The Commonwealth cannot decide to take away their ability to govern independently on the issues that are not explicitly handed to the Commonwealth in the Constitution, nor can it overrule their policies in these areas.
But it can overrule states in other areas, so in practice similar to the UK lording it over Wales or Scotland.
On the other factors, you seem to be confusing countries with nation-states.
I also wonder what guidance the home game gives. Maybe someone here has a copy and can tell us. But the basic problem may be the UK’s messy and inconsistent government structures, missing English Parliament(s) or Assembly/ies and some mayoral regions and some levels of councils in some areas.
But it can overrule states in other areas, so in practice similar to the UK lording it over Wales or Scotland.
Westminster can overrule the very existence of Scotland and Wales as anything other than an idea in people’s heads. Canberra cannot do that. It’s not even remotely similar.
you seem to be confusing countries with nation-states
No. In fact, there’s a better argument that Scotland, Wales, and England are separate nations than there is that they are countries. To quote a couple of helpful Reddit comments:
Nation has more to do with people than territory. It implies a group of people with a unitary identity based on language, ethnicity, or culture. Nations may or may not be sovereign (e.g. the Navajo Nation exists within the United States). A nation-state is a sovereign state that consists primarily of a single nation.
A nation is a unit of cultural organisation, defined by what the nation wants but often shared language, history, values, ethnicity, or a combination thereof (different nations are different).
A country is a nebulous concept often used to mean a nation-state, ie a state created to be the political side of a nation, an organisation in which the state and nation are congruent.
If they gained independence, the nations of Scotland, Wales, and England would then also be separate states, creating nation-states. As it is today, the UK operates under the idea that the “British” are a single unified nation (I’ve heard it called a “country of countries” before, but “nation of nations” would be much less of an obvious furphy), but nobody pretends they are actual states (in either the way France is a sovereign state, or the way Queensland is a federated state).
I also wonder what guidance the home game gives. Maybe someone here has a copy and can tell us.
I managed to find a rather poor-quality scan.
Administrative Divisions
1st Administrative Division
This is the biggest formal category of division. For the US, it would be states. In Switzerland, cantons, in Japan, prefectures.
2nd Administrative Division
[US -> counties, Switzerland -> districts, Japan -> subprefectures]
3rd Administrative Division
One more level down. In the US, Switzerland, and Japan, this would be municipality. Municipality borders can be occasionally difficult to define, so it’s up to the seekers to clarify any ambiguity.
4th Administrative Division
Some places have no fourth administrative division, but many larger cities do. For example, New York City has boroughs. Zurich has districts. Tokyo has special wards.
Unfortunately, the advice in this section is less than helpful. It ignores different sizes of games. This is in the “matching questions” section, so questions like “are you in the same municipality as me?” I guess in the small or medium game you just ignore 1st and 2nd administrative division entirely.
In a London or Sydney–based game, I would probably use the city councils as the 3nd administrative division and suburbs for 4th, but maybe someone with more knowledge could address it better. (I’m not sure about “suburbs” for London. I’m aware that Australia uses the term very differently from what it means in America and Canada, but I’m not sure about the UK.) Here in Brisbane I can’t city councils are probably too large (the City of Brisbane is approximately the same land area as Greater London, and Greater Brisbane, which includes 4 satellite cities, is supposedly 10x that area), so probably that electoral boundaries idea I had yesterday would be the best option.
Side note: they specifically describe Greater London or any “major city” as being their Medium game, with Small being “a single town, small city, or portion of a large city”. If you wanted a small game, I suspect a single London or Sydney council would be too small, so you’d probably choose a handful of councils to play in, or base it around some local feature/cultural area.
There’s also a “Borders” section within the “measuring questions” (“compared to me, are you closer to or further from…?”), which includes 1st and 2nd administrative division borders, as well as international borders. 3rd & 4th administrative division borders are not available for measuring questions. The same description of what these mean is listed here.
Bonus: I also saw answered a question that has bugged me for a while. How to do the Strava map, since Strava itself doesn’t have a way (that I know of) to show the path without the streets.
this can be a little tricky to do; we have a few methods. One is to screenshot this on your phone, then use the drawing tools on your phone’s photo editing app to black out everything but the street. Another is to put a piece of paper over your phone and trace with a pen/pencil/marker.
Not that it’s very relevant. This question is only available in Large games anyway.
Westminster can overrule the very existence of Scotland and Wales as anything other than an idea in people’s heads. Canberra cannot do that. It’s not even remotely similar.
I think Westminster can’t stop Scotland and Wales existing as physical realities any more than Canberra can. Trying to snuff either of them out as political entities would now probably provoke a constitutional crisis. It’s not the 1700s any more.
