Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Adam, Great Britain is an island, the largest of the British Isles. England, Scotland and Wales are countries on the island of GB, Northern Ireland is a part of the island of Ireland. The other part of the island of Ireland is Ireland, or the Republic of Ireland, aka Eire, whereas the northern bit is sometimes known as Ulster. Add to these thethe semi-independent Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, we then have an entity known as the British Isles (purely geographic in nature). Now the political bit: Subtract Eire from the equation and we now have the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the political bit) Usually shortened to the United Kingdom or just plain UK.. Subtract Ulster (N.Ireland) the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and we get back to Great Britain, which, although ruled from London, does have regional capital cities with regional parliaments, Scotland has Edinburgh, Wales has Cardiff, The Isle of Man is out on a limb with it's Tynwald in the capital Douglas, a sort of local government related to the Nordic idea of a Ting or Thing, a meeting of elders to decide the fate of a nation, The IOM is actually allowed, along with the Channel Islands, to make their own laws and set the level of their tax levies. To make it even more fun the Channel Islands are ruled in a form of feudalism with a bloke called a Seigneur at the top of the political pile. Then there's also a pile of rocks way out in the Atlantic Ocean called Rockall, the only use of which is to extend our continental shelf rights and to act as a training site for Royal Marines to mount amphibian assaults - nobody lives there. Douglas Adam Bridge wrote: >I was listening to the news today and I heard a reporter sign off from >London, England. > >Someplace along the line I was bashed pretty hard (not here) about there >being a United Kingdom but that England wasn't precisely a place. So I've >always used U.K. > >What's "correct" and what's general usage. And does it really matter? > >I'm curious and wanted to know. > >An aside: Has anyone tried the McCallan Scotch that's aged in oak wine >barrels? It sure sounds mellow to me. Read about it in the Wall Street >Journal's article on Scotch that was out this weekend. > >Thanks! > >Adam > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > >