Talk:Bedfordshire

Untitled

Luton is still in Bedfordshire, and Milton Keynes is still in Buckinghamshire – unitary local authorities are complementary to the system of counties, they do not replace them entirely. M-Henry 16:33, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Please see http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1995/Uksi_19951776_en_2.htm, which contains the magic words "Luton shall cease to form part of Bedfordshire", and "A new county shall be constituted comprising the area of Luton and shall be named the county of Luton." Morwen 12:36, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, but see the schedule [1] to the Lieutenancies Act 1997, where we read "County for the purposes of this Act – Bedfordshire: Local government areas – Bedfordshire and Luton".--Keith Edkins 11:20, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

A lot of people seem to be confused by this, and insist that this county or that county was abolished, that a county boundary was moved, etc. In fact there has never been any official decree that any traditional county boundary has changed. The Local Government Act 1972 redefined ONLY administrative boundaries for the purposes of local government administration. It in no way sought to change actual county boundaries, and this has been confirmed by government statements to that effect on several occasions. So regardless of what local government changes have taken place over the years, Luton is still in Bedfordshire, the largest part of Slough is still in Buckinghamshire, Bournemouth is still in Hampshire, and so on. 87.115.207.212 (talk) 08:53, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Wiwaxia, AFAIK Studham Common is just the common land to the south east of Studham not a village.

County motto

I think there are two county mottos, but I'm not sure of the best way to phrase the distinction. There's the motto "Constant Be" (taken from Pilgrim's Progress, written when Bunyan was imprisoned in the county), and the one the council actually uses, "A Progressive County". (The two are amusingly contradictory, however.) Marnanel 20:23, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It is probably unwise to conflate 'motto' and 'branding'/slogan. The motto is what the coat of arms bears, surely?. Icundell 14:09, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Gonna say. The motto (as shown in the page image of the county arms) is indeed Constant Be. The "slogan" is currently A Progressive County, but it used to be A Nuclear Free Zone. This really comes down to the definitions of "Motto" and "Slogan". A quick glance at Slogan shows that Constant Be isn't one of those. Since a "motto" is defined as a heraldic device elsewhere on Wikip and the phrase Constant Be appears on the county's heraldry in the Bedfordshire entry itself, I'm deleting the citation needed flag. No-brainer? Not arf. Garrick92 12:56, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

etymology

Bedanfordscir surely means more than Beda's ford. Isn't that the origin of Bedford?

Fair use rationale for Image:EH icon.png

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• Dealt with, files replaced with (.svg file)--Starrycupz (talk) 02:10, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

pronunciation

This is shown as being rhotic yet neither RP nor the county's dialects are rhotic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.159.42.241 (talk) 18:53, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Announcement: The 2009 Structural Changes in Local Government in England: A Taskforce

1. On 1 April, 2009, a number of changes will occur that will affect a number of counties and districts in England, including some which fall within the remit of your project and/or county.
2. The changes will necessitate a large number of changes to various articles on wikipedia.
3. New articles may have to be written, old ones may have to be changed because they will then describe abolished former districts, etc, and numerous changes will have to be made to templates, category names, and articles about individual settlements to update information about local government.
4. Because of this the Uk Geography Project has set up a specific taskforce to identify the changes to be made and then to coordinate the work of preparing for the changes and then implementing them when the changes occur on 1 April.
5. The name of the taskforce is Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/2009 local government structural changes task force or WP:2009ENGLAND.
6. You are invited to join this taskforce to help us all improve wikipedia in these areas by making sure the information is kept updated, and accurate.

Many thanks.  DDStretch  (talk) 21:47, 15 January 2009 (UTC) (on behalf of the taskforce)

County flag and motto

Since 2009, Bedfordshire County Council no longer exists. Therefore should the flag and motto still be on this page? The flag (I believe) is the flag of Bedfordshire County Council, as is the motto. It seems a shame to lose the flag at least, but do they officially exist any more? Bleaney (talk) 22:29, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

External links modified

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Ethnic Groups are incorrect as of 2011 census data

2011 Census lists the broad ethnic classifications as follows:

White: Total 75.5% Asian/Asian British: Total 13.87% Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: Total 4.83%

My guess is that the figures have not been updated for some time or have been using out of date information.

In fact going further the 2001 Census data lists the following:

White 86.33% Asian/Asian British 8.33% Black/Black British 2.94%

Which funnily enough is in line with the article.

In conclusion, the article should be updated with the 2011 figures.

Notable people

Ddstretch: I do not agree with having a list of notable people section in this article as Bedfordshire is too big an area to lump everyone from there who's notable into one list; it's not of note to come from a particular county. For example, if I were to say I came from London (which I do, North Cheam), you would think the City of London, which is inaccurate. It is undue, would be the point I'm trying to put across.--Launchballer 15:39, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Actually, I would not think you came from the City of London, but I would think you came from Greater London, which is correct! Your example fails because it relies on people thinking the City of London encompasses Greater London, which it does not. There is no such similar confusion with Bedfordshire. However, a point could be made that what is there doesn't conform with the guidelines given in WP:UKCOUNTIES which state that the section should not be a simple list, but should be written in paragraph form. Yorkshire adopts a nicer solution for an extensive list, which is to have the section but immediately direct the reader to a separate article that is structured quite well. Lincolnshire has an extensive list (in its section 11.2), but it has a short written description next to each entry, which I suggest is much more acceptable than just a mere list, which is what is currently in this article. Looking at a number of other county articles, Lancashire doesn't have a separate section, but notable people are supplied in the relevant sections they might occur in. I suggest that, rather than merely deleting the section, it would have been better to save the list and work on either making a new "list of..." article including those names (for which most of them need to be given sources demonstrating notability anyway), or use some other solution. In fact, on reflection, they do seem unsuitable in their present form. So, I've deleted them again, but moved them here so that people can use them in a more acceptable way (as opposed to simply deleting the list).  DDStretch  (talk) 17:10, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Notable people from Bedfordshire

The names on this list should not occur in the article as a simple list. See WP:UKCOUNTIES and other possible solutions, such as in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, or Lancashire.

