What's up with the UK?

[Potable_Toe]

homer said:

Troll_Whisperer said:
The UK is one kingdom (not several) but it's composed of several countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus dependencies and overseas territories (islands).

There's a British parliament that represents them all, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regional bodies. England does not have a parliament, because England represents such a high percentage of the UK's population the British parliament kind of represents England anyway (though polls show that most English people would like to have an English parliament).

I don't know much about the Commonwealth, but it's some sort of agreement beween countries that used to belong to the British empire. It has little practical purpose as far as I know.

Could Scotland theoretically leave the UK if they wanted to? Is it like a Union of countries akin to the European union only of the nations on the island or is it more like the US or perhaps a mixture of both???

Ultimately they could leave if they  really desired to, so long as it was ratified by Parliament, infact there is a very considerable independance movement headed by the SNP (Scottish National Party).

 

As far as the Commonwealth is concerned you could very much think of it as a UN but only for previous constituants of the British Emipre, any nation that was once a part of the Empire can apply and there are a few benefits to it such as variouis funds for charitable and social work (local initiatives such a building sports centres or job creation projects in developing nations/members). But I suppose the biggest benefit of it is that it also acts as a free trade agreement between all members. The most public part of it though is probably the Commonwealth Games which is the Third largest sporting event after the Football World Cup and the Olympics.