Hey hey, UK...

[AG-wolf]

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9607/mapmg.jpg

My brain hurts... and thinking about what I once considered the "UK" has suddenly gotten a lot more complicated after viewing this image lol

Is that an accurate picture?

and is this an accurate explaination:

so everyone's doing their own sh** when suddenly this guy called Egbert invents England. Englands pretty hot sh** and 300 years later Henry 2 becomes king of England and Ireland. Some time later Edward 1 takes over Wales like a suave mother fu***r only to be hammerfu***d by James number 6 who becomes king of Scotland Ireland and England all at once.

Then this bi*** Anne rocks up and turns England (including Wales) and Scotland into the kingdom of great britain. She's also the queen of Ireland. This means that England Scotland and Wales stop being countries.

Then George 3 goosesteps into Dublin and takes those fu***ng tatty pickers over and renames his sh** the united kingdom of great britain and ireland.

Then those southern Irish get pissed and go do their own sh** again while the north part of Ireland sticks with it so it's now the united kingdom of great britain and Ireland.

Also the french started calling it great britain when they took that sh** over with napoleon dynamite. as apposed to little britain which is now brittany in france.

It's so fu***ng simple.

Honestly, I just ran across this and nothing makes sense anymore :P

[Aeroracer]

i removed comment cos it was rubbish and badly written.

[Koleax]

Yeah, separate international football teams for Scotland and England, but not separate olympic teams.

Also, don't call someone from Northern Ireland "British," right?

[ACE-FLO]

I had an Henry the 8th earlier,

its now more like a 16th... couple more hours and it'll be all schmoked up :g

[KGB]

then labour party gets in and accepts all the trash thieves and scum that easten europe no longer wants living in their country or prisons and turns us into ungreat britain the newest member of the third world..im sure henery the 8th is turning in his grave...

In the BNP by any chance? :-

[Dark_Phantom_89]

AG-wolf - Think of it like the United States.

The United States is the collective term for all of the states. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are sort of like these "states" (though technically they are countries.)

The United Kingdom (or UK) is the collective term for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The British Isles refers to ALL islands and landmasses surrounding the United Kingdom but are not necessarily part of it (Southern Ireland is independent from the UK.)

As for the description, it's pretty accurate. The United Kingdom has a long and very interesting history.

[SaturnReturn]

The picture is entirely accurate, as far as I know. I saw something on youtube recently. An argument started in the comments about whether someone was speaking "American English", "American", or just "English". Then the argument turned into being about what people speak in England, and then people were arguing that meant nothing because people speak English in Scotland etc. Then they all started telling each other they were idiots because each one didn't know the different between England, UK, Britain, British Isles etc. I found it hilarious, because every single one of them was actually wrong in different ways.


then labour party gets in and accepts all the trash thieves and scum that easten europe no longer wants living in their country or prisons and turns us into ungreat britain the newest member of the third world..im sure henery the 8th is turning in his grave...

Try Ungrateful Britain. You could at least have attempted to answer the question before going on a rant like this and spreading your anti-Labour agenda and unwelcoming attitude. This isn't the first time either.

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

In the BNP by any chance? :-
Ha! It would seem she is...
I can't believe that disgusting display of blatant racism is allowed on this forum, when people have been banned for merely coming across as arrogant or condescending about a video game. :-

[SaturnReturn]

Given that you don't have access to Moderator or Admin functions, and therefore can't see what action has been taken, it's a bit much to say this is "allowed". As far as I'm aware, I've done all I can within my available Moderator functions short of deleting the post, which would be of no benefit.

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

Yeah, I guess it was a bit much considering the post was fairly recent, and I apologise for that. I stand by my extreme disapproval of the post though.

[Aeroracer]

mr smart alex and kgb...

no i am not a supporter of bnp i want them banned.i am conservative if you must ask.

I am not racialist. i dont have a problem with any culture or colour coming into england to live and work.but i do have a major issue with the small quantity of the the people from these groups.
what i am trying to say is that my govement dosnt only let in foriengners who want to work (which is good) but we also let in convicted liars and criminals who should never of been let in cos they break the law and contribute nothing. I say if you come to uk to ponce and steal go away but if you come to work i welcome you.

so anyway....back to main point ..my original post was badly written and came across as racialist but wasnt meant to be cos i have many friends from all parts of world
so i have deleted it and i apologise to those who were offened.
next time i drink wine i will be more careful on what i post.

