Country Details

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange located in the City of London in the United Kingdom. As of December 2014, the Exchange had a market capitalization of US$6.06 trillion (short scale), making it the third-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement (the largest in Europe, ahead of Euronext). The Exchange was founded in 1801 and its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The Exchange is part of the London Stock Exchange Group.

London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges and can trace its history back more than 300 years. London Stock Exchange Group was created in October 2007 when the London Stock Exchange merged with Milan Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana. The Copenhagen Stock Exchange or CSE (Danish: Københavns Fondsbørs), since 2014 officially called Nasdaq Copenhagen, is an international marketplace for Danish securities, including shares, bonds, treasury bills and notes, and financial futures and options.

Nasdaq Copenhagen is one of the Nasdaq Nordic Exchanges. Nasdaq Nordic goes back to the 2003 merger of OM AB and HEX plc to form OMX and is, since February 2008, part of Nasdaq, Inc. (formerly known as NASDAQ OMX Group).

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign state in Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, it includes the island of Great Britain (the name of which is also loosely applied to the whole country), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to its east, the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south-southwest, giving it the 12th longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq. mi), the UK is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants.[10] Together, this makes it the fourth most densely populated country in the European Union.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch—since 6 February 1952—is Queen Elizabeth II. The capital of UK and its largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million, the fourth-largest in Europe and second-largest in the European Union. Other major urban areas in the UK include the regions of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Liverpool.

The UK consists of four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latter three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. The nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.

The relationships among the countries of the United Kingdom have changed over time. Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the country, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The UK has fourteen Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture, and legal systems of many of its former colonies.

The United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. The UK is considered to have a high-income economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index, ranking 14th in the world. It was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific, and political influence internationally. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946. It has been a leading member state of the European Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a national referendum on the UK's membership of the EU resulted in a 51.9% vote to exit. The UK is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Europe. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark is a sovereign state that comprises Denmark proper and two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 square kilometres (16,573 sq. mi), and a population of 5.7 million. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of islands, including Zealand and Funen. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate.

The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea. Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the same monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The deterioration of the Kingdom of Norway, caused by the Black Death, made it possible for Denmark to inherit an expansive colonial empire from this union—of which the Faroe Islands and Greenland are remnants. Beginning in the 17th century, there were several sessions of territory; these culminated in the 1830s with a surge of nationalist movements, which were defeated in the 1864 Second Schleswig War. Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945. An industrialised exporter of agricultural produce in the second half of the 19th century, Denmark introduced social and labour-market reforms in the early 20th century that created the basis for the present welfare state model with a highly developed mixed economy.

The Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy—the current monarch is Queen Margrethe II—organised as a parliamentary democracy. The government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nation's capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs. Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948; in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community (now the EU) in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs; it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the founding members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE, and the United Nations; it is also part of the Schengen Area.

Danes enjoy a high standard of living and the country ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including education, health care, protection of civil liberties, democratic governance, prosperity and development. The country ranks as having the world's highest social mobility, a high level of income equality, is the country with the lowest perceived level of corruption in the world, has one of the world's highest per capita incomes, and one of the world's highest personal income tax rates.

Post-Brexit, the U.K. is in its worst political crisis since 1940

To choose a new Conservative Party leader, who would also serve as Britain’s next prime minister, Tory members of Parliament (MPs) have to agree on a short list of two, probably over the coming two weeks. Then the 150,000 or so party members will get to decide between the two finalists, after an internal campaign that will probably last about six weeks.

As May and Johnson jostle for the position, they will likely offer competing views on what a post-Brexit E.U. looks like, and what model — Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Canada, or Singapore and Hong Kong — to follow in how the country relates to the E.U. in the future. Meanwhile, recent Google searches for “how to join the Conservative Party” have skyrocketed, suggesting that the contest will be unpredictable.

