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by sd922 hours ago |
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upvoteby juntoalaluna22 hours ago|
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No one is confused if you can the UK a country, or if you call England, Wales, or Scotland a country.

You might get a tedious person saying something like "actually, Wales is a principality".

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upvoteby arethuza20 hours ago|
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I must admit I've never heard NI being called a country... wouldn't be the UK if there wasn't some horrible complication involved.
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upvoteby sd922 hours ago|
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Maybe not in isolation, but if you call the UK and England both countries in the same conversation you’re going to be met with confusion.
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upvoteby Closi21 hours ago|
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Maybe...? I mean not anyone I know but i'm in the UK to be fair.

It's like if you put four boxes in a box, it's not too confusing that the outer box is still a box.

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upvoteby leereeves22 hours ago|
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I would be confused if someone called Wales a country. I thought Wales (unlike Scotland) was a region of England and had little autonomy. TIL.
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upvoteby jjgreen19 hours ago|
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Say that in Wales and the locals will stick a leek up your arse.
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upvoteby walthamstow21 hours ago|
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I'm English and I don't think England or Scotland or Wales are countries. People get confused because of football and rugby. They're nations. The country is the United Kingdom.
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upvoteby Blazara21 hours ago|
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England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is also a country. You can disagree, but you're disagreeing with the government and the international community.
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upvoteby walthamstow21 hours ago|
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Not a problem, I disagree with the government all the time. Scotland has less sovereignty than US states, it's not a country.
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upvoteby arethuza20 hours ago|
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The UK seems fairly relaxed about constituent parts leaving (Scotland was given a referendum, NI has option to leave if they want) - which I don't believe applies to US states?
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upvoteby 20 hours ago|
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upvoteby walthamstow19 hours ago|
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The Scottish referendum was gifted by the UK, as was its parliament which can theoretically be dissolved by the UK at any time.

The NI thing is different, involving a peace treaty between the UK and Ireland.

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upvoteby 19 hours ago|
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upvoteby nephihaha11 hours ago|
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Relaxed is not the word at all. Northern Ireland is a powderkeg and the UK government has known that for decades.

The Scottish referendum did not use neutral international observers, and had extremely biased coverage by state media. The BBC itself even tried to stir up forms of violent unionism. (Look up the so called "passionate Highlander", a drunken loyalist type who talked about defending the union to the death "in the name of Jesus Christ".)

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upvoteby arethuza4 hours ago|
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Well, I'm an independence supporting Scot and I don't have any concerns about the actual running of the referendum - I do agree that the BBC coverage was biased but I think that is largely because they are "conservative" (note the small C) in the sense of having a bias towards preserving the status-quo. This was pretty clear from the Brexit referendum where I thought they favoured the status-quo there and, as a Remainer, I guess I was pretty happy with that!
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upvoteby nephihaha2 hours ago|
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The BBC is institutionally biased because they stand to lose 10% of their licence fee. I have heard they received some EU funding, but from their POV they probably made some money from exporting programming within the common market. I voted Remain myself although I do have some misgivings about the EU. (I recently debated an American online who thought the BBC's current panic about licence fees was to do with USAID. Not even close. Although British TV has been swamped with US imports.)

"The 45" has a resonance in Scottish history and it is a bit of a coincidence the Yes vote was stuck at that rather than 47 or 44.

Having neutral international observers was a no brainer, but the SNP often seems to trust the system they're trying to break up much more than it should.

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upvoteby jpfromlondon20 hours ago|
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Scotland, Wales, and NI have their own parliaments at least, so from a constitutional perspective one could argue England is not a country but a state, but that is only one narrow definition.
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