Talk:WikiProject United Nations political boundaries
Theres a large section on the assossiated page about the crown dependancies. It is simpler to recognise that statement like administered by the UK are misleading as they are on seperate banches of a hirachial-tree of administrations that make up the "the commonwelth" & "European Union". To Explain there are two trees that have some overlapping [or joint] branches. The one for the commonwealth goes:-
(The Commonwealth) (British Empire) {also at this same level (Jamacia), (Australian Empire), (Malta), etc.) (Baliwick of the States of Gurnsey) or (Baliwick of the States of Jersey) or (United Kindom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [aka UK]) {also at this level (Barmuda), (British Indian Ocean Teritory), (Pitcairn), (Britiah Antartic Territory [these years mixed with compeating claims and settaled under the Antartic treaty systems], etc}
under UK entry in the tree above is:- (Northern Ireland) or (Berwick-upon-Tweed [comes from a historical fix for this border area as it wasn't clear which side it should belong to (so they just listed it seperatly when things applied to it in legislation)]) or (Scotland) or (England & Wales) --Note the the Later 3 juridictions are based on the island known as Britain and several series of smaller islands [such the Orkneys, Western Ilses etc] make up Great Britain. Before the creation of the UK in the 1920's the was a series of joinings with the reast of Irland (know an independate country and European meber stae in its own right) the whole collection anlong with the Balliwick's was officaly called the British Isles (although some somiet type conferances between the seperate parts and other things do occasionly refer to this term in correct context, the Irish especialy can be upset when it is misused to mean losely the same as Britain, UK, or something similar; as they are not part of them anymore since independance)
Beneath the (England & Wales) comes those two given as seperate jurisdictions:- (England) or (Wales)
Beneath these two: there are a series of domestic jurisdictional splits beneath through verious forms counties, districs, Metroplitain districs, comunities [in Wales], Parishes, official non-parished areas, bouroughs, town (and other urban jurisdictional units).
When parts of the British Empire joined with the other Member states of the then European Economic Comunity in 1973 only the (United Kindom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) joined, and formed the European state of that name. The rest of the Empire [adminsisted partly to wildly varying levels from Offices based in Britain] since then other parts have joined as members in there own right like Cyprus and Malta and other parts as part of the UK state
The European Union now has a highly defined hirachy of sub-units for verious perposes of local interation and statistical monitoring these are defined by the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) and LAU (Local Adminstrative Unit) system.
Top level comes the member states so UK is at that state level.
then comes the regions:-
(Wales) or (London) or (Scotland) or (Yorkshire & Humberside) or (Northen Ireland) or (West Midlands) or (Southwest) or (Southeast) or (Northeast) or (Northwest) or (East Midlands) or (East of England) or (Extra-Regio) These might look an imbalence compared to the commenwealth tree but are actualy based on since updated veiw of Areas that the Central goverment used to use for Economic planning in the 1970's and are supposedly lossly sized on population as well as geography
the next two level try to form similar population groups down to about councils (see here for full list of NUTS)
The LAU system takes over where NUTS stops to take it down to Wards through several levels in the UK (intereastingly the Parishes aren't mentioned too much due to the changeing fortunes of there porminance in the early 1970's (see reorganizeing of counties back then to get what mean) and before).
This is a bit in depth and prehapes a little "over the top" but at least it might point people to a clearer understanding of the relationships disscused. It's worth remebering that although the British Empire isn't what it used to be how it split up and has been internaly organised is still leaving a tidy leagacy partly related jurisdictions. --Govanus (talk) 17:56, 22 August 2014 (UTC)