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

Entry: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - A1912213
Author: C Hawke - U91473

Been trashed out in

F19585?thread=330576

but now for wider review and to move conversation to where it belongs.

CHawke

I like it!

I think the title could do with some adjusting though. Something like 'What is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' or 'How did the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland get its name?'. Those aren't very good suggestions, but the current title sounds like the title of an entry on the country

cheers - the title is a problem - any other suggestions?

just been re-edited to take commentsfrom the Ask h2g2 thread

CHawke

CH Please post when entry updated

updated again? The grammer changes have been done (many thanks for them)

Posts may have crossed.



CH

Just a thought. What about Scotland? I know they have their own parliament now (to a degree) but not their own olympic squad...that still comes under the UK.
United Kingdom as I understand is still England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Sorry about the spanner.
take care
boots

I have no problem with the title. It is thoroughly accurate.

DD
Son of Northern Ireland

don't get me started on sporting teams! To late - well IMHO opinion as the UK teams are so crap at everything in sport (BTW I HATE nearly all sport) I can't see why they don't form a merged UK team for everything to increase their success.

Anyway - WRT the title, I think the point with it as it is is that there is nothing to indicate that the entry is about terminology and history rather than a travel entry about what,where, why (and the wine list)

CHawke

"separate kingdoms (England and Scotland) on the same landmass that were ruled over by the same monarch"


Wales




"Attempts have been made to extend the United Kingdom - the small rock Rockall was claimed by the United Kingdom in 1955 when the navy landed by helicopter. This was to remove any claims by the Irish Republic, Denmark and Iceland. It was further made secure by an ex-SAS soldier, Tom MacLean, who camped on it for 40 days in 1975. This was to ensure the 12 mile exclusion zone, and to make sure its potential Oil/Gas reserves remained British. John Ridgway also lived there in the 1980s"

In 1971 Rockall was incorporated into the county of Invernesshire by act of parliament (see A755787)

Sport eh? Did you know we have at least three sporting governing bodies?
Sport England, Sport UK and the British Olympic committee, they all have their own agendas and budgets...just daft! That doesn't include football or tennis either, they have their own governing bodies and more committees and more agendas..and we still can't beat anyone at anything!
Great article BTW.
take care
boots

"announced that Gibraltarians would be considered part of the South West European Parliament seat"

southwest what?
(Europe/England/UK..?)

sorted

(South West UK FYI so next year I think I will make a point of voting for all the Gib candidates!)

CHawke

it's looking good

one more thang though ...
"whilst the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, being Crown Dependencies are not considered part of the EU apart from customs purposes and for trade in agricultural commodities"

I can't give any definite information on this but I seem to remember a bit of a hoohar about the Crown Dependencies having to abolish the death penalty when the European Human rights thingy came into force...

For the bit on Wales:-

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or LLywelyn ein Llyw Olaf [eng trans. Llywelyn our Last Leader] was killed in 1282 not 1281.

His only daughter, Gwenllian, who was only five months old when her father was killed by Edward I, was forced to spend the rest of her life in Gilbertine priory at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, where she died 54 years later.

Edward kept the title of 'Prince of Wales' for the crown, bestowing it upon his son Edward who was crowned in Caernarfon in 1301 aged 17 years.

Sorry, I must sound really rude ... it's a really great and informative entry, and I think the title fits too.

Will correct the Welsh king's death date - the stuff about his daughter is all good stuff but probably too much for this entry - the entry on Wales has a bit more info.

If I am bored at work tomorrow I'll see if I can find anything on Channel Islands Vs Death penalty - it could be they are part of the European Court of Human Rights - which if I remember correctly is not a EU institution.

CHawke

yep - currently 44 state are "contracted" to the European Court of Human Rights
http://www.echr.coe.int/Eng/EDocs/DatesOfRatifications.html

So it may have been there (OK so it only lists the UK, but this may be a case where the UK means the UK and dependencies)

CHawke

Hey C Hawke!
Good entry (me like a lot). Just a couple of points:

I think the title needs changing ("What is the UK of GB & NI?" was a good suggestion earlier in this thread)

Under "What About Wales?" - "the Welsh body does not have tax-raising powers"... what makes you think they'd want to raise tax? I'm not entirely sure it's completely accurate, but it might be better to say "the Welsh body does not have any executive powers" (I'm sure someone's gonna correct me over that, but you get the idea)

Under Northern Ireland - "most of the regions of Ireland would for an independent Irish state" - I'm just picking here, but "for" should change to "form".

Last Para - "off the mainland coast is further than the 3 miles of official territorial waters" - "Of should be "off" , I'm being pedantic I know.

This should give it that final nudge into the EG

Oberon2001

Nice entry Sealand sounds fascinating! Where is it???

I agree the title is a little problematic - as it stands one might expect more about what's contained within the UK of GB & NI, but I'm not so sure about 'What is...?@ 'cos it sounds like an answer about the quiz show 'Jeopardy'.

Maybe something like 'The Boundaries of the UK of GB & NI'? That doesn't sound quite right, but maybe it might help...

Here are some nitpickies, and some points of confusion from a Yank:

'when Ireland joined'->shouldn't this read 'was formally annexed (even though it was conquered long before)'?

'legal or other system'->if there's only just the one other independent system (whatever it might be), why not just list them both?

There's quote marks on Welsh Assembly, as if this wasn't it's proper name or as if it weren't a real governing body. There are a few other quotemarked words, and each deserves a small explanation or the marks should be omitted. You-all might know what's meant, but I'm clueless here.

Why wouldn't a governing body want to be able to tax? The county I grew up in in California was so proud of a deep and highly engineered bridge that was built 100 years ago from local taxes, that it's still on the official seal today.

'regions of Ireland would for an independent'-> seems to be missing a verb for the auxilliary word would.

'St. Helena and its dependencies'->there seems to be some comedy here in that a dependency would be considered to have a dependency, unless this is a Jersey-Anglesy thing.

'blobby bit of'->blobby bit off.