I’d like to thank one of my patrons, Timothy Woodward, who spotted a typo in the draft released to Patrons yesterday. If you want to see the “final draft” head over to Patreon and consider supporting the channel: www.patreon.com/soliloquy
Soliloquy Another great video. But, one small point: there is the UK Parliament, then Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved parliaments; however, England is the only "home nation" not to have their own parliament.
Cornwall is an English county, part of England. However, it is culturally and historically distinct from the rest of England and there are some proposals to devolve its own assembly.
We don't have a devolved parliament in England! The parliament at Westminster is the UK parliament and doesn't give any self governance to England. Also, Wales have only an assembly, not a parliament. Only Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own devolved parliaments.
Northern Ireland has an assembly, not a parliament. However there isn't really any strictly defined difference between an assembly and a parliament. They are just different names for more or less the same thing. The Northern Irish Assembly is more similar to the Scottish Parliament than it is to the Welsh Assembly. And now the Welsh Assembly has the right to rename itself to a Parliament. But doing so wouldn't give it any extra powers. It would literally just be changing the name.
1. As a Welshman I believe that England should have a parliment. I believe the UK as a whole needs to better define itself. 2. The Welsh assembly will become a parliment in two years after the Wales act was passed recently. This will give Wales the ability to change laws in the same way all other parliments are able to in UK. Therefore, 'parliment' will better represent how the welsh government, enacts and changes laws. (more like the Scottish parliment as opposed to the Northern Irish Assembly, but with less powers.) So yes Soliloquy is incorrect to call the Welsh assembly a parliment but only by a few years. 3. Assmenbly and parliment have greater or lesser significance depending where your from. The Welsh word for both parliment and assembly is 'Senedd' (Senate) which is what the states use as a parliment. So ulitmately the words are interchangeable.
I may commit the cardinal sin of the internet "espousing a political view" here but, 5 times the MPs makes it sound intentionally unfair. England has 5 time the people, thus 5 times the votes seems entirely democratically fair. I may almost never like WHAT they vote for but I do value my fellows' right to representation and equal weight of that representation to representation from elsewhere.
Jack Bugden they (voters in England) deserve equal representation, and because of that, should make up 5/6’s of Westminster. However, the reason people aren’t happy with that is that they would rather the country (or province) they are in we’re not ruled by England and were its own independent country in the case of Scotland and Wales, or reunited with Ireland, in the case of NI.
Pedantic, I know, but at 0:44 you show an image of Stormont (the building which houses the Northern Ireland assembly) with two flags flying above it; the Union Flag and the Ulster Banner. The Ulster Banner is often considered to be the flag of Northern Ireland (especially for sporting competitions), but in reality within NI it has become a symbol of Ulster Loyalism and as such it can be considered to be very offensive by some. The flag has no official status and you will never see it flown over Stormont.
To me, The United Kingdom is made up of 4 countries. England, Scotland, Wales being the 3 major countries and Northern Ireland being a minor country of the UK due to it's complicated history with the Republic of Ireland and the UK. However, the UK could have 5 countries which will be Cornwall because of unique historical and cultural status with the rest of England.
Gibraltar is an internal part of the UK, but not part of the Union (which consists of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland), So yeah it should count. Same goes to all overseas territories and crown dependencies of the UK. They're a part of the UK, but not part of the Union which forms Great Britain. Another example is Guam and Puerto Rico. They're both an internal part of the US, but not part of the Union (of 50 States) which forms the United States of America. And one last example to add, Macau/Hong Kong is an internal part of China, but not part of the union of provinces and autonomous territories (Tibet and Xinjiang) that formed the People's Republic of China. So yeah, that's why a dependent territory of a country should be considered a part of that particular country.
I see the mainland as being made up of 5 countries. England, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Northern Ireland. Then there are the 14 territories and the 3 Crown Dependencies. So in total, there are 22 countries that make up the UK
In 2017 facts don't matter apparently so I'll just consider this the national flag. Now no one should challenge my worldview on this as I'm entitled to my opinion.
It appears that Soliloquy also recognises Hello Internet as a country at 2:37. Not sure about the NZ flag though, their people decided to keep the traditional flag and I reckon we should respect the peoples decision.
N IRL is more a neo-provincial statelet than a full Irish province, or region of the UK as currently constituted. In fact, there's considerable doubt that the UK is either 'united' given Brexit. Or a 'kingdom' given the gender of it's currently longest reigning monarch.
The animation you did for the snakes and ladders bit was fantastic. I thought that it looked great. Also the HI reference :D. Honestly I think you hit the nail on the head calling them all countries. It is just simpler and keeps more people happy.
I define country as: self governing. None of the constituent regions of the UK are entirely self-governing, making non of them countries; the UK is the only country.
What 'four devolved parliaments'? The last time I checked there was one Parliament for the United Kingdom, sitting at Westminster. Certain, limited matters are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly of Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, none of which are sovereign, but there is no devolved parliament for England, a very sore spot for many English nationalists.
you have made videos on why New Zealand isn't part of Australia, and why Canada is not part of the United states of America. could you video on why Portugal isn't part of Spain?
Let’s just recognize all former independent kingdoms as countries. Cornwall, jersey, northumberland, and guernsey are now countries as well. Hell let’s throw the Isle of Man in there as well to satisfy everyone. The Shetland islands can be free as well!!!
A Principality is a country ruled by a Prince just like how a Kingdom is a country ruled by a King. There are 3 independent Principality’s today, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Culturally speaking the Cornwall in no different from the rest of the South West. However there's a big North south cultural divide in England. A chasm between London and the rest of the country and Liverpool is a different planet. If you want to go by culture England could be divided into a dozen different countries, but Cornwall wouldn't be one of them.
Cornwall language isn't in regular usage, people literally have to put effort into even using it. Most of the population of said Cornwall are old people who immigrated from other parts of England and the people of Cornwall have moved out and so the culture and people of Cornwall aren't even in Cornwall. Cornwall is very rural and is considered poorer than Lithuania, jobs are hard to come by and the only real money is from tourists, agricultural and old rich people. "Countries" that should really be considered to be placed into the uk are the territories and crown dependencies. In short Cornwall isn't as special as it is made to be, literally just an more interesting accented version of Devon/rest of the south west
Well, you'd be disagreeing with most Cornish folks. Separatism is an extremely fringey sentiment amongst the Cornish populace, and most consider themselves English.
