of 'citizens of the UK and colonies' instead of being formally 'subjects' of the Crown?

- (The British) Nationality Act 1948.

6. How many British overseas territories and Commonwealth Realms are there, respectively?

- 14; 16 (including UK).

63. Which years represent the three constitutional moments in the history of the UK?

- 1707, 1801 and 1921.

78. In which year were the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales held?

- 1999 (in May).

69. Which year marked the 300th anniversary of the British Union?

- 2007.

66. What percentage of the overall number of inhabitants in the UK did England's population represent by the 1990s?

- 85 per cent.

95. Whose figure stands on the enormous column erected in 1842 in the centre of Trafalgar Square?

- A figure of Lord Nelson.

41. According to the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities in Britain, prejudice against which ethnic, racial, or religious group is the highest?

- Against Asians (primarily against Muslims).

22. When did the English national identity begin to emerge?

- At the end of the 19th century.

73. What are the names for the Welsh language radio station and the Welsh language television station launched in 1977 and in 1982 respectively?

- BBC Radio Cymru and Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) - Channel Four Wales.

13. In which British colony was The Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840*, and between whom?

- Between the British Crown and Maori, in New Zealand.

92. Name chronologically the two US presidents with whom British PM Tony Blair partially agreed, but also partially disagreed.

- Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

54. Which colloquialism is frequently used in the republican community in Northern Ireland as a reference to the Protestant and unionist Institutions, and to characterize political unionism as a whole?

- Black Bastards.

32. Which British cultural identity are films like Horace Ove's Pressure, Menelik Shabazz's Burning an Illusion and Ngozi Onwuhra's Welcome II the Terrordome cinematic representations of?

- Black Britishness or black Englishness.

42. Who referred to the UK as "Cool Britannia"?

- Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in a minute long song (a pun on "Rule, Britannia")... later Tony Blair threw his Cool Britannia party.

83. Of which three constituent parts of the UK does the island of Great Britain consist?

- England, Scotland, and Wales.

37. Name three areas in the UK in which race riots took place in the 1970s.

- Brixton, the Midlands, Liverpool.

38. Name three ways in which Muslim men and women in the UK are being held back in the workplace.

- By Islamophobia (e.g. stereotyping, low expectations), racism (e.g. reduced likelihood of being offered an interview/a job) and discrimination (especially against women wearing headscarves).

19. What is the British state, as the classic example of the 'state-nation', identified by instead of ethnicity?

- By state institutions, such as Parliament and the monarchy.

70. Which city is the youngest capital in Europe, and in which year did it become the capital city?

- Cardiff, in 1955.

17. Which constituent part of the UK is seen as its 'last stateless nation'?

- England.

56. What was the name of the organisation founded in 1981, which became a successful catalyst for political pressure on London and a political guarantor of the US contribution to the International Fund for Ireland?

- Congressional Friends of Ireland.

71. Who became, in 1916, the first and only Welsh Prime Minister of the UK?

- David Lloyd George.

80. Name two kinds of powers after legislative devolution in the UK: those which are transferred and those which allow for decisions to be made only by the UK Parliament.

- Devolved and reserved powers.

1. When did England begin to establish colonies and trade networks in the Americas and Asia?

- During the Age of Discovery, in the 15th and 16th centuries.

12. Who was the most important advocate and theorist of 'systematic colonisation'?

- Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

53. What is the Irish language called and what is the name for schools in which teaching is in the Irish language in Northern Ireland?

- Gaelic (Ghaeilge); gael scoileanna.

4. Which countries challenged Britain's economic lead at the start of the 20th century?

- Germany and the United States.

58. Which city was made the Cultural Capital of Europe in 1990?

- Glasgow.

27. Whose work at the BCCCS opened up new dialogues on Black cultural identity, effectively challenging the notion that British culture was quintessentially 'white'?

- Stuart Hall's work.

94. Name the two provisos with which John Major signed the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992.

- He declined to sign the Social Chapter safeguarding minimal employment conditions throughout the Union and insisted on Britain's right to opt out of the planned single currency for the Union.

100. Which famous writer, a native American, was obsessed by "that quiet and comfortable sense of the absolute" enjoyed by the English?

