<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
True enough, but in most countries it's established custom to say England and mean the UK. Reckon it is because language usage has longer-term roots and does not always take account of newer constitutional developments right away. In Germany, it has become acceptable even in academic literature to write of "England" and mean the UK.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That is as maybe. It is the case in England that people often use the word English, when they mean British. This is particulalry galling to those of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, when, for example, competing at the Olympics for Great Britain, that they are referred to as English. It is incorrect and would be the same as me referring to all Germans as Hanoverians or Saxons[:0].
But that is neither here nor there. It is a point of fact that the flag shown on the NWC logo is that of the United Kingdom, first issued in 1801. The English flag, lest anyone has forgotten, looks like this:
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Following the ascent of James VI of Scotand to the English throne in 1603, the process of Union of England and Scotland was started and the original Union flag was issued:
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In 1801, following the Irish union, the flag of the United kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as carried by the British army, (there is no longer an English army), was amended to that shown on the NWC logo:
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The best that you can get is usually "Großbritannien" (Great Britain); "Vereinigtes Königreich" is rather unwieldy and hardly ever used.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
British would be a more accurate terminology, although in Northern Ireland this would not be strictly correct as the provinces are not part of Great Britain, but are part of the United Kindom of Great Britain and Ireland. There are places where people are still sensitive to these matters.
I am sure that the men of the Iniskilling regiment, the Scots greys, the Welsh fusiliers, the Gordon Highlanders etc would turn in their graves to learn that they were now considered to be English rather than British. Their national identity deleted at the stroke of a pen. Even today, with the amalgamation of regiments in the British army, their are considerable sensitivities that must be observed in order to ensure that the traditions and history of the regional regiments is maintained. This is particularly so for the Scottish regiments.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Nor do I think that Frenchmen often talk about "Le Royaume Uni" when there's "L'Angleterre" and "Grande-Bretagne" to choose from.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
The French are probably more precise in their terminology than even the British. For centuries they fought against the English, sometimes in alliance with the Scottish or Irish, but invariably against the English. This closer affinity with the other nations of the United Kingdom makes me suspect that they would be more correct in their terminology than others might be, particularly in relation to the Scottish and Irish.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">And even the British don't seem to speak of "Britain" quite so often as they used to ... of course "the UK" is a convenient shortcut to rather the same end. (And YES I do know that the UK includes (Northern) Ireland.)<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Indeed not. The Scottish will speak of Scotland, the Irish of Ireland and the Welsh of Wales, each of which has its own elected national assembly or parliament. The only nation of the United Kingdom that does not have this is England. Yes the government of the United Kingdom, with representatives from all nations, is based in England, but that is for the governance of the United Kingdom. England alone, of the nations, has no national assembly of its own. I raise this to explain why now more and more you will probably hear people of England referring to England rather than Britain, just as people of the other nations have always referred to their own nation.
I am interested by the use of the term England in Germany to represent the United Kingdom (UK), or Great Britain (GB). France is an old country and had dealings with the individual nations before the Union took place. Germany on the other hand is a comparatively new country and has only ever had dealings with the British. So I find it curious that the Germans should use the term English to designate all of us, having only ever dealt with us after the Union, at which point dealings would have been with the British government rather than the English.
Anyhow, aside from all that, the easiest way to tell the difference between the nations is not from their flags, but from their appearance. A Scotsman, for example, is of course, the most easily recognised:
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Regards
Mark
VII Corps (Saxon, neither German, nor European[;)])
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