Talk:United Kingdom

Title

'Great Britain' redirects automatically to 'United Kingdom.' This is incorrect as the two terms are not interchangeable. The former is strictly the name of the Island which comprises the Mainland of England, Scotland and Wales, whereas the United Kingdom, is the name of a country, who's territory extends over many islands, including Northern Ireland. There should be a seperate article for 'Great Britain.'

It is true that this difference needs to be made clear in the entry -- but there seems little sense in having a separate entry for two such overlapping entities! Boethius 11:04, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

That's a fair point I suppose! Consider it done : )

I see that "Great Britain" still redirects here.--British_cons (talk) 06:40, 23 March 2007 (EDT)

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland also redirects here, which is the entity before Ireland got its independence. I put the redirect there for now to simply allow articles like War of 1812 to link to other articles, but someone who knows a lot on the history of those countries should fix it. GodlessLiberal 23:03, 31 March 2007 (EDT)

There are now separate articles for the Kingdom of Great Britain (the island is at Great Britain) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. If someone has time it might be useful to have articles for pre-Union England, Scotland and Ireland. I think it would be useful for all of them to have a notice at the top pointing to this article as the present day successor state. Mrjimbob 19:34, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

There's already articles on England and Scotland and more than one on Ireland. Do these not suit the purpose? Philip J. Rayment 05:44, 24 August 2007 (EDT)

Currency

Not changed the article text but I'm 99% sure that while English money is legal tender in Scotland, NI et al the reverse isn't true - can anyone confirm this & if so amend the article appropriately? Tracy C Copeland 13:24, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

The paragraph, as it is, is ok and correct - you could expand it if you wanted to, but the situation's a little complex:

• Bank of England coins are legal tender throughout the UK.
• Bank of England notes are only legal tender in England and Wales (and possibly Channel Islands & Isle of Man).
• Channel Islands & Isle of Man notes and coins are only legal tender those jurisdictions.
• Scottish & NI notes aren't legal tender anywhere.
• So no notes are legal tender in Scotland & NI at all.

But "legal tender" doesn't really mean anything. All the forms of currency are perfectly acceptable anywhere in the UK - you'd have a hard time convincing a court that you had a right not to accept Scottish notes (for payment of debt) just because they aren't "legal tender". I got this information from here, here and here --JamesK 20:10, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

• The Bank of England doesn't produce coins, that's the Royal Mint.
• Only in England and Wales does the concept of 'legal tender' exist. The Channel Islands and Isle of Man are not part of the UK.
• Yes.
• As above, Under Scots Law and Northern Irish law there is a broader concept of what is 'legal tender' as it doesn't technically exist under their law.
• Scottish and Northern Irish notes are usually accepted thoughtout the United Kingdom, although sometimes an explanation is required.

Mrjimbob 13:14, 26 June 2007 (EDT)

Anthem

Wales is the only country of the UK to have an official national anthem. Scotland hasn't ("Flower of Scotland" is definitely not official), England hasn't, and "God Save the Queen" is not even the official anthem of the UK. Dorpfeld 15:30, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

Article has a superfluous "The" in the title.

Have no problems with the article but why is the title "The United Kingdom" rather than "United Kingdom"? After all there are not articles for "The People's Republic of China" or "The United States of America".

Perhaps someone could move the page to "United Kingdom"...? It would then be more consistent with other names, easier to search for, and easier to link to. --Jeremiah4-22 19:21, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Since "United Kingdom" redirects to "The United Kingdom" searching and linking shouldn't be a problem but I agree it should probably be changed for consistency. --JamesK 10:02, 27 March 2007 (EDT)

Darts?

I live in the U.K. and last time i looked darts was not a popular sport.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nick227 (talk)

Yes, it is. Most local pubs have a dart board with many having darts teams. A quick look at the top darts players shows the vasy majority are British. stevendavy

I would agree with that. It's not as popular to watch as football or cricket or rugby, but I would guess that nearly as many people play darts in a week as play football. Daphnea 09:33, 24 June 2008 (EDT)

Religion

Hey im British and im a little concerned on the whole religion thing. The table says that over 70% of people are christian which is probably true however the article doesn`t explain that most people do not go to church, no more than 2 million people in the uk still go to chuch. We also have very liberal social policies, we support science, we support gay rights (they can have civil ceromonies, join the army ,there are discrimination laws to protect them and most people now accept them), we are pro choice. The Uk is a very liberal country in comparison to the US but this table makes us sound more conservative than the US which it is not.

Politically all of the three mainstream parties are more liberal than the US democrats as the conservative party has moved to the centre left since the introduction of the human rights Act 1998. If I can source all this would it be a problem to include it? Yours --Realist2 09:41, 19 December 2007 (EST)

Source and include it, please and thank you! Karajou 10:38, 19 December 2007 (EST)

Government Section

The section on government now carries a lengthy discussion on recent developments in the politics of Northern Ireland - would this be better having its own section or moved to its own article? -- Ferret _{Nice old chat} 16:54, 21 December 2007 (EST)

It probably should be moved to its own article. Philip J. Rayment 23:55, 21 December 2007 (EST)

I just did this. Daphnea 09:31, 24 June 2008 (EDT)

England v United Kingdom

A lot of the history in this article is really the history of England. That's a problem as we need to separate the UK from England in people's mind. We either need to write about the history of all four constituent countries (not really practical at this stage) or restrict ourselves to history of the UK after union. I suggest the latter. Daphnea 09:35, 24 June 2008 (EDT)

Principal government officials

I edited this sub-section to add the Lord Chancellor and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who are unquestionably principal government officials. Another editor deleted the names of these people but kept the names of two diplomats (ambassadors to the US and UN), who are comparatively minor officials.

That's a bit peculiar. Any comments before I revert that editor's edits? From a UK perspective, a list of principal government officials would include the PM, Lord Chancellor, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and probably Home Secretary. The Mayor of London and the First Minister of Scotland have a much higher public profile than any ambassador. WaZi 20:00, 28 September 2008 (EDT)

A name change with no change?

The article now includes the following:

The official name of the country (since 1922) is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ... From 1801 to 1922 the official name was The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I assume that one of these versions is in correct.

Philip J. Rayment 00:48, 29 September 2008 (EDT)