- Henry James.

15. Who is the author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage?

- Henry Watson Fowler (1926).

40. Name three practices through which white people in the UK demonstrate that British Asians are not accepted as British because of their race or cultural background.

- Hurtful "jokes", harassment, discrimination, (violence).

5. When did the British Empire achieve its largest territorial extent?

- Immediately after WWI, in 1921.

33. In which year was the East India Company established?

- In 1600.

2. In which year did Britain lose the Thirteen Colonies in North America?

- In 1783, after the American War of Independence.

45. In which year did the Easter Rising in Ireland take place?

- In 1916 (Easter Monday, April 24-30).

52. In which year did partition of Ireland take place, and which two unstable antagonistic political blocks exist in Northern Ireland (supply both names for each of the blocks)?

- In 1921; one is nationalist and republican, the other is unionist and loyalist.

77. In which years did the two Welsh referendums on devolution take place?

- In 1979 and in 1997.

49. In which year was 'The Good Friday Agreement' signed?

- In 1998.

61. In which year did the referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom take place?

- In 2014 (on September 18).

84. In which three constituent parts of the UK did devolution at the end of the 20th century provide political identities to their respective cultural distinctive characters?

- In Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

59. What are the names for language varieties spoken in Lowland Scotland and in the Highlands?

- In the Lowlands - Scots (or Lowland Scots) which is the Germanic language; in the Highlands - Scottish Gaelic which is the Celtic language.

36. Name three countries from which the greatest number of migrants came to the UK after 1947.

- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, (Sri Lanka).

34. Which country was known as "the jewel in the crown of the British Empire"?

- India.

10. Which was the oldest colony of the British Empire?

- Ireland.

39. Which term has been in use for Anti-Muslim hatred in the UK since 1997?

- Islamophobia.

48. What issues has the term 'Irish question' been used to describe lately?

- Issues associated with the UK-Irish border and Brexit.

23. What fraction of the world's land surface did the British Empire cover on the eve of the Fist World War and what percentage of the world's population did it incorporate?

- It covered 1/5 of the world's land surface and incorporated a quarter (25%) of world's population.

9. What are the titles of two 19th-century English novels that reflect the racial fear engendered by the 1857 Indian mutiny, and who are their corresponding authors?

- Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park", Charles Dickens's "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".

21. What was the name of the famous national personification figure invented in England in 1712 for the purpose of distinctiveness?

- John Bull.

11. Who articulated British political identity as imperial in the late 19th century?

- Joseph Chamberlain.

43. Which British monarch ensured that the Irish Parliament declared him King of Ireland in 1541?

- King Henry VIII.

65. Over which three elements that made up the so-called 'Holy Trinity' did Scots have de facto autonomy for two centuries after 1707?

- Law, education, and religion.

26. Name three practices that help make Britishness more inclusive, taught about in citizenship classes in the UK.

- Learning about tradition of accommodating the political needs of minorities through: 1) anti-discrimination measures, 2) legal exemptions for minority religious practices, and 3) using public services to promote racial equality.

79. Name two kinds of devolution in the UK: the one through which political power is transferred from the central to a subnational government, and the other one which recognises the centre of political power, but allows for regional interests to also be represented.

- Legislative and administrative, respectively.

85. What has Englishness been intrinsically linked to, instead of being a typical form of national identity, and what has been central to its formation?

- Linked to class divisions and exclusivity has been central.

90. Name the British PM and the US president, respectively, who had a particularly strong relationship during the 80s.

- Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

50. Which was the most economically disadvantaged area in the United Kingdom in the 1970s?

- Northern Ireland.

51. The growth of which new class was a significant outcome of the installation of a large military garrison in Northern Ireland in the 1970s?

- Of a new Catholic middle class.

31. Who is the author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack?

- Paul Gilroy (1987).

3. What was the period of relative peace in Europe and the world (1815-1914), during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman, called?

- Pax Britannica ("British Peace").

44. What was the term for English and Scottish Protestant settlers on confiscated land in Ireland?

- Planters.

