I think of my "country" as being the UK, but my nation is Scotland. It has a separate law system, it has its own currency providers and other factors that differentiate it from other parts of the UK but for all practical purposes (and especially when I am abroad) I am British. When matches during the Six Nations cup are being held down the road at Murrayfield stadium, it is definitely a Scottish team that the locals will support even if the other side are British (well OK we will cheer on the French if they are beating the English but that's just a spinal reflex).
What he said. Strictly, legally, I am a British Citizen - it says so here on my passport - by birth, but in the event of Scottish independence I reckon I have a pretty strong case to acquire dual nationality (Scottish by birth and by father, plus British or English or whatever the successor state should be called through residence/naturalisation). (And, just to muddy the water further, I already had a weak case for South African citizenship through my late mother having been an SA citizen at the time I was born, though I was never registered as such and I suspect any such rights of citizenship have long since faded.)
The question, though, isn't a legal one regarding citizenship (are we citizens, yet, BTW? used to be subjects), it's asking you how you identify yourself. Like I said, if someone round here were asked their nationality by someone making a genuine enquiry, the answer they'd give would be "Scottish". Except, of course for the English, Welsh, etc. who also live round here. :)
"British" (like European, which isn't one of the options here) is an umbrella identity. It is true without being precise, is how I would see it. (NB, there are a lot of people here who would say they were Scottish first, then European, and British third - in a lot of quarters there's resistance to British because of the traditional tendency of the English to use "English" and "British" as synonyms.
None of which has anything to do with what Gov.UK would like you to put on forms. :)
I had a discussion with a guy working in Burger King about this - we finally decided that English was your nationality (or other depending on where you were brought up) and British was what it said on your passport.
It depends on context. Within the UK, I live in England, but used to live in Wales. Outside it, I'm from the UK. I'm properly British, in that my ancestry is a mix -- Welsh and English (I sometimes say 'Anglo-Welsh' when explaining about my academic interests). Sometimes, when dealing with the Southern and =Northern mafias, I'm a Mercian. We Midlanders get forgotten far too often. Even more technically, while I've heard people claim that British and English are synonyms, the original application of 'British' appertained to the peoples living there in the late Iron Age, who were predominantly p-Celts. So in that sense, the Welsh are more British than the English. The Scots, on the other hand, started out as Irish, apart from anyone of Pictish descent, who is arguably a p-Celt, but possibly something non-Celtic. Then we arrive at the Anglo-Saxons( North Germanic, but not specifically/exclusively 'German' and in some ways more Dutch/Danish), the vikings (who really are Scandinavian) and the Normans (mixed Frankish [Germanic] and Scandinavian....) We are really a most mongrel people. Oh, and come what may, I am not a 'Brit'. I hate that word, and reserve the right to refer to any trans-Atlantic person calling me it as a d*mned colonial.
For me that was a trade off. I was allowed to call them "yanks" if they could call me "brit." I tried to get them to shift to "limey" but it didn't stick...
I assume the whole point of this is the confusion between country and nation. Let's no go over into the corner where the scary people are bringing citizenship into the mix.
Is this a question of definitions, perchance? I can think of at least two ways to interpret country: that of the nation-state, and that of the political division as currently widely applied to the constituent countries of the UKoGBaNI.
"United Kingdom" is the accepted short form of the UKoGBaNI. Therefore, I want to tick three boxes: England, UK and UKoGBaNI.
And all the world over, each nation's the same They've simply no notion of playing the game They argue with umpires, they cheer when they've won And they practice beforehand, which ruins the fun!
When creating a classification system of any sort one generally goes from the general to the specific. The level of specific depends on how useful, understood or acceptable the classification is. To say that one is 'British' is quite useful, because it clearly indications that one isn't American for example. However, this is still of limited value, since British isn't the most specific possible category. Consequently, to say 'English' not only provides further information, because to be English means one is automatically British you're providing greater information more effectively.
I too am puzzled by the UK reference, since that doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything.
I don't know what being "English" means, really. I live in England, but my dad's Welsh and most of my family came from Scotland or Ireland. I call myself British because of that, and also because I got into the habit when I was teaching in Germany because too many folks thought England covers the whole lot. One too many drunken discussions in the pub, one memorable one with a friend doing diagrams on the table in spilt beer. Its not a question I get asked often day to day but if I've got to claim a nationality online, I'm a Brit. Will occasionally proudly claim to be Northern (meaning England and referring to the North/South divide), which kind of scuppers my "don't think of myself as English" thing but consistency is the hobbit of small minds :>
I was born in England and live in England, so I consider myself as English but give 'British' or 'UK' on official documents where English isn't accepted.
I was born in England but my heritage is so mixed (English, Irish and Welsh - oh and a bit of French back somewhere, but that's getting too complicated!) that to call myself anything other than 'British' smacks of jingoism.
The Doctor: "I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot."
The nation-state of which I am a citizen is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. My nationality is British. I am descended from Irish people who settled in north-west England. And I live in East Anglia. Funny old world, isn't it?
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"British" (like European, which isn't one of the options here) is an umbrella identity. It is true without being precise, is how I would see it. (NB, there are a lot of people here who would say they were Scottish first, then European, and British third - in a lot of quarters there's resistance to British because of the traditional tendency of the English to use "English" and "British" as synonyms.
None of which has anything to do with what Gov.UK would like you to put on forms. :)
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The Scots, on the other hand, started out as Irish, apart from anyone of Pictish descent, who is arguably a p-Celt, but possibly something non-Celtic. Then we arrive at the Anglo-Saxons( North Germanic, but not specifically/exclusively 'German' and in some ways more Dutch/Danish), the vikings (who really are Scandinavian) and the Normans (mixed Frankish [Germanic] and Scandinavian....)
We are really a most mongrel people.
Oh, and come what may, I am not a 'Brit'. I hate that word, and reserve the right to refer to any trans-Atlantic person calling me it as a d*mned colonial.
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[ ] Subject
[x] Citizen
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Also an SF fan.
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I don't know that you can say your nationality is UK - it doesn't exactly fit into a sentence - eg I am UK doesn't make sense.
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"United Kingdom" is the accepted short form of the UKoGBaNI. Therefore, I want to tick three boxes: England, UK and UKoGBaNI.
I wouldn't give Tuppence for All of the Rest
Re: I wouldn't give Tuppence for All of the Rest
And all the world over, each nation's the same
They've simply no notion of playing the game
They argue with umpires, they cheer when they've won
And they practice beforehand, which ruins the fun!
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I too am puzzled by the UK reference, since that doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything.
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English by the Grace of God!
;-)
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The nation-state of which I am a citizen is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. My nationality is British. I am descended from Irish people who settled in north-west England. And I live in East Anglia. Funny old world, isn't it?