I can totally understand the confusion about England/Great Britain/Scotland/Wales/etc. It has always confused me also. I have always thought that a “country” was the largest political division in the world until recently when I began to understand that the United Kingdom is composed of many countries. From Wikipedia:
The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.[12] The latter three have devolved administrations,[13] each with varying powers,[14][15] based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.[16] The UK has fourteen Overseas Territories,[17] including the disputed Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, and Indian Ocean Territory.
Now the above description doesn’t even mention Canada and Australia, which seem to be somewhat under their queen or something, which is way too much for me to keep track of. So if a News reporter is confused, I can believe it.
Yes, and The United Kingdom is not the same thing as Great Britain. One includes Northern Ireland and the other does not.
I understand the UK’s basic make up might be slightly confusing, although not really that complicated any more than the United States is made up of 50 different states but is one nation, but this guy is a well-paid financial expert, who had just returned from the UK and had visited Scotland and was unable to understand where he was.
Plus the point is this is not really about the UK at all, it’s about Ireland, the guy’s name is Irish, has he never read any Irish history at all? Did grandma not tell him any stories about the fight for independence in the oul’ country?
We’re not talking about the difference between Upper Basutuland and Lower Basutuland, this is Britain and Ireland we’re talking about, two nations that we might expect any basically educated American to know a bit about.