Finally, Great Britain Explained, whew!

[midlifebear]

Well, now I can finally sleep and night. The following condenses so much information in succinct terms and in a short time.

See: YouTube - The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

 

[ManofThunder]

Did you not already know that?! :tongue:

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

Did you not already know that?! :tongue:

Mind you plenty of British and Irish people mix those terms up pretty liberally, even if we all know what we mean you can forgive foreigners for getting confused sometimes :tongue:

 

[ManofThunder]

Mind you plenty of British and Irish people mix those terms up pretty liberally, even if we all know what we mean you can forgive foreigners for getting confused sometimes :tongue:

Confusion forgiven!

 

[leapyear]

MIDLIFEBEAR I rather enjoyed that and saved it for the next time that I try order something from the States and the telephone sales associate is clueless as to where the hell the item(s) is being shipped. I actually had a woman from Maine get all stroppy when I went all quiet when is repeatedly asked what the capital of London was...

 

[nudeyorker]

Thanks for posting; that was fun to watch. I actually did know that!

 

[accemb]

I really enjoyed that !

 

[justmeincal]

That was entertaining!

 

[Drifterwood]

He had to mention sheep, didn't he.

 

[LaFemme]

Loved it! I knew most of it - well, up to the Commonwealth countries b/c I'm Canadian and had to learn all that in school. The rest was new to me (or maybe I forgot - grade school was a looooong time ago!)

 

[MarkLondon]

I liked the Venn diagrams.

 

[Gillette]

Admit I didn't know the difference between U.K and G.B. and certainly didn't know the distinction between the Commonwealth Realm and the British Overseas Territories.

Very helpful indeed.

 

[B_Nicodemous]

I liked the Venn diagrams.

They were so helpful! I totally dug them.

Admit I didn't know the difference between U.K and G.B. and certainly didn't know the distinction between the Commonwealth Realm and the British Overseas Territories.

Very helpful indeed.

I tend to get them all muddled. I will try harder not to in the future:wink::tongue:

 

[Endued]

Huh. I thought I knew all this stuff but I wasn't aware the British Isles contained Ireland and Northern Ireland.

 

[Calboner]

The stuff covered in the first few minutes of the video (U.K. and G.B.) was all familiar to me, but I did not know about Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories. I had assumed that the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man belonged to England (wrong; they are Crown Dependencies), and if you had asked me what the political status of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands was, I could not have given an exact answer. I had never even heard of Akrotiri and Dhekelia!

 

[Jason]

Great stuff, but there are mistakes. At least I think there are mistakes!

The people of Northern Ireland are not called Northern Irish. Those who are Roman Catholic are called Irish; those who are Protestant are called British. Northern Irish just isn't used! The official term is I think "people of Northern Ireland".

What's this about Isle of Wight, Anglesey, Hebridies, Orkney and Shetland being outside GB? I suppose they are outside the geographical concept of GB, but there is also the political concept of the GB (The UK of GB and NI) which certainly includes them. Indeed the clip seems to think that GB is a geographical concept alone - it is both geographical and political and the two don't exactly overlap.

I don't think the four home nations can be called "sovereign nations". The sole sovereign state is the UK, which is the sole authority which issues bonds and which has a unified foreign policy. The issue of the home nations does need to be explored. England and Scotland are kingdoms; Wales is a principality of England (and therefore doesn't get to have its flag on the Union Jack). Ireland was a kingdom; the territory of NI is not usually so described but as far as I know is constitutionally still a kingdom.

The clip doesn't examine British Antarctic Territory.

The clip ignores the usage in sport. Often the island of Ireland is considered to be a single "home nation". The clip ignores religious boundaries. In the island of Ireland these cross the political border. There is a diocese of "Gibraltar in Europe".

The clip also leaves out 101 areas of complexity around the heritage of empire. In most cases we have structures which would permit the rejoining of former parts. There was a call before Christmas (from Ian Paisley, Lord Bannside) for Ireland to accept "reunification under the crown" as a solution to its present problems. I'm well aware of the issues this would pose in Ireland, but as an issue in UK constitution such reuification would be very easy to bring about.

 

[Jason]

Huh. I thought I knew all this stuff but I wasn't aware the British Isles contained Ireland and Northern Ireland.

British Isles is an ancient geographical term. However many in the Republic of Ireland don't like it.

An alternative suggested is "Great Britain and Ireland". However this leaves out the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. The suggestions which in theory everyone agrees to are "The Isles" and "Our Isles". These terms can reasonably include also territories including Gibraltar and the Falklands. However they have little usage at the moment.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

The clip doesn't examine British Antarctic Territory.

Actually, the clip lists the British Antarctic Territory among the British Overseas Territories, as the second smallest, listed between the Falkland Islands and the Pitcairn Islands.
He both says that in the spoken text and includes it in the final Venn diagram (or, for you, I suppose, Jason ... diagramme:biggrin1.
But the blighty bugger speaks so fast it's hard to make everything out.

 

[SilverTrain]

Brilliant!

Most of that was by way of reconfirming what I'd learned previously. But I was interested to note the distinction between those former pieces of Empire that are now autonomous members of The Commonwealth Realm (e.g., Barbados) , and those that remain as "British Overseas Territories" of the Crown (e.g. Bermuda).

 

[Jason]

Listening again to this clip (yes, it can get to you) I note it has left out India as a Commonwealth nation - a big miss! Also it is the "Commonwealth of Nations", colloquially the "British Commonwealth", not the "Commonwealth realm".

British Antarctic Territory is governed by the Antarctic Treaty. There are claims to most of it from both Argentina and Chile. The claim of Argentina is predicated on their claim to the Falkland Islands, a claim not recognised by the United Nations (the UN many years ago declared that the wishes of the people presently living on the Falklands are paramount, which in effect means that the UN agrees the Falklands are British). The South Shetland Islands are covered by the Antarctic Treaty in as much as nations neither accept nor dispute British sovereignty (and they are administered as BAT), but the UK position is an assertion of sovereignty to these islands as a matter separate from the claim to continental British Antarctic Territory. As far as I can see, if oil is discovered in the South Shetlands the UK would see no reason not to exploit it. The South Orkney Islands were once considered a dependency of the Falkland Islands - now they are in BAT - though I think this is just an administrative convenience which could be reversed. There is little doubt that a Cameron-led UK government will continue to explore for oil in the South Atlantic, and will be prepared to act to assert UK sovereignty if the issue makes economic sense. The British claim could one day soon be a lively issue in international politics.