Britain is the union of three nations; England, Wales and Scotland.
Wales governs itself in the Welsh Assembly. Scotland governs itself in the Scottish Parliament. England has no parliament of its own, but essentially rules over the other nations from the Palace of Westminster.
The UK is GB + Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a nation that ideally governs itself in the Northern Irish Assembly/Stormont, but in reality Westminster constantly needs to step in and break up the fighting toddlers, or impose civilisation upon the superstitious morons who are afraid of gays and love their guns.
So what you think of as Britain is in fact UKoGBaNI.
Oh and the Welsh, Scots, English and Irish all tend to hate each other just a little bit.
If you're still struggling, just check our sport teams out. We don't have a UKoGBaNI football team (except during the Olympics, possibly, when we inexplicably become Team GB, which, I think, inexplicably includes NI).
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 14:53,
Reply)
the sports teams are just as complicated as the political nomenclature
Team GB for example
(, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:08, Reply)
Nope, sorry.
Having mildly autonomous regional government does not a nation make. As I understand it, None of the devolved 'governments' have any real power when it comes to defense, raising taxes, the economy or foreign diplomacy. Calling them countries is a nice touch, but meaningless. Nobody in their right mind would consider Wales or Scotland as a sovereign nation.
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Tusk knows where you live, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:08,
Reply)
Nobody in their right mind, unless they were using or writing a dictionary.
Sorry, but a nation is a nebulous concept. A sovereign nation is a different concept to a nation.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:10,
Reply)
So we basically agree
that Britain is a nation.
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Tusk knows where you live, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:39,
Reply)
Kind of, in context, but I'm not sure you get it.
Think of UKoGBaNI as a kind of mini EU, but with more unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats and more centralised control.
Edited to add this from the bbc news site:
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 16:51,
Reply)
CGP Grey has quite a good video on this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10
although it was created when we were in the EU, so it's a little outdated.
(, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 19:56, Reply)
I don't think you get it.
I'm just unwilling to admit that my definition of a 'nation' is wrong.
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Tusk knows where you live, Thu 24 Jun 2021, 13:10,
Reply)
to get pedantic about it, Britain is a geographical term which excludes northern Ireland
The name of the political entity that has a seat on the security council for example is 'the UK'.
The term 'Britain' can usually be used interchangeably with 'the UK' however. Yes it is stupid
(, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:23, Reply)
To be even more pedantic: the geographical term is Great Britain.
But yes, you are correct. Anyone refering to 'Britain' probably means the UK, in the same way that non north American people refering to 'football' are referring to association football, and not, for example, the Eton wall game.
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Tusk knows where you live, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 15:37,
Reply)
Like how 'America' is understood to be that one country in the two American continents.
The one made up of 50 'states' (NB, not all states, Kentucky is a commonwealth, etc,) plus a number of 'territories,' any of which could be argued is a nation.
And that's not even considering the various native American 'nations' which exist within the USA.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 17:03,
Reply)
a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language
so very much nations.
Countries on the other hand...
Do you know many Scots?
(, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 16:59, Reply)
"Inexplicably includes NI"
Should be "excludes NI" sort of, kind of ...
Anyone from NI can compete as Ireland if they want.
Those NI folk who want to compete as Ireland tend to see themselves as Irish first. Those NI folk who want to compete as GB tend to see themselves as British first.
So NI isn't represented at the Olympics at all, in effect.
Oversimplifying, of course.
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Invisible Wizard - 12th Level Errorer, Wed 23 Jun 2021, 16:27,
Reply)