Talk:Terminology of the British Isles

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'Britain' as shorthand for 'United Kingdom' or 'Great Britain' - UK Government usage

The article currently states that the UK Government prefers to read 'Britain' as shorthand for 'Great Britain' rather than 'the United Kingdom'. I would suggest that doesn't fit with what the UK Government style guide says: "Use UK and United Kingdom in preference to Britain and British (UK business, UK foreign policy, ambassador and high commissioner). But British embassy, not UK embassy." It says of Great Britain: "Refers only to England, Scotland and Wales and does not include Northern Ireland." Stating a preference between two terms is not the same as labelling one incorrect, and the language for 'Great Britain' is, by contrast, unambiguous. Taking them together, if anything I would say the correct reading is that the UK Government sees 'Britain' as shorthand for 'the UK' (though not its preferred term). An admittedly far from comprehensive search through Google results for 'Britain' on GOV.UK suggests that 'Britain', where used, refers to the whole state and not to Great Britain alone, which is written out in full.

Official UK toponymic guidelines don't give an answer (rather remarkably) and leave the modern scope of 'Britain' ambiguous: "As an adjective, therefore, the term British is frequently inclusive of Northern Ireland; it is only the one specific nominal term “Great Britain”, which invariably excludes Northern Ireland." Overall, I think a fairer summary of the position would be something like: "The UK Government style guide recommends 'the UK' in preference to 'Britain', but ministers and officials periodically use both."

Eire

I've reverted the misleading claim that Eire is only ever used by the British government to name Ireland. Evidence is quite clear that it's used without the diacritic extensively in English by many other parties, including the Irish government. Even actively promoted by government officials. So the claim that "It was only ever used by the British government during its naming dispute" is extremely untrue. Canterbury Tail talk 16:33, 14 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]