As I sit here looking out my window, I had a moment to consider all that is important in the world.

Here in the US, we have local bodies of goverment called states that are divided into "counties". One state (Lousiana) has parishes.

I have noticed the map of the UK, the one in some signitures, is divided up into similar areas. How are yall divided up.

It's quite complicated - best have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_England

I think Belgium's even worse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Belgium

WOW... I go to a local coffee shop every morning and enjoy the discussion of politics and other topics. You UKers should never run out of things to discuss. I tried to follow your organizational arrangement but gave up very early. And you are right, Belgium doesn't deserve any prizes either.

Very interesting that different countries choose the way they want to be governed. Some good and some bad in all forms of government. I guess the opportunity for corruption is present in all nations. We sure have ours. The big change in our system since I was born is the loss of the states rights. The federal government is sucking the power from the states and taking over the very rights and responsibilities that are in our constitution. I am not sure my country is going to survive as long as any European country has.

Thanks for the lesson.

As you can see from the article MikeO has shown the link to we like to keep things simple in the UK, or should that be 'Great Britain' or 'Britain' or 'England' or 'Albion'?

Cheers,

One thing of many I like about the Local Government here is that they are directly involved with what goes on in the region.
For example, a large chateau-type building near us was converted and extended to become a hotel.

Soon after its completion the mayor and some of the councillors went to inspect it. Attention had been drawn to the increased numbers of cars parking in the lay-bys near the hotel and, on actually counting the parking-spaces within the hotel grounds, they discovered that fewer than the agreed number had been provided.
So......mayor threatens to close hotel unless the requisite extras are added within X number of days.......and he can and would have!

Flurry of activity and the hotel now has its full quota of parking.