Talk:United Kingdom
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A1: Reliable sources support the view that the United Kingdom is a single country. This view is shared with other major reputable encyclopedias. There has been a long-standing consensus to describe the UK in this way.
A2: See the article entitled "Terminology of the British Isles". Great Britain is the name of the largest island that the UK encompasses, and is not generally used in source material as the name of the country. Indeed, Britain 2001, the "official reference book" of the United Kingdom produced by the Office for National Statistics for "British diplomatic posts" says in its foreword:
This view is reiterated by the Prime Minister's Office, which states:
A report submitted to the United Nations Economic and Social Council by the Permanent Committe on Geographical Names and the Ordnance Survey states:
There has been a long-standing consensus not to include Great Britain in the lead as an interchangable name of the state.
A2b: Whether Britain should be listed as an alternative name in the lead has been discussed often, most extensively in August 2007 and April 2011; and whether the alternate name Britain should be qualified with "incorrect" in June 2006, with "informally" in September 2006, or with "mistakenly" in January 2011.
A3: This is one of the most common questions raised on this talk page, but consistently, consensus goes against taking that approach. No major reputable source describes the UK in this way. However the history of the formation of the United Kingdom, supported by source material, highlights that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are "countries within a country". Please also refer to Q4.
A4: This is the most frequent question raised by visitors to this talk page, and the issue which generates the most debate. However, as a result of a lack of a formal British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of terms exist which are used to refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Reliable and official sources support use of the word "countries":
On Wikipedia, the term has broadly won preference amongst the editing community (note, however, that a country is not the same as a sovereign state). Also commonplace is the phrase "constituent country, or countries", when referring to the countries as elements of the UK. This phrase, however, is not an actual term; ie Scotland is not a 'constituent country' in itself, but is one of the constituent countries of the UK. The community endeavours to achieve an atmosphere of neutrality and (for the sake of stability) compromise on the various UK naming issues. See also Countries of the United Kingdom for more details about the terms that have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
A5: Widespread confusion surrounds the use of the word "nation". In standard British English, and in academic language, a nation is a social group of two or more people, and not a division of land. This is also the approach taken in the nation article, and across Wikipedia (for example, the English people and the Québécois are described as "nations", reflecting real world practice). The term Home Nations is generally used only in sporting contexts. It is not used in any major reputable sources outside of sport, and is not the approach taken by any other encyclopedia.
A6: This view is supported by some sources, but the current consensus amongst the editing community is aligned to a greater body of work which describes both Northern Ireland and Wales as countries. However, the terms are not all mutually exclusive: a country can also be a principality or a province, and these terms are mentioned throughout Wikipedia as alternative names in afternotes.
A7: Northern Ireland has not had its own unique, government sanctioned flag since its government was prorogued in 1972, and abolished in 1973 under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. During official events, the British government uses the Union Flag — the flag of the United Kingdom — and this is the only flag used by the government in Northern Ireland. The consensus is to reflect this in the article with a note.
A8: Again, Wikipedia editors often disagree on the acceptability and suitability of various terms and phrases. This term is not favoured by a number of Wikipedia editors, and is currently not used in the introduction both to simplify the status quo, and also to discourage edit warring. |
This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
United Kingdom was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 April 2024[edit]
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In the phrase: "Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol, Glasgow and Leicester." I would definitely include Manchester. You may argue whether Manchester or Birmingham should be regarded the UK's second city, but for example: Manchester Airport is the busiest UK airport outside London 89.242.197.200 (talk) 17:21, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
- Based on the citation, I presume the original author intended to use population as a measure of "majorness". If following that vein, Edinburgh, Leeds, and Cardiff would have to be listed before Manchester, but clearly that would unnecessarily bloat the lead. Of course, we could devise some alternative standard of deciding which cities to include, but is this really that important? Liu1126 (talk) 20:35, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
- This goes back to the old problem of how to define a "city" - in Britain (and elsewhere) administrative boundaries rarely coincide with contiguously built-up urban areas. The cited source seems to use a strange (and unexplained) definition - the population figure for Manchester is much lower than that in any other definition I have seen. Outside London, most would consider the largest or most important British cities to include Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow - see this source for instance - with places like Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle, Leicester, Bristol, Cardiff and Edinburgh at the next tier. But, definitions will vary. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:00, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
- The novel source should be removed from the lead, and the lead should follow the body. Currently, the body text does not bother with cities, with the only coverage being a template. That said, the template in question looks at urban areas and lists Manchester as second. CMD (talk) 01:04, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
