Talk:United Kingdom

Article's introduction

I missed it. When was it decided not to call UK's 4 components constituent countries? I'm not complaining, just curious. GoodDay (talk) 15:30, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

You're right - I've added the phrase. Cheers Fishiehelper2 (talk) 19:06, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I think Constituent Nations rather than Constituent Countries is a more appropriate term. It aids in the distinction between the recognized country (at a UN level) and the semi-autonomous nations that comprise it, similar to the way in which Catalonia declares itself a nation in its Estatuto. Jonnyboy5 (talk) 15:35, 28 March 2008 (UTC)Jonnyboy5

No, a nation is a group of people, not a division of land (see [1]). The Home nations, might be an alternative, but I think constituent countries is the term that has won preference, not just here, but in hundreds of articles and templates. --Jza84 |  Talk  15:56, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

William Shakespeare

There's a picture of William Shakespeare in the article. However, can we look at finding an alternative? My reason being that Shakespeare was born prior to the Acts of Union and so was an Englishman rather than a Briton. Of course Shakespeare is part of Britain's "heritage" but it is slightly anachronistic to claim him as part of British culture. --Jza84 |  Talk  22:51, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't actually see the problem here. A great deal of so-called British culture is actually English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish culture anyway. If William Shakespeare's works are significant to cultural life today, then it is valid to include it in the culture section. The article correctly identifies him as English so I really don't see a problem. Cheers Fishiehelper2 (talk) 23:13, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Like the user above, I don't see the problem. Dante is considered Italian, Mozart is considered Austrian and Beethoven is considered German. None of them was born in a country that was known as Italy, Austria or Germany at that time. JdeJ (talk) 23:15, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

No problem then. I suppose I was comparing this to say, an image of Talorc III of the Picts being in the Kingdom of Scotland article. However, you've made a convincing retort between you! I conceed. --Jza84 |  Talk  23:18, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Something amiss in Scotland

A conversation about the current maps used to represent the constituent countries has been started at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_UK_geography#Something_amiss_in_Scotland. This discussion is hopefully to resolve issues that have been raised and to try to set a standard within the UK. For all those that wish to comment on this, your input is requested. Thank-you :-) -- UKPhoenix79 (talk) 02:52, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Maps for the constituent countries

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I have created the above maps. I hope you all don't mind that I was WP:BOLD and added them to the relative articles myself. I really don't want to create any edit wars I just want to see what others think and hopefully bring this to a nice consensus on what to use. I hate the idea that other countries seam to be more organized then us with these things, so I hope you think the new one looks professional... I'm actually kinda pleased :-) Please voice your opinion over at Talk:Scotland#Straw_Poll I know I'd personally love to hear your opinions! Thanks -- UKPhoenix79 (talk) 05:08, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Nice enough maps, but I don't see why you have added the comment on this talk page when we don't at present have any map that shows the constituent countries of the UK in the UK article. If you are thinking of adding these maps to the UK article, I'm not sure where would be most appropriate. Perhaps under the Geography section? Cheers Fishiehelper2 (talk) 12:20, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. No I wasn't thinking about that, but if you want go for it! I was just sneaking comments from others on pages that would have an active interest on the constituent countries pages. Anyway an edited version of Image:Celtic Nations1.svg or the informative Image:Nations of the UK.png would probably be better if you wanted to do that. If you could comment on the Poll that would be appreciated. Thanks again. -- UKPhoenix79 (talk) 15:15, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Map

The map of the UK shows europe as well. However Britain has recognised Kosovo, so i think its only fair to have a map of Britain and europe which include Kosovo ;) Ijanderson977 (talk) 22:52, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Good idea. Go ahead and add one. --Michael Johnson (talk) 23:48, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

I cant do it on my laptop. Its rather crappy haha ;) Could somebody else do it please. Ijanderson977 (talk) 15:13, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Divided sections

Who came up with the nonsense, dividing every section along the constituent countries ? Whats next, dividing James Bond movies in Scottish actor/British production ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.179.19.199 (talk) 05:14, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

What nonsense? Not every section is divided as you describe: Demography, Religion, Language and Economics aren't, for example. Those which are have been divided because the subjects covered (including government, health services, law, education, etc.) are different across one or more of the constituent countries. Bazza (talk) 12:30, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

UK's economy is firmly in fifth place according to the IMF's 2007 Nominal GDP figures.

I've updated the disputed GDP sentence to stae that the UK's nominal GDP is the fifth largest not the sixth, which some French editors had tried to assert after The Times last November ran an article stating the UK's economy had slipped behind France's. The new 2007 IMF figures now show this to be wrong and that the UK's economy is actually considerably larger than France's. Signsolid (talk) 15:25, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Although I don't think the IMF figures show the FT story to be wrong, exactly, it was just the case the France overtook the UK temporarily due to exchange rate fluctuations. Cordless Larry (talk) 15:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

If that is the case, the article should of course reflect it. But would you care to provide the source for it as well? The link I found from Wikipedia is to an estimate made in October 2007, before France was reported to have overtaken the UK. That is not to say that I don't believe you, far from it, just that a source would be good to have to make the whole thing more verifiable. JdeJ (talk) 21:44, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I read the report myself and it's clear that the UK economy is larger than the French. However, the UK is still ranked both fifth (nominal GDP) and sixth (PPP) by the IMF. As the IMF takes care to mention both and doesn't state a preference for one over the other, it's best to keep both in the article. For us to decide which one to use would be original research. JdeJ (talk) 22:03, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not really surprised that Signsolid, with his usual British jingoism, wrote what he wrote above, but I'm a bit surprised that JdeJ jumped to conclusions concerning that IMF report. Nothing has changed at all since the Finantial Times article, in fact the British pound fell further and is now worth less than 1.25 euros, which means the UK GDP is now 100 billion euros behind the French GDP. JdeJ, if you check the IMF report carefully, you'll notice that they used the exchange rate of 1 pound = 1.46 euros for their 2007 GDP estimates, which is last year's exchange rate before the pound started to fall. We should still reflect in the article that the UK economy is either 5th or 6th largest in the world in nominal term depending on whether we use last year's or this year's exchange rate. The IMF pretty well know that because for their 2008 estimates they placed the nominal French GDP in 5th position ahead of the UK GDP (you can see it here: [2]). It's a bit strange that this information is completely mising in the article now. Keizuko (talk) 00:37, 10 April 2008 (UTC)