A question about “country”

[Osc]

Edward and I have just been discussing what it means when UK politicians use the word “country”. When Theresa May said “the country I love”, where did she mean? We heard someone on Sky news say “this great country” - where did he mean? Do they mean Great Britain. But that is three countries, England, Scotland and Wales. The UK is not a country. So do they mean England? If so, that kind of feeds into the impression that for many people, Brexit is about being English, Scotland and Wales are not important and NI doesn’t even come into it. I’ve been googling and all I can find is that the UK is a political entity.

[saundra]

That's a very complicated question osc
Sorry when I think of the UK
I just think of it as one unit
Not separate countries perhaps in this day and age we should have our own independence from each other in sure in years to come we all will

[Workingman]

Cracking question, Osc.

Is there an answer?

I have always considered myself as "British", a Brit, as the rest of the world sees us, meaning that English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish are equal. Being UKish is abstract, it does not really exist. People overseas generally ask me if I am British, and I am more than comfortable with that.

However, I am a Yorkshireman from Leeds, first, and together they take me above all other definitions of my ish ness.

[Kaz]

I think of myself as British now, rather than English. I'm far more Celtic than English anyway

[Workingman]

If we go back far enough I am a Brigante from Brigantia... I quite like that.

We are a sort of Celtic Irish - Alpine - Gallic mix. Barstewards in the modern lexicon. Apt.

[AliasAggers]

I consider myself to be English, born and bred here, and proud of it.

Great Britain, as we all know, at present is England, Scotland, Wales & N.Ireland. and the time may come when
that collection might start to disintegrate. But, as we used to sing, "There'll Always Be An England".

[Workingman]

Yes, John, but it was a patriotic song at the run up to WWII and made famous by Vera Lynn when we had an Empire. Those were different times, we are not now at war.

We, some of us as former enemies, now share common goals. We want what is best for all of us without some nationalistic superiority complex getting in the way.

The past is the past and we should let it go. There will "Always be an England" but not one of the Empirical past: that is long gone.

[TheOstrich]

In the context of her resignation speech, I'm sure Theresa May meant the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and if I use the word "country" in its geopolitical sense, that's what I think of.

I'm English by matter of birth, but if we had moved to Stranraer (which was on the cards at one point), would that have made me Scottish? If it had happened, I probably would then have identified as "Scottish". As it is, I live in Dorset, speak Daarzet, and if you should ask me, I would identify primarily as a Dorset citizen, as that's now my home. The red, white and gold county flag, the St. Wite's Cross, is flown prominently both on council buildings and privately, and that means far more to me than the Cross of St. George, to be honest. It's no different from WM's "Yorkshireman first" concept.

As far as "pride" is concerned, that's a whole different ballgame. I have no "pride" in Great Britain or the UK or England or however you want to define it. The way politicians have run this country over the last 25 years and the way society has evolved in that time have long since put paid to that ideal.

Brexit is not about being English or whatever, Osc, it's about getting out of a bureaucratic entity that, just to take the latest example, doesn't even allow you to rescue your own steel industry (and over 25,000 jobs) from collapse because it would contravene "EU State Aid Rules". Sooner we're out, the better, IMHO.

[medsec222]

Ossie, I was shocked when I learned that even if the Government wanted to step in with financial aid and rescue the steel industry, it is prevented from doing so by EU rules. What a nonsense when we read about people being disgruntled when they think they will be unable to move as freely as they would like from country to county. What does that really count for when jobs and livelihoods go to the wall and the Government can do nothing but watch in slow motion because they are governed by rules set by others. That's the real price of belonging to the EU and a telling example of our loss of Sovereignty.

Osc, I think Therersa's May's 'love my country' remark was a figure speech and I can't image that she meant England on its own. We are the UK, united we stand, divided we fall, and long may it remain so, although I fear it may not always be the case.

[cromwell]

Osc, I think Theresa May was probably referring to the UK as a whole but who knows?
I see myself as English. I've no time for regionalism at all. If Wales can have a parliament and Scotland and Northern Ireland then we can have one as well, not some half baked "regional assembly" filled with z-list politicians.