Talk:United Kingdom

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 6 July 2026

Change this line: The modern system of universal publicly funded healthcare in the United Kingdom has its origins in the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1949 is the primary healthcare provider in the United Kingdom.

To this: The modern system of universal publicly funded healthcare in the United Kingdom has its origins in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS), which began operating in 1948 as the primary healthcare provider.

Reason: Grammar fix, the current sentence is malformed ("...in 1949 is the primary healthcare provider..."). Year correction 1949→1948, sourced to The National Archives: the NHS began operating on 5 July 1948 (the "appointed day"). Wording changed from "creation of the NHS in 1949" to "establishment of the NHS, which began operating in 1948" because the NHS was created by separate acts across the UK (England and Wales: National Health Service Act 1946; Scotland: National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947; Northern Ireland: Health Services Act (Northern Ireland) 1948) but launched UK-wide in 1948, so "establishment" plus the 1948 operating date avoids tying creation to a single year. Also removed the redundant second mention of "United Kingdom" at the end of the sentence. Dannyjamescarter (talk) 15:59, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

 Done In solidarity, Brynn Who Likes Editing | talk w/ me! 10:18, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

Quack! Mutt Lunker (talk) 16:20, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi Mutt Lunker, I understand that the "Quack!" implies I'm a returning blocked user. I'm not. This is my only account, I have no connection to any blocked or banned editor, and I've built an ordinary editing history over my time here. I'd ask that the request be judged on its substance rather than on an assumption about who I am: it's a sourced correction (the NHS began operating on 5 July 1948, per The National Archives) and a fix to a grammatically broken sentence. If anyone genuinely believes otherwise about the account, the formal process exists for that. I've said my piece here and won't belabour it further. Dannyjamescarter (talk) 16:50, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Dannyjamescarter is neither listed in the confirmed sock puppets nor the suspected sock puppets of the Quack! account you linked to. Please do not create insinuations that an account is a sock puppet without evidence, as this can have a chilling effect. In solidarity, Brynn Who Likes Editing | talk w/ me! 10:03, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

References

costal =coastal

Article locked so cannot change.~2026-32542-29 (talk) 03:35, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Fixed I verified that the reference it's in misspelled the name of the publisher. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 03:51, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 12 July 2026

Instead of "country", The United Kingdom should be called a "sovereign state" because it is a political entity made up of multiple countries and represents multiple countries in the international stage. TheCountriesoftheWorld (talk) 02:14, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done pls see a discussion that links to many other discussions.Moxy🍁 02:31, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

Government seat

@Bazza 7: Usually when the seat of government is different to the capital city, infoboxes show that (e.g. see Kingdom of the Netherlands). I considered adding a "government seat" field but thought that would be WP:UNDUE emphasis for a very recent change when most government work is still done from London, which is why I added a footnote instead. Chessrat ^{(talk, contributions)} 11:19, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure that's a solid analogy. The Netherlands presents an unusual problem, in that while the ordinarily meaning of "capital city" is "place from which an entity is governed", Amsterdam, the official capital, outright fails to be the capital in the ordinary sense of the term. It seems to me that the situation with Manchester is better compared to the United States, where (a) there's an official presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, where many presidents have held official meetings, (b) the current president treats his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, as a secondary White House, and (c) the Department of Defense is in Arlington, Virginia. But the United States article makes no mention of either Camp David or Palm Beach, and mentions Arlington only in the caption under a photo of the Pentagon. Largoplazo (talk) 11:41, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

That's reasonable enough. Thanks for your thoughts. Chessrat ^{(talk, contributions)} 12:54, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

@Chessrat: Thanks for starting this discussion.

As always, whatever is stated requires sourcing. So (last updated 2024) plainly states the capital of the UK is London. So does . So that's what should be in the article (of which the infobox is a summary). In the surprising absence of any referenced statement about the capital, I've added one in United Kingdom § Demographics (which location might seem odd but I couldn't figure anywhere else to put it). If someone finds reliable sources which state that London is usually the capital but Manchester takes over sometimes, then that can be added at the appropriate place.

