I was down at a cinema today,and they've got a new annual season-ticket they're selling - and the poster says that it is useable at all their cinemas "anywhere in the UK, in Ireland and in Scotland".

Signs of the times.

I believe that originally it wasn't the United Kingdom, it was the United Kingdoms. I don't know when the Kingdom form came into use - maybe after the Scottish Parliment was bribed to vote itself out of existence. I think the could do well to revive it now. It sounds better. But what'll they'll call the place if there's ever a republic here? (I've suggested they could keep the UK initials, and call it the United Kindred, and sound like something out of the Lord of the Rings.)

There was of course a Union Flag before 1801, it just didn't have the red diagonal which is supposed to represent Ireland. Now, if the Scots pulled out of the Union, they'd have to remove the blue-and-white saltire. And if the North-East of Ulster stayed in, wouldn't that be a funny-looking Union Flag!