Sorry:redface:

[ACE-FLO]

Me Grandpa came to these shores in the 50's, post WW2 labour draft. My dad was born in India and came here in his teens, raised a family and still works... Jasmin, the world is full of people, not scum... Eastern Europeans have had it hard over the past decade. We need to be tolerant of their situations, because for them, th UK, is still quite new and scary...

compassion and tolerance :)

[Aeroracer]

Ace...

i am tolerant..but i wont tolerate anyone coming to uk with no intention of trying to improve themselves.

and TBO from experience i feel our govement does discriminate against pakistanis as i know quite a few and they are always being hassled for visa and been given restrictions when all they want to do is work and improve themselves.
but on the other hand they allow other people from other countrys to enter and just do not challenge them and allow them to spnonge and break the law.
you come from london Ace so you must know this.

[Amorbis]

I'm going to fail and try and summarise it...



England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
England, Scotland and Wales are the countries on the island of Great Britain
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are on the island of Ireland
Only Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom
The islands of Great Britain and Ireland, plus all of the smaller surrounding islands, make up the British Isles

That 'accurate' explanation is all that accurate from my knowledge. You should think of the UK and its countries in a similar manner to the states of the USA, all are separate but their sovereignty is part of something bigger, in this case the UK.

[Aeroracer]

what about the commonwealth..the queen goes around every year or so to do mrs shakey hands with all those other countrys in our commonwealth

[brainbeat]

Technically, since this european union (globalisation efforts) the uk is actually considered a soverign state of europe,
an example of this is that our local electioms for each area have a code, scotland for eg is something like uk1, (cant remember the actuall codes for example like, these codes are on every ballot in european union from what i have heard,

So when u hear scotland saying they have got there own power they are right in the respect that they have taken aspects of control from the english government but europe makes the rules now. our governments in uk are now nothing more that local councils with no real powers except the right to misuse public trust. (scamming gits)

in 20 yrs time there will not be englishmen or scottishmen we will mearly be known as european, as they start to teach the kids what it means to be european rather than uk.

i think its all bull anyway, if your born in france, germany ect you can come uk no hassles but if you are not in our commonwealth then you got no chance legally

btw i am all for globalization if we were to be peacefull and not use 3rd world countries to make our own lives better, but that wont happen.

[KGB]

mr smart alex and kgb...
no i am not a supporter of bnp i want them banned.i am conservative if you must ask.

I didn't ask but i had a good guess. You seem to have an issue with the Labour Party, most people do at the moment. The problem with the Labour Party is that they are too much like the Tory Party.

[brainbeat]

i could never trust torys, not after they took my milk away lol. maggie thatcher to save money decided to not give free milk to infants in schools, i needed that milk i was/still is a runt and i blame her lol, plus if she didnt kill our industrys off it might of helped us recover better now, plus she signed us into euro without even reading the treaty, the mad cow

green party all the way even though i dont believe carbon creates warth in atmosphere (being only 0.6 percent of the atmosphere) i was taught about the carbon cycle thank you very much, its the fact we cut down all our trees which breaks the cycle not taxing people lol

[Aeroracer]

lol..so well put..

basically to sum up..no one likes being told what they can and cant do and no one likes having a vision and ideal stuffed down there throat.

as for EU in europe..i think most uk people think they are a waste of air and space and help to make the world more unpleasant because they are led to believe this by the papers and media.
Im not saying this is a fact but our media and papers paint a picture of the EU and europe as full of moronic buerocrats that waste time and money on things such as banning straight banannas banning grills from rolls royces banning the use of words taking health and safety to the extreme.
Our media never says anything good about european govement.

what i am trying to say is its really hard today to have an informed opinion as there is so much brain washing by the media no one really knows the truth anymore.

[KGB]

Yeah I was a milk Monitor at school. On the scrap heap when I was 7 years old :). Don't get me started on Thatcher.

[Koleax]

The islands of Great Britain and Ireland, plus all of the smaller surrounding islands, make up the British Isles.
Wait, so I can call people from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland "British?"

You should think of the UK and its countries in a similar manner to the states of the USA, all are separate but their sovereignty is part of something bigger, in this case the UK.
I really struggle to find ways that the states are sovereign and at the moment I cannot think of any. Most Americans don't recognize the difference between state and federal government at all. For example, during the last presidential election, a Republican candidate, Ron Paul, said he wanted to get rid of the department of education. My friend, who is a high school teacher, thought that meant he wanted to get rid of all publicly funded schools. Far from it, Ron Paul meant only the federal department of education, believing that state departments of education should be able function without federal interference. This distinction was lost on basically everybody.

[SaturnReturn]

The British Isles and Great Britain are different. Someone from Great Britain could be "British", but I reckon most would rather be called English, Welsh or Scottish etc. anyway. Really being British is just dependent on what a person identifies their own self as.

