"England"= whole uk

[Cocklodger]

Aibu to get very annoyed with people thinking England is the entire uk?
So if you're British you're very clearly also English. Even to some british people (unreasonable but understandable when it's a foreigner saying it, although it's annoying being asked how things work in "England" when I've never lived there) perhaps I'm more aware As I'm not English but I find it very tiresome (perhaps English people wouldn't notice it as of course in that case it's accurate)
Aibu?

Really? Everyone I know uses Scotland wales etc etc...the only regular thing I here is the "Queen of England" but that's more in a "she is not our queen, so don't just call her The Queen"

While we're sort of on the subject, my ancestors weren't conquered in 1066 either, I'd appreciate it if history lessons stopped saying that.

She's "the Queen" even in the US; if you are referring to any other queen, you have to designate the country.

Hear

Ah now Seneca while that's sensible it just won't be doing with some people here 😅

Hate it. I'm Welsh & live in the SE & people just don't get it, or think I'll care less because I live here & obviously it's all that matters.

I understand foreigners getting muddled and I get that some people are just a bit thick and can't figure it out or are too dense to care. Fair enough.

However, references in textbooks to the English Army, or to England winning the world wars, I find irritating.

yy to the 'the north' thing.

I've seen people refer to the north of England as the north of the uk/Britain. That really grunds my gears.

SE is the code for Sweden. Maybe that's why people don't understand?

okay...

I did wonder why no one had mentioned Cornwall

Yy as someone in NI I find this infuriating!. More so when when eg stabbing happens inn London and its main news headline but similar event in Newcastle or Aberdeen not mentioned. Drives me absolutely nuts!!!

IloveBanff
Indeed, I meant Northern Ireland, but I'm glad I've thrown some irony into the thread.
My apologies, I was feeding DD and being used as a human climbing frame

So glad this has been brought up, has driven me nuts for years!

I moved to England from my native Scotland 20 years ago and have now given up trying to reason with people who, when clearly referring to the UK, say "England".

DH argues that sometimes it really is specifically England being referred to but he has conceded that it happens a lot in England whereas it was very rare in Scotland. The difference is when we talk about "this country" we usually mean the UK, unless we specify Scotland whereas English people do it the other way around - they mean England, unless they specifically want to include the rest of the U.K.

My firm belief is that as long as English people refer to the UK as England, we don't have a hope of getting the rest of the world to catch on.

But the Queen thing confuses me - even on The Crown there's a scene where Philip says "for god sakes you're the Queen of England!"
Obviously we can't give her the full title every time but I don't think I have ever heard her being addressed as the Queen of Britain. Is it just one of those things that almost everyone just doesn't know, like how the union flag is called just that, not the Union Jack, unless it's on a ship, iirc...

When I met my DH we were in a park in London which was teeming with foreign tourists and he remarked "we're probably the only English people here". He didn't make that mistake again (because of course he meant British) but that's the sort of comment I've heard for the last 20 years from, sadly, most English people. I've also been abroad, been mistaken for being English then told that being Scottish was "the same thing".

(This post makes me sound anti-English, I'm not - as I said, I married an Englishman! )

This greetings card sums it up for me. It's the words of a well-known speech in Shakespeare's Richard II - starts with 'This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle' and chunters on to end 'This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England'.

This England. Fitted into an outline matching Scotland, Wales and England. 'Cos presumably Scotland and Wales are part of 'this England'. Sheesh.

hudyerwheesht I'd never have guessed you were Scottish if you hadn't told us .

I know, whereyouleft, I think I should have mentioned it a bit more.

How many times have I heard being described as Eastern European by the English ( in the broader sense of the word).
And getting my country mixed up and been told it didn't matter, because I am from THAT corner of Europe anyway.
As a result, this thread just makes me snigger. As did this:
It's not hard to learn, ffs, and it's not like we haven't had a huge impact in history and on the world.
Yes, you did. Empires come and go. Get used to it. This thread is ridiculous. If you want to look at the reasons for the mix-up, thank the English who did such a marvellous job at suppressing the identities of the nations they colonised, including the Scots and the Welsh and their languages.
It's also about the promotion and the stereotypes, fostered even in the materials coming from the UK. British = English = Shakespeare, the Queen, Oscar Wild, Robert Stevenson, London and the Tower. Scotland and Wales are handled as separate entities from Britain. The Scots = tartans and bagpipes and the Welsh = sheep and Tom Jones ( even though he gets described as English really often).

Oscar Wilde was Irish

I thought that was the point clandestine was making