Just to add I noticed no one's told you what "Britain" means (it doesn't mean "England and Wales,") probably because it has no definite meaning.

It's used as a short version of "Great Britain" but as "Great Britain" is often used as short version of "UKoGBaNI" it's impossible to know exactly what someone means when they say "Britain" without context. If a British person used it I'd assume they meant the country, i.e. the UK, but you mileage may vary especially when used by foreigners.

P.S. "Britain" shouldn't be confused with it's homophone "Briton" which is the correct term for a citizen of the UK (along with British.)

"If you want to do some research into the whys and wherefores of the choice then ISO-3116 and ISO-4217 are where you want to look."

hahahahaha...good one!

You people are very confused and confusing. Despite all this information, I'm not sure I'm any more enlightened than I was at 11:37 PM yesterday. I will happily call it the UK (although I have to wonder how the Queen feels about it being called the United KINGdom).

Thanks all, for your input.

We are not confused (or not very). It is complicated. The wikipedia diagram which summarises the historical background gives a clue about something which has evolved in over 1000 years to the current situation.

What has complicated things is the emergence of countries like Ukraine which used to be part of the USSR and also wants to use the letters UK. Hence the anomaly in the country code for web addresses.

The Queen is quite used to it. She is Duke of Normandy after all. (And that is why were called Great Britain BTW - to differentiate between the big bit of Britain and the little bit - ie Brittany which was once part of the same Kingdom).

C-W She is also Duke of Lancaster.

Although to add to the confusion the lowest rank in the British Army normally "Private", in the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment is "Kingsman"

Pete R, with regards to the olimpics to the best of my knowledge NI is no longer allowed in the team GB, so it is a GB team.

I hate sport so I may have got this wrong but a friend of mine, her brother played hockey for GB at the Soul olimpics (sometime in the 80's they got gold), her son also plays hockey but is not allowed to compete in the GB team and plays for Ireland

cambe

Just for a bit of research watch the next commonwealth games. The last one the commentator was continually saying, "X representing Scotland, won a medal competing for England in the last commonwealth games"*

*substitute England, Wales, Scotland, NI, Australia and a couple of others.

I'm sure there were twins competing for different countries.

goddesstogo

Don't worry about the confusion - you only need to know this if you intend to take the citizenship test.

this is better than BBC America

<i>Pete R, with regards to the olimpics to the best of my knowledge NI is no longer allowed in the team GB, so it is a GB team.
</i>

Not true at all.

http://www.olympics.org.uk/contentpage.aspx?page=127

Anyone born in Northern Ireland is also eligible for Irish citizenship so can choose to represent the Republic at the Olympics. Your friend's son, assuming he's from NI, would be eligible for "Team GB" so it's not a case of not "being allowed" to play, maybe he opted to play for Ireland for other reasons?

Outside the Gaelic Games (which are all mad anyway) I believe that Only rugby union puts out an all-Ireland side.

In everything else you get to pick the left or right footed bit of Ireland to play for.

Incidentally; If you are from the Channel Islands (eg Matt Le Tissier and Graham Le Saux) you have a choice of representing any of the GB countries or France.

Our sporting rules drive johnny foreigner to distraction.

But 'cos we invented all games we get to make the rules (no changes to the rules of football, for example, are possible without agreement from the Rules Committee. Who sits on the Rules Committee? England, scotchland, Sheepshaggerland and Norn Iron).

It's also why we are the only country to field non nation states at football in official competition (although we will be playing a UK team in the olympic football in 2012. Mainly to annoy the jocks. We like doing that.)

There are a couple of other sports that spring to mind as having a combined Irish team, Rugby League for one. A bit of research indicates that Field Hockey is another. Apparently they only field a UK team at the Olympics which does put NI Hockey-ers in a quandary; although any UK citizen is eligible for the team how to prove they are international standard without making themselves ineligible by playing for the Irish team in non-Olympic years.

But, selection quirks aside, "Team GB" definitely includes NI.