England does not equal Britain

Just like it annoys me when media use “web” instead of “Internet” it also annoys me when people refer to the United Kingdom as England.

In this NZPA story on Pitcairn Island, the lead paragraph says “The Privy Council will decide if England has legal jurisdiction over the remote islands.”

Umm no they won’t. Well not unless they are about to overturn the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland.

In 1790 when Pitcairn was settled by the Bounty crew, the country then in existence was the “United Kingdom of Great Britain”. In 1800 it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and then in 1922 changed to be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Pedants may ask what about Wales? Well they were never merged/unified with England, they were conquered 🙂

Wales went from being a Kingdom to a Principality in 1284 through the Statute of Rhuddlan, and in 1535 the Laws in Wales Act 1535 annexed Wales to the legal system of England.

Anyway back to my main point, England does not exist as a sovereign country since 1707, well except in some sporting contests.