Talk:United Kingdom
I thought "Great Britain" referred to the island of Britain as opposed to the political entity United Kingdom. The latter includes the Channel Islands (and the Isle of Man, and the Shetland Islands, and much else), but the former does not. --LMS
Yes, you're right, I think (!) just did a quick search and found an abundance of information at CIA Jersey factbook (incidentally, ci.html is Chile, there doesn't appear to be a Channel Islands specific page), note the "Dependency status: British crown dependency" and the Independence. Certainly I know there is a lot of independence between mainland Britain and the Channel Islands, as demonstrated by the fact it is tax exempt (and the number of offshore banks shows this)..
Crown dependencies don't usually count in Great Britain. See [1]
But this does highlight that the United Kingdom page should be about that, and the Great Britain page should be about that (even if that does leave everyone a bit confused ;-) --Neeklamy
OK, but do the Channel Islands deserve special mention as part of the U.K. that, for example, the Isle of Man or the British Virgin Islands would not? I don't know what the legal relationships are, but I would guess (just guess) that the Channel Islands are in the same relationship to the U.K. that the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands are. Of course, I wouldn't be at all surprised if I were totally wrong. --LMS
- In practice, the relationship between UK and Isle of Man, and UK and British Virgin Islands is pretty well identical. But they have a very different legal status. British Virgin Islands is a British Dependent Territory (soon to be called British Overseas Territories); the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are British crown dependencies. -- SJK
You've caught me again, I can't say for sure tonight, but certainly I'll hit the library tomorrow and find some dead wood answer to this. --Neeklamy
Just added list of monarchs if anyone would like to run over it. --- Have we determined yet if the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man have a different legal standing than the British dependencies. If they don't they should be folded into that list, not kept separate. If they do -what is the difference? ---rmhermen
- They do a separate legal standing, but the difference is more due to the differing historical origins than due to anything practical today. The British Overseas Territories are former colonies, while the British crown dependencies were (and still technically are) feudal vassals of the British crown. -- SJK
Does anyone know if this Berwick-upon-Tweed thing is true or is it a wind-up? I'm from the UK and i've never heard anything about it, surely it should be on a new page anyway. p.s. I hope i've cleared up any American confusions between the terms Great Britain, United Kingdom and England :) - JamieTheFoool
I've heard the same thing said about war between the Kingdom of Fife and Russia. This needs to be checked. -- Derek Ross
Berwick-upon-Tweed had a weird status until 1885 when it was adminstratively made part of England. Apparently it was mentioned separate in many documents until then (such as the book of common prayer).
EricD Read the bit at the top of the United kingdom page about it being FROZEN! Mintguy 01:03 Sep 14, 2002 (UTC)
BUGGER. Edited the wrong page. - Khendon
UK / GB / etc confusion
Found this: http://www.observer.co.uk/readerseditor/story/0,8224,515149,00.html
- Another reader, who suspects that some of our contributors are 'either arrogant, ignorant or Celtic agents provocateurs' , pleads that we learn the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the British Isles. So, here goes (deep breath): the United Kingdom is a contraction of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the official title of the political union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; Great Britain is the geographical name for England, Wales and Scot land, including those adjacent islands governed by the mainland (i.e. excluding the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands_ are you still with me?); the British Isles is a geographical name describing Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Orkney, the Shetland Isles and the Channel Islands; Britain is another name for Great Britain or the United Kingdom. Phew.
I'm not sure that the UK has a national motto at all. The Sovereign has a motto: "Dieu et mon droit", but that's not the national motto. I vote for the removal of the "national motto" line in this table, unless someone can discover a national motto for the UK.