England, scotland wales, gb, uk, separate countries. Argument help required!

[saafend_seagull]

Wtf. England, Wales, Scotland, etc are seperate countries. My housemate whose Swedish says they aren't, its United Kingdom thats the country.

Wtf do i say? Whats the correct legal definition? I am a retard and haven't backed myself up with much lol

 

[clapham_gull]

Wtf. England, Wales, Scotland, etc are seperate countries. My housemate whose Swedish says they aren't, its United Kingdom thats the country.

Wtf do i say? Whats the correct legal definition? I am a retard and haven't backed myself up with much lol

It's a political union of separate countries.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

I think England and Wales are officially one country while the others are separate.

Great Britain is England Scotland and Wales while the UK is Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

But I may be wrong.

 

[Lethargic]

England, Scotland and Wales are separate countries although you have the argument about Wales being a principality and not a country.
The United Kingdom is made up of the 4 constituents countries but has a parliament covering all 4 therefore this is regarded as the legal entity by other countries.
There are a lot of counter arguements and grey areas but thats it in a nut shell.

 

[Statto]

Wtf. England, Wales, Scotland, etc are seperate countries. My housemate whose Swedish says they aren't, its United Kingdom thats the country.

Well your housemate is wrong as the official name for the country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


I suppose you are both right in a way. Westminster governs the 4 countries, They are considered sepereate nations.

 

[Wardy]

England, Scotland and Wales are separate countries although you have the argument about Wales being a principality and not a country.

GB is those four plus all the other little islands, like Isle of Man etc.

The UK is those 4 plus Northern Ireland.

 

[dougdeep]

England, Scotland and Wales are separate countries although you have the argument about Wales being a principality and not a country.

GB is those four plus all the other little islands, like Isle of Man etc.

The UK is those 4 plus Northern Ireland.

How can England, Wales and Scotland be four?

 

[Wardy]

How can England, Wales and Scotland be four?

Okay 3 then

 

[fatbadger]

To be pedantic, the UK is properly (by UN definitions) a 'sovereign state' (not a nation, not a country, not anything else).

It can be called, in pthe dictionary definition, a country. England, Scotland etc are NOT countries, as a country requires a separate government (which is why the SNP has renamed the Scottish Executive the Scottish Government, but neither Westminster nor the unionist parties will accept it). They are nations (which do not need a separate government - eg Kurdistan is a nation, but not a country).

So, I'm sorry, your flatmate is right.

 

[Wardy]

To be pedantic, the UK is properly (by UN definitions) a 'sovereign state' (not a nation, not a country, not anything else).

It can be called, in pthe dictionary definition, a country. England, Scotland etc are NOT countries, as a country requires a separate government (which is why the SNP has renamed the Scottish Executive the Scottish Government, but neither Westminster nor the unionist parties will accept it). They are nations (which do not need a separate government - eg Kurdistan is a nation, but not a country).

So, I'm sorry, your flatmate is right.

So you mean we are stuck with all the sweaties then?

 

[beorhthelm]

fatbadger explaination sounds about right, although there is also the term "nation state" which if you think of the two words and examples seperatly and together, make it a bit clearer to understand. Also, "government" is not an indication of sovereignty, all US states have a government for example. Its about how we use language everyday and how its supposed to be used that casues these confusions and its always ironic that a foreigner understands the meanings of word more then us, but that becuase they have to learn them.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

If your Swedish mate was wrong then I suppose USA shouldn't have team, ratehr there should be 48 states. And what about Switzerland?

Scotland deserves to be its onw country but right now it isn't. Therefore, we are really breaking the rules by fielding four serpate teams... which somehow seems to be cutting off our nose to spite our face. A UK team would be stronger than the present England, if only because it would mean we would have more depth.

Not sure how the Taoseich would feel about Northern Irish players playing in a team with the English though....

 

[glasfryn]

I live in Wales and they think they are a separate nation I can't speak about Scotland as I don't live there....................but all the time they are taking huge amounts of money from central government they are part of the UK they don't stand alone do they(and probably never will).
we call Sweden,Finland,Norway,Denmark..... Scandanavia that does not make them all the same country they are separate states.

 

[dougdeep]

If your Swedish mate was wrong then I suppose USA shouldn't have team, ratehr there should be 48 states.

Why not 50?

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Well my nationality on my passport says British, so......

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Some people seem to imagine that the nations of the world were created by God, sometime between the fourth and fifth day of the Genesis creation story.

Or at least that these things are so ancient that they cannot be challenged.

The reality is that these things change.

The name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" dates back to 1927, when the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 came into effect.

Before that (and even after the creation of the Irish Free State in 1920) this was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

But that only came into being in 1800. Before then, we were the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland was governed separately - by the Parliament of Ireland, which was only open to the protestant minority.

And before 1707, there were two separate Kingdoms, called England and Scotland - although they had had the same monarch since 1603, when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

As for Wales, there was no single entity until 1216, when Llewellyn the Great was recognised as the first Prince of Wales, unifying a number of separate principalities. This only lasted until King Edward I of England conquered Wales in 1282 and made his son (later King Edward II of England) the Prince of Wales. Wales remained a principality, separately governed, until 1536, when the laws of the English parliament were extended to cover Wales.


And if you think this is complicated ... look at Belgium or Italy. The place I lived in in Italy (population 3,000) was an independent state in its own right for four years in the sixteenth century. It was then annexed by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and only became part of a unified Italy in 1871.

 

[110%]

Why not 50?

Is it one of those trick trivia questions - there are 46 states and 4 commonwealths (Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are not states as they are, technically speaking, Commonwealths.)