Tuesday, September 9, 2008

That Englishman Murray

Bearing in mind Andrew Murray’s previous form (and I don’t mean with the tennis racquet) this is surely poetic justice:
Scot Andy Murray's march to the US Open final has left some Americans mistakenly applauding the "Englishman".

And the BBC also, very helpfully, fills in the relevant details for any confused foreigners (and Britons):

GB, UK, BRITISH ISLES PRIMER
England, Scotland, Wales = Great Britain
Northern Ireland + Great Britain = United Kingdom
BUT many will use "Britain" as shorthand for UK, not just GB
GB also includes Isle of Wight, Scillies, Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands, but not Isle of Man and Channel Isles
Great Britain + Republic of Ireland + Channel Isles + IoM = British Isles

There we go, all very simple isn’t it?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't northern ireland missing from that definition of British Isles? ;)

Timothy Belmont said...

Well done again O'Neill! Couldn't have explained it more succinctly myself.
Mind you, many Irish nationalists and BBC NI erroneously, or even ambiguously, confuse the term "Britain" as excluding NI. I strongly disagree with them; and they'd probably brand me a pedant. I concur with you.
Murray, true Scottish patriot that he is, would doubtless be indignant if he heard someone calling hem English! :-)

Tim

Anonymous said...

Just to be more complicated there is a further definition:

Great Britain (and associated islands)+ Northern Ireland + Isle of Man + Channel Islands make the British Islands (not Isles but Islands)

I think it is define the parts of the British Isles that are under the British Crown. Read it in an Oxford Law Dictionary once.

Anonymous said...

I prefer Islands of the North Atlantic. Get rid of British alltogether.

OwlingMad said...

Why does 'British Isles' leave out Northern Ireland?

O'Neill said...

Anonymous 1
Well spotted, never trust the BBC!

Anonymous 2
Unless you're advocating we invade Iceland, IONA is not technically correct.

owling mad
Why does 'British Isles' leave out Northern Ireland?

Only according to the BBC it does!

Timothy Belmont said...

Add Stenaline to the Black-List! A huge ad facing me today at Connwater hailed their cheap fares for students to "Britain". We know they allude to GB; nevertheless some manager in Stenaline clearly thinks that the Province is not a part of Britain as, of course, we are.