Re: CHAT: postcodes

Stephen Mulraney scripsit:

> There are also some odd UK postcodes for Islands and in-fact-dependant
> "Independent" states:
> ZE Shetland Islands
> JE Jersey
> IM Isle of Man
Don't tell them they are "dependent" states.  I can't speak for the
Shetlands, but Jersey (and Guernsey) and Man pay no U.K. taxes, have
omnicompetent local legislatures, and (in the case of the Channel
Islands) acknowledge no authority in Parliament, or even in the
Crown as such.  They answer only to the Duke of Normandy for the
time being (viz. Elizabeth II) whose ducal will is expressed through
her Privy Council, and their own States.

Indeed the Channel Islands claim to have conquered England, and if there
is any "dependent state" in the case, it is the U.K.  They have never
submitted to the Godless bureaucrats of either London or Paris.  When
at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, England attempted to provide Guernsey
with a Smuggling Act, they protested that such an act was against the
constitution of Guernsey, and therefore could be of no effect there.

In the end, a compromise was reached whereby all instances of smuggling
in the Channel Islands would be tried solely in local courts, whereas
any other instance of smuggling outside the U.K. would be tried in the
county of Middlesex, as usual.  (In the formal words of an indictment,
piracy was formerly committed "on the high seas in the county of Middlesex".)
As you can well imagine, there were no convictions, and trade routes
between England and France remained open.

--
Only do what only you can do.           John Cowan <jcowan@...>
  --Edsger W. Dijkstra,                 http://www.reutershealth.com
    deceased 6 August 2002              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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