• MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    England is the biggest country in Britain

    Britain is the island with England, Scotland and Wales on it

    Great Britain then also includes the entirety of Ireland, “standard” and Northern.

    The UK is governmental grouping of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as they share the same parliament. To a certain extent each country has their own government too (except for England as it just uses the UK’s government in London). An example of how they are their own countries and not just States of the one country would be like how the EU is, except if Belgium also used the main EU parliament also as their own.

    Edit: most of this is wrong, I think specifically the Ireland stuff, my bad.

    • Acamon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s not quite right. Great Britain is the “big island” and the political grouping of England, Wales and Scotland (plus islands). “little Britain” has been used historically to name the island that Ireland/Norther Ireland is on, but that would be pretty controversial now…

      The United Kingdom is the three countries of Great Britain, combined with Northern Ireland. And it’s the “official” country / nation, has a seat of the UN security council etc. But NI, Wales and Scotland are all countries, and in many peoples they’re nations too (depending on how you define such things).

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Great Britain is a geographical term not a political one. It’s like saying continental United States, it doesn’t mean the same thing as the United States of America. The term covers the island of the United Kingdom plus a few but not all of the islands. The Isle of Wight is included the Shetland Islands are not.

        The United Kingdom is made up of three countries England, Scotland, and Wales, plus all of the islands that are not covered by the term Great Britain, the United Kingdom is a country as well. It’s a country of countries. I don’t believe there is anywhere else in the world with that setup so it is confusing.

        Northern Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom for all sorts of complicated reasons but it more or less boils down to the fact that it was a colony rather than the core of the empire. And it’s never been updated because what’s the point.

        So the full and recognised international term is the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and all the small islands) and Northern Ireland. Except not the Isle of Man because that’s its own independent country that’s nothing to do with us but in some ways kind of acts like it’s part of the UK, they use the pound but they use it in the same way that Canada uses the dollar, but politically it is its own thing. Although I don’t believe there are any border checks so you can kind of pretend that it is part of the UK as you can just go there more or less whenever, it’s just a weird part of the UK where everyone’s strange and unhelpful.

        • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Oh shit yeah, just realised, there’s a reason they say UK and NI. Fucking huge face palm moment. My bad to anyone I may have stepped on toes of.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Go away and fuck off with that terminology including all of Ireland, lived here my whole life and I’ve never heard that mentioned once. I’ve heard other ignorant geographical statements like the “British isles” but never once have I heard the shite you decided to put out.

      • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Sorry, I’m open for correction, didn’t mean any harm. I genuinely thought what I said was right at the time of writing (only just woke up). I now realise it’s wrong but now I don’t know what is definitely right.

        • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all countries, they form the UK. Britain is England, Scotland and Wales.

          Ireland has nothing to do with it what having fought for a millennia for self rule.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Great Britain then also includes the entirety of Ireland, “standard” and Northern.

      Nope. Great Britain is the large island, Ireland the second largest, and while many geography books call the whole archipelago the British Isles you’ll hear plenty of Irish object on account of “British” including the English.