On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:59:17 +0100
David Hansen wrote:


On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:51:23 +0100 someone who may be Derek
wrote this:-

While laws governing Scotland are passed in England Scotland cannot be
a country.

Laws governing Greenland are passed in Denmark. The same used to be
true of Iceland.

If, for the sake of argument, one accepts the claim that the UK is a
country then by the argument above it cannot be a country. While
laws governing the UK are passed in Belgium the UK cannot be a
country.

Scotland is a country, wales and NI are provinces. Scotland had its own
monarchy until james wandered south in the 17th century and its own self
governing parliament up until the 18th century. Wales was never anything more
than an area of tribal feifdoms living around some mountains who happened to
speak the same language. Even their so called princes never controlled the
whole region and since the 13th century its effectively been part of
england anyway. Ireland like wales was just a mishmash of tribes and could
never really be called a country other than by definition of its coastline.

B2003