As it is today, the UK operates under the idea that the “British” are a single unified nation
Yeah, no. Most of the people who pretend that British means any unified thing are in a few right-wing parties.
In a London or Sydney–based game, I would probably use the city councils as the 3nd administrative division and suburbs for 4th, but maybe someone with more knowledge could address it better.
I wouldn’t in London. The only city council is Westminster, so it would leave big gaps in the map. The City of London has a Corporation rather than a city council as such. You’d probably want cities/boroughs (1st-level) that contain parliamentary constituencies (2nd-level) that contain districts/liberties/communities/parishes (3rd-level) that contain wards (4th-level) but even that is imperfect and probably subject to variation in some area or other.
Hmm, perhaps I’ve used the wrong terminology. I know I’ve used the term loosely in the case of Sydney, which has 30 separate Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the metropolitan area, only 12 of which are called “city”.
When I said city council, I meant all 30 in Sydney. And in London I meant all of the equivalent. From Enfield to Croydon, from Hillington to Havering.
But it can overrule states in other areas, so in practice similar to the UK lording it over Wales or Scotland.
On the other factors, you seem to be confusing countries with nation-states.
I also wonder what guidance the home game gives. Maybe someone here has a copy and can tell us. But the basic problem may be the UK’s messy and inconsistent government structures, missing English Parliament(s) or Assembly/ies and some mayoral regions and some levels of councils in some areas.
Westminster can overrule the very existence of Scotland and Wales as anything other than an idea in people’s heads. Canberra cannot do that. It’s not even remotely similar.
No. In fact, there’s a better argument that Scotland, Wales, and England are separate nations than there is that they are countries. To quote a couple of helpful Reddit comments:
If they gained independence, the nations of Scotland, Wales, and England would then also be separate states, creating nation-states. As it is today, the UK operates under the idea that the “British” are a single unified nation (I’ve heard it called a “country of countries” before, but “nation of nations” would be much less of an obvious furphy), but nobody pretends they are actual states (in either the way France is a sovereign state, or the way Queensland is a federated state).
I managed to find a rather poor-quality scan.
Unfortunately, the advice in this section is less than helpful. It ignores different sizes of games. This is in the “matching questions” section, so questions like “are you in the same municipality as me?” I guess in the small or medium game you just ignore 1st and 2nd administrative division entirely.
In a London or Sydney–based game, I would probably use the city councils as the 3nd administrative division and suburbs for 4th, but maybe someone with more knowledge could address it better. (I’m not sure about “suburbs” for London. I’m aware that Australia uses the term very differently from what it means in America and Canada, but I’m not sure about the UK.) Here in Brisbane I can’t city councils are probably too large (the City of Brisbane is approximately the same land area as Greater London, and Greater Brisbane, which includes 4 satellite cities, is supposedly 10x that area), so probably that electoral boundaries idea I had yesterday would be the best option.
Side note: they specifically describe Greater London or any “major city” as being their Medium game, with Small being “a single town, small city, or portion of a large city”. If you wanted a small game, I suspect a single London or Sydney council would be too small, so you’d probably choose a handful of councils to play in, or base it around some local feature/cultural area.
There’s also a “Borders” section within the “measuring questions” (“compared to me, are you closer to or further from…?”), which includes 1st and 2nd administrative division borders, as well as international borders. 3rd & 4th administrative division borders are not available for measuring questions. The same description of what these mean is listed here.
Bonus: I also saw answered a question that has bugged me for a while. How to do the Strava map, since Strava itself doesn’t have a way (that I know of) to show the path without the streets.
Not that it’s very relevant. This question is only available in Large games anyway.
I think Westminster can’t stop Scotland and Wales existing as physical realities any more than Canberra can. Trying to snuff either of them out as political entities would now probably provoke a constitutional crisis. It’s not the 1700s any more.
Yeah, no. Most of the people who pretend that British means any unified thing are in a few right-wing parties.
I wouldn’t in London. The only city council is Westminster, so it would leave big gaps in the map. The City of London has a Corporation rather than a city council as such. You’d probably want cities/boroughs (1st-level) that contain parliamentary constituencies (2nd-level) that contain districts/liberties/communities/parishes (3rd-level) that contain wards (4th-level) but even that is imperfect and probably subject to variation in some area or other.
Hmm, perhaps I’ve used the wrong terminology. I know I’ve used the term loosely in the case of Sydney, which has 30 separate Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the metropolitan area, only 12 of which are called “city”.
When I said city council, I meant all 30 in Sydney. And in London I meant all of the equivalent. From Enfield to Croydon, from Hillington to Havering.