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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1997-08 > 0872229441


From: Iain Kerr <>
Subject: Re: The Stone and the Coronation
Date: 22 Aug 97 01:57:21 EDT


>> Is it PC (politically correct) to use "Britain" when you mean "England,
Scotland & Wales" or just one of these - England or Scotland or Wales? Is a
Scotsman a Brit??
Recently, I was surprised that AT&T in their "International One-Rate Plan" in
which you have pick a country to get their discount in, that they consider "UK"
as a country.... <<

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the correct name of
the current political entity known as the United Kingdom. United Kingdom is the
abbreviated form of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or,
before the formation of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) in
1922, of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The main components of the
United Kingdom are England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The United
Kingdom does not include the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, which are
direct dependencies of the British crown.

England (from the Latin Anglia), is a political division of the islands of Great
Britain (or British Isles), constituting, with Wales, an original division of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. England occupies all
of the island east of Wales and south of Scotland, another division of the
United Kingdom.

The principality of Wales, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, forming administratively a part of England and occupying a
broad peninsula on the western side of the island of Great Britain. Wales also
includes the island of Anglesey, which is separated from the mainland by the
narrow Menai Strait.

Scotland (from the Latin Scotia) is the administrative division of the United
Kingdom, occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland
is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean; on the east by the North Sea; on
the southeast by England; on the south by Solway Firth, which partly separates
it from England, and by the Irish Sea; and on the west by North Channel, which
separates it from Ireland, and by the Atlantic Ocean. As a geopolitical entity
Scotland includes 186 nearby islands, a majority of which are contained in three
groups; namely, the Hebrides, also known as the Western Islands, situated off
the western coast; the Orkney Islands, situated off the north-eastern coast; and
the Shetland Islands, situated northeast of the Orkney Islands. The largest of
the other islands is Arran. Scotland has its own legal system, with laws
markedly different from those enforced in England,
Wales and Ireland. Scotland has its own education system which differs from
(and is considered by many to be better than) that used in England and Wales.

Northern Ireland, an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, is situated in the north-eastern portion of the island of
Ireland. Northern Ireland is bounded on the north and northeast by the North
Channel, on the southeast by the Irish Sea, and on the south and west by the
Republic of Ireland. It includes Rathlin Island in the North Channel and several
smaller offshore islands. Northern Ireland is also familiarly and incorrectly
known as Ulster, because it comprises six of the nine counties that constituted
Ulster one of the the four provinces of Ireland.

The Channel Islands are a group of small islands, dependencies of the
British crown, in the English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. The
principal islands of the group include Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark. The
islands are governed by representatives of the British monarch, and each has a
constitution and elected government. Since the 16th century, Sark has been ruled
as a fief of a hereditary Seigneur or Dame who is not elected. The islands
control their own taxes.

The Isle of Man is an island and part of Great Britain, located in the
Irish Sea, about midway between the coasts of Northern Ireland and England. It
includes the Calf of Man, a rocky islet off the south-western coast.

Yours aye, Iain

in Windsor, Berkshire
WWW site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/iain_kerr
- originated at 21-Aug-1997, 19:47:45 GMT

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