From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Delete. Michig ( talk) 07:08, 2 October 2016 (UTC) reply

British independence (  | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – ( View log · Stats)
(Find sources:  Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs· FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Composite article that seems to be here to push an agenda. Most of the text appears to be copied from Aftermath of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016, and there is no evidence that this term is widely used. This is Paul ( talk) 22:16, 24 September 2016 (UTC) reply

  • Those independence movement articles appear to be about regions or groups within a sovereign state wanting independence from that sovereign state, whereas the UK already is a sovereign state, and thus independent in terms of making its own legislation. The result of the EU referendum is basically about leaving a club because the UK doesn't want to abide by the rules of that club. Most of this article is plain and simple original research consisting of spurious comments made by the usual suspects. A more accurate description of the topic might be British isolationism. This is Paul ( talk) 00:17, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
    • How about British independence from the Romans or Viking rule? In any case it's clear that an article about the term "British independence" is notable, particularly in light of recent events.-- Prisencolin ( talk) 14:56, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
The idea of British independence from Roman or Viking rule is meaningless because there was no Britain that could conceivably become independent. For all the time that a coherent Britain has existed, it has been either been one or two sovereign states according to all non- WP:FRINGE views. (Two being England and Scotland from 1603-1707.)
Like it or not, this article is about Brexit. "Independence" in this context is a highly POV-laden term and I see no benefit in pretending it isn't. If we were to convert this to an article on Isolationism in the United Kingdom it would basically need to be rewritten from scratch and this wouldn't be a sensible redirect. The correct procedure would be to delete this article and for someone who wants that article to write it in the normal way. Kahastok talk 17:30, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
  • @ Prisencolin: The article isn't about Roman or Viking Britain. Scholars of history will, of course, be aware that Britain wasn't a country back then, but a collection of countries. Should it have existed, any independence movements would have been for kingdoms like Mercia and Wessex (incidentally, as a Midlands lad with roots in the Mercian capital, I'm not aware of a strong Mercian independence movement). I do think Dtellet is right to suggest including some of the information in other articles that are relevant to those topics before this article is sent to that big search engine in the sky, and hopefully someone can do that. Good information is worth keeping, so long as it is used in the relevant place. This is Paul ( talk) 17:38, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
  • Apparently there is one though. You live and learn. :) This is Paul ( talk) 18:02, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
  • In the context of this article, British independence is used in reference to the United Kingdom. End of Roman Rule in Britain is irrelevant to this discussion, since it discusses a physical event, while the article we're debating here is about a fringe theory that, quite frankly, doesn't even have much of a fringe. This is Paul ( talk) 20:20, 26 September 2016 (UTC) reply
    • It's more of a joke or semantic twist than a fringe theory, after all no country can ever be totally independent of others. Besides, there's no question that the phrase itself is very widely used, so it would be made into a DAB or possible redirect at the very least.-- Prisencolin ( talk) 17:13, 27 September 2016 (UTC) reply
  • Basically every reference in this article uses the phrase "British independence". In any case I suppose I do agree that, even if this topic is generally notable, the current draft should be nuked and started over.-- Prisencolin ( talk) 21:42, 27 September 2016 (UTC) reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.