Soliloquy, one thing I think you could have talked about was how the "countries" came to be, The Welsh Annexation act (Repealed) of 1523 was a key event as it signed Wales over to England, and was only repealed by the Welsh assembly not the British Parliament
I like the definition of Great Britain and (Northern) Ireland as the two countries... or *Kingdoms* of the UK. It makes the most sense, considering we are the United Kingdom of 'Great Britain' and 'Northern Ireland', I.e: the two kingdoms that make up our sovereign state. In addition within this, Wales, Scotland and England are parts... or regions... or nations within the Kingdom of Great Britain
But MPs from all parts of the UK can vote on the final bill put to the House of Commons, so England can be overruled by MPs from Scotland and Northern Ireland
possibly as I have always associated with the 1st level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics codes. northern Ireland is a region, but it is 1 of 12 in the UK en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-level_NUTS_of_the_European_Union
The whole "English Votes for English Laws" doesn't really work the way most people think. It introduces an extra stage of voting for "England only" laws where only England's MPs vote on it. But if they pass it that just allows it to progress to the next stage where MPs from the entire UK can vote on it. So it stops non-English MPs from forcing laws through without the majority of English MPs voting for it, but it doesn't prevent them voting down laws which the majority of English MPs voted for. Also there isn't a clear definition for "England only" laws. Very few are really England only because they usually have funding implications for the other nations. It's not like devolution in the other nations where there is explicit legislation that clearly sets out what matters are reserved for the UK Parliament.
Actually, they can't be overruled; the house of commons has 650 MP's which is made up of 553 English, 59 Scottish, 40 Welsh and 18 Northern Irish. If all English MPs voted for a bill and all non-English voted against the act would still pass with a 533-117 majority. This is why many don't care for England to have a devolved government has Westminster can easily act in England's interests with the amount of English MP's it has.
Wales and Northern Ireland are Provinces under annexation, technically, as the Welsh parliament in form of wales leaving would only form from all of wales apart from Cardiff, which in the Middle ages was owned by England and not the Principality, and with Northeren Ireland the parliament would form all of the states of Ulster to form a country and as Theresa may said, NI is supposed to be a temporary solution
I watched a news report recently that said “Brexit is the term for England leaving the EU”. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland often get forgotten and hardly ever get mentioned. A lot of people say they like the British accent. There’s no single British accent. What they are usually referring to is the English accent.
I like your work but just a minor correction: There are not 4 devolved parliaments. 1) there is no English Parliament or administration of any kind. People in England only elect MPs to the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (as well as to subdivisions like county councils, or the Greater London Assembly) 2) the "parliaments" of Northern Ireland and Wales are in fact not "parliaments" at all but "assemblies" and lack the same powers as the devolved parliament of Scotland. Thus, in reality, there is only 1 devolved parliament.
There doesn't appear to be a consistent definition of each of the 'parts' of the United Kingdom should be referred to. The ISO definition, referred to in the video, calls England, Scotland and Wales countries and Northern Ireland a province. This definition previously included Wales as a principality, which was updated following a successful referendum on additional powers for the Welsh Assembly held in 2011 - notably the power for the Welsh National Assembly to pass legislation in all the devolved areas without the consent of the United Kingdom Parliament. The ISO based their definition on information provided by British Standards and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the main statistical body for the UK. The ONS, themselves, refers to each as 'countries of the UK', with their own website saying: 'The top-level division of administrative geography in the UK is the 4 countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland'. Country is defined as 'a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory'. Arguably, as England doesn't have its own government (although England holds nearly 85% of UK Parliamentary seats), England shouldn't be referred to as a country. The European Union state that the United Kingdom is comprised of twelve regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and nine regions that make up England. Region is defined as 'an area, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries'. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, lists each as 'parts' of the United Kingdom, in a clause saying 'Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)'. Although 'part' could in theory refer to anything within the UK - Yorkshire is a part on the UK, just like Wales is. The term 'nation' is used by various sources. Although the definition, 'a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory', would categorise Cornwall (as an example) as a nation and couldn't exclusively be used to refer to the four 'parts' of the UK. The UK Statistics Authority, which oversees the ONS, refers to Northern Ireland as both a country and a province, while the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency refers to it as a province exclusively. Certain publications by HM Treasury call Northern Ireland a 'region of the UK'. It should be noted that any reference to Northern Ireland as a province is not in reference to the province of Ulster, given the definition of province as 'a principal administrative division of a country or empire'. It may be more accurate to define each of the 'parts' of the UK as provinces given that definition. I think the separate definition for Northern Ireland may be a reference to the old Northern Ireland Parliament that sat between the 1920s and early 1970s - when Northern Ireland was the only part of the UK to have a government additional to the UK government, or a reference to the history of each 'part' of the UK - England, Scotland and Wales have been independent countries in their own right, while Northern Ireland hasn't. Although the term 'province' within Northern Ireland will refer to the Irish province of Ulster. There appears to be no, regularly used, term that can exclusively refer to the four. The only term that I could think of that would exclusively refer to them within the UK is 'constituent units'.
It's confusing when people refer to "The Country", it's not always clear what they are referring to, the UK or just one of the 4 parts of it. There is a similar problem with London, where the term "city" could either refer to just the City of London or Greater London. As somebody said it a different YT video, London can be considered a city within a city within a country within a country.
1.) I like the new animated face, you did say you were trying to improve and you did. 2.) I've also heard the term "Home Nations" to describe the 4 subdivisions of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, maybe that's a better term for them all? But, I do agree with you in your usage of ”country" as they are constituent countries of the UK.
A Principality is a country ruled by a Prince just like how a Kingdom is a country ruled by a King. There are 3 independent Principality’s today, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
I'm fascinated by the name 'Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names', specifically, the spelling of 'standardisation'. This UA-cam video is made by a New Zealander, about the UK and Ireland, and I watched it in a browser set to an Australian locale. Since none of these countries spell 'standardisation' with a 'z', I assumed the misspelling was actually in the title of the UN document, and a websearch confirmed this. And it is indeed a misspelling. The six official UN languages are Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and UK English; none of these countries spell 'standardisation' with a 'z', either, and presumably, users of those languages would see a red wiggly line under 'standardization', just as I do as I'm typing this. US English is not an official UN language, but I suppose somebody at the UN had a spelling checker set to the wrong locale. But how embarrassing for it to have surprised it slipped through proofreading!
Actually, the UN uses British English with OED spelling which does have "z"s for -ization. Not a mistake! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_languages_of_the_United_Nations
Northern Ireland does not have a parliment anymore. Complicated situation but the Northern Irish Assembly is no longer running and Northern Ireland is directly ruled from London
Best way to describe Northern Ireland is a place created by men in a room in london under threat of UVF violence by drawing a line on a map which captured most of the protestants but not too many of the catholics. Ignoring the democratic will of the majority in Ireland to appease the minority and simultaneously retain the lucrative shipbuilding and textile industries for London, it was created. An artificially created gerrymandered sectarian failed statelet thats been going economically, socially and culturally backwards since 1922.
Northern Ireland is a country because it has a Football Association and is a member of FIFA. Northern Ireland joins with Ireland to play as All-Ireland in Rubgy and it does so, as a country. "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - Frank Zappa Caffrey's Irish Ale is Northern Ireland's Beer. Game over.
Northern Ireland does not equal Ulster though. Ulster is a historic region or country or province or whatever label you'd like to give it, but Northern Ireland is a modern creation that encompasses six counties that just all happen to be in Ulster.
Correction: England does *not* have its own parliament. Only NI, Scotland and Wales do. England is the only... _part_ of the UK to not have a parliament of its own, and is thus unfairly underrepresented. The ideal way to solve this would be to give each region - and perhaps Cornwall - its own parliament, as each region has a similar population to the other parts of the UK (NI, Scotland and Wales), but I can't see this happening any time soon. Also: kudos for not showing the Isle of Man, Guernsey or Jersey.
We technically have a parliament in Cornwall called the Stannary Parliament with a Veto on all laws Westminster passes. Everybody just ignores us though and thinks anybody who says about it is a bit mental.
+Vincent Sheldrake I had not heard of the Stannary Parliament, so thank you for that information. I have just been reading up on it. What d'you think about the constitutional status of Cornwall? Would you have it shift to become more like Wales (or perhaps an actual duchy)?
I would say either just 1 country or 2 countries. So just the UK as a single Country or England and Scotland, with Ireland and Whales just being territories of England.
Hey Soliloquy, Well done on the decent video. Keep it up! Might be worthwhile releasing the video 2-3 days early to the patreons to give them time to spot things like parliament vs. assembly and the English devolved parliament. It would be cool to see a video on what you think the future of the UK will be.
I actually did release a draft to my patrons a day early. Hopefully, Patreon can grow and this can become more useful although in this case, I wouldn't have changed the script, I may have but a note on screen saying that this is a simplification. however, on the other hand, everyone commenting about it signals to youtube that the viewers are engaged so will likely make the video do better. That's quite sad that the system works like this.
Soliloquy I didn't realize UA-cam worked like that. So if I created a controversial video it would do better than a video which was didn't have any faults i.e a video which people didn't critize.
It's one positive signal of engagement. It's much more important that people build up watch time so if you make a controversial video and people quit watching part way though that would be bad. The other important signal is session starts, views that come from off UA-cam. Small things like typos can actually help but if you have viewers rage quit or decide not to share because of it - you'll loose more than you gain.
There aren't "four devolved parliaments". England is the most underrepresented country in the UK; whilst Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland have devolved administrations operating beneath the British Parliament in, England is directly governed from Westminster with no devolved administration.
Why did you use the American English spelling "standardization"? Opposed to the British English "standardisation" since here in NZ we use British English spelling.
Nope, that's Y Ddraig Goch. It's been the symbol of Wales for over a thousand years and stems from the heraldry of King Arthur who was likely Welsh. The City of London's Dragon comes from the legend of St George who battled a dragon and won.
So... The United Kingdom is a *country* which consists of 3 (or 2 or 4) *countries* ? Each of these countries count as countries, but they are also part of the country that is the UK? How does that work exactly?
When people hear country they often think of independent countries, but constituent countries are also countries. Like how you might think of a state as part of a country, but a sovereign state is another name for an independent country.
I would say England Scotland and wales are countries as they have there own culture, national identity and wales and Scotland have a government with devolved powers also the English welsh and Scottish are there own ethnic groups
England does not have a devolved parliment and Great Britian is the geographical term for the britian and the the little islands surrounding it such as shetland or the isle of white.
England does not have a devolved parliament, Westminster is the Parliament for the United Kingdom. Also Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved Assembly's not Parliaments, the only devolved Parliament in the UK is that of Scotland. England lacks any form of devolved national government.
The uk has four constituent member states, these are the Kingdom of England, the kingdom of Scotland, the kingdom of Ireland and the principality of Wales
The UK would've been much easier to understand if they had federalised after the 1800 Act of Union, 4 states with state governments and 1 federation with equal representation in a federal government. I also like the idea of the Isle of Mann being the capital considering its centrality between all 4 states and the fact it wouldn't be a part of any of them, a federal district.
The circumstances around unification was a lot more complicated than this video goes into. By the time Wales was annexed in 1542 it'd already been fully under English rule since 1283 and the royalty of the two countries were so intertwined that they were essentially the same family and the majority of the general Welsh population opposed it. Scotland only joined the UK in 1707 because Scotland had bankrupted itself with failed attempts to set up colonies in the Americas but even then the vast majority of Scots still opposed unification. Ireland was first invaded by England in 1166 and was fully conquered by 1603 soon after which they began sending British Protestant settlers to Ireland and instituted the penal laws which were both meant to make Ireland British. These laws banned Irish Catholics from voting, owning land, practising their faith, getting an education and speaking the Irish language. As a result when the Irish parliament approve the Act of Union in 1801 only Protestant men of British settler descent (these made up less than 4% of the population) could vote and therefore have a say in the matter. The vast majority of Irish people opposed this as shown by the two massive rebellions in 1798 and 1803. Basically federalisation at any point would of lead to the collapse of the UK.
SantomPh I wasn't expecting some racist like you to make this into a race issue. The "white people exceptionalism" you're referring to is people wanting independence or freedom for their people, something which every people group in history has done and many are doing right now. There's ongoing wars for those exact reasons right now in South Sudan, Somalia, Turkey (mostly Kurds), Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc.