The British Isles are just called so because they are all the islands around Britain, which is the biggest of those islands. Call someone from the Republic of Ireland British and they more than likely won't be happy at all. Someone from Northern Ireland, being part of the UK, may identify with Britain and consider his/her self as a Brit, but it would be more accurate to call him/her Northern Irish, I guess, or perhaps just Irish, but again that might depend on his/her own preference. Some North Americans, as well as other nationalities, don't even know the difference between England and Scotland, which is probably the first hurdle to get around.

In short, the geography is easy to clear up, but a person's identity is not so easy. So just ask where they're from and then base it on that.

[ACE-FLO]

apologies to Jasmin, just re-read this thread and you make a fair point. Imigration policy in the UK is the subject of much controversy, and imo will continue to be so. This country doesn't have a skilled labour force, so we will continue to accept migrant workers from elsewhere... sounds fair, but when Imigration can't vet the difference between a farm hand and a criminal - we have a problem, and the lines which separate the two, are blurred through red tape...

grrrrt...:donut

[Aeroracer]

lol..

ask white london man what he is and he may say...english
ask pakistani english man what he is and he may say --british muslim
ask black london man what he is and he might say ..jamacan..even though he is like third generation english.
ask chiniman from london china town he will say he is austrailian even though he is really from japan..
ask granpa what he is and he may say im member of the british empire...

basically its pretty confusing..

ask american in london what he is and may say "wtf"

tbo for english people to call themselves english is quite hard cos in history we have had so many people come over to live we are pretty mixed now..

we got the....

romans
normans
vikings
oh and not forgetting the original english before the romans were migrants from iran.
then we got africans
europeans
middle east
we got it all.

so genitically speaking point there is no such thing as english..being english is a way of thinking an idea..kinda like roman empire that had like 5% italians in its empire but they alled shared similar thinking well until it all went pair shaped..


edit@to ace..


i agree
if you want to work come to uk
if you want to ponce and thieve go back to home uk dosnt want you cos we got our own thieves chavs and ponces already

[ACE-FLO]

yep, a better class of criminal exists within English society... the labour party lol

[Aeroracer]

@ace i heard the prime minister put in a claim for a new plastic eye ball cos he the other one popped out when he got drunk at a party and rolled away.

@subject...its confusing...i think people just say what they want to say..how best it describes them..

[ACE-FLO]

pffft... lol, old Gordon reminds me of a cross between a Japanese blow fish and a fat smelly bulldog... its the jowls, i'm telling ya! They make him look like that. Poor bastard lol

[Aeroracer]

should have david beckham as prime minister with the WAG political party behind him..
it would be good laugh...

[Amorbis]

...but I reckon most would rather be called English, Welsh or Scottish etc. anyway.

Some North Americans, as well as other nationalities, don't even know the difference between England and Scotland, which is probably the first hurdle to get around..

That's true about nationalities. I'd identify myself as English over British, but I'd still consider myself to be both. I can understand why it might be difficult to get your head around the UK, we are quite a diverse country thanks to being a Union. I think some languages don't even have a word for English, Scottish etc. We're all just British. :lol

[ACE-FLO]

Spot on, Amorbis. :+

[Koleax]

Okay, so there's the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, where Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, but then there's also the Commonwealth where she is also head of state of its member countries. Everyone in the Australian government takes an oath of loyalty to the House of Windsor, but then everyone shrugs and agrees that Australia is sovereign and separate from the UK, along with Canada, India, New Zealand and around ten other countries. But they're not all members of the EU, but are members of the WTO, IMF, World Bank, UN, and The United Federation of Planets.

[AG-wolf]

*reads entire thread*

I uh.... I.... yeah...

o_______°

I like Guinness! :beer

[OneAVGNFan]

Yeah, separate international football teams for Scotland and England, but not separate olympic teams.

WHY DO They play football/soccer as seperate national teams? :?:

National Pride?

[AG-wolf]

somehow akin to the Yankees and the Mets both being from New York, but just in different leagues? (I'll check for the resounding "no" responses when I wake up in 8 hours :P )

[Dark_Phantom_89]

They play as separate national teams because England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are considered to be countries rather than states.

[SaturnReturn]

I suspect the countries' separate football associations and teams existed before the modern Olympics did. They would no doubt have played each other as separate nations locally before taking part in any international competition and built up their own identities and rivalries as such. At some point the modern Olympics started and I guess they decided to enter a single team for all the nations, for whatever reason.

That's speculation on my part because I'm too lazy this morning to research it - but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the case. A bigger question for me would be why is Great Britain chosen as the name for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympics. Perhaps that was just too long, but United Kingdom would have been fine and more respectful to those in Northern Ireland. This is assuming they don't have their own team - again, I'm feeling lazy.

[Koleax]

Yeah, and the ISO 3166 code for the UK is "GB" for some reason, leading to such international standard abbreviations as "GBP" for pound sterling.

"UK" is not in use by any other country, so it really makes you wonder.