h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

they're basically ignored as much as possible by the govt. in the hope they will go away and stop providing an embarresing (to the UK Govt) topic of conversation.

On the other hand they have been recognised in so far as Germany has sent its ambassador to them over the Sealand Passport problem when someone was creating false sealand passports.

They are fully legal in their claim. Hence why they are used as an 'untouchable' hosting company for servers.

Full Title is:

"The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland"

Where the actual ISLAND of Great Britain (which houses England, Scotland And Wales) is 'United' within a 'Kingdom' with Northern Ireland.

Of course several islands have been ommitted from the title.

Please excuse the patronising tone of this posting.

A1912213 - a entry made up partly from this thread - those who I have copied posts from get a credit - if you feel left out let me know.

Comments? - ommisions? Errors?

CHawke

That entry looks OK except that it uses the term "Irish Republic". This is not accepted by residents of the Republic. It should be "Republic of Ireland".

Not bad, will read completely later, but some obvious spelling / grammar mistakes already. However, I will let someone who knows more than me point them out.

I believe it was James I who referred to Scotland repeatedly as North Britain in an attempt to unite england and scotland conceptually. Didn;t catch on though, obviously.

Hi C Hawke,

Not too many criticisms of it, although there are a gob load of typos!

One point I would make is that the NI question is *not* basically just about religion. The two communities are not fighting each other because they dispute the role of the virgin Mary and transubstantiation, or the role of the Pope etc. In reality there are a lot more similarities between Anglicanism and Catholicism than between Anglicianism and Free Presbyterianism. So it's not a religious conflict at all really, depite what you might think from listening to Dr. Paisley and his cohorts.

The issue is much more about national identity, civil rights, political allegiance and political ideology. The Protestant community feels more British than Irish, and the Catholic community does not feel any great liking or allegiance to a British state which for most of the time never acted in their interests. Because some Protestants there (albeit a minority) do consider themselves more Irish than British, and because some Catholics (again a small minority) are pro-British, it is more correct to call the communities Unionists and Nationalists.

Woodpigeon

will clear typos soon - I simply linked the existing Ireland entry rather than get into the whole thing.

Good enough for submission when typos cleared?

CHawke

I think so. It's so nice to help with something like this. Also can I just display my ignorance and ask what's the difference between the Republic of Ireland and the Irish Republic? Can someone explain please.

The Republic of Ireland is the name we like to use for our country, although the official name in the constitution is Ireland. Calling it the Irish Republic would be like calling the Elizabeth "the British Queen". It may be accurate, but it is not her title.

How do you feel about the term Eire?

The official name of the republic is "Éire, or in the English language, Ireland". Just as the word Ireland refers to the whole island, so does the word Éire, so I would be wary of using it in this entry.

I always think that using "Éire" to describe the country and the Irish name for the Prime Minister (not attempting to type that one) is a bit pretensious - after all we (english speakers) don't use the french for Prime Minister or Russian or whatever - we use the english translation of whater the title is - sometimes like in President the english word is the same as the french etc, but more often it isn't.


CHawke

I just like the term Eire, its so poetic.

Nobody calls it Éire here though. We always call it Ireland, and if we want to be specific about it, it is the Republic of Ireland.

I always find it somewhat quaint when people refer to the place as Éire.

Woodpigeon

Nice entry CH

As pointed out already numerous minor grammar points to correct, but the content seems fairly well-balanced.

Could be rearranged to make points even clearer. The late section on British Islands blurs the earlier sections which are answering a different question.

To be specific the entry starts by attempting to clarify what is meant by UK politically, but the section on British Islands is a definition geographically. This leaves some ambiguity over what is *not* part of the UK. Maybe a section specifically designed to highlight the places that might by some be considered to be in the UK, but which are not, detailing why. This would balance the sections with detail on why areas *are* in the UK.

You may want to link to Gnomon's Isle of Man entry A1082251 (but this hasn't yet been submitted for review either)

Pimms

cool - will play around later - wrote with splitting headache and feeling ill this morning instead of working, will fling it in PR after a bit of more on grammer and stuff - I think all the spelling mistakes have been caught.

The order is cetainly something that needs to be considered as is the title - maybe "The UK, Great Britain and The Britsh Isles" - will need expanding to cover this title though.

I only tend to link to finished entries, as this was writen with the intention of getting edited.

cheers all

CHawke (off home as too ill even to hootoo)

Someone's probably already mentioned this but...

The United Kingdom was created by a Scot, James VI of Scotland (James I to everyone else!). Britain comes from Britannia, the collective name the Romans used for the island. They only named the mainland because at that point in time the countries (including islands) that we know today simply didn't exist - Britannia was a hotbed of tribes and territories at the time.

So, United Kingdom = the Scottish and English kingdoms becoming one

Great Britain = mainland Britain

Incidentally, did you know that technically, Wales is just another English county?

"Incidentally, did you know that technically, Wales is just another English county?"

Pretty sure this isn't correct.

On an Administrative level Wales is NUTS1 (NUTS being the building block of European classifications) which places it on a par with English regions (South West, West Midlands etc)

And for many other administrative reasons it is listed as a region.

CHawke

In the monarchal system it is a pricipality, making it pretty important. There's a reason the heirs apparent become Princes of Wales, it's the most important aristocratic post not occupied by the ruling monarch

I'd like to see separate sections explaining both British Dependencies & Royal Dependencies (see post 116 F19585?thread=330576&skip=100&show=20#p4259807 foe summary) but pretty good so far


Articles ya might want to link to
The Act of Settlement 1701 A695441
Bill of Rights Act, 1689 – The Glorious Revolution A727265
The Battle of Hastings - October 14th 1066 A1339049