[c. 800 words, 2 maps] [End]

A British suggestion

One Plan
for the Boundaries of
Six British States

A presentation by the Expansionist Party of the United States

[6 British states, in outline]George J. Carty of Durham, England, has created two maps to show one possible way to create six new States of the United States from the present United Kingdom (less Northern Ireland, which the Expansionist Party ("XP") proposes be reunited with Ireland as a seventh state to be created from the British Isles). The first, to the right, shows his plan in outline. The second, quite large, shows the plan in detail, county by county.

He writes,

"I would like to make a suggestion for a possible way of dividing Britain into States and counties.

"XP says that due to England's high population it would have to be split up. However, I would definitely want the English states to have decent names. Nothing would damage a campaign for English statehood more than stupid suggestions for state names such as 'North', 'South East', 'South West', etc!

"I offer this map suggesting a plan both for dividing England into states, and for fixing British county boundaries once and for all (note that all but one of the English counties created in 1974 has now ceased to exist, a possible indication of their geographic unnaturalness!)

"(Note that 6 counties are indicated by number, as the name would not fit. )

"In my plan, 3 of the 4 English states are named after Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, but as there seemed to be no such kingdom encompassing the southeast of England, I decided to call this state 'Londonia' (which would be pronounced "Lun-DOE-nee-ya"). reflecting the fact that this area is essentially London's sphere of influence, with many people who live here commuting to work in London.

"The county boundaries are based on both the current administrative boundaries and the pre-1974 county boundaries (to anyone unfamiliar with the pre-1974 boundaries, visit the Association of British Counties web site at http://www.abcounties.co.uk)

"Some notes:

"1. The Barrow-in-Furness area (traditionally in Lancashire) is transferred to Westmorland — this area is not naturally part of Lancashire, as it is cut off by Morecambe Bay. The Cumberland/Westmorland division is retained because of the Lake District mountains (not particularly high by US standards, but the highest in England).

"2. Greater London is expanded to cover the whole area inside the M25 orbital motorway (beltway) — this seems a reasonable boundary, from a geographic perspective.

"3. Yorkshire is split into 3 counties along the Riding boundaries.

"4. Post-1974 Cambridgeshire is retained, as the pre-1974 counties here were rather small. (However, since Rutland has already come back into existence, it is retained, as there may well be opposition to its re-absorption into Leicestershire. )

"Another question, could Britain continue to refer to its counties in the present way, with out adding the word 'County' after the name? In England only 'County Durham' is referred to with the word 'County' in its name, and in Ireland all counties are referred to in this way, with 'County' prepended to the name, rather than the US practice of postpending the word 'County'.

[XP Chairman Schoonmaker replies:

"USAGE is the key to what survives. If Britons use a term within their states that they are comfortable with, outsiders will probably accept that usage. U.S. Counties are, after all, not generally well known outside the immediate area. A small proportion of the general public may know that Chicago is in Cook County, Houston in Harris Co., and Miami in Dade Co., but very few counties are so well known.

"The issue wouldn't even arise in many cases, because "shire" is part of the name. I can't imagine anyone in Britain would want "Lancashire County" to be the standard usage."]

"I would also want to know what XP leadership and the website's visitors think of my suggestions for state capitals — indicated with square city symbols on the map (and if they are unsatisfactory, could someone suggest alternatives?)"

Mr. Carty calculates that the six states would have the following number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives:

Scotland 9
Northumbria 25
Mercia 20
Wales 5
Wessex 8
Londonia 30

Of course, each state would have two members of the U.S. Senate, for each state is equal to every other in the Senate.

[Small version of 6-state British map, for overview]Now, the detailed map. We present it here in two sizes.  The first is small enuf to permit a visitor to see the overview. The second is in the original size sent to us by Mr. Carty, large enuf that people interested in particular counties can read city names.

Inasmuch as different people's monitors will display at different brightnesses and resolution, we present two versions of the large map, below, the first for people whose monitor tends to display dark, so would lose detail in the surrounding oceans. The second may be clearer on monitors that display brighter.

In case it is not immediately clear on your monitor, there are two proposed states in the south of England, Wessex and Londonia, separated by a north-south boundary drawn west of Hampshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire.

If other specifics of this proposal are unclear, do not hesitate to contact us and if we don't know either, we'll pass along your query to Mr. Carty. We offer a forum for discussion of this proposal at Discussion.html.

Now, the larger map, first view. If it is not clear, check the second map immediately after it.

[Map of 6 proposed British states]


[6 British states, with counties shown, other view]


[XP logo, 8-pointed X, animated]

(This is the end of this area.) [Return to the top of this page.] [Go to the Discussion on this proposal.] [Go to British-U.S. Union page.]  [Go to "Whither Britain?" page.] [Go to Expansionist Party home page.] [Go to XP's subject indexes to see all the areas we address.]