Name That Union
Barry Winetrobe encourages you to suggest a name for the new Union post Scottish independence.
30 Jan 2012, 08:30
A new union?
If Scotland departs the UK at some point in the next few years, those of us who live in the rest of the UK will have to come to terms with some renaming, whether officially or otherwise. Despite all the scare stories of the ‘break-up’ or ‘dissolution’ of the UK through Scottish independence, I, like virtually all those peddling such stories, am assuming that England, Wales and Northern Ireland will remain as one state, at least in the immediate aftermath.
One academic textbook on Scottish independence described a Union without Scotland as the rUK, short for the ‘rump United Kingdom’. We’ll need something jazzier than that.
Arguably we can’t use ‘Great Britain’ as the whole or part of the title, because that was the name legally given in 1707 to the Union of Scotland and England. So ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ is – or should be – out. Maybe also is the shorthand ‘Britain’ and ‘British’?
Adopting the precautionary principle, we should perhaps adopt a name that is flexible enough to take account of any future constitutional change, such as the departure of Northern Ireland (or Wales … or even England). Last century, the change from ‘Ireland’ to ‘Northern Ireland’ in the country’s title was fairly seamless. Aside from a change re Scotland, it was probably assumed that a departure of Northern Ireland would simply result in the re-adoption of the pre-1800 name of ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.
Dale & Co should run a contest to name the new/continuing country. Here are some suggestions, in no particular order, for starters:
- United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- United Kingdom
- Britain
- Greater England
- England
- Engniwal (and variations thereof)
- Little Britain.
Comments (7)
Subscribe to this posts's comments feed
It has to be 2, if only because it will realy get up the noses of the Scots . It can remain 2 if Wales and Northern Ireland leave. To further annoy them we should stick to the Uhion Jack as our flag and GSTQ as our anthem.
30/01/2012 10:29Why on earth should it remain at all? Oh I forgot Wales and Northern Ireland can't survive with-out the payouts from those wicked English!
When are we the English ever going to get a democratic say on our future and a divorce from chip on shoulders fringe nations who blame us for everything?
30/01/2012 17:19That flag will never do! You've forgotten to remove the Saltire and the Dragon is far too dominant.
31/01/2012 08:31Of course what it should be called is the Federal United Kingdom..........wait a minute.
31/01/2012 10:41Better make that the United Kingdom Federation............phew !
Of course this would necessitate the British Government recognising England exists. Let alone giving us, along with Wales and N.Ireland a federal Parliament.
31/01/2012 10:43Wales is a principality of England, which is why it is not represented on the union flag. The only realistic choice it England, although our politicians would hate that. Actually, that's what the rest of the world has always called us.
31/01/2012 22:54No, Peter, Wales is a Crown Dominion over which the Parliament of England asserted that its existing laws applied in 1536 (and again in 1542, and then for future laws from 1746). The Principality was a form of government exercised in the part of the Dominion not governed by marcher lords between 1216 and 1542. Much of south, mid, and north-east Wales was never part of the Principality, and it is therefore doubly inaccurate to use that word to refer to the whole of Wales. There is a legal anomaly that a handful of marcher lordships were attached to Shropshire and Herefordshire (and part of one to Gloucestershire) by the 1536 and 1542 Acts, so in some sort of sense those counties are partially not in England, but only legislated for as if they were.
05/02/2012 15:09