BBC Olympic Terminology

Trev

The Dumb One
I wonder why during the Olympic broadcasts, the BBC presenters constantly referred to "Great Britain and Northern Ireland". I wonder why they didn't use the term "Great Britain and England", "Great Britain and Wales." or even "Great Britain and the Isle of Wight." etc., it would have been equally ridiculous.
 
England, Wales and the Isle of Wight are part of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is not.
 
Then, if that is so, I owe the Beeb an apology. OOPS:oops: I'm going down the garden to eat worms.:frantic:
 
Makes you wonder why Northern Irish competitors decided to represent Ireland though. Time for a snack.
 
"United Kingdom" is an abbreviation of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", so I suppose they thought "United Kingdom" on its own wouldn't do.
 
England, Wales and the Isle of Wight are part of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is not.
I always thought that Great Britain was the largest of the British Isles..

Wikipedia to the rescue..

300px-British_Isles_Euler_diagram_15.svg.png
 
I can see that an "Ireland" team represents the whole island of Eire and Northern Ireland, but I still think the entity in the diagram titled "Ireland (state)" ought to be Eire.
 
I wonder why during the Olympic broadcasts, the BBC presenters constantly referred to "Great Britain and Northern Ireland"...

"United Kingdom" is an abbreviation of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", ...

Unfortunately the UK competitors have been referred to as "Team GB" (urgh!) during the Olympics. Perhaps someone at the BBC thought there was confusion between Team GB, the United Kingdom, and UK of GB & NI. I know I'm confused just writing it down! Easier to refer to them as just Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

See https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/bl...ference-between-uk-britain-and-british-isles/ for the definitive description.
 
What makes that definitive? Does it have some kind of legislative authority??
Having read the comments, they seem to have got it wrong several times and had to correct it, so I'd hardly call that definitive.

And for anyone who cares, the Isles of Scilly are technically part of England and therefore Great Britain.
The more minor Channel Islands not mentioned above are part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

I don't know about worms in the garden, but Trev certainly opened a can...
 
Before that diagram, I had never heard of the "British Islands". Not something in common currency, I think.
 
Of course it was the rise in sea level at the end of the last ice age which put the Great in Great Britain.
 
Before that diagram, I had never heard of the "British Islands". Not something in common currency, I think.
Is it the same as the British Isles?
Interesting that NI is classed as an island ... :confused:

Definitely a can of wrigglies :)
 
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