If the government of the day chooses to work elsewhere on Fridays, then that might be appropriate for the United Kingdom § Government and politics, although I note that there is nothing about location in that section, which is probably as it should be; there is, though, at Government of the United Kingdom § Location so that may be the best place to add more sourced information to.

I'll also note that I'm not a fan of placing facts which should be in article text inside notes: they're fine for clarifying a word or phrase, but not for carrying information. The MOS obliquely implies that this might be an allowed use of notes, but my own opinion is that if it's worth saying, then say it in the text of the appropriate article. Bazza 7 (talk) 12:22, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Britain is not an accurate name

Might it be worth noting in the opening paragraph that although it is commonly referred to as Britain this is not the correct name. Dwnsdp (talk) 09:45, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

What, for you, distinguishes between whether a commonly used name is correct or incorrect? Can you give separate examples of commonly used alternate names for things that are correct and that aren't correct? What I'm getting at here is that correctness doesn't apply and we aren't here to scold people for referring to it by a name commonly used to refer to it. Largoplazo (talk) 11:30, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

@Largoplazo Referring to the UK as Britain is incorrect not because it is technically incorrect - as I agree we should not scold people for - but because as a name it directly excluded one of four kingdoms. A lot of people call the UK "England" due to a misunderstanding, which is not mentioned as an alternative name as it is not correct. What separates that common name from Britain. Dwnsdp (talk) 11:36, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Not everyone shares the view that Britain strictly refers to just Great Britain. CMD (talk) 12:09, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

@Dwnsdp: Who says it's "incorrect"? This statement, made some time ago, considered "Britain" to be acceptable. The term might be ambiguous, or casual, or not official, but it's not incorrect. Perhaps you are confusing "correct" with "official"? In which case, it's not the "official name" of the United Kingdom, but neither is "United Kingdom".

The first sentence of the article includes a note explaining the commonly-used "Britain". The "Etymology and terminology" and terminology in the first section of the article goes to great length to explain the country's various names. Bazza 7 (talk) 12:13, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

It is ambiguous, yes. It has two common definitions: 1) the island containing three of the four nations (England, Scotland and Wales) of the United Kingdom (aka Great Britain), 2) the United Kingdom as a whole (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). It is similar to the America vs. United States question. This could be explained in the article.

Given its ambiguity and potential to confuse though, it's probably more encyclopaedic to use "United Kingdom" or "UK" in general usage in other articles. -- DeFacto (talk). 13:10, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

@DeFacto: The article already contains a good summary of naming, with links to two in-depth articles for those who need more.

I wasn't suggesting "Britain" should be used at all, for the reasons you state. On the contrary, things would be clearer if the MOS forbad it in Wikipedia articles other than when the word is the topic of discussion (as at the start of this article) or it's being quoted. (The BBC has a half-hearted go, the UK government slightly more.)

I can't see that happening, though. But it's wrong to label others using it as "incorrect". Bazza 7 (talk) 15:42, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

@Bazza 7, fair enough, and yep, I totally agree with your second sentence. -- DeFacto (talk). 16:51, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

"City of London" excludes most of the city of London. Many online articles can be found with phrases along the lines of "10 Downing Street issued a statement" or "10 Downing Street issued an apology", but we understand that it's neither the address nor the building designated by it that did the issuing, it was human beings inside of it. The word "decimate" originally referred to the killing of one in ten of the enemy but now it's used to connote a much greater level of devastation. South Africa excludes most of the south of Africa. The standard Turkish name for Morocco is "Fas", though more specifically it refers to the city of Fez. That the use of a name doesn't adhere strictly to its origin or its literal meaning doesn't mean it's incorrect. Largoplazo (talk) 12:46, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 15 August 2026

Add Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), with the incumbent Lindsay Hoyle to the infobox under the monarch and prime minister. ~2026-44665-10 (talk) 12:58, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before posting an edit request. We don't typically list the speaker on this article. — Czello ^(music) 13:14, 15 August 2026 (UTC)