1. England does not have a devolved parliament 2. The answer to your question is in the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the UK is made up of Kingdoms not countries.
There is one kingdom. The Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were turned into the Kingdom of Great Britain. It became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
As you can have a kingdom as a country, you can have a principality as a country, where the prince or princess would be the Head of State: Andorra (the only co principality) in the world, Liechtenstein, Monaco, are all principalities and are all members of the UN, and therefore sovereign countries; Wales can't fall under as a principality as it has the current queen or king as it head of state and not the Prince of wales, which always seems to be pass down to the eldest son, I don't think Elizabeth II was ever the princess of wales; Northern Ireland is a constituency country, as the full name of our country is, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, if Northern Ireland was a province, then the word appear before it, plus the UK has the Isle of man, and the channel islands as well, I think the Northern Irish nationalist would consider themselves as a constituency country of the UK. England doesn't have a English general election, and does have a devolved parliament, the English democrats want to have one.
Samuel-Eric Brown the last two answer directly to Westminster as they are concessions to the British government and are essentially British military zones. The Falklands and others are administered by their own local administration, although Isle of Man and the Channel Islands do not have Governors.
This has probably been said, but there is no equal devolution in the UK. England has no devolved assembly or first Minister, while Scotland Wales and Ulster do in their assemblies and parliament. This, in constitutional terms makes England weaker than the other countries and Scotland the mist powerful. Northern Ireland provisionally has quite a deal of power, but at the moment they have no legislature. Wales is often included in laws affecting england, such as education and healthcare. England only got around to excluding non English MPs from debate/vote in matters only affecting England in the last parliament.
Non-English MPs actually aren't completely excluded from England only matters. Since 2015 there is now a stage in the parliamentary process where only English MPs vote if the bill relates to England only, but if they pass it it goes onto the next stage where all MPs vote. So no laws relating to England can get passed without non-English MPs having the chance to vote on it.
If the Britain doesn't sort her issues out, I predict the United Kingdom will eventually break up like Yugoslavia (though hopefully with less bloodshed).
Tomorrow We Live Yugoslavia was never meant to be, with all the religious and ethnic divisions held down only be an even more divisive dicatorial system. despite a lot of wars and political intrigue, the countries of the UK have long held together by mostly common culture and the fact that they are all on the same island group. Yugoslavia was basically a bunch of countries all stepped on by Serbia until they broke out.
England doesn't have a parliament. The other three countries have devolved parliaments, but the UK Parliament in Westminster is superior and can overrule or shut down any of these at any time.
I’d like to thank one of my patrons, Timothy Woodward, who spotted a typo in the draft released to Patrons yesterday. If you want to see the “final draft” head over to Patreon and consider supporting the channel: www.patreon.com/soliloquy
Soliloquy Northern Ireland isn't a province. It's two thirds of one.
you should get rid of character faces. it'll look better aesthetically and it would be less work for you. good video, i really enjoyed it.
Soliloquy Another great video.
But, one small point: there is the UK Parliament, then Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved parliaments; however, England is the only "home nation" not to have their own parliament.
Soliloquy Cornwall is not England
Cornwall is an English county, part of England. However, it is culturally and historically distinct from the rest of England and there are some proposals to devolve its own assembly.
The comments section is 90% "England doesn't have a devolved parliament"
Yup, boosting my search ranking if nothing else.
We don't have a devolved parliament in England! The parliament at Westminster is the UK parliament and doesn't give any self governance to England. Also, Wales have only an assembly, not a parliament. Only Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own devolved parliaments.
Northern Ireland has an assembly, not a parliament.
However there isn't really any strictly defined difference between an assembly and a parliament. They are just different names for more or less the same thing. The Northern Irish Assembly is more similar to the Scottish Parliament than it is to the Welsh Assembly.
And now the Welsh Assembly has the right to rename itself to a Parliament. But doing so wouldn't give it any extra powers. It would literally just be changing the name.
1. As a Welshman I believe that England should have a parliment. I believe the UK as a whole needs to better define itself.
2. The Welsh assembly will become a parliment in two years after the Wales act was passed recently. This will give Wales the ability to change laws in the same way all other parliments are able to in UK. Therefore, 'parliment' will better represent how the welsh government, enacts and changes laws. (more like the Scottish parliment as opposed to the Northern Irish Assembly, but with less powers.) So yes Soliloquy is incorrect to call the Welsh assembly a parliment but only by a few years.
3. Assmenbly and parliment have greater or lesser significance depending where your from. The Welsh word for both parliment and assembly is 'Senedd' (Senate) which is what the states use as a parliment. So ulitmately the words are interchangeable.
I may commit the cardinal sin of the internet "espousing a political view" here but, 5 times the MPs makes it sound intentionally unfair. England has 5 time the people, thus 5 times the votes seems entirely democratically fair. I may almost never like WHAT they vote for but I do value my fellows' right to representation and equal weight of that representation to representation from elsewhere.
Jack Bugden they (voters in England) deserve equal representation, and because of that, should make up 5/6’s of Westminster. However, the reason people aren’t happy with that is that they would rather the country (or province) they are in we’re not ruled by England and were its own independent country in the case of Scotland and Wales, or reunited with Ireland, in the case of NI.
Pedantic, I know, but at 0:44 you show an image of Stormont (the building which houses the Northern Ireland assembly) with two flags flying above it; the Union Flag and the Ulster Banner. The Ulster Banner is often considered to be the flag of Northern Ireland (especially for sporting competitions), but in reality within NI it has become a symbol of Ulster Loyalism and as such it can be considered to be very offensive by some. The flag has no official status and you will never see it flown over Stormont.
I'm disappointed that you didn't mention the status of cornwall as a country never officially joined to England only having a dutchy status
Bro wrote this.💤
No hate.
To me, The United Kingdom is made up of 4 countries. England, Scotland, Wales being the 3 major countries and Northern Ireland being a minor country of the UK due to it's complicated history with the Republic of Ireland and the UK. However, the UK could have 5 countries which will be Cornwall because of unique historical and cultural status with the rest of England.
MB Gamer31 then you can add the 14 overseas territories to get 18 or 19 countries.
Then add the 3 crown dependencies to get 21 or 22 countries
Gibraltar is an internal part of the UK, but not part of the Union (which consists of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland), So yeah it should count.
