Britain Versus the UK: Difference between revisions
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'''''Britain...Great Britain...The UK...The United Kingdom...The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...The British Isles...England...'''''
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[[File:UK Euler diagram 949.jpg|frame|The geopolitical makeup of the United Kingdom and surrounding islands. Geographic terms in green italics, political in red, legal in grey.]]
* '''The British Isles''' (a ''geographical'' term) are a collection of islands [[With Europe but Not of It|off the north-west coast of continental Europe]], upon which sit two sovereign states - the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - and also the Isle of Man (see below), which has a peculiar status all its own.<ref>Stretching the remit somewhat, out into the north Atlantic, arguably incorporates the Faroe Isles (part of Denmark) too – but let's not make things any more complicated than they're about to get already.</ref>
* '''Great Britain''' (a ''geographical'' term) is the largest of those islands, upon which sit the countries of {{smallcaps|England}} (taking up the centre down to the bottom), {{smallcaps|Wales}} (the pointy protrusion on the middle-left, sticking out to the west), and {{smallcaps|Scotland}} (taking up the top of the island). The numerous small islands scattered around its coastline – the [[Isle of Wight]], Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, the Isles of the Clyde, the Northern Isles, etc. – are (bar the Isle of Man) all part of these three and are usually lumped in with GB for convenience.
▲* '''The British Isles''' (a ''geographical'' term) are a collection of islands [[With Europe but Not of It|off the north-west coast of continental Europe]], upon which sit two sovereign states - the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - and also the Isle of Man (see below), which has a peculiar status all its own.<ref>Stretching the remit somewhat, out into the north Atlantic, arguably incorporates the Faroe Isles (part of Denmark) too – but let's not make things any more complicated than they're about to get already.</ref><br />As a geographic term, it includes the area of the Republic of Ireland (which is not 'British'), without implying any territorial claims. However, most Irish people (except Unionists) dislike the term, for understandable reasons. Clunky replacement terms such as the "North-West European Archipelago" have been suggested, but haven't caught on. Modern use in socio-geographical contexts (e.g. in textbooks) may simply refer to the group neutrally under the compound name of its two principal landmasses ''Great Britain and Ireland'', although this neglects those many smaller islands traditionally included in the "British Isles". Politicians when talking of matters concerning both nations generally just say ''these islands''.
▲* '''Great Britain''' (a ''geographical'' term) is the largest of those islands, upon which sit the countries of {{smallcaps|England}} (taking up the centre down to the bottom), {{smallcaps|Wales}} (the pointy protrusion on the middle-left, sticking out to the west), and {{smallcaps|Scotland}} (taking up the top of the island). The numerous small islands scattered around its coastline – the [[Isle of Wight]], Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, the Isles of the Clyde, the Northern Isles, etc. – are (bar the Isle of Man) all part of these three and are usually lumped in with GB for convenience.<br />To call someone "Great British" is practically unknown. The only context in which a collective term for the three GB countries is really necessary is Northern Ireland, where Great Britons are often called "Mainlanders".<br />Of course, the existence of a "Great" Britain suggests the existence of a "Mediocre" Britain somewhere else that it needs a superlative to be distinguished from. A misconception that the term implies 'really good' is perpetuated by slogans and titles that happily play on it, e.g. "the Great British Sausage" or ''The Great British Bake-Off''. In fact, the "Great" in this instance just means 'large' or 'main', to distinguish the island from that nearby geographic area once known as Little,<ref>not to be confused with ''[[Little Britain]]''</ref> Lesser or Less Britain. This lesser Britain is now the northwest corner of France, the region of Brittany (''Bretagne'', as opposed to ''Grand-Bretagne''): formerly semi-independent, often fought over throughout history. The ancient language of Brittany, Breton – now largely replaced by French – is Celtic, closely related to Cornish, and more distantly to Welsh, and is therefore "British" in a linguistic sense.
