If part of the US, the UK would be 2nd poorest state

Yeah there are problems with our free health care. Is it perfect? No. Are there many bizarre things that happen and some lose their life? Sure. But people generally get treated and for free. I don't have friends or relatives who will be left to die because they don't have insurance or can't pay or have to be bankrupted to stay alive.

You have great health provision if you're fabulously rich (though Michael Jackson and Joan Rivers might question this). You have great health provision if you're well off and/or insured. You have worse health care if you're on skid row or on hard times or if your insurer throws out your claim. Then you die.

We have great health provision if you're fabulously rich, we have great health provision if you're well off and/or insured and we have very rather good health provision if you're on skid row or on hard times or can't afford to pay or have insurance. You don't die. Sure people die from mistakes or wrong diagnosis but that also allies to the fabulously rich.

Big difference.

So is your service crap? No unless you have fallen on hard times or your insurer decides to play silly arse. There are many counter arguments to the links you provided. The air ambulance that rescued Richard Hammond after his dragster crash a few years ago was there in record time, gave him great service and was free. If I rang an emergency ambulance now I know it would be hear in about 5/10 minutes and usually a first responder will arrive earlier (and there would be no bill to pay, no insurance details to give and it still arrive in 5/10 minutes if I called it for you - a vistor with or without insurance).

 

Isn't there a mountain with huge reserves of gold in Antrim or somewhere?

 

Look, I hesitate to question your extraordinarily in-depth knowledge of all things British, but .... ummm ..... isn't England in Britain? So doesn't that mean the place to which the Welsh are fleeing in their bilingual ambulances is covered by .... ummmmm........ the NHS?

Or has there been an independence vote that I missed?

 

This is very important, obviously.

If a Welsh driver saw a bright yellow vehicle with blue flashing lights and a siren in his mirror, he probably wouldn't know that he should get out of the way if it just said "Ambulance" on it. So it's lucky that it says "Ambiwlans" as well.

 

lol It's the same on everything in Wales, including the road;



and as you get further into Welsh Wales it switches to Welsh on top



And North Wales (which is regarded as a bit weird even by the Welsh) have gone totally Welsh;



Nationalism is a funny thing. Either that or they've nowt better to do

 

This sign was put up in Wales in 2008:



Following the requirement for bi-lingual signage, Swansea council emailed the English text to its in-house translation service, and when the reply came back they created the sign.
Sadly, the Welsh part of the sign reads: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".
BBC News - E-mail error ends up on road sign

 

I'm still hoping Scotland vote yes. The UK Government are all running scared now and London based newspapers are coming out with nonsense scare stories like these;

Could the BBC licence fee double in independent Scotland? | Mail Online
Scotland to lose equivalent of 36,000 nurses in NHS cuts, Ed Miliband says | Mail Online
Party leaders take high road to Scotland in united effort to avert yes vote | Politics | The Guardian

Did losing an English girl's love turn Alex Salmond into a raging Nat? | Mail Online

Childless SNP chiefs 'who have no feel for UK family': Leaders of Scottish National Party 'want to break up Union because they do not understand families', it is claimed | Mail Online


As far as I'm concerned, if Scotland vote Yes then I hope that Yorkshire (and/or the North) get some independence or self governance;

Yorkshire could be ‘God’s Own Country’, says Leeds professor - Yorkshire Evening Post

Yorkshire has the same population as Scotland and economically we're the same too. If they can do it, so can we. There's a significant lack of investment or infrastructure products authorised by the London Government and the same reasons the Scots wanted out pretty much apply to us too.

 

What would "United Kingdom" mean if Scotland left? Would this entail a name change (Disunited Kingdom, United Queendom, what?) or is the process underway where "United Kingdom" will eventually refer to a section of London.

 

Posters tolworth and verygneiss engage this question on Reddit:

tolworth: "The Former United Kingdom. Worked for Yugoslavia."

verygneiss: "The FUK?"

tolworth: "What, the FUK?"

What name would be given to the United Kingdom minus Scotland? Would it still be called the United Kingdom? : unitedkingdom

 

lol I do not know. Maybe it would still be a name or changed to something similar? Or Great Britain?

But with a capital city where a growing number want it to be a country in it's own right and the rest of the UK and most parts of England feeling alienated, I think this century will be interesting.

'One in five Londoners want the capital to become independent' - UK - News - London Evening Standard

 

Thanks for the Reddit Link. I liked this answer on this new name:

"United Kingdom of the Civilised. And Wales."

 

According to Wikipedia, "Great Britain" is both a geographical and political term, and in either case includes Scotland. Geographically it's the island consisting of England, Scotland and Wales, so that wouldn't change, but the political definition would no longer be correct.

The last change in the UK's name was when the Republic of Ireland was formed and "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" gained a "Northern". But "United Kingdom" itself only came into use after England and Scotland were united in 1707, so with Scotland gone even that would no longer be correct.

I'm leaning towards "FUK" myself...

On your other point, would the rest of the country be better off without London, I wonder?

 

Well London says not as they're the financial power house, but it was that financial power house that screwed us all over back in 2007.

London is just full of financial spivs and dirty Russian and Arab money. Nice - not.

I liked FUK. But I just wish I could think of something beginning with D.

Former United Kingdom of England ..D.....? Hmmm

 

Getting there!

 

Diminished.

Former United Kingdom of England Diminished or ***** for short. Sums it up.

 

GLB: Greater Lesser Britain

 

From my reading far, far away, there seems little doubt that financial interests invested in Scotland are the loudest 'no' voice, and parliament voices their concerns. I cannot tell what the majority of English commoners prefer.

 

The majority want Scotland to go it alone - for various reasons. You'll notice most news reports of English people saying Scotland should stay have usually interviewed 'a commoner' in London.

It's nothing to do with financial matters to a lot of people. It's difficult to explain that even many in the UK don't understand, but let's put it this way, if a load of well educated, out of touch Southerners who'd barely come to your area suddenly started telling you what to do and what was best for you, you'd say stuff them and do your own thing or even the opposite.

I wonder if there are simmering connotations to your independence from England all those years back. Very similar reasons apply and the same arrogance from the UK Government apply too.

And it was a Yorkshire man, a Yorkshire catholic, Guy Fawkes (V for Vendetta fame) who was the last one to have a pop at getting rid of our Parliament. I don't think the Southerners have forgiven us since.

Guy Fawkes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia