Know Your Country

OK well there seem to be a lot of people who are confused about just where it is that they live, so this is just a little note so that people know what country they are living in and get to terms with all the terminology.

The country we all live in is the United Kingdom, the shortened form for the country's official name which is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is analagous to calling the Federal Republic of Germany by its shortend name, Germany, or calling the Republic of Finland, Finland. All countries generally have a long official name and shorter name used in everyday conversation.

(For you Irish people it's a little different as the country's official name is actually just Ireland. We simply call it the "Republic of Ireland" to distinguish it from N.Ireland and because well, it's a republic.)

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not countries, any more than Quebec or the Basque Country are countries. They are simply regions - formerly, yes, England and Scotland were entirely separate and distinct countries. But now they are just names used for different parts of the country. Wales is a principality. N.Ireland is a region ceded to the UK Government. If you want, you can call them nations - "a group of people who share culture, ethnic origin and language, often possessing or seeking its own independent government".

Great Britain similarly is not a country. It is a name given to the largest island in Europe, which contains England, Scotland and Wales. It is "Great" to distinguish it from "minor" Britain, or what we now call Brittany, and not because it is greater in size than Ireland, or because we called ourselves Great in the past.

Britain is a general term, encompassing the whole area. Derived from Latin, it was used initially to refer to just the island of Great Britain. Like the now usually literary "Albion", it has no clearly defined usage.

We may compete at the Olympics as Team GB, and at other sporting events as separate nations, but that is on a technicality. It does not reflect anything close to these regions having official status. Countries are political, with their boundaries defined by governments. Who knows, in the future we may all live in one huge country called Europe, or maybe Essex may be calculating whether it can afford to go to war with its neighbouring country of Suffolk.

:smile:

Reply 1

Fried Butter

Have a slab of butter :love:

Reply 2

username392640

Did you copy that from somewhere or did you actually write it all up?

quite right

We didn't need to know that

Reply 5

The_Timepasser

umm that sounds gibberish to me. Would I be expected to know that? :eek:

Reply 6

Aphotic Cosmos

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all constituent countries of the United Kingdom. They are not states, but they are countries.

Reply 7

Keckers

I vote we go pillaging in Suffolk.

Reply 8

L i b

cactussed

The country we all live in is the United Kingdom, the shortened form for the country's official name which is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is analagous to calling the Federal Republic of Germany by its shortend name, Germany, or calling the Republic of Finland, Finland. All countries generally have a long official name and shorter name used in everyday conversation.

I've always thought that rather peculiar really - the country name is usually the thing following the description of the state. For example, the Fed Rep of Germany: no-one would think to shorten that to the Federal Republic - particularly in an international context. Similarly, you'd expect the UK to be called Great Britain and Northern Ireland more often. I suppose we're just fairly lucky there aren't many other Kingdoms that feel the need to emphasise their unitedness.

We may compete at the Olympics as Team GB, and at other sporting events as separate nations, but that is on a technicality.

Team GB is just a shortened name for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is the full name of the team. It's rather **** on Northern Ireland, but pales into insignificance when compared with how the England and Wales cricket team is constantly referred to (even officially) simply as England. It appears we Brits are allergic to 'and ___'.

Reply 9

cactussed

Fried Butter

Have a slab of butter :love:

aww fank you! nomnomnom

TheProdigy2k9

Did you copy that from somewhere or did you actually write it all up?

Does it make it more valid if I wrote it myself? :erm:

Rassam

We didn't need to know that

Hence why I'm not banging down your doors and demanding you take a test.

Aphotic Cosmos

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all constituent countries of the United Kingdom. They are not states, but they are countries.

Of course, it depends on how you define a country, which isn't as clearly defined as say a nation state. They're certainly not countries in the sense that France or Poland are countries, but they are distinct enough I suppose that you could call the territory covered by each one a "country", like Hong Kong sometimes is. I'm just going by how people generally define one.

Reply 10

Jez RR

Keckers

I vote we go pillaging in Suffolk.

I shall defend this outpost to the last against the ravaging Essexers.

You can have Lowestoft though.

Reply 11

JamieIanHayes

I'm not that bothered to be honest mate

Reply 12

sam.day

For the Empire!!!!!

So where does the Isle of Man fit into all of this, I've always wondered. I think someone should, as nobody cares about the Isle of Man.

Reply 13

StrawberryKoi

cactussed

I like your signature. You have a good point, too. :beard:

Reply 14

El Gomez

The_Timepasser

umm that sounds gibberish to me. Would I be expected to know that? :eek:

Well yes...

Reply 15

devils18

That was actually really interesting, cheers op!

What would the Falklands fall under?

Reply 16

Psyk

sam.day

For the Empire!!!!!

So where does the Isle of Man fit into all of this, I've always wondered. I think someone should, as nobody cares about the Isle of Man.

It's a Crown Dependency (so are Guernsey and Jersey). It is not part of the UK and has it's own autonomous government (i.e. it runs itself without intervention from the UK), but ultimately the UK is sovereign over it and the UK is responsible for defending it.

devils18

That was actually really interesting, cheers op!

What would the Falklands fall under?

Similar to the Isle of Man. It's not a Crown Dependency, but it's a British Overseas Territory. Their government manages their own affairs, but the UK is responsible for defending it (which I'm sure you know they have had to do).

Reply 17

Skoji

I tried explaining this to American friends before. I had to give up and cry myself to sleep when they got stuck on the Welsh sheep stereotype.

And to think I bothered learning all fifty states for them. Gah.

Reply 18

Aphotic Cosmos

devils18

That was actually really interesting, cheers op!

What would the Falklands fall under?

It's a British Overseas Territory. Not a country, but a self-governing independent territory owned by the United Kingdom. Most BOTs are self-governing except for the sparsely populated or military ones - South Georgia & the Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory and the SBAs of Akrotiri & Dhekelia, and the UK still maintains virtually unlimited (if rarely exercised) powers in the Pitcairn Islands. All other territories, and the Pitcairns for the most part, are largely self-governing to different extents.

Reply 19

Psyk

Skoji

I find British people often find it even harder to understand it. Although that's probably more that they don't want to accept it rather than can't understand it.