Same goes to all overseas territories and crown dependencies of the UK. They're a part of the UK, but not part of the Union which forms Great Britain.
Another example is Guam and Puerto Rico. They're both an internal part of the US, but not part of the Union (of 50 States) which forms the United States of America.
And one last example to add, Macau/Hong Kong is an internal part of China, but not part of the union of provinces and autonomous territories (Tibet and Xinjiang) that formed the People's Republic of China.
So yeah, that's why a dependent territory of a country should be considered a part of that particular country.
I see the mainland as being made up of 5 countries. England, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Northern Ireland.
Then there are the 14 territories and the 3 Crown Dependencies. So in total, there are 22 countries that make up the UK
Good choice of flag for NZ Soliloquy
In 2017 facts don't matter apparently so I'll just consider this the national flag. Now no one should challenge my worldview on this as I'm entitled to my opinion.
It appears that Soliloquy also recognises Hello Internet as a country at 2:37. Not sure about the NZ flag though, their people decided to keep the traditional flag and I reckon we should respect the peoples decision.
That decision is Fake News. Sad.
That won't be the end of the matter, Dave. Once we get a government and flag that are worthy, then we'll change it.
N IRL is more a neo-provincial statelet than a full Irish province, or region of the UK as currently constituted. In fact, there's considerable doubt that the UK is either 'united' given Brexit. Or a 'kingdom' given the gender of it's currently longest reigning monarch.
The animation you did for the snakes and ladders bit was fantastic. I thought that it looked great. Also the HI reference :D.
Honestly I think you hit the nail on the head calling them all countries. It is just simpler and keeps more people happy.
I define country as: self governing.
None of the constituent regions of the UK are entirely self-governing, making non of them countries; the UK is the only country.
123MrHurbert What about the EU then?
All EU countries are self-governing. EU just got a couple of laws the countries follow too
Scotland and England were 2 separate countries before deciding to join up as a United one,in 1707. Like the old Yugoslavia,Czechoslovakia etc
The island of Ireland is a country split into a state (republic) and a statelet(NI).
What 'four devolved parliaments'? The last time I checked there was one Parliament for the United Kingdom, sitting at Westminster. Certain, limited matters are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly of Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, none of which are sovereign, but there is no devolved parliament for England, a very sore spot for many English nationalists.
you have made videos on why New Zealand isn't part of Australia, and why Canada is not part of the United states of America. could you video on why Portugal isn't part of Spain?
Let’s just recognize all former independent kingdoms as countries. Cornwall, jersey, northumberland, and guernsey are now countries as well. Hell let’s throw the Isle of Man in there as well to satisfy everyone. The Shetland islands can be free as well!!!
4 countries, as you say keeping even (unlike how Westminster treats them)
Wales WAS a principality, now it's a country
A Principality is a country ruled by a Prince just like how a Kingdom is a country ruled by a King.
There are 3 independent Principality’s today, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Marty Chisnall
Wales isn’t ruled by princes
I would like to consider Cornwall as another country of the UK from cultural perspective as well.
I may do a video on the Celtic nations, the original idea was to talk about them here but I moved away from that this time.
コイノ/ Koino but why tho?? not a criticism just how are they different
Culturally speaking the Cornwall in no different from the rest of the South West. However there's a big North south cultural divide in England. A chasm between London and the rest of the country and Liverpool is a different planet. If you want to go by culture England could be divided into a dozen different countries, but Cornwall wouldn't be one of them.
Cornwall language isn't in regular usage, people literally have to put effort into even using it. Most of the population of said Cornwall are old people who immigrated from other parts of England and the people of Cornwall have moved out and so the culture and people of Cornwall aren't even in Cornwall. Cornwall is very rural and is considered poorer than Lithuania, jobs are hard to come by and the only real money is from tourists, agricultural and old rich people. "Countries" that should really be considered to be placed into the uk are the territories and crown dependencies. In short Cornwall isn't as special as it is made to be, literally just an more interesting accented version of Devon/rest of the south west
Well, you'd be disagreeing with most Cornish folks. Separatism is an extremely fringey sentiment amongst the Cornish populace, and most consider themselves English.
Soliloquy, one thing I think you could have talked about was how the "countries" came to be, The Welsh Annexation act (Repealed) of 1523 was a key event as it signed Wales over to England, and was only repealed by the Welsh assembly not the British Parliament
I like the definition of Great Britain and (Northern) Ireland as the two countries... or *Kingdoms* of the UK. It makes the most sense, considering we are the United Kingdom of 'Great Britain' and 'Northern Ireland', I.e: the two kingdoms that make up our sovereign state. In addition within this, Wales, Scotland and England are parts... or regions... or nations within the Kingdom of Great Britain
I like the 2007 definition, two countries, a principality and a province.
Wales is not a principality.
England doesn't have a devolved parliament.
Does this mean I have to make a reply to a reply? You're right though, but English MPs do vote on Engish laws.
But MPs from all parts of the UK can vote on the final bill put to the House of Commons, so England can be overruled by MPs from Scotland and Northern Ireland
possibly as I have always associated with the 1st level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics codes.
northern Ireland is a region, but it is 1 of 12 in the UK
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-level_NUTS_of_the_European_Union
The whole "English Votes for English Laws" doesn't really work the way most people think. It introduces an extra stage of voting for "England only" laws where only England's MPs vote on it. But if they pass it that just allows it to progress to the next stage where MPs from the entire UK can vote on it. So it stops non-English MPs from forcing laws through without the majority of English MPs voting for it, but it doesn't prevent them voting down laws which the majority of English MPs voted for.
Also there isn't a clear definition for "England only" laws. Very few are really England only because they usually have funding implications for the other nations. It's not like devolution in the other nations where there is explicit legislation that clearly sets out what matters are reserved for the UK Parliament.
Actually, they can't be overruled; the house of commons has 650 MP's which is made up of 553 English, 59 Scottish, 40 Welsh and 18 Northern Irish. If all English MPs voted for a bill and all non-English voted against the act would still pass with a 533-117 majority. This is why many don't care for England to have a devolved government has Westminster can easily act in England's interests with the amount of English MP's it has.
Looks like Grey finally got Wizard Island from Oregon.