[Here’s why Brexit will be very costly for the UK — and the EU]

The Labour Party has similarly been thrown into turmoil as their left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, faces an internal party revolt. Corbyn supported the “remain” campaign in the most lukewarm way possible, publicly saying that his support for the E.U. was about a 7 out of 10.

After the results came in, many of his MPs blamed him for the large shares of “leave” voters in many of Labour’s traditional working-class constituencies, as many voters were unclear as to whether Corbyn supported in or out. Just four days after the referendum, 172 of Corbyn’s 229 MPs outright rejected him in a no-confidence vote; only 40 MPs voted in support while 13 MPs did not vote.

But replacing him will prove hard, especially if he keeps his vow to fight on, as Labour’s rules consider such a vote to be nonbinding. In the meanwhile, Corbyn remains very popular among Labour’s grassroots members, who are the ones who actually decide on a new leader. In September 2015, he got a solid mandate from 61 percent of Labour members, in a four-way race that was a stinging rejection of the Party’s establishment, including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

With a leaderless government and a rudderless opposition, the U.K. would ordinarily expect a new general election. But given their current states of chaos, it would be hard to believe that either Labour or Conservatives would want to go back to the ballot box so soon after the election of May 2015. Nor is it clear what party platform either would offer, as both are internally divided over European Union membership. That makes it difficult to imagine who would call for, or who could force, snap elections.

The Fixed Term Parliament Act of 2011 stipulates a fixed five-year term for every new government. There are only two ways to call a snap election. One way is for two-thirds of the sitting House to agree that “there shall be an early parliamentary election.” Another way is for parliament to call for a motion of no confidence in “ Her Majesty’s Government” by a simple majority, which they can only be reversed by a vote of confidence within the next 14 days. With an absolute — though slim — majority of just 16 seats, the new Conservative leadership, expected in early September, would have to propose a “no confidence” motion in themselves.

But why would they? Keep in mind that a slim majority of current Conservative MPs opposes leaving the E.U. Many of their districts voted in large numbers for Brexit. These MPs are unlikely to favor early elections, lest they be unseated by a challenger from the right-wing nationalist U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, was one of the main faces of the “leave” campaign.

[Britain wants a sweetheart deal after Brexit. Fat chance Germany will give it one.]

In the meanwhile, Labour MPs feel in no position to go head-to-head with the Tories given the hapless leadership Jeremy Corbyn has provided thus far. Most MPs in traditional Labour constituencies, especially in the industrial north of England, also fear being unseated by a UKIP candidate or losing to a Tory. Furthermore, the Europe question cuts through the middle of both Conservative and Labour Parties, and is therefore an incredibly thorny issue to find common ground on in an election manifesto.

In short, the U.K. is in the midst of its worst political crisis since May 1940, when Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain to face the existential

Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are all that remain of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed. Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th century A.D., Britain fell easy prey to the invading hordes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Seven large Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established, and the original Britons were forced into Wales and Scotland. It was not until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.

Famous people

The pound sterling (symbol: £; ISO code: GBP [Great Britain Pound]), commonly known as the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have currencies called the pound. At various times, the pound sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold, but it is currently fiat money, backed only by the economy in the areas where it is accepted. The pound sterling is the world's oldest currency still in use and which has been in continuous use since its inception.

The British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling: the "Guernsey pound" and the "Jersey pound". The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man (alongside the Manx pound), Gibraltar (alongside the Gibraltar pound), the Falkland Islands (alongside the Falkland Islands pound), Saint Helena and Ascension Island in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (alongside the Saint Helena pound). The Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating the issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Banknotes issued by other jurisdictions are not regulated by the Bank of England; local governments use Bank of England notes as backing for local issuance by allowing them to be exchanged 1:1 at face value. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro, and the Japanese yen.

Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, with an 11.3% weighting as of 2011 (USD 41.9%, Euro 37.4%, Yen 9.4%). Sterling is also the third most held reserve currency in global reserves (about 4%).