Is England in London?
Yesterday I uploaded to Facebook a picture of a can of Boddingtons as my profile picture. This prompted a childhood friend of mine to go on a lovely little rant:
“Hmmm, since when has Boddingtons originated from ‘Britain’? Was it brewed in Scotland, N.Ireland or Wales? I don’t think so! England!!!!!!!! You can bet your life if it was a Scottish product it’d say imported from Scotland on it 😀 Plus… If the collective ‘Britain’ really has to be used they should at least have the decency to use the ‘Great’ at the beginning of it! Phew… Sorry- Rant over! PS I guess I should be grateful that it doesn’t state ‘Imported from Europe’ on it :-D”
I told him that if this sort of thing bothers him, he shouldn’t move to the USA!
I find that Americans are usually rather flummoxed when it comes to knowing the difference between England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom so I thought that today I’d offer a brief explanation…
Rule Britannia!
In the continent of Europe there are a collection of islands known as the British Isles. The two largest of these are (1) the island of Ireland and (2) the island of Great Britain:
The island of Ireland contains two countries: Northern Ireland and in the south, the Republic of Ireland. The island of Great Britain (never forget the adjective!) contains three sovereign nations: England, Scotland and Wales. The capital of England is London.
The combination of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is known as the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”:
For a more detailed explanation of what I’ve presented above, as well as an explanation as to how places like Canada fit into the Great British Empire’s scheme, please see the video below:
TIP: Americans, if you meet someone with an accent and try and guess the origin, please say “The United Kingdom”, rather than “England” or“Scotland” etc as you increase your chances of guessing correctly. Also, if you try and guess a specific country and get it wrong, such as mistaking an Englishmen for a Welshman, you’re liable to get a beer thrown in your face, glass and all… 😉
… But you didn’t answer the question! Is England in London or not?
Umm… I think you’ll find that many Irish will be at best disgruntled and at worst enraged at Ireland being included in the “British Isles”… The Republic of Ireland is its own independent state as far as I’m aware!
“British Isles” is a geographic term for the collection of islands north of France. When Ireland builds its own empire that spans a quarter of the globe they can rename it as they please… 😉
I think I need to make a trip to the British Isles during my next trip to Deutschland.
Yeah, why go to Germany when England is right there?!
Germany would be another free work trip. I’ll swing by on my way home. haha.