Wales and Northern Ireland are Provinces under annexation, technically, as the Welsh parliament in form of wales leaving would only form from all of wales apart from Cardiff, which in the Middle ages was owned by England and not the Principality, and with Northeren Ireland the parliament would form all of the states of Ulster to form a country and as Theresa may said, NI is supposed to be a temporary solution
What position has the Isle of Man in the UK?
It's a crown dependency.
Rasmus Ihermann Tax haven
you're right XD
I'm sticking with country
*+*
I watched a news report recently that said “Brexit is the term for England leaving the EU”. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland often get forgotten and hardly ever get mentioned. A lot of people say they like the British accent. There’s no single British accent. What they are usually referring to is the English accent.
I like your work but just a minor correction: There are not 4 devolved parliaments.
1) there is no English Parliament or administration of any kind. People in England only elect MPs to the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (as well as to subdivisions like county councils, or the Greater London Assembly)
2) the "parliaments" of Northern Ireland and Wales are in fact not "parliaments" at all but "assemblies" and lack the same powers as the devolved parliament of Scotland.
Thus, in reality, there is only 1 devolved parliament.
Ireland should be made back into one country...best for everyone and no borders required.
but England doesn't have a devolved parliament though
There doesn't appear to be a consistent definition of each of the 'parts' of the United Kingdom should be referred to.
The ISO definition, referred to in the video, calls England, Scotland and Wales countries and Northern Ireland a province. This definition previously included Wales as a principality, which was updated following a successful referendum on additional powers for the Welsh Assembly held in 2011 - notably the power for the Welsh National Assembly to pass legislation in all the devolved areas without the consent of the United Kingdom Parliament. The ISO based their definition on information provided by British Standards and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the main statistical body for the UK.
The ONS, themselves, refers to each as 'countries of the UK', with their own website saying: 'The top-level division of administrative geography in the UK is the 4 countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland'. Country is defined as 'a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory'. Arguably, as England doesn't have its own government (although England holds nearly 85% of UK Parliamentary seats), England shouldn't be referred to as a country.
The European Union state that the United Kingdom is comprised of twelve regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and nine regions that make up England. Region is defined as 'an area, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries'.
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, lists each as 'parts' of the United Kingdom, in a clause saying 'Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)'. Although 'part' could in theory refer to anything within the UK - Yorkshire is a part on the UK, just like Wales is.
The term 'nation' is used by various sources. Although the definition, 'a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory', would categorise Cornwall (as an example) as a nation and couldn't exclusively be used to refer to the four 'parts' of the UK.
The UK Statistics Authority, which oversees the ONS, refers to Northern Ireland as both a country and a province, while the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency refers to it as a province exclusively. Certain publications by HM Treasury call Northern Ireland a 'region of the UK'.
It should be noted that any reference to Northern Ireland as a province is not in reference to the province of Ulster, given the definition of province as 'a principal administrative division of a country or empire'. It may be more accurate to define each of the 'parts' of the UK as provinces given that definition. I think the separate definition for Northern Ireland may be a reference to the old Northern Ireland Parliament that sat between the 1920s and early 1970s - when Northern Ireland was the only part of the UK to have a government additional to the UK government, or a reference to the history of each 'part' of the UK - England, Scotland and Wales have been independent countries in their own right, while Northern Ireland hasn't. Although the term 'province' within Northern Ireland will refer to the Irish province of Ulster.
There appears to be no, regularly used, term that can exclusively refer to the four. The only term that I could think of that would exclusively refer to them within the UK is 'constituent units'.
It's confusing when people refer to "The Country", it's not always clear what they are referring to, the UK or just one of the 4 parts of it. There is a similar problem with London, where the term "city" could either refer to just the City of London or Greater London. As somebody said it a different YT video, London can be considered a city within a city within a country within a country.
1.) I like the new animated face, you did say you were trying to improve and you did.
2.) I've also heard the term "Home Nations" to describe the 4 subdivisions of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, maybe that's a better term for them all? But, I do agree with you in your usage of ”country" as they are constituent countries of the UK.
sion8 N.Ireland is often excluded in the "Home Nations" definition by some commentators
A Principality is a country ruled by a Prince just like how a Kingdom is a country ruled by a King.
There are 3 independent Principality’s today, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Goob job! :) Keep it up!
Thanks.
I'm fascinated by the name 'Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names', specifically, the spelling of 'standardisation'.
This UA-cam video is made by a New Zealander, about the UK and Ireland, and I watched it in a browser set to an Australian locale. Since none of these countries spell 'standardisation' with a 'z', I assumed the misspelling was actually in the title of the UN document, and a websearch confirmed this.
And it is indeed a misspelling. The six official UN languages are Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and UK English; none of these countries spell 'standardisation' with a 'z', either, and presumably, users of those languages would see a red wiggly line under 'standardization', just as I do as I'm typing this. US English is not an official UN language, but I suppose somebody at the UN had a spelling checker set to the wrong locale. But how embarrassing for it to have surprised it slipped through proofreading!
Actually, the UN uses British English with OED spelling which does have "z"s for -ization. Not a mistake! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_languages_of_the_United_Nations
England is my town
*city
A joke*
A bad joke at that
And so to clarify, Northern Ireland is not a Country but in a state of Province or a Region.
The Welsh Assembly is being renamed Welsh Parliament in 2020.
2:39 Why is the nz flag a black silver fern?
Ok now this really clears up confusion from the last video.
and open us still more confusion, that's usually what happens when we go further into something.
Northern Ireland does not have a parliment anymore. Complicated situation but the Northern Irish Assembly is no longer running and Northern Ireland is directly ruled from London
When is your next video? :D Keep it up!
I aim to get a video out each month. This project doesn't pay the bills yet so sometimes I miss my goal but that's the aim.
Best way to describe Northern Ireland is a place created by men in a room in london under threat of UVF violence by drawing a line on a map which captured most of the protestants but not too many of the catholics. Ignoring the democratic will of the majority in Ireland to appease the minority and simultaneously retain the lucrative shipbuilding and textile industries for London, it was created. An artificially created gerrymandered sectarian failed statelet thats been going economically, socially and culturally backwards since 1922.
Northern Ireland is a country because it has a Football Association and is a member of FIFA.
Northern Ireland joins with Ireland to play as All-Ireland in Rubgy and it does so, as a country.
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
- Frank Zappa
Caffrey's Irish Ale is Northern Ireland's Beer.
