Albion explained?

spiritfiend

As I understand it:
England is the island minus Wales and Scotland.
(Great) Britain is the whole main island.
United Kingdom is Britain plus (Northern) Ireland.

ZakoSoldier

What about when you you want to refer to all the lands that make up the "British Empire" such as places like India and all those places in Africa (when they were colonies). I know Great Britain does not include all those lands, according to English Literature teacher who threw the atlas at me. But I think your explanation is correct but I do believe the problem was what do certain laws and such pertain to.

foofly

As I understand it:
England is the island minus Wales and Scotland.
(Great) Britain is the whole main island.
United Kingdom is Britain plus (Northern) Ireland.

Correct, except United Kingdom also includes the Isle of Man and the Isles of Scilly.

What about when you you want to refer to all the lands that make up the "British Empire" such as places like India and all those places in Africa (when they were colonies). I know Great Britain does not include all those lands, according to English Literature teacher who threw the atlas at me. But I think your explanation is correct but I do believe the problem was what do certain laws and such pertain to.

The British Empire is now called the "The Commonwealth".

Jason

Test your knowledge of European geography.

Omnutia

There was a rather strange mistake made to a European financial report where Wales was missing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm

Trekkygeek

I live over here and normally refer to it as The U.K. (United Kingdom), which encompasses England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland plus the many smaller islands along the coastline. I say Northern Ireland because The U.K, only includes this smaller part of a much larger island (but that is a far greater and deeper discussion).
I had heard of "Albion" before, but this is an antiquated name and is hardly recognised by the vast majority of the population.
Its a complicated subject, almost as complicated as our history so I can only point you to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland

Trekkygeek

There was a rather strange mistake made to a European financial report where Wales was missing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm
Thats right, the image was on a leaflet and and the whole of Wales was missing. Monumental cock up and how everyone missed it was pretty silly really.

Drex

I hadn't heard of the term Albion before watching trinity blood and have never heard anyone I know use it.
Most people in the UK I've met tend to identify with the separate countries they are resident or born in; for example I would consider myself Scottish before British.

Luke Burrage

I think this is all you need to know:

littleidiot

Most people in the UK I've met tend to identify with the separate countries they are resident or born in; for exampleIwould consider myself Scottish before British.

My experience as follows,

1. Protestants in Scotland have a strong affinity to the term British and may reverse the above.
2. There are no Union Jacks at a Scotland game. There are plenty at England games which leads me to think that your average English person is more disposed to the idea of being
identified with the UK rather than England.
3. Most of us really don't care.

My patriotism extends no further than the football pitch. I only get irrational about it when football is concerned. But I do get teary when I hear the pipes on Buchanan Street.