[tz] [PATCH] Minor changes to iso3166.tab

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/16/2016 08:26 PM, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:
>> The Guardian's style guide for "United
>> >Kingdom" says "no need to write in full: say Britain or the UK", and for
>> >"Britain" it says "Britain is the official short form of United Kingdom
>> >of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which is news to me; I wonder
>> >what's "official" about it?
> Nothing.

I tend to agree. It's curious, though. I looked into it, and all I found 
were other people quoting the Guardian's style guide. I even found it 
quoted in the book "British Politics: A Very Short Introduction" (2nd 
ed., Oxford University Press, 2013) by Tony Wright, an authority on the 
subject. After the quotation he merely notes "this probably takes us 
just about as far as we can usefully go on this front" which is an odd 
thing to say about a statement that does not seem to be supported by any 
evidence.

I was amused to learn during my reading that the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922. So officially, the US 
is older than the UK! Who would have thought it?