Tequila wrote:
Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:
Henbane wrote:
I've lived in many parts of England, Scotland, N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
I've been to France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece inc. Crete, Israel, Egypt, USA. Possibly Canada too, but I'm not entirely sure. And I waved at Greenland from a plane. And Wales too. Although technically that's part of England. Or England is part of Wales. Or something. (looks questioningly at Tequila)
Wales, England, Scotland snd Northern Ireland are separate countries, within the UK (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). Wales, Scotland and NI have their own governments/assemblies, but also have MPs in the UK government, based in London. For some reason, England doesn't have it's own separate government. Some people say 'England' when they are actually referring to the UK, which really annoys some of us Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish.
I'm Scottish and I've included the other 3 countries of the UK in my list.
Yes, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not independent, sovereign states. They are regions of the UK with their own autonomy.
What really pisses off the English, apart from feeling that they're never really allowed to be English, is the fact that they're paying for advantages for the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish that they themselves don't get and the fact that non-English UK MPs can vote on English matters without the reverse being true due to those matters in large part being devolved to the assemblies.
It's as though the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish just want the English to keep paying the bills. A lot of English people have become very resentful of this attitude (combined with the often anti-English attitude of the Scottish) and so there is now very little appetite for Unionism in Britain where previously there was much greater desire for it.
I actually agree with a lot of these points,although depending on how figures are presented London gets more subsidies than Scotland.
Maybe London merits the extra investment,I don't know how it's worked out.The issue of non-English MPs voting on English matters is certainly unfair and it was a Scottish MP,Tam Dalyell,who was prominent among those raising the issue.
One of the things that has confused matters is that until recently,many English people have been quite happy for the terms 'British' and
'English' or 'UK and 'England' to be used interchangeably.This turns out to be counter-productive because England proper doesn't always get the recognition it should.
It's true that some of my fellow Scots seem to have a chip on their shoulder,but they are in a minority and polls consistently show 66% against breaking up the UK- at the moment anyway. If we go back in history the bonds are closer than most people realise,e.g. the ancient Scottish kingdom of Strathclyde reached past Merseyside to north Wales,while the English kingdom of Northumberland included Edinburgh. Even the greatest Scottish heroes had surprisingly cosmopolitan backgrounds -Braveheart William Wallace's own surname indicates 'Welsh',Robert The Bruce was of Norman French descent and Bonnie Prince Charlie was raised in Italy !
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I have lost the will to be apathetic