Wee Free: Difference between revisions

The term '''Wee Free''' was an [[epithet]] commonly used to distinguish two [[Scottish Presbyterian]] Churches after the union of 1900: [[Free Church of Scotland (since 1900)|The Free Kirk]] and The [[United Free Church of Scotland|United Free Kirk]]. Since the United Free were approximately 25 times larger, but hard to distinguish without some knowledge of Scottish history and theology, the rhyming Scottish [[diminutive]] became used as an epithet of the post 1900 Free Kirk. The epithet Wee Free was also applied to a small group in the 1918 [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Party who on principle did not want to go into coalition with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] Party. The [[Independent Liberal Party (UK, 1918)|Wee Free Liberals]] either did not get, or refused, [[Coalition Coupon|the coupon]] signed by [[David Lloyd George]] of the Liberals and [[Bonar Law]] of the Conservatives.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beaverbrook|first1=Lord|title=The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George|date=1963|publisher=Duell, Sloan and Pearce|location=New York|page=14|edition=first|url=https://archive.org/stream/declineandfallof006894mbp#page/n23/mode/2up/search/wee|accessdate=30 December 2017}}</ref> The Wee Free in modern usage is used, usually in a pejorative way, of any small group who because of their, arguably obscure, religious principles choose to remain outside or separate from a larger body. [[Terry Pratchet]]’s [[Wee Free Men]] is an epithet for his [[Nac Mac Feegles]] who appear in some of his [[Discworld]] novels. He denied they are [[caricatures]] of Scots or churchmen saying “The Nac Mac Feegle are not Scottish. There is no Scotland on Discworld. They may, in subtle ways, suggest some aspects of the Scottish character as filtered through the media, but that's because of quantum.".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Breebaart|first1=Leo|last2=Kew|first2=Mike|title=The Wee Free Men Annotations|url=https://www.lspace.org/books/apf/the-wee-free-men.html|website=APF|publisher=The L-space web|accessdate=1 May 2017}}</ref>