Geopolitics

What’s the difference between Britain, England and the UK?

Britain is NOT a country

Victoria Suzanne
4 min readMar 5, 2022

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Photo by James Giddins on Unsplash

It annoys the crap out of me that I had to search “Britain” on Unsplash to find this image. “But Victoria”, I hear you cry, “that’s the British flag!”

Incorrect, loser. See the diagonal red cross on the white background? That’s the cross saltire of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and last time I checked, Ireland wasn’t in Britain. Part of it is in the United Kingdom (UK) though, which the Union Flag, or Union Jack as it’s also known, represents.

Confused? Evidently, you are. Don’t worry though, I’ve got you covered.

What is Britain?

To answer the question “what is Britain?”, we must first ask, what is this?

If you said “Britain”, I am going to murder you. Via Wikimedia Commons. Free download under CC license 4.0

This natty illustration is, of course, of the British Isles. The British Isles comprise more than 5,000 islands, but for our purposes, we only want the names of the two biggest ones. They are *drumroll please*:

  • Great Britain
  • Ireland.

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Victoria Suzanne

NCTJ-qualified journalist and editor. Follow my true crime publication @Crime-Scenes.