Talk:Virginia General Assembly

Western Hemisphere
How can it be the oldest legislative body in the Western hemisphere when the House of Commons was formed in C14? Surely, that is ~200yrs older? 86.63.24.72 (talk) 22:51, 29 January 2013 (UTC)


 * See the unsourced comment about "rhetoric" in Western Hemisphere, noting that the sources disagree on the boundary, and that the British source would include England, while the American source does not. This is an American topic, using American sources and terminology. TEDickey (talk) 00:28, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia includes the UK in it's definition of "Western Hemisphere" so I guess that deals with this point nicely. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.16.253.107 (talk) 13:21, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * It still wouldn't be the oldest (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tynwald) in the Western hemisphere. Isle of Man is not part of England & is across the GMT line to the West, so whatever way it is looked at Virginia is not the oldest legislative body in the WH. So why say it is? Just because the subject & text is US-centric doesn't mean facts should be ignored, changed or worked around. The fact is it isn't the oldest in the WH, it may be the oldest in the Americas but that includes more than the US! 86.63.24.72 (talk) 10:04, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

"This is an American Topic" does that mean they invented vaccination, the steam engine, and discovered electricity now?. The UK parliament is West of the Greenwich Meridian, i.e. the only definition of "Western Hemisphere" which is based on demonstrable fact. Wikipedia shouldn't be a place where loose use of language is permitted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.16.253.107 (talk) 13:14, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * WP:RS is where to start a discussion. Searching on the phrase comes up with lots of hits - on Virginia, such as this  - and none on UK that I can find TEDickey (talk) 10:15, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

Suggesting a Less Ambiguous/Controversial Term for Western Hemisphere
The intended meaning of Western Hemisphere in the article appears [to me] to violate Wikipedia policy. With the most limiting American political rhetoric definition, the Virginia General Assembly claim is still demonstrably wrong. Even using the most politically modified USA redefinition (of those cited here), the Western Hemisphere would start at 20º West of the Prime Meridian. The Icelandic parliamentary body Althing was originally located in Thingvellir (21º 07' W) and is now in Rekjavik (21º 58' W). It is thus indisputably in the Western Hemisphere by all definitions. It is over 1,000 years old. This is approximately equal to the combined sum of ages of Jamestown Island, Williamsburg and Richmond in Virginia. I therefore suggest using a less ambiguous, less controversial phrase:


 * "The Virginia General Assembly is the oldest extant legislative body in The Americas."

Or perhaps the phrase "... in the New World" is preferred. This conveys a [verifiable/neutral] fact without inciting a revolution. It isn't just misuse of the word Western in the phrase, but the version starting at 20º West apparently ends at 160º West, so it isn't a hemisphere (half a sphere) either! There is no American consensus of precise definition. Verifiability requires preciseness, and the term is obviously not neutral. This seems to violate two of Wikipedia's three core content policies WP:V and WP:NPOV. ChrisJBenson (talk) 23:35, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * shrug - so proceed in Wikipedia fashion, and just make up what pleases you. TEDickey (talk) 01:10, 5 June 2013 (UTC)


 * The exact phrase used on the Assembly's own website is "oldest continuous law-making body in the New World." Perhaps inserting that, quoted and cited, would prevent any bickering. Rklear (talk) 01:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Done. I also made the same change to the same text in the Virginia article. ChrisJBenson (talk) 04:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Restoring consensus “Redistricting reform” section
deleted an entire consensus section on “Redistricting reform” with the rationale: “this is wp:undue for a topic about a 400 year old legislature.” -- I’ve restored it, and opened this Talk section for further discussion. — The section topic is not OVER-emphasized here, it is UNDER-represented.

Subsections should include:

a) ===Colonial mal-apportionment===, featuring an expansion of Thomas Jefferson’s discussion of the 1:16 advantage of eastern white males over those west of the Blue Ridge in his Notes on Virginia, and discussed in Sean Wilentz, “The Rise of American Democracy”, etc.

b) ===Antebellum reform movements===, featuring a discussion of the petitions, demonstration, western conventions, Assembly floor fights leading up to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. c) ===Mid-twentieth century redistricting reform===, featuring Assembly responses to Virginia Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court rulings related to Congressional Districts and Assembly Districts.

d) ===Twenty-first century reform movements===, including the restored passage. TheVirginiaHistorian (talk) 15:42, 1 February 2019 (UTC)


 * It looks like WP:UNDUE to me. The entire article is a bit over 1000 words; and nearly half of them are in this section. It turns the article about the legislature into an article about redistricting.


 * It's probably a worthy topic, and may be worth a WP:SPINOUT into its own article to keep from overdominating this one. TJRC (talk) 00:00, 2 February 2019 (UTC)