Dec 192011

Here’s a handy explanation of the terms United Kingdom, Great Britain, England and more, passed on by @kit2kat. Thanks Kate!



 Posted by at 6:25 pm

  9 Responses to “What exactly is “British”?”

  1. Is there a difference in the speed at which American ears and United- British ears operate?

  2. One of the things I liked about that video was the speed of delivery delivery, Chris. Pacey, I thought.

  3. Pacey!
    I was exhausted!! 🙂

  4. Ha ha! so funny, so fascinating, so accurate!!

  5. Vickie:
    First of all, happy(merry) Christmas. The video was great(spot on), but I have a different explanation.
    Being British isn’t about historical or geographic data; it’s a state of mind.
    Why do I say this?
    Many years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the land, I spent three years in the Army, most of it in France(where the natives look down on Americans who pretend, despite intensive study,to speak their language).
    I met another soldier with whom I became friendly. On meeting, he told me he was from Queens,N.Y., and asked me where I came from. When I told him Central Jersey, he responded, “Oh, you’re a New Yorker!”
    On reflection, I realized he was right. Going to college(university), and working for a number of years in “the city, not ‘The City’),” and spending a great deal of recreational time there, although domiciled some thirty miles away, I realized that yes, I was, and remain, a New Yorker; thus, in most, but not all cases(certainly India among other places woud qualify as largely exceptions), a state of mind about Britihness trumps other parameters.

  6. There are two significant and vexatious errors.

    While it is true that Ireland is a geographical term for the second largest of the British Isles, it is also the proper English-language name of the country occupying the majority of the island as well as several smaller islands. It may be by Irish law described as the republic of Ireland (a term I prefer to write with a small “r”, though the 1948 act gives it a capital one), since it is a republic and is situated on the island of Ireland. But the name of the country in the English language is Ireland, as defined in the Irish Constitution and accepted by all countries, including (since the 1990s) the U.K.

    In addition, the narrator speaks of “the official state religion” of the U.K., Anglicanism. But of course Anglicanism is the state religion of England only. In Scotland, the state religion is a flavor of Presbyterianism, and the Queen is also Supreme Governor of that church, so she is either an Anglican or a Presbyterian depending on where she is. Wales and Northern Ireland have no state religion.

  7. Yep, I can quite see how “Noo Yawkuh” could actually be an accurate description for someone from Jersey, Marc. But surely more than a state of mind is involved? It still puzzles me that Kelly, the barmaid, dressed in green and working in an Irish bar, can tell me she’s Irish when she’s never been there.

  8. Crikey John! Despite the fact he was speaking ten to the dozen, you spotted these things! They’d completely passed me by and I’m in awe.

    But now, yes, I see your point about Ireland – it’s like he’s trying to create a name distinction there that doesn’t really exist.
    And yes, there’s ‘the church of England’ and ‘the church of Scotland’ and they’re different. I wonder if he should have spoken of a “state church” rather than “state religion” too. This from wikipedia:
    A “state church” is created by the state,[citation needed] as in the cases of the Anglican Church, created by Henry VIII or the Church of Sweden, created by Gustav Vasa in 1527 before being separated from the Swedish government in the year 2000. An example of “state religion” is Argentina’s acceptance of Roman Catholicism as its religion.[2] In the case of the former, the state has absolute control over the church, but in the case of the latter, in this example, the Vatican has control over the church.

  9. Good video, but the speed at which it ran would probably leave a lot of viewers more confused about what is “British”!


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