* '''Ireland''' (a ''geographical'' term) is another island, comprising the {{smallcaps|Republic of Ireland}} (which is also often called Ireland, the correct short form) and {{smallcaps|Northern Ireland}}, part of the UK.
* '''Northern Ireland''' (a ''political'' term) takes up, as the name implies, (part of) the northeast of Ireland. It is often referred to as Ulster, though this can be politically sensitive as not all of the old Irish province of that name is actually inside Northern Ireland – e.g. Donegal, the northernmost county in Ireland, as well as Cavan and Monaghan are part of traditional Ulster and have an Ulster (but not British or Protestant) identity but are in the Republic of Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland are divided about 60/40 between Unionists, mainly Protestant, who feel they are Brits, and Nationalists (Republicans), mainly Catholic, who feel they are Irish, and currently the ruling coalition incorporates the less extreme parts of both sides. Note that in the Republic and in Northern Ireland the terms Unionist, Loyalist, Nationalist, and Republican are all distinct and loaded. Unionists want to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Loyalists are militantly committed to that belief. Nationalists want to be unified with the rest of the island as a free republic. Republicans are militantly committed to that belief. Loyalists are Unionists and Republicans are Nationalists, but not all Unionists are Loyalists and not all Nationalists are Republicans.
* '''The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''' (a ''political'' term, one of the [[Overly Long Name|longest nation titles in the world]] but known as the "United Kingdom" for short or "UK" for shortest) comprises the island of Great Britain and associated islands, and Northern Ireland. It has 60 million people within four different constituent countries (though only England and [[Bonnie Scotland|Scotland]] are invariably referred to as 'countries'; [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Wales]] is still sometimes described as a 'principality' and [[Stroke Country|Northern Ireland]] a 'province'), and is a nation state and a fairly major player in world affairs.
* '''England''' (a ''political'' term) it's one of the countries that is part of the United Kingdom, which has approximately 84% of Britain's total population and occupies more than half of the United Kingdom in territorial size. This is the correct thing you call "'''English'''" (and "'''British'''" too), although most of them don't care whether they are seen as "citizens of England" or "citizens of the United Kingdom". It is generally confused with the United Kingdom and Great Britain due to its importance and the facts mentioned at the beginning of the explanation.
* '''"Britain"''' (a ''geographic or political'' term, depending) has two meanings; (i) colloquially, as an abbreviation for Great Britain, and (ii) more formally though confusingly, as a catch-all abbreviation for the United Kingdom. '''"British"''' does officially denote someone from any part of the UK, although some may object to being so-called – thus, a Northern Irish person is legally British (politics aside), even though not from Great Britain. This is because there is no precise single word to describe "a citizen of the United Kingdom", so "British" is the most convenient shorthand; a more accurate term would be "UK-er" or "Kingdomite", say, but there is no such term in practice.<ref>This unsatisfactory linguistic situation mirrors the way the Americas cover much more than just one country, yet "American" is generally used for people/things from the USA in the absence of a more literal term like "USA-er".</ref><br />Wait, there is more(!): "British" in history for about the first millennium AD means "Celtic", and is contrasted with "English". That is, the early Celtic inhabitants of the islands are also known as "Brythonic", the root of the word ''British'', and they were partly displaced by invading Germanic peoples such as the Angles (hence ''Angle-land'': England) and Saxons. Thus, Welsh nationalists, who object to use of the word "British", are British in that sense, whereas England is not. "British" in the modern sense was basically invented when King James VI of Scotland became also James I of England.▼
▲* '''"Britain"''' (a ''geographic or political'' term, depending) has two meanings; (i) colloquially, as an abbreviation for Great Britain, and (ii) more formally though confusingly, as a catch-all abbreviation for the United Kingdom. '''"British"''' does officially denote someone from any part of the UK, although some may object to being so-called – thus, a Northern Irish person is legally British (politics aside), even though not from Great Britain. This is because there is no precise single word to describe "a citizen of the United Kingdom", so "British" is the most convenient shorthand; a more accurate term would be "UK-er" or "Kingdomite", say, but there is no such term in practice.<ref>This unsatisfactory linguistic situation mirrors the way the Americas cover much more than just one country, yet "American" is generally used for people/things from the USA in the absence of a more literal term like "USA-er".</ref>
* '''The British Islands''', a rarely used legal term, refers to the UK, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Isles, the last of which are not part of the geographic British Isles.
