1965

I like to keep count of countries I visit. My searches of Guernsey are a little confusing. May I count it as a separate country? Thanks.

flpab

Wiki:Guernsey is a possession of the British Crown in right of Guernsey in the English Channel, off the coast of Normandy. As a bailiwick, Guernsey embraces not only all ten parishes on the island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Alderney and Sark – each with its own parliament – and the smaller islands of Herm, Jethou and Lihou. Although its defense is the responsibility of the United Kingdom,[3] the Bailiwick is not part of the United Kingdom but rather a possession of the British Crown. It lies within the Common Travel Area of the British Isles and is not a member of the European Union, but has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods. Together, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey form the geographical grouping known as the Channel Islands.

bilboburgler

And I suspect that both Alderney and Sark would claim to be different countries

tonfromleiden

On a list of a website of »country collectors« it's mentioned as a separate country, but not as a sovereign state. It's up to you!

Jean

It has its own currency. Does that qualify?

ribeirasacra

Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10
the channel isles are discussed at around 5:14

tower

what a great revelation for a Sunday morning! I will immediately add the following to my legit cache of 85!

Ellis Island
Nantucket (sorry Ackislander)
Martha's Vineyard
Long Island
Channel Islands (the 2 off the coast of Ventura/ Santa Barbara)
...and of course, how can I leave off Catalina (it was good enough for Philip Wrigley and his Chicago Cubs in the 30's and 40's)
Sicily
Rhodes
San Juan Islands, WA (2)
Padre Island, Texas
(alread used Fiji)
Block Island
Mackinac
Nova Scotia, PEI, Vancouver Island
...OKAY, I'm at 101 (without spending another dime for travel!)

Happy New Year to all, and a special wish for poster "1965"

hetismij2

Here is a list of generally accepted countries of the world : http://www.geography-site.co.uk/page...s/howmany.html

IMDonehere

Ha, I beat you all. Yesterday I put 1,000 Islands on my salad.

I am also adding the Islets of Langerhans.

Hey, I live on an island, Manhattan. And I grew up in Brooklyn which on Long Island and went to high school in Coney Island.

______________

Jersey was the only part of the UK occupied by the Nazis during WWII.

flanneruk

"Jersey was the only part of the UK occupied by the Nazis during WWII."

All the Channel Islands (none of which form part of the UK) were occupied by the Nazis. Alderney even had a number of concentration camps built.

Havana128

Guernsey is not a separate country but a Crown Dependency for tax evasion and money laundering purposes. It is in a currency union with the UK so the currency is sterling.

PatrickLondon

For all practical purposes it is internally self-governing, unless and until it starts doing something that seriously embarrasses the Westminster government internationally, at which point various sorts of diplomatic pressure will politely read the Riot Act behind the scenes- as I think has been done over the worst financial shenanigans. Whether you call that a separate country is up to you.

bilboburgler

The whole population of Alderney (after a vote) was evacuated before the Germans got there, the majority of the people ended up in a camp in Poole. The majority of the people moved to Alderney by the Germans were Russian prisoners of war who worked and were unfed until they died.

On the other Islands the population voted to remain, Jews were rounded up and went to concentration camps, political trouble makers were also sent and very few made it back.

Whenever people complain about what the French did under occupation I just remember what we did under similar pressures.

bilboburgler

Now this is true "for tax evasion and money laundering purposes" a bit like Delaware. ;-)

PalenQ

If it ain't in the U.N. it ain't a proper country (except for Taiwan and Switzerland and maybe a few other legitimate countries with their own military and true self-government - the Channel Islands 'sovereignty' exists at the whim of the British government I believe. Berwick-on-Tweed has as much a right to be called a country as say Jersey probably.

bilboburgler

nah BoT not in the same category, it is more like Alsace but without either parliament or different laws, even the joke that it is still at war with Crimea is nonsense

IMDonehere

It is the same in the US. The people who live in New York, called it Jersey and do not think of it highly.

nukesafe

Well, I know it is separate enough to have it's own set of financial disclosure laws.

Many years ago I regularly visited Guernsey to visit my estranged wife and my children. On one of my trips I called in at a Barrister's office to enquire about a Guernsey registered company which had apparently scammed a friend of mine. I was amazed to see that the walls of the entire office were covered by small brass plaques about half the size of a business card. There were literally thousands of them! Each of those represented a company or corporation that had registered in the "country" in order to take advantage of their regulations that assured privacy and non-disclosure.

I of course got no joy from their office, but found the police chief much more forthcoming. He detailed a long list of immoral and illegal (not illegal in Guernsey, of course) transactions of the firm that had come to his attention. He said my friend had not a hope in hell of getting his money back, and there was nothing he, the cop, could do.

Can anyone tell me if Guernsey is still a tax haven/hide your money sort of place?

BritishCaicos

Some years ago the Channel Islands had the highest murder rate in the world, Oxford came close behind.

Now that dubious accolade goes to Malmo and Copenhagen.

Ackislander

In reference to Tower's item above:

Nantucket has never been a sovereign nation, but it was once part of New York. It seceded late in the 17th century, retaining certain rights when it joined Massachusetts, including the control of its own fisheries and Great Ponds. In the last century, when Massachusetts environmental authorities tried to stop the opening of fresh water ponds to the ocean (it improves the fishing), the Supreme Judicial Court held that they had no authority to do so under the original 17th century agreement. Pfui on Boston.

In 1976, intoxicated by the Bicentennial, a group of Nantucketers led by my next door neighbor, David Worth, proposed Town Meeting articles to call a referendum to decide whether Nantucket -- already both Town and County -- should secede from Massachusetts and become a state on the grounds that though Commonwealth officials were egregiously ignorant about our island, it did not stop them from trying to manage our affairs.

Alas, it didn't happen.