Here is one we received today:
“I have just had a look at your website and found it to be very useful. However, for the majority of us in the UK I would have thought that using Britain would have been better than using England and other parts of the British Isles. We’re all supposed to be part of the UK.”
The visitor today is referring to one of the four pages we have written about Pancake Day:
- Shrove Tuesday in the UK
- Pancake Day around the World
- Pancake Day in England
- How to make a pancake.
I agree that England is a country in Great Britain and is also a country in the UK but it is also a country full stop and I feel we should not forget that. (We are also part of Europe, but we don’t write about our life in Europe.)
When I started writing our Project Britain pages with the students, they wanted to write about their country, Great Britain and the UK. Each one means something different and it is important that the terms are used correctly.
On our ‘Pancake in England’ page we have only written about the pancake customs and traditions which have taken place in England. It is therefore correct to use the title ‘Pancake Day in England’. If we had instead chosen the title ‘Pancake Day in Britain’ or ‘Pancake Day on UK’ we would have been wrong, because then we would have given our visitors the impression the England is Britain or England is the UK, which of course it is not.
We are proud of the fact that our students know the difference between England, Scotland, Wales, Great Britain, the UK and the British Isles.
Out of interest, would it be ok for a school in Wales to write about life in Wales or a school in Scotland to write about life in Scotland?
Please let us write sometimes about England.
Further reading (all on our website)
What is the difference between UK, England, Great Britain (GB) and British Isles?
What are the National identities of the people living in Britain?
Why does England dominate the UK?
British or English? Read other people’s views
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11 comments:
This is a brilliant web site and congratulations on all your work . For the majority of us in England we do occassionally like to be refered to as England! Wales can be Wales Scotland can be Scotland and Ireland can be Ireland but whenever anything is referred to as England ….SOMEBODY will take umbridge. I am proud to be English and also British and don’t mind any reference to any part of these isles..including ENGLAND !
I agree that this is indeed a wonderful site – very interesting. Regarding the England/UK/Britain/Europe issue, it never ceases to amaze me how, no matter what you do, somebody will be offended, or at least PRETEND to be!
Well done it is good to be reminded that we are english,but still citizens of Great Britain
You can't please all the people all of the time & some people, unfortunately, are just looking for reasons to be offended. It's a brilliant site, with something for all ages. Thank you for it.
Well done for sticking up for England.
As you said,these kind of comments attacking English identity are ONLY made against England.More and more people are now recognising that they are English and the post colonial ‘Brit’ identity is fading fast.
England is the oldest nation in Europe having been founded by King Athelstan in 937 after the defeat of England’s enemies at Brunanburh.
We have a perfect right to honour our ancient name by describing ourselves with pride as English.
The detractors are simply jealous.
May I add my congratulations to you for your wonderful and accurate website. England is one of the countries that comprises Great Britain and it is discriminatory not to afford England the same recognition and respect that the other countries of Britain, Wales and Scotland rightly expect.
Scilla
I don’t know why anyone would feel they can speak for the majority of people in England, as your emailer did.
For my part, I live in England. Britain only refers to the whole of the Britain and not my country specifically.
English is my nationality, British is my political identity, as far as passports etc, go. English first, British second, European equal to English. I guess that puts British last. Is there any wonder though, post-devolution?
Britain is a union of countries. It’s OK to be specific. Recently I have seen articles on-line referring to “Britain” and “Scotland” as though they are separate entities! England alone is NOT Britain. To say that England must not be mentioned is discriminatory and leads to much confusion. Please keep up the good work.
England is the oldest nation in Europe – and was actually united in 829AD when King Eanred of Northumbria accepted the overlordship of King Egbert of Wessex.
And well done for making the distinction – one of the reasons so many Scots, Welsh and Irish get upset about England is that “Britain” is used interchangeably with “England” even though they are separate.
I keep a large collection of St. George history and was asked by a teacher for some info/ideas, didn’t use it – I just gave them a link to your site – well done, well done! May I just say to anyone that this site may offend; grow up, if it referred to any nation but England – you would be racist !
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