Are the British the only people who can’t define their own country?

I’m not referring to the age-old habit of the English to say England when they mean Britain. (A habit that has irritated us Welsh and Scots for decades. But we won’t riot, unlike Muslim protestors about insensitive cartoons. Being British we’ll just give you a very threatening scowl.)

Do you know the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom? What about the British Isles?

No, they’re not the same. A quick straw poll reveals complete ignorance.

Why the difficulty? Is Britain’s history so complicated that we’ve can’t cope with the various names that have attached to our nation? Do the French have it easy by comparison?

Great Britain first. It simply means England, Scotland and Wales.

United Kingdom? Great Britain plus Northern Ireland.

British Isles? A purely geographical title, meaning Great Britain, the island of Ireland and their islands.

Oddly, the tricky one is ‘Britain’. Does it mean Great Britain or the United Kingdom? It depends on the context. If it means the state, it presumably means the UK. But other contexts may mean otherwise.

Devolution has made things still more complicated. The UK Government is increasingly becoming England’s government as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland go their own way. Last week’s vote by the UK House of Commons to ban smoking in pubs only applies to England. We should celebrate this diversity. A country that can’t define itself is something to be cherished.