Useful, interesting or amusing information

This page contains information of interest or value to people visiting or doing business with the English-speaking world in general, and the UK in particular. Or it might just be amusing. The contents will be updated regularly.

England, Great Britain or United Kingdom? 

Many people get very confused - with good reason - about the differences between terms such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, the British Isles and the United Kingdom. Wrong usage can cause offence - you might lose an order or get a punch in the teeth, depending on the circumstances - so here is a brief explanation.   

The British Isles is a geographical term only and denotes the group of two large plus several small islands off the northwest coast of Europe. The larger of these two main islands is Great Britain, which comprises England, Wales and Scotland, while the smaller is Ireland, which is divided between the province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The official name of this country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually called the United Kingdom, or UK, for short. Since you can’t really make an adjective from United Kingdom, citizens of the UK are British. England and Scotland were independent kingdoms that united voluntarily. In 1603 King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England, and in 1707 the Scottish Parliament dissolved itself and the kingdoms united with one parliament.  Wales is a principality, the Prince of Wales traditionally being the ruling monarch’s eldest son.

Since Scotland (population 5 million) and Wales (population 1.5 million) are much smaller than England (population 50 million), they tend to be forgotten by those who don’t know, and many of their inhabitants are very sensitive to this. Therefore, DO NOT say England when you mean Scotland or Wales.

One particular example I still remember from years ago was an article in Dagens Nyheter about Spandau Prison in Berlin, where the only prisoner was Rudolph Hess. The four occupying powers took turns to provide a guard. When the DN reporter visited, it was the turn of the British Army, and he described the job of the platoon provided by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. So far, so good. However, the next sentence began “These English soldiers …”. Highlanders are, of course, from Scotland. If he had written ‘Scottish’, or stuck to ‘British’, he would have been all right. Fortunately, the British Army doesn’t read DN and by then no doubt the reporter was safely back in Stockholm. Otherwise this could have been, literally, a fatal error!   

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