Game over.
Northern Ireland isn't a province. It's two thirds of one, three counties of Ulster are in the republic.
+Kieran Fitzgerald
You do realize borders can be redefined, right? Irrelevant of irredentist attitudes, Northern Ireland is British.
Kieran Fitzgerald it's a province.
Northern Ireland does not equal Ulster though. Ulster is a historic region or country or province or whatever label you'd like to give it, but Northern Ireland is a modern creation that encompasses six counties that just all happen to be in Ulster.
Correction: England does *not* have its own parliament. Only NI, Scotland and Wales do. England is the only... _part_ of the UK to not have a parliament of its own, and is thus unfairly underrepresented. The ideal way to solve this would be to give each region - and perhaps Cornwall - its own parliament, as each region has a similar population to the other parts of the UK (NI, Scotland and Wales), but I can't see this happening any time soon.
Also: kudos for not showing the Isle of Man, Guernsey or Jersey.
I'm not sure if that kudos was serious or a dig ...
We technically have a parliament in Cornwall called the Stannary Parliament with a Veto on all laws Westminster passes. Everybody just ignores us though and thinks anybody who says about it is a bit mental.
+Soliloquy Nah nah, that was serious. A lot of people get confused and include them (often just Mann) in the UK. So kudos for proper research!
+Vincent Sheldrake I had not heard of the Stannary Parliament, so thank you for that information. I have just been reading up on it. What d'you think about the constitutional status of Cornwall? Would you have it shift to become more like Wales (or perhaps an actual duchy)?
Cornwall, Isle of Mann, Wales, England, Scotland and Ulster
I would say either just 1 country or 2 countries. So just the UK as a single Country or England and Scotland, with Ireland and Whales just being territories of England.
Hey Soliloquy, Well done on the decent video. Keep it up! Might be worthwhile releasing the video 2-3 days early to the patreons to give them time to spot things like parliament vs. assembly and the English devolved parliament. It would be cool to see a video on what you think the future of the UK will be.
I actually did release a draft to my patrons a day early. Hopefully, Patreon can grow and this can become more useful although in this case, I wouldn't have changed the script, I may have but a note on screen saying that this is a simplification. however, on the other hand, everyone commenting about it signals to youtube that the viewers are engaged so will likely make the video do better. That's quite sad that the system works like this.
Soliloquy I didn't realize UA-cam worked like that. So if I created a controversial video it would do better than a video which was didn't have any faults i.e a video which people didn't critize.
It's one positive signal of engagement. It's much more important that people build up watch time so if you make a controversial video and people quit watching part way though that would be bad. The other important signal is session starts, views that come from off UA-cam. Small things like typos can actually help but if you have viewers rage quit or decide not to share because of it - you'll loose more than you gain.
and for the record, I'd rather have no errors or over simplifications
*"SOUTHERN IRELAND"*
Republic of Ireland*
It wasn't a republic when the law he was referring to was passed!
paradoxmo so what was it then? A communist dictatorship?
If you can call the non republic part Northern Ireland then the republic can be referred to as Southern Ireland.
Southern Ireland was the correct name at the time. See ua-cam.com/video/dCJMQgfHXNI/v-deo.html for more details.
@@bepsi6204 it was still under the British monarchy. The Irish Free State
I don't like your mouth movement
I'm not set on continuing with it or not, but I wanted to give it a go.
Damn Commie I hate it
+Soliloquy Personally, I didn't even notice it. It probable isn't worth the extra effort for something a lot people won't notice.
It's great to try new things! But I would say it's best to leave the mouth animation out in the future. Good videos regardless, tho
I love England and I like England citizenship
There aren't "four devolved parliaments".
England is the most underrepresented country in the UK; whilst Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland have devolved administrations operating beneath the British Parliament in, England is directly governed from Westminster with no devolved administration.
It's simple really, 3 countries and a city called England
Why did you use the American English spelling "standardization"? Opposed to the British English "standardisation" since here in NZ we use British English spelling.
the ISO uses the American spelling
Ah, I see.
great video and great reasons
thanks
your welcome this channel is improving at a vast rate
Oddly, isn't the dragon you used for Wales in the video the dragon from the City of London. The City of London is the oldest government in the UK.
Nope, that's Y Ddraig Goch. It's been the symbol of Wales for over a thousand years and stems from the heraldry of King Arthur who was likely Welsh. The City of London's Dragon comes from the legend of St George who battled a dragon and won.
Thank you
It's also the logo of the Welsh Assembly
So... The United Kingdom is a *country* which consists of 3 (or 2 or 4) *countries* ?
Each of these countries count as countries, but they are also part of the country that is the UK?
How does that work exactly?
When people hear country they often think of independent countries, but constituent countries are also countries. Like how you might think of a state as part of a country, but a sovereign state is another name for an independent country.
Northern Ireland is a country it was just never a sovereign country
I would say England Scotland and wales are countries as they have there own culture, national identity and wales and Scotland have a government with devolved powers also the English welsh and Scottish are there own ethnic groups
England does not have a devolved parliment and Great Britian is the geographical term for the britian and the the little islands surrounding it such as shetland or the isle of white.
lotsofstuff101 Wight.
England does not have a devolved parliament, Westminster is the Parliament for the United Kingdom. Also Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved Assembly's not Parliaments, the only devolved Parliament in the UK is that of Scotland. England lacks any form of devolved national government.
Eh, England doesn't have a devolved parliament
4:19 I rly like your signature.
Thanks
The uk has four constituent member states, these are the
Kingdom of England, the kingdom of Scotland, the kingdom of Ireland and the principality of Wales
Isle of Man
@@nonyobussiness3440 the Isle of Man is a crown dependency not a constituent country within the uk
Wales isn’t a fucking principality ITS NOT THE 1400s
@@shrekisthebestanime3644 then why is charlie prince of wales?
andora is a principality as is lichenstein and monaco in the modern day
Sir Coloniser
It’s not ruled by him
The UK would've been much easier to understand if they had federalised after the 1800 Act of Union, 4 states with state governments and 1 federation with equal representation in a federal government. I also like the idea of the Isle of Mann being the capital considering its centrality between all 4 states and the fact it wouldn't be a part of any of them, a federal district.
