indiana wrote:

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Yes, I know you were jesting, Jon 

I'd say that the casual British / English interchanging is though something that riles the vast majority of the Scottish population ( also no doubt other non English parts of the UK ) whether nationalist leaning or not. It is verrry annoying.

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 I can imagine and sympathise. For what it is worth , I definitely cheered on Rangers tonight , i always liked them in the days of Gazza and terry Butcher - and said boyfriend is a Celtic fan as well (hes also a protestant so possibly the only blue Celtic fan in the world!). A looong story ! 

Coup Droit wrote:

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Being very much a southerner, and seriously not bothered about PC things, I used to be very much of the camp '...English - oh, right, sorry ... but you know what I mean'

BUT about 15 years ago I realised I was being lazy, and it was wrong. I needed to make an effort.

Now, I still occasionally slip up - it's hard for sporting events, I find, because you've got England football, and cricket, say, but then you're cheering the athletics on the Olympics and you find you're thinking of England again.

But that just means I have to try harder !

(And I'm sure you didn't necessarily mean it that way, Jon, it was just for info, but I do find the 'but I know a Scottish person' argument disingenuous - it's like the 'I'm not racist - I have a black friend' preposterous statement)

NB I was always amazed how picky about it the French were - if someone slipped and called Andy Murray 'English', there would instantly be two or three people jumping down his/her throat with 'Scottish' or 'British'.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 6th of May 2022 07:33:03 AM

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 I defintely didnt mean it that way ! I love Scotland and the people and hadnt thought like that at all. 

one thing though - and this is not aimed at Scotland- but the whole cancel culture where even comedians cant make a joke or gentle poke at people can go too far. All my best jokes in the day where of the Englishmen, Scottish men and Irish men variety and its ruined my career in comedy no end! 

I put it down to the UK not being a proper country, more a loose amalgam of countries.

The concept of "country" (and therefore "nationality") doesn't really work for the UK. We are "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", but as a nationality "UKish" or "UKian" doesn't work and I don't know what the real word is for "someone from the UK". "British" is sort of odd, because it isn't "Great British", and it is not clear which bits of Great Britain are in Britain (although it is obviously clear that NI isn't), and English, Welsh and Scots are too insular, as they each exclude the other two. But all of these things claim to be countries, with their own nationalities.

Compound that by having "national" teams that represent the bits that they want, so people can be team mates in some "internationals" and opponents in others. It is no wonder that there is confusion.

... and then add in the local "nationalists" like Cornwall and Yorkshire, and you get a real mess.

Anecdote alert: I was at a Walmart checkout, and got the usual "Gee - that is a cute accent, where are you guys from?". Answer: "England". The response: "Is that near London?"

Billy takes the 1st set against Aidan 6-2. Thought it would be tighter than that.

christ wrote:

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I put it down to the UK not being a proper country, more a loose amalgam of countries.

The concept of "country" (and therefore "nationality") doesn't really work for the UK. We are "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", but as a nationality "UKish" or "UKian" doesn't work and I don't know what the real word is for "someone from the UK". "British" is sort of odd, because it isn't "Great British", and it is not clear which bits of Great Britain are in Britain (although it is obviously clear that NI isn't), and English, Welsh and Scots are too insular, as they each exclude the other two. But all of these things claim to be countries, with their own nationalities.

Compound that by having "national" teams that represent the bits that they want, so people can be team mates in some "internationals" and opponents in others. It is no wonder that there is confusion.

... and then add in the local "nationalists" like Cornwall and Yorkshire, and you get a real mess.

Anecdote alert: I was at a Walmart checkout, and got the usual "Gee - that is a cute accent, where are you guys from?". Answer: "England". The response: "Is that near London?"

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 That 's all essentialy true. BUT getting back to the original point - Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are NOT English or part of England. That concept is not so difficult; leaving anything else I'm afraid a rather lazy excuse. Thank you to such as CD who realise this.

When folk from these islands are so lax, it is little wonder that folk from abroad get it so often wrong. And yes add in the GB, UK, British stuff and it is rather more understandable with them, and more genuine ignorance / confusion.

.Just get it right folk, thank you.

As a bit of an aside my real favourite re Americans' confusion was when this American woman stopped me at a corner in central Edinburgh

From her position there was a fine view down to the Firth of Forth and on the other side rising hills in Fife.

"Is that Holland?" she asked. Now I realise that I could have got into a discussion as to whether she specifically meant the region of Holland as opposed to the nation of the Netherlands ( or indeed suggested that it was too hilly ) but I a bit meekly merely gave her the Fife bit and walked on.

Amusing to watch Leandro, who's always been a bit of a golden-boy-drama-queen - he's having a real melt-down there, being beaten by Giles Hussey is NOT amusing, apparently

Mind you he'll start swinging soon and then it could go any which way