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Tweeters Suggest Britain Needs New Name After Scottish Independence

Even ‘Poundland’ might not work anymore.
A Union flag flies near the Houses of Parliament, comprising the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in London on March 13, 2017.British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to trigger Brexit this week by formally notifying the European Union of Britain's intention to leave the bloc, sending her country into uncharted waters. The legislation empowering May to put Britain on a course that no EU member state has ever taken returns to parliament for its final stages on Monday as European capitals prepare for mammoth negotiations. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS via Getty Images
A Union flag flies near the Houses of Parliament, comprising the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in London on March 13, 2017.British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to trigger Brexit this week by formally notifying the European Union of Britain's intention to leave the bloc, sending her country into uncharted waters. The legislation empowering May to put Britain on a course that no EU member state has ever taken returns to parliament for its final stages on Monday as European capitals prepare for mammoth negotiations. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Nicola Sturgeon’s pledge to give Scotland another vote on independence has got people thinking that “the United Kingdom” no longer accurately describes Britain.

The Brexit referendum showed how divided Britons are and now Scots might stop being Britons at all.

Some suggested an Oldie But Goldie that we first heard after the Brexit vote in June: Renaming the country around the one thing we still all indisputably share.

Another tweet, however, suggested things have only gotten worse in the last nine months since the June referendum.

If you change the name of a group of islands off Cornwall slightly, you get a name Monty Python would have approved of.

Someone suggested we re-think the uncharacteristic boastfulness in our name.

Ironically, the hashtag showed something Brits tend to have in common: the love of silly jokes. Fittingly, it was a silly joke that came out of a vote by the public.

Boaty McBoatFace, the name so many voted for when asked to name an Arctic research ship, was adapted to describe a post-Brexit, possibly Scotland-less, UK.

Film titles were thin on the ground but one person reminded us how far we’ve come since the days we ruled a quarter of the globe.

Some set out to troll most people who live in Britain.

Others saw a bleak future where we hold referendums all the time.

While others looked to the future of the union, beyond Scottish independence.