Nationality - a poll for Brits

[ladyofastolat]

This is a poll just for people from Britain. Sorry, everyone else!

Having nothing pressing to do tonight, I decided to say "yes" when the BBC website asked me if I had a few minutes to evaluate the bit of it I was on. The survey went on to ask me what my nationality was, offering me a list of options that included "British" as well as "English," "Scottish", "Welsh" etc. It made me wonder how many people would select the country-specific answer, and how many would go for the general. I would imagine that English people are more likely to select "British" than Scottish people are, at any rate.

[Poll #1611063]

(This all reminds me of the chap who filled in our library user survey, and in the ethnic origin section, disdained the "white - English" option, and angrily wrote "I'm white Anglo-Saxon (not on list!)"

EDIT: Curses. I just accidentally voted as Pellinor, who is currently in a wet field in Yorkshire and nowhere near a computer. Since I seem to use the laptop for LJ a lot more than he does, perhaps I ought to change the LJ login manager to default to my login, not his.

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's my understanding. The United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed by the Acts of Union of 1707, but Ireland was kept subordinate. After the Act of Union with Ireland in 1800, the combined kingdom was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. And then of course most of the Irish buggered off in 1922, leaving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I have argued at work that JOLF UK should actually call itself JOLF GB since the Belfast office is actually part of the Irish firm. Nobody agreed with me.

There was never an equivalent 'Act of Union' (i.e. passed in both parliaments) with Wales since Wales was simply conquered by England. Welsh law still applied for some time after the conquest until Henry VIII formally annexed Wales. Someone who was Welsh was (at least constitutionally) English since Wales was part of England. This was clarified by the Wales and berwick Act of 1746 which made it clear that 'England' included Wales (and also Berwick-upon-Tweed). The constitutional status of Wales has been muddied by recent developments like the Welsh Assembly.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I wasn't as clear on the Welsh bit as I suppose I should be.

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the Northern Irish get upset about the fact that the UK's Olympic Team is called "Team GB" rather than "Team UK"? And why is that, anyway?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Talking of Berwick, I noticed when we were there a few months ago that although it's in England, its football team plays in the Scottish league, and that the regiment that used to be based there was a Scottish one. So Wales isn't the only complicated place around. ;-)