- I agree with CMD. But if we are to get into a decision about which places might merit a mention, in my opinion we should do it based on notability not population - i.e. which cities are more prominently / more frequently mentioned by reliable sources? That gets us away from the whole boundaries/population thing (but potentially opens a different can of worms). WaggersTALK 09:17, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
- I think that one problem is that, given that we mention Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast as capitals, it would seem a little odd not to mention some of the other cities that are larger and in many respects more significant internationally. Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow stand out for me. But, they should be mentioned in the main text as well, and they need to be included based on defensible criteria and reliable sources. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:03, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- I agree with CMD. But if we are to get into a decision about which places might merit a mention, in my opinion we should do it based on notability not population - i.e. which cities are more prominently / more frequently mentioned by reliable sources? That gets us away from the whole boundaries/population thing (but potentially opens a different can of worms). WaggersTALK 09:17, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
- The novel source should be removed from the lead, and the lead should follow the body. Currently, the body text does not bother with cities, with the only coverage being a template. That said, the template in question looks at urban areas and lists Manchester as second. CMD (talk) 01:04, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
- This goes back to the old problem of how to define a "city" - in Britain (and elsewhere) administrative boundaries rarely coincide with contiguously built-up urban areas. The cited source seems to use a strange (and unexplained) definition - the population figure for Manchester is much lower than that in any other definition I have seen. Outside London, most would consider the largest or most important British cities to include Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow - see this source for instance - with places like Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle, Leicester, Bristol, Cardiff and Edinburgh at the next tier. But, definitions will vary. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:00, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
The Bank of England is not responsible for coins.[edit]
"The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and is responsible for issuing notes and coins in the pound sterling." BoE are responsible for issuing notes, The Royal Mint is responsible for issuing coins. 92.237.50.201 (talk) 21:07, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
Updating The Racial Composition Of The U.K.'s Population[edit]
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Please update the percentages in the infobox relating to the population's racial composition according to the latest census data as seen in the infobox for Demographics of the United Kingdom.
According to the 2021 British Census, (now that Scotland has finally released its racial data), the racial composition of the U.K.'s population is as follows.
Star VV Cephei A (talk) 22:18, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
- Already done —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 22:52, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you! Star VV Cephei A (talk) 19:59, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 28 May 2024[edit]
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Motto: "Dieu et mon droit" (French) "God and my right" Depotadore (talk) 06:38, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
- Motto: "Dieu et mon droit" (French)
- "God and my right" Depotadore (talk) 07:07, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
- Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Charliehdb (talk) 10:49, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 3 June 2024[edit]
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Can we replace the Brexit protest image under 21st century with this image of Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral and Procession, considering it's the UK's biggest moment in the 21st century (so far) and likely will be for a number of decades. Open to hear your views. 2A0A:EF40:E0D:1D01:4971:1631:57B8:4CC0 (talk) 23:39, 3 June 2024 (UTC)
- I think an image representing Brexit is more appropriate. Brexit resulted in a drastic constitutional change in the United Kingdom, whereas Elizabeth II's death merely resulted in a change of monarch (and unless Charles III reaches the age of 151, the death of a British monarch will occur again in the 21st century). Adam Black talk • contribs 00:04, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, thank you! 2A0A:EF40:E0D:1D01:4971:1631:57B8:4CC0 (talk) 00:30, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- How about this image with the following caption:
- 2A0A:EF40:EE1:1D01:15B5:6D4D:BD77:28DB (talk) 22:33, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Adam Black 2A0A:EF40:EE1:1D01:15B5:6D4D:BD77:28DB (talk) 22:33, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- I, again, think Brexit is more relevant to Britain in the 21st century. The repercussions of Brexit shaped the political landscape and have an ongoing impact on daily life here. The pandemic was a significant event, led to unprecedented restrictions on daily life in modern Britain, and sadly resulted in far too many deaths, but it was relatively short-lived (in the context of a century). I do think the current photo is not the best possible illustration, though. Perhaps you could find a better image representing Brexit? Adam Black talk • contribs 23:00, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Adam Black 2A0A:EF40:EE1:1D01:15B5:6D4D:BD77:28DB (talk) 22:33, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, thank you! 2A0A:EF40:E0D:1D01:4971:1631:57B8:4CC0 (talk) 00:30, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- Not done: per Adam Black. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 01:08, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- ^ "The story behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine success". UK Research and Innovation. Archived from the original on 2023-02-25.
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