MIG wrote:

On 21 July, 11:13, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
James Farrar wrote:
Yes, they can be, but in the real UK the set of government boundaries is
not identical to the set of geographic boundaries.

Aren't all boundaries, natural or artificial, in a sense "geographic"?

Sigh. For some reason, people think that previous government
boundaries are geographic, or somehow real, but current ones are not.

You get arguments like "Altrincham is administratively in Greater
Manchester, but it's geographically in Cheshire". Bizarre. What do
they think "Cheshire" is beyond an administrative or government
concept?

Many counties were originally defined by reference to *topographical*
features, for example having rivers as boundaries. A statement on
whether something is geographical or not is probably a malapropism for
that. For example, the northern border of historical Cheshire is largely
defined by the River Mersey, whose name is derived from an OE word
meaning "border", signifying that it was formerly the border between
Mercia and Northumbria, before Cheshire was invented.

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