Is Mumsnet an English forum?

[Purpleturtle43]

Seems like pretty much every poster and responder assumes everyone on here is from England.

When asking questions regarding schools, health care, tenancy etc surely it would be useful to say what country you live in since the rules and laws are different all over the UK/world.

Add to this Ocado recommendations are useless outside of England and a little bit of Wales!

I thought it was mostly UK

It's British, yes

It's mostly UK, but is it surprising that the majority of people are talking about England when it has roughly ten times the population of Scotland?

Yes, if you don't specify, it's assumed UK/England.
If you do specify, part of the posters ignore it and answer about UK/England anyway.
If you do specify at later post then the opening one, the real fun starts as noone will know which answer reflects it.

Nothing to do with it, just be aware when you read responses.

Many forums have some default, in my country (distinctive language) it is if not specified, it is assumed the capital city and surrounding region.

Is it?

Yes, it’s a British website. so that’s why it’s assumed that’s where people are talking about if hey don’t say otherwise.

I don't think we need a blanket rule for the terminally dense. If you're in one of the smaller devolved nations, or abroad, or one of the islands that are British Overseas Territory, or Antarctica, and it's relevant to your post, you should put it. Half the time though when people ask what country someone lives in, they've picked up on wording differences in the OP and are just being nosey and it's totally irrelevant to the post.

But Britain is not just England.

It's an English language forum. There are people from all over the world.

I definitely agree that posters should give some indication of where they are to prevent any irrelevant advice.

I posted during Covid -we lived in France at the time (yes I did specify this) and I was sternly reprimanded by one poster who felt I shouldn't have an opinion as I wasn't a UK tax payer!

Not surprising, but a bit ignorant.

Why ignorant?

People don't assume they are talking about Britain, they assume they are talking about England.

Yes, it's an English forum. Probably referred to by management as British, but is mainly English.
I remember a Scottish thread where MN management intervened to point out the poster was based in Scotland and the situation was x,y,z. That doesn't happen on English threads.

Yes, by origin and by the vast majority of posters

If not in the UK you need to say that if it affects what you're posting

What about the rest of the UK?

So it's a British Website but everyone should assume we are talking about England unless stated otherwise? 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣

You said British, now you're saying UK.

Do you think they're the same thing?

No-one seems to want to state what country they're in if it's not England.

Apparently it's too 'outing' 🤣

It annoys me too OP, but it's just a reflection of real life unfortunately. It's not worse here than anywhere else.

English people are the biggest section of the UK population and their news etc is so England centric that a large proportion of them don't even seem to know that the other home nations have different cultures/education/legal systems/senses of humour etc etc. They use the words England and Britain and the UK interchangeably, as if they're all the same thing.

The news media feeds into this, so an English person would need to go out of their way to find out about the separate legal system in Scotland for example, whereas a Scottish person is constantly fed information about the English legal system because the media talk about it as the "standard" one.

Until the media changes and stops othering the smaller home nations, this won't change. An example is a recent story about Prince William visiting the Isle of Mull. The headline on the UK bit of the BBC was "William spends anniversary on Scottish island." You would never ever see a headline saying "William spends anniversary on English island." They would say "William spends anniversary on the Isle of Wight." This is because the media assumes England is the country they are broadcasting to, because it's the majority. So English readers can't possibly be expected to know where Mull is, but Scottish readers are expected to know where the Isle of Wight is, because England is more important (to the BBC).

There are many English people who are interested enough in the other home nations to find out some information about them, and I love these people! But most just swallow up what they're fed by the media and assume that NI, Wales and Scotland are carbon copies of England.

I’ve always assumed British, heavily weighted to England. I’m originally from another country. I take it OP you are from Scotland, Wales or NI?

The default seems to be UK but most posters realise that questions about schools,laws and customs depend on locality I think.

Are you American? To me only Americans say British, UK peeps will specify the country to which they belong

The assumption that everyone would be talking about England on a 'British Website' unless otherwise stated.

Yes, I'm Scottish.