The circumstances around unification was a lot more complicated than this video goes into. By the time Wales was annexed in 1542 it'd already been fully under English rule since 1283 and the royalty of the two countries were so intertwined that they were essentially the same family and the majority of the general Welsh population opposed it. Scotland only joined the UK in 1707 because Scotland had bankrupted itself with failed attempts to set up colonies in the Americas but even then the vast majority of Scots still opposed unification. Ireland was first invaded by England in 1166 and was fully conquered by 1603 soon after which they began sending British Protestant settlers to Ireland and instituted the penal laws which were both meant to make Ireland British. These laws banned Irish Catholics from voting, owning land, practising their faith, getting an education and speaking the Irish language. As a result when the Irish parliament approve the Act of Union in 1801 only Protestant men of British settler descent (these made up less than 4% of the population) could vote and therefore have a say in the matter. The vast majority of Irish people opposed this as shown by the two massive rebellions in 1798 and 1803.
Basically federalisation at any point would of lead to the collapse of the UK.
Flip C123 the UK is the master of white people exceptionalism- every province and county wanting some sort of special priviledge that no one else has.
SantomPh I wasn't expecting some racist like you to make this into a race issue. The "white people exceptionalism" you're referring to is people wanting independence or freedom for their people, something which every people group in history has done and many are doing right now. There's ongoing wars for those exact reasons right now in South Sudan, Somalia, Turkey (mostly Kurds), Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc.
What about the Isle of Man? I'm just curious because I really don't know anything about it.
It's a "crown dependency" meaning on paper it's not a part of the UK but in practice it is.
i hope you add Cornell
Personally I prefer your old avatar, but overall great content!
You missed the isle of mann, which technically is it's own country
I took it off the maps as it's not technically part of the UK.
Yup, that is the thing about home, there is alot of "technically" about it
fair point. although it pretty much is in the uk in practice
England doesn't have it's own Parliament or assembly's. They just have the UK Parliament.
3:12 in the captions: "Provence" :P
Thanks, Victor, I've fixed it.
And Ireland, long a province, be.
A Nation once again!
Three countries and a province, or four nations?
All four nations of the UK 🇬🇧 I’m from NI I value it as a country but I respect those who say region or province 🏴🏴🏴 and NI
🏴 🏴 🏴 [northern ireland]
You think that's complicated? He didn't even mention Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man :P
Wales does not have a government but a council
Um you forget the most relevant of all nations, *Sealand*
It’s independent
1. England does not have a devolved parliament
2. The answer to your question is in the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the UK is made up of Kingdoms not countries.
The Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were turned into the United Kingdom [singular] of Great Britain. So only one Kingdom.
There is one kingdom. The Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were turned into the Kingdom of Great Britain. It became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
What about Cornwall?
Completely forgot Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the rest of the isles!
since they are not part of the UK, I remembered to take them out.
At least you got that right, Solioquy
What about the City of London with it's own laws and all that
Ulster is the province which includes donegal but Northern Ireland is a country that does not include donegal
Ulster also includes Cavan & Monaghan. NI isn’t a country.
Four. Done.
Did you use Keynote? If not, what did you use to animate?
after effects
As you can have a kingdom as a country, you can have a principality as a country, where the prince or princess would be the Head of State: Andorra (the only co principality) in the world, Liechtenstein, Monaco, are all principalities and are all members of the UN, and therefore sovereign countries; Wales can't fall under as a principality as it has the current queen or king as it head of state and not the Prince of wales, which always seems to be pass down to the eldest son, I don't think Elizabeth II was ever the princess of wales; Northern Ireland is a constituency country, as the full name of our country is, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, if Northern Ireland was a province, then the word appear before it, plus the UK has the Isle of man, and the channel islands as well, I think the Northern Irish nationalist would consider themselves as a constituency country of the UK.
England doesn't have a English general election, and does have a devolved parliament, the English democrats want to have one.
I'm welsh, and consider Northern Ireland as a constituency country, and I just take it most Brits do.
2:40 interesting flags you got there 😂
Which do you find the most interesting?
Soliloquy as a rugby fan, I'm a bit dissapointed NZ didn't change its flag. the silver fern really stands out from the crowd
I would have liked the silver fern, but not the one offered, I like it on black
Why not throw in: Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Falklands and, Akrotiri and Dhekelia for extra bonus comments ;)
Samuel-Eric Brown the last two answer directly to Westminster as they are concessions to the British government and are essentially British military zones. The Falklands and others are administered by their own local administration, although Isle of Man and the Channel Islands do not have Governors.
keep it simple it has a government it is a country
i know how to call it, the UK
Isle of man? Jersey? Guernsey? Gibraltar? Cayman Islands?
Crown dependencies and overseas territories
What about th other dominions like Falkland Islands?
This has probably been said, but there is no equal devolution in the UK. England has no devolved assembly or first Minister, while Scotland Wales and Ulster do in their assemblies and parliament. This, in constitutional terms makes England weaker than the other countries and Scotland the mist powerful. Northern Ireland provisionally has quite a deal of power, but at the moment they have no legislature. Wales is often included in laws affecting england, such as education and healthcare. England only got around to excluding non English MPs from debate/vote in matters only affecting England in the last parliament.
Non-English MPs actually aren't completely excluded from England only matters. Since 2015 there is now a stage in the parliamentary process where only English MPs vote if the bill relates to England only, but if they pass it it goes onto the next stage where all MPs vote. So no laws relating to England can get passed without non-English MPs having the chance to vote on it.
If the Britain doesn't sort her issues out, I predict the United Kingdom will eventually break up like Yugoslavia (though hopefully with less bloodshed).
Tomorrow We Live Yugoslavia was never meant to be, with all the religious and ethnic divisions held down only be an even more divisive dicatorial system.
despite a lot of wars and political intrigue, the countries of the UK have long held together by mostly common culture and the fact that they are all on the same island group. Yugoslavia was basically a bunch of countries all stepped on by Serbia until they broke out.
England doesn't have a parliament. The other three countries have devolved parliaments, but the UK Parliament in Westminster is superior and can overrule or shut down any of these at any time.
Actually there is only three devolved parliaments, England doesn't have one
I know, you're not the first to point out the error. Thanks for watching.
Cornwall is the 5th country of the UK
that is not the new zeeland flag
Glad to see Nerdfighteria finally getting the respect such a proud nation deserves. DFTBA.
DFTBA