93. Who was the first foreign leader to visit US President Donald Trump at the White House, and in which year did that happen?

- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May, in 2017.

8. Who is the Head of the Commonwealth?

- Queen Elizabeth II.

35. Which British monarch issued a proclamation recognising Indians as British subjects and granting them equality of citizenship?

- Queen Victoria.

18. Who referred to the UK as "Yookay"?

- Raymond Williams.

96. Which were the three dominating European powers in the 17th and the 18th centuries, respectively?

- Spain, France and Britain.

87. Which two British PMs evoked rural England in their famous speeches in 1924 and 1993, respectively?

- Stanley Baldwin and John Major.

29. What is the name of the black British teenager from south east London whose murder inquiry represents a critical moment in the process of political and cultural change in Britain?

- Stephen Lawrence.

68. What was the name of the 1914 Act in which nationality did not refer to Britain as a geographical entity but was rather perceived in terms of those who owed allegiance to the Crown?

- The 1914 British Nationality and (Status of) Aliens Act.

62. What is the name of the agreement which allows travellers from the Republic of Ireland to the UK and vice versa to avoid passport checks?

- The Common Travel Area (CTA).

7. What is the name of the world's oldest association of states, established by former British colonies after they gained independence?

- The Commonwealth of Nations (1949).

16. Which party was often associated with implicit pro-English-hegemony feelings?

- The Conservative Party.

76. Which treaty afforded constitutional citizenship to the Welsh for the first time?

- The Maastricht Treaty.

46. Name two main Protestant institutions which hold parades throughout Northern Ireland.

- The Orange Institution, the Royal Black Institution.

60. Which is the strongest Scottish political party, and in which year was it formed?

- The Scottish National Party, formed in 1928 (changed name from The National Party of Scotland in 1934).

30. What are the English and the British flags called, respectively?

- The St. George's Cross; Union Flag or the Union Jack.

47. Which three flags are used in Northern Ireland?

- The Union Jack, the former Northern Ireland flag - "Ulster Banner"/"Red Hand Flag", the Tricolour... "Cross of St Patrick"?

72. Which is the only language in the UK that has equal status with English as an official language?

- The Welsh language.

81. Which Britpop bands were known as the "big four"?

- The bands Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp.

98. At the centre of which three defining concentric circles does Great Britain lie, according to Winston Churchill's speech at the Conservative Party conference in Llandudno in 1948?

- The empire, the anglophone Atlantic world, and Europe.

97. Which event opened the moment of Britain's supremacy in Europe, and in which year did it happen?

- The final defeat of the French and of the Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805.

14. Who was the capital of New Zealand named after?

- The first Duke of Wellington - Arthur Wellesley.

74. Which national flag is believed to be the oldest one still in use, and which animal does it feature?

- The flag of Wales; the Red Dragon (Y Ddraig Goch).

55. What was the name of an influential group of people with whom John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland, networked effectively in the mid-1970s?

- The four horsemen.

57. What are the two iconic symbols of Scottish culture, banned in 1746?

- The kilt and the bagpipes.

20. Which are the two British heraldic symbols in the title of George Orwell's famous essay published in 1941?

- The lion (England) and the unicorn (Scotland).

25. Which specific part of England was accorded literally utopian status in William Morris' News from Nowhere (1890)?

- The southern English countryside.

64. Until which year was the British state constitutionally a 'unitary' one with a single legislature at Westminster?

- Until 1999.

82. Whose gravestone is inscribed with the words "Prime Minister of England, 1908-1916", even though there has never been a Prime Minister of England, only a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

- Viscount Asquith.

89. Name the British PM and the US president, respectively, who had a particularly strong relationship during WWII.

- Winston Churchill and Franklin (Delano) Roosevelt.

99. Who advocated most strenuously the unification of France and Great Britain in 1940, so that they 'shall no longer be two nations, but one Franco-British Union'

- Winston Churchill.

91. Why did Winston Churchill believe Britain's future lay with the US rather than with Europe?

Churchill was the one who coined the term 'special relationship' after the war. He believed Britain's future lies with the US rather than with Europe since US secured arms, money and ultimately troops for the defeat of Nazi Germany.