• Harold Abrahams
• Mick Abrahams
• Steve Askew
• Ronnie Barker
• Martin Bayfield
• Lady Margaret Beaufort
• Matt Berry
• John Bunyan
• John Byng
• Alastair Cook
• Kerry Dixon
• Tim Foster
• Barry Fry
• George Gascoigne
• Lucie Green
• Tom Grennan
• Damon Gough
• Arthur Hailey
• Sir William Harpur
• Jaymi Hensley
• Asher Hucklesby
• Trevor Huddleston
• Sir Alec Jeffreys
• Jeremy Irvine
• Andy Johnson
• Wayne Larkins
• John Le Mesurier
• Steve Linsdell
• Sir William Morgan
• John Oliver
• Monty Panesar
• Sir Joseph Paxton
• Victoria Pendleton
• Paula Radcliffe
• Mark Rutherford
• Robert Sedgwick
• Elkanah Settle
• Matt Skelton
• Noel Stanton
• Sir Malcolm Stewart
• Carol Vorderman
• Charles Wells
• Paul Young
• Ben Whishaw
• Samuel Whitbread

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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• Bedfordshire's Flag.svg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 15:53, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

Ethnicity in infobox

There seems to be disagreement on the figures used for ethnicity in the infobox with editors changing the percentages and being reverted for failing verification. That's Ok but the older figures are not sourced either. Although the changes and reversions involve different editors it could be regarded as edit warring. It's doubtful ethnicity figures are available for the ceremonial county now that its covered in total by unitary authorities so any figures produced would need to be added up from the three unitary authorities of Luton, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Bedford. If the Office for National Statistics are not reporting a combined figure for the ceremonial county, why are we? The infobox figures are out of date and misleading; therefore I propose the ethnicity fields be removed from the infobox altogether. Thoughts? Pinging involved editors @JMF, @Matt Lunker, @Volomoto, @112.118.252.79, @112.118.7.240 (presumably the IP pings work). Rupples (talk) 18:38, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

(and Mid Bedforshire). Yes, I agree completely and am annoyed that I failed to spot that the original figures were uncited. Nevertheless, it was highly WP:DISRUPTIVE to give an irrelevant "citation", which can only mean that the proposed figures are equally fictional. Meanwhile, IMO, the lines should be hidden until they can be sourced properly (and presented here for agreement that they are honestly sourced). --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 20:08, 6 December 2023 (UTC).

All these recent edits concerning ethnicity on the Bedfordshire pages and also Buckinghamshire appear to originate in Hong Cong, with either no sources or extremely questionable sources. It appears to be a sockpuppet trying to distrupt the Bedford, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire pages and either a ban or protection should be considered? Regards to all, David J Johnson (talk) 20:46, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

I have temporarily suspended that entry in the infobox pending resolution. (At talk:Buckinghamshire#Ethnicity in infobox, I have done the equivalent calculation and it is awaiting validation. It was time-consuming, not difficult.) --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 00:28, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes, it's better not to have the data at all, than include misleading figures. Rupples (talk) 01:43, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Calculations

I have put together a calculation of the figures for Bedfordshire. Here is my working.

Sources:

• UK Census (2021). "2021 Census Area Profile – Bedford UA (E06000055)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics.
• UK Census (2021). "2021 Census Area Profile – Central Bedfordshire UA (E06000056)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics.
• UK Census (2021). "2021 Census Area Profile – Luton UA (E06000032)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics.

Bedford

Group	Number	%
All usual residents	185,224	100
Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh	23,263	12.6
Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African	9,848	5.3
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups	8,586	4.6
White	140,174	75.7
Other ethnic group	3,353	1.8

Central Bedfordshire

Group	Number	%
All usual residents	294,251	100
Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh	10,321	3.5
Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African	7,018	2.4
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups	8,885	3.0
White	265,545	90.2
Other ethnic group	2,482	0.8

Luton UA

Group	Number	%
All usual residents	225,261	100
Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh	83,325	37.0
Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African	22,735	10.1
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups	9,620	4.3
White	101,798	45.2
Other ethnic group	7,783	3.5

Bedfordshire (all)

Group	Number	%
All usual residents	704,736	100
Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh	116,909	16.6
Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African	39,601	5.6
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups	27,091	3.8
White	507,517	72.0
Other ethnic group	13,618	1.9

If somebody would validate my calculations and sourcing, we can update the article accordingly. (Personally, I fail to see the value of such arbitrary divisions: it just feeds racist conspiracy theories.) --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 19:32, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks @JMF for doing the calcs. Least I can do, after raising the issue here is to check them through. All OK except for a 0.1 rounding difference in the Bedfordshire percentages, which total 99.9%. The one that is nearest to a rounding up is Mixed at 3.84%. Should this be changed to 3.9% to arrive at 100% total, or just left? Also noticed stats percentages come to 99.9% for Central Beds and 100.1 for Luton, but these are as listed in NOMIS, which doesn't itself show 100% totals for the percentages. Rupples (talk) 20:25, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

My inclination is to leave them as calculated. Rounding errors are to be expected, indeed not having any is suspicious. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 22:17, 7 December 2023 (UTC)