United Kingdom

**Strike For The South** · 08-02-2005, 04:05

I've never been quite clear are this are England Wales Scotland No ireland like states/provinceses or different countries I've never been quite clear on this

**lars573** · 08-02-2005, 05:44

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern Ireland is a complecated beast. It's unitary government not federal, meaning the central government in London only shares what responsibilites it sees fit with local assemblies. And they can be revoked at any time for any reason. But Blair's policy of devolution has been inching Scotland and Wales and NI to a more federal way of doing things, with varrying degrees of success. It was created in 1707 with the act of union between Scotland and England. This meant in essence that the Scotish parliment members were elected to and sat in the English parliment in London. Between 1603 and 1707 who ever sat on the English throne was effectively 3 kings in one. He was king of England (this includes Wales) king of Scotland, and king of Ireland (thanks to Henry VIII who changed it from the title given to Henry II, Lord of Ireland). This in operational terms meant 1 king had to deal with 3 parliments 3 sets of nobles and governing traditions spread all over. The UK was created IIRC to prevent more Jacobite uprisings. It didn't work their were 2 more major ones, but neither managed to take over Scotland permanantly as the governement wasn't their to take. The Irish parliment was dissolved and Ireland included in the UK in 1801 after an uprsing there that was (in theory) supposed to co-inside with French landing in Ireland. The way things are now was created in 1920 when the Irish free state was created and the 6 counties of Ulster voted to stay part of the UK, leading to no end of headaches. Part of the government of Ireland act stated that Ulster (easier to write than NI) would have a semiautonomous government.

I don't konw how much this can help, but it's a start.

**master of the puppets** · 08-02-2005, 17:10

so your saying that at one time each area acted almost like a seperate country but answered to a single king ...hmm

also a bit of a ignorant question but i want to know, who was the last king of england and when, all i know is that now there are queens and princes and stuff but who was the last KING.
representative or otherwise.

**King Henry V** · 08-02-2005, 18:28

George VI was the last King of England, but he was the last King full stop. The Act of Union did not really change anything for the monarchy, the Queen is still Queen of England and of Scotland, not the United Kingdom.

**lars573** · 08-02-2005, 22:29

Originally Posted by master of the puppets

so your saying that at one time each area acted almost like a seperate country but answered to a single king ...hmm

also a bit of a ignorant question but i want to know, who was the last king of england and when, all i know is that now there are queens and princes and stuff but who was the last KING.
representative or otherwise.

Well you have to understand, in the 16th to 19th centuries a crowned head unions weren't that uncommon. And that sharing a king mean't effectively you had the same government as the other nation. Parliments in those days being consultative bodies made up of the nobility/money class. That and in a sense they were seperate countries.

**Flavius Clemens** · 08-03-2005, 01:05

A few more points that might help, or just make it all the more confusing!

It's important to be aware that the history of the British Isles and how its various occupants have related to one another is long and complicated, and this post won't do justice to it.

As Lars 573 points out, the countries of Great Britain (in order of population, England, Scotland and Wales) shared exactly the same government and parliament for nearly 300 years. Wales and England were under the same authority for a lot longer than that, which means for instance they share basically the same legal and educational systems, whilst Scotland's are rather different.

The establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly a few years ago means that they both have some level of political autonomy as nations, but not much (The Scottish Parliament has the right to vary the level of income tax charged in Scotland as compared to the rest of Briton, the Welsh Assembly doesn't.) I'm not an expert on the division of power in the US and Canadian systems, but I think it's right to say a US state would have control over more of its affairs than either Scotland or Wales has within the UK.

Both Scotland and Wales have political parties committed to independence from Briton (though the main British parties also play a full part in their politics).

Looking at the culture, English is the commonest language in Scotland and Wales, but Scots Gaelic is some people's first language in Scotland and Welsh is spoken by about 20% of the population of Wales (though most of those speak English too.) In some sports England, Wales and Scotland have their own international teams - for instance their is particularly strong rivarly between English and Scottish football (soccer) support - in others there is a Great Briton team. Off the top of my head I can't think of any sport where there's a UK team.

And it's too late at night for me to start talking about how Northern Ireland fits in to all this...

So to sum up, the UK has one overall parliament, one head of state (Queen Elizabeth II), one head of government (the Prime Minister - Tony Blair) one set of armed forces, one place on international bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations but varying levels of government beneath the parliament, four international football teams and people vary as to how they attach their national loyalty to the different levels of the UK. So if you're left confused as to whether we're one country or four don't worry - nowadays we are too

**King Henry V** · 08-03-2005, 09:12

I think only in the Olympics is the United Kingdom represented as a whole.

**ShadesWolf** · 08-03-2005, 18:45

Originally Posted by Flavius Clemens

Off the top of my head I can't think of any sport where there's a UK team.

Cricket - even though it is called England.

**Boohugh** · 08-03-2005, 19:24

Originally Posted by Flavius Clemens

Off the top of my head I can't think of any sport where there's a UK team.

As King Henry V noted, the Olympics, and in fact all athletics events, are represented by the UK. As ShadesWolf said, cricket is. Tennis is represented by Great Britain. Really, it is only a few sports such as football and rubgy where we don't compete as the United Kingdom.