This is a good way to distinguish the terms. I wonder if there is a good colour scheme to also indicate the nation states as district from the landmasses
pretty much! The commonwealth is what the British empire became, most former British colonies are members, and King Charles is its head, though most member states are republics now, and don’t have him as their king. It’s a mostly-cerrmonial political group that occasionally does things like promote trade or diplomacy
For a moment, I thought, this comment was in response to the Europe map someone else posted. There the answer would have been easy, of course: Eurovision. 🙃
They’re just part of Scotland. Although the nearby Orkney Islands (also part of Scotland) have recently flirted with leaving the UK and becoming part of Norway.
Why Orkney and not Shetland (or does Shetland want to leave too)? I would’ve figured it’d be the one physically further away from Britain that would feel less affiliation.
"British and Irish Isles" is the most common descriptor for the whole archipelago I see, and it seems a fair one even if it's a bit long. It'd be nice if we could all agree on something catchier but that seems unlikely, all things considered
Celtic would be better. Gaelic literally means coming from the Gaels, aka the Irish. Welsh and Cornish are Brythonic language speakers, not Goidelic/Gaelic, but they are all Celtic languages. The Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes invaded Celtic Britain starting in the 400s.
Can someone do one for terminology? Is calling people British mainly socially acceptable? I imagine the exception is the Irish from Ireland, but those from northern Ireland may give that a pass?
What’s the bets ramble81 calls himself Scottish cos his great great great great great great great great great great great great granda once sniffed a Tunnock’s Teacake? 😂
I'm not going to take a pop at them because it is entirely possible that they live in Scotland, are passionate about Scottish independence and has similarly committed friends and family. Likewise, I'm only speaking from personal experience as someone who is English, but has discussed stuff with Scottish friends on occassion.
At least for Scots, this is not a general case. Some consider themselves not to be British because they don't want Scotland to be part of the UK, others will take exception to the conflation of "British" with "English" because that implies that Scotland is just considered part of England. You don't even have to have strong feelings either way about either England or the UK for that one.
At least for now, the word "British" is associated more with the political entity of the UK than the geographical entity of the island of Great Britain. That most of Scotland is on the island of Great Britain will not persuade anyone in the first camp.
It’s not an actual term that is used though. “Great Britain” and “Ireland” are the names of the islands, “the United Kingdom” and “(the Republic of) Ireland” are the names of the sovereign states, “the British Isles” is (one) name for all the bits of land. “British Islands” is not an official term or one that anyone uses.
Yeah, the channel islands and the Isle of Man have more autonomy. Officially they are “self-governing British Crown Dependencies”.
Jersey and Guernsey have different VAT rates for instance. For years, play.com was based in Jersey solely so they wouldn’t have to pay VAT on most of the cheaper stuff they sold to the mainland.
It’s basically the same argument Argentina has about the Falkland Islands. When Argentina was part of the Spanish empire the Falkland Islands were part of the empire, not that the Spanish did anything with the islands. But at no time in history has Argentina existed as an independent country and has had ownership of the islands.
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