is England a country, or is GB a country or is UK a country?

Question

I have looked at previous answers to similar questions and still note some confusion. Most say that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are countries in the UK, but Wales, as far as I know is a principality, not a country, hence in legal terms we speak of England and Wales. I am curious as my passport claims I come from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and NI, yet I am classed as a British Citizen. If England is truly a country, why cant I get an English passport (or a Scotsman get a Scottish passport?)
Hence this leads me on to the question, what is the difference between a "nation" and a "country", is England a country but not a nation, or vice versa?

Although Scotland, Wales and NI have there own assemblies and parliaments (only Scotland has a parliament). All of these are extremely limited in their powers.

England does not, so how can it be a country? It only has the Parliament of the UK, which happens to reside in England (in London).

Answer 1

Ok, first off Great Britain and United Kingdom are interchangeable, as far as I know there is little difference, except maybe that Great Britain is not inclusive of Northern Ireland whereas Great Britain is.

England is no more of a country than Wales or Scotland, collectively they make up the nation of Great Britain. Like counties they have certain governing bodies that deal only with themselves but all are beholden to British law and parliament. The confusion mostly comes from the fact that in their history they were once seperate countries, much like Britain and Ireland are seperate countries today (with the exception of Northern Ireland) but today they are all considered of the same country.

Answer 2

England is a country.
GB or UK is not a country. The land area of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make up the area referred to as GB. Take Northern Ireland away and you have the UK.
The majority of people who live in GB are referred to as British but there is no British Nation. British is what you call people who are either English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish. There is an English nation, a Scottish Nation a Welsh nation.
I wish we all could get our own passport. i would just love to get a Scottish passport.
A country is an area of land. A nation is a group of people. The English are a nation but this group of people cannot be a country. In my mind England is a country and most of the English Nation live in their country England. The same applies to Scotland and Wales.
The British use Parliament to manage the affairs of the various nations. The Scottish people decided to have their own Parliament to manage certain parts of their affairs. The English had the opportunity to have regional Parliaments but this was not accepted in one area and the idea was dropped.
In conclusion, nations are people. England and Scotland are pieces of ground.

Answer 3

A really comprehensive answer would require an analysis of the philosophies concerned with the country, nation and state. To be short, a nation is geographically limited and emotionally tied up portion which share a common culture. Benedict Anderson has defined it as 'an imagined politicalcommunity, sovereign and limited.' In such a definition England might be called a nation (of course u may claim it is not, as it is multi cultural.but let us deduct that) and so can Scotland, Wales and Ireland called nations.
A state is oin the other hand the centre of power featured by certain characteristics such as possessing the tools of violence and coercion, as being central to the society, as having two audiences-internal and external. Thus Britain is the state, as it is the centre of power.
UK on the other hand is just a confederation, an extension of which will be the Commonwealth.

thus we can arrive that there may be several nations within a state, e.g. the former Yugoslavia; and similarly a nation may be spread across many states, like the case with many in the balkan before the First and Second World Wars

Answer 4

England,Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland make up Great Britain,otherwise known as The United Kingdom

Answer 5

I think you've got it sussed -- the current situation is a barely workable mess.

Wikipedia says that a country is a geographical entity, nation is a cultural entity and a state is a political entity (i.e. sovereignty). By those definitions, England is a nation, regardless of governance, (think of stateless nations like the Kurds or Cornwall) but the UK is a state as well as a country. Wiki says that the four nations can also be called countries, so even they're confused. %-)

Technically speaking, the UK of GB and NI is the locus of sovereignty, so that's the state -- is British just short hand or more specific to the larger island, in other words do NI passports say Northern Irish or British?

Give the wiki piece a read, maybe you can get it sorted.

Answer 6

Great Britain is the name of the largest island within the British Isles, and it contains most of England, Wales and Scotland. Contrary to other answers given here, and popular misconception, it's called Great Britain because of its size in relation to the rest of the British Isles (think Gran Canaria for a similar example). The Roman geographer Ptolemy called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain), and the smaller island of Ireland Micra Bretannia (Little Britain).

As for the rest of your question, there is a difference between country as a cultural entity, and country as a political entity. England is a country in the cultural sense, but not a political one at the present time.

Answer 7

Great Britian, named great by the Romans for its mineral wealth is recognised today as consisting of four seperate nations, England .scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.These nations are also known as the United Kingdom as they all recognise the moronic german ancestored royal family, the house of winsor as their Sovriegn, hence they are also called the United Kingdom.
Interestingly The British Isles is a geographical term that includes also Southern Ireland and the Channel Islands, just to confuse you more!

Answer 8

yes england is a counrty,reason you cant get just an english passport is because the queen (yuk) owns all the land so hence great britian, but i always fill in aplication forms that my country of origin is scotland
nationality , always scottish first, great britain second, never english
we are all a nation says the goverment but us the people will disagree, as english are a nation,as are the welsh,as are the irish and so are the scots every one is a nation unto them selfs(the scots were a nation by 1286 as a result of developmentsin the 13th century)and on the 16th of january 1707.under the act,england and scotland becameone realm called great britianon may the 1st 1707

Answer 9

we are all seperate countries but a part of a bigger nation run by the same government (parliment) as the monarch no longer has power over the nation only the church of england. I am welsh and i am proud of my country and im sure that the english and scotts are proud of their countries but we are all now part of a much larger and richer nation. a bit like the usa with their states.
u.k = wales, N.ireland, scotland and england
GB = same without N.I.

Answer 10

Its a complicated situation in Britain! How would you decide if someone was Scottish or Welsh. For instance I am Welsh but was born in England! I spent my formative years growing up in Wales, my Mum is Welsh, my Dad part Welsh so I count myself as Welsh. I would not want to be classed as English on my passport but am happy to be British. I feel I am both Welsh and British nto one or the other as that would be impossible!