English or British?
Flash525
Posts: 8,862 Forum Member
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I've always wondered, never really known. What's the true difference? I suppose it would be that you could claim to be British if you were English, Welsh, Irish or (currently) Scottish - because of Great Britain - but then people from Northen Ireland, Welsh and Scotland will (in my experience) always refer to themselves as Irish, Welsh or Scottish.
It's seemingly only people from England who differ between naming themselves as both English and British, but is there a difference? What do you consider yourself to be?
It's seemingly only people from England who differ between naming themselves as both English and British, but is there a difference? What do you consider yourself to be?
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England is just from England
Being Irish is nothing to do with British (NI is part of the UK, not part of Britain)
I have never once heard anyone from Wales or Scotland refer to themselves as British; they always refer to themselves as Welsh or Scottish. Only English people will use both English and British - Why?
Somewhat irrelevant to the post? Whether they're independent or not, you still wont hear a Scottish person refer to themselves as British.
errrr no they won't
Unless the Scots cut off their part of the island, attach it to a rocket and fly it to another part of the planet (even a few metres North would do), they'll continue to be in (Great) Britain.
Although I have lived in England most of my life, and have English parents, I don't consider myself to be English, and if I had to declare an allegiance to a part of Britain, my allegiance would be to Yorkshire. I feel the north of England is too far removed from the south East, to feel part of the England they are part of.
except for when I have been to the US, they seem to insist I am English and come from England (been a few years so might have changed now), which is still correct but not what my passport says
The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the kingdoms of England (comprising modern-day England and Wales) and Scotland in 1707. Subsequently, in 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain united with the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. When five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom in 1922, the state was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.,
If Scotland leave the Union they leave GB
Unless I'm mistaken it's 2014 now, and that's outside the [1707, 1800] range.
And even if I am mistaken, the Kingdom of Great Britain was a sovereign state. Great Britain (no "Kingdom Of" there) was and is an island. Just like Paris is a city and "Plaster of Paris" is a material.
I refer myself as British or English depending on the situation. In informal situations, I am more likely to say I am English rather than British - but again, it depends!
Unless Salmond has plans to alter the geographical make up of these islands by digging a huge deep water trench on the border then it would do.
Thanks for stating the obvious though.
Have you asked everybody then, before you made that generalisation.
In older days, I found that those who referred themselves as British instead of English tended to be non-white because more than not, they weren't seen and/or allowed to feel they were English, even if they were English-born. For example: when you're asked where you were born, you say "England", you usually get the questioner saying "No, I mean where were you really born", which implies that because you don't look 'English', you aren't English. This might make some feel obliged to refer themselves as British more than English. This was from the older days, though. My children and their friends regard themselves as English. As far as I know, no one has challenged them on this, which suggests all that tired old 'where were you born?' thing no longer applies nowadays, but might still elsewhere.
That's one layer of the multi-layered answer.
Another layer of the answer is that some don't feel comfortable due to the country's history when the British Empire aggressively pushed an idea that the only civilised man in the world was an Englishman or Englander. That didn't include Scots, Irish people and everyone else in the world. So some choose to identify themselves as British as a form of protest against that old idea. However, they are a minority. I met only four from this group in approx. 15 years who regarded it as a political/historical issue. Two of them were historians.
The thickest layer of the answer is cultural identity. Some regard England as part of Europe and some don't (personally, I don't). Some identify with their region a lot more than England as a whole, e.g. the peoples from Cornwall and Yorkshire. Some regard it as part of their ethnicity, e.g. 'I'm English and English-born and my nationality is British'.
Short answer: people have different reasons for preferring to be English and/or British. The rest don't care either way. I think this applies to Scotland and Northern Ireland as well.
It all depends on how one feels and/or identifies with, I think.
It's not a preference, I don't mind saying I'm British, it's just the first thing that pops into my head when asked - I'm English
The Scots will need to finance their own passport system, embassies abroad (if they want to be a proper grown up country), they will cease to be British - which is what they want - and so will have to set up their own passport facilities. Maybe they could be extended the same process as here in NI where people here can have both Irish and British passports and citizenship, but there will need to be a cut off i.e people born after, say, the introduction of the Scottish State will only be entitled to Scottish nationality and not British.
The Ununited Kingdom of Great Britain (well England and Wales (which isn't even a country)) and Northern Ireland.
So all a bit silly keeping Great Britain or even Britain as that's only a collective of two places, one of which, Wales isn't a country.