* '''The Republic of Ireland''' (a ''political'' term) takes up the majority of the island of Ireland and is a separate country from Northern Ireland. It is no longer part of the UK, which has caused what might charitably be called [[The Irish Question|"a spot of bother"]] [[The Troubles|or two]] in the past. "Ireland", confusing though this is, is the correct official name of the country, though 'Republic of Ireland' (with a capital R, abbreviated ROI) is frequently used to differentiate the state from the island. Another common, though faintly patronising, way to get round this is to use the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", when referring to the country.
In short, to summarise the most common error:
English people usually don't really care whether they're called English or British. However, "British" is arguably used much less than it used to be, and people now tend to call themselves "English", or, if being pedantic, "UK citizens". Some left-leaning/liberal people dislike "British" because of the imperial connotations - "British Empire", "British Army", etc., in comparison with the nicer connotations of "English" ("country lane", "pub", etc.). English nationalists, on the other hand, who tend to be (but are not always) right-wing, also object to it, especially now that Scotland seems to be heading for independence. "Brit" can seem slightly derogatory, but "British" is usually OK.
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More generally the national sporting team situation is complicated. In international cricket, football, and rugby, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play as separate teams (the situation in rugby union is even messier, where a unified Irish national team features players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, and in addition to the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish teams that play in tournaments a unified British Lions team tours other countries and plays their individual local teams). In athletics, tennis and the Olympic Games there is a unified British team. This causes particular problems for football at the Olympic Games, where the British team has traditionally not entered the football tournament for fear that fielding a unified British team would lead to the individual nations losing their right to separate teams in higher-profile football tournaments. The fear is so bad that the Scottish, Welsh and Irish actually allowed the English FA to enter an all-English football team in the 2012 Olympics as part of "Team GB".
With devolution (the transferring of certain legislative powers to local governing bodies, primarily a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly) and increasing Scottish and Welsh nationalism, the English too are getting more and more picky about these things. Many English people get annoyed when people from the UK are either "Scottish" (and occasionally, if they're lucky, "Welsh" or "Northern Irish") or "British" , but rarely "English" – at least, not in any positive context. The frustration is that the English are often only separated out when it comes to criticism - for example, Americans may talk about getting independence from "the English" as if the Scots and Welsh had nothing to do with it. There are also more and more English who dislike the use of the Union Flag or "God Save the Queen" in relation to purely English matters, for example English sports teams.
Hold on, there's more... The auspices of the United Kingdom extend beyond just Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The UK also has fourteen '''British Overseas Territories''' scattered across the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic (e.g. [[The Falkland Islands]]) and good old [[
Closer to home, there are the three '''Crown Dependencies''' too: the ''Bailiwick of Jersey'' and the ''Bailiwick of Guernsey'' (which between them cover [[Four Little Tax Havens|the Channel Islands]]) and the ''Isle of Man''. These are all ''possessions'' of the Crown, i.e. subject to the British monarchy, which must give final assent to their laws - but are not within the United Kingdom politically; each has its own Chief Minister and body for internal legislation, although all are treated as part of the UK for British nationality law purposes and are dependent upon it for international representation, defence etc.
* Some idea of the complexity - the island of Sark, a semi-autonomous part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, is the last remaining feudal state in Europe, although it is now introducing democracy. The island has a population of roughly 600.
* And the Isle of Man has the world's oldest continuous parliament, and is not a member of the European Union, and is popularly thought to have no road speed limits, and the British Government has no authority there, but the Queen does, and it has its own version of the pound not interchangeable with the British one... having said that, Manx coins will occasionally find their way into the UK proper and be accepted without comment as they look almost identical.
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