Commonwealth/state/district/territory?

tomndebb,
the county situation in England is rather messy (and I’m open to correction too!).

I live in Rutland, which is the smallest County. (We used to be a County, then we were merged with neighbouring Leicestershire, then we reverted).
Some of you may wish to fall asleep here…
I pay taxes (and that’s what really matters!) to:
Oakham (my town) as part of Rutland District Council;
Rutland County Council
The British Government

The Government sets strict rules on what the Councils can do to raise tax (and even what they can spend it on)

Now my parents live in London in the County of Middlesex (this County has been abolished officially. However it still has a cricket team, a chess team, is used as a postal address etc.) - and I think they have similar taxes to me at present. But soon they’re going to get the Mayor of London back - and that means…yes, more taxes!

One damn good reason for not splitting California up into, for example, three states, is that then we’d have to put up with six of their bonehead Senators instead of just two.

Also, the Republic of Texas reserved the right to split itself up into five or fewer states when it joined the Union by treaty in 1845. No other state has this right. California can’t split itself up, and I seriously doubt that it would be constitutional for the Federal government to divide up California of its own volition.

A couple of states have been divided up–Maine formed part of Massachussetts until 1820 and a piece of Virginia split off to form West Virginia during the Civil War and was admitted into the Union in 1863. However, both these divisions were voluntary. I doubt the Feds can just come and tell you, “Hey, Tennessee! From now on you’re divided in half!”

California CAN be split, but it would require the affirmation of the California Legislature, and the Congress.

Jacques Raymond Kilchoer asks “Switzerland based its constitution on the U.S. constitution. Did Canada do the same? (Does Canada even have a constitution?)”

Canada’s history is a little strange. It started as a French colony, was taken over by the British, and got a sort of independence in 1867. At the time, it had its own Parliament and laws (based on English common law), but legal cases could be appealed to Britain. In 1982, by Act of the British Parliament, urged by the Canadian government, the constitution was ‘repatriated’ (Yes, the ‘re-’ is kind of silly.) to Canada and we became fully independent.

The division of powers is quite a bit different than in the U.S. Provincial governments control most civil law, education, and so on, while the federal government controls criminal law and foreign affairs. And of course Quebec has special status (civil law based on the Napoleonic Code, for example), and a thriving separatist movement.


Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”