this is going to sound stuuuuuupid...

[Miss Sis]

Those who belong to the Commonwealth I would say no longer really think of themselves as British subjects, as we have our own passports etc, although the Queen is still the Head of State with a representative in those countries.

I do sometimes still think of coming from 'The Empire' though!

Perhaps that's my warped sense of time?!?!

 

[Smithy]

I do sometimes still think of coming from 'The Empire' though!

Perhaps that's my warped sense of time?!?!

I think it's got to do with the fact that those of us from NZ Miss Sis, come from a former colonial country that is much younger than Australia, Canada, or South Africa. As such a great amount of Kiwis are only a couple of generations old New Zealanders (I for one am only 2nd generation). It's changing now of course but the connection with the Mother Country is stronger than in older Commonwealth countries. My grandparents' generation on my mother's side were very much from that "Empire" mindset with family in NZ, India and Africa. You might be living in some far flung part of the Empire but by God you were still British.

I personally would not refer to myself as British, I'm a New Zealander, always have been and always will be.

 

[Warden]

Now I may be British and English, but more importantly I am a Yorkshire man.

You always know if a chap is from Yorkshire, because he will tell you in the first 3 sentences.

'Ello I am 'Arry, I'm from Yorkshire thy knows"

Pip pip

Harry

 

[LaMedicine]

La Medicine...

I hope this helps.

Alan

Alan, thanks.

Ah, but what I meant was, is it the British Embassy, or the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Ambassador of ....
You see, I was wondering aloud because the school I attended in Ankara Turkey was called The British Embassy Study Group (not the Study Group of the Embassy of UK...), sponsored by the British Embassy there, and the teachers sent student reports back to the Homeland Office, I think it was. Also, though we say the Japanese Embassy in daily conversation, the official name is the Embassy of Japan in (whatever country). For consulates, the name of the city where the consulate is located is added.
Um , so, I do suppose it officially is the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but whew, what a long name to annouonce at formal diplomatic functions.

 

[RedPop4]

It's been my understanding that Great Britain is the island on which we find England, Scotland and Wales.

 

[Alan Eardley]

La Medicine,

You are correct - the formal version is the longer one, as anyone who has looked at the nameplate beside the door of 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, DC will have noticed - but everyone calls it the British Embassy for short!

Just to complicate things, for historical reasons the US Ambassador to Britain is styled 'Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James's'. Intriguingly, this posting is regarded as the senior position in the US foreign service. Many holders of the position went on to be President.

Alan

Alan, thanks.

Ah, but what I meant was, is it the British Embassy, or the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Ambassador of ....
You see, I was wondering aloud because the school I attended in Ankara Turkey was called The British Embassy Study Group (not the Study Group of the Embassy of UK...), sponsored by the British Embassy there, and the teachers sent student reports back to the Homeland Office, I think it was. Also, though we say the Japanese Embassy in daily conversation, the official name is the Embassy of Japan in (whatever country). For consulates, the name of the city where the consulate is located is added.
Um , so, I do suppose it officially is the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but whew, what a long name to annouonce at formal diplomatic functions.

 

[Alan Eardley]

It's been my understanding that Great Britain is the island on which we find England, Scotland and Wales.

Well, not really, as there are offshore islands (some quite far away from 'the island of Great Britain') that are a part of Great Britain. The whole geographical unit is known as The British Isles. Great Britain is really a political entity.

It's hard to understand.

Alan

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Scotland, in itself, being mainland and about 1000 smaller, subsidiary islands (with the Caledonian canal, Scotland is literally cut in two, pretty much along the fault line.)

bk

 

[Hal]

Two unrelated points:

Edward is right that many Ulster Unionists do not like to be called Irish, and in the Venn Diagram given by one poster this is rightly called a contentious point. But until the "troubles" of the 1969-1990s period many such people were indeed proud to be Irish - Brian Faulkner, the last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, insisted that he was an Irishman and, like many other Unionists of his generation, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1937 the Irish Free State adopted a republican constitution (and the name of Eire - Ireland) without ever mentioning the word Republic. Britain recognised this while stating that it considered Eire to be still a member of the Commonwealth. As Edward states, Eire became the Republic of Ireland, outside the Commonwealth, in 1949. Britain replied in an Act of Parliament that this could not alter the status of Northern Ireland without the consent of its people, but the Act also stated that citizens of the Irish Republic were not considered to be foreign (thus they have always been eligible to vote in British elections).
The Diplomatic representatives of Commonwealth countries in other Commonwealth countries are High Commissioners, not Ambassadors, and this is equally true if those countries are republics or if Queen Elizabeth II is their Head of State. So, in 1949, the British High Commissioner in Dublin became the British Ambassador.

Hal

 

[Alan Eardley]

Hal

All very good points.

Alan

 

[SamMarlowPI]

fascinating...i'm glad i posted lol...learning a lot here...