On Jul 20, 12:19*pm, wrote:
In article
,





(John B) wrote:
On Jul 19, 11:34*pm, James Farrar wrote:
There is a huge variation around the country in the local
authorities' requirements for minicabs. *I have a friend who use
to run a minicab business in Aylesbury, but now runs a similar
business in Middlesex.

Time traveller, is he?

(for m.t.u-t'ers, Middlesex hasn't existed for 44 years)

It exists. The Local Government Act abolished only its council.

Or is Derby not in Derbyshire?

Wrong. Derby is still in the ceremonial council of Derbyshire, and the
ceremonial country of Greater Manchester still exists and contains all
the GM boroughs despite the county council's abolition - but the
ceremonial county of Middlesex was abolished at the same time as
Middlesex County Council.

A less confusing term than "ceremonial county" (let alone "ceremonial
country" - the mind boggles) is "lieutenancy" which neatly encompasses the
various changes caused by the effective return of County Boroughs, now
termed Unitary Authorities.

Dear God, that was a bad bit of typo-ry on my part.

What I intended to say was:

Wrong. Derby is still in the ceremonial county of Derbyshire, and the
ceremonial county of Greater Manchester still exists and contains all
the GM boroughs despite Greater Manchester County Council's abolition,
but the ceremonial county of Middlesex was abolished at the same time
as the abolition of Middlesex County Council.

Although I suppose Wales from 1400ish to 1973 could probably have been
viewed as a 'ceremonial country'.

I'm not sure adding yet another term, referring to an official that
c.nobody has heard of, is helpful - 'ceremonial county' at least makes
clear that This Exists, This Is Officially Recognised, but This Is Not
How Government Is Organised.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org