So much for a united kingdom.
"Scotland is not a real country! You are an Englishman with a dress!"
— The Soldier, Team Fortress 2
Since the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain in the fifth century, their culture gradually spread across the island. With the advent of the British Empire, this started to spread across the world, and today English is the most widely spoken language worldwide. To this day, England remains the politically and culturally dominant part of the UK, housing the nation's capital (along with its next two largest cities) and 84% of its population.
Because of this, a lot of people when hearing the word "British" tend to think of England's people and culture rather than that of other cultural areas of the island, such as Scotland and Wales. While the culture of Scotland is recognizable to people outside of the country, it is still referred to as "Scottish" instead of "British", and Welsh culture is not nearly as often referenced. As an example, many people refer to an English accent as a British accent. Scottish and Welsh accents are rarely called British accents despite being just as British. (In fact, for historical reasons, a case could be made that the Welsh and Cornish have the most claim of anyone to being called British.)
For more information, see Britain Versus the UK. See also Britain Is Only London.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow: Despite the many Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people who migrated to Australia during the 1800s in Real Life, the show’s large cast of British immigrants all mention only England as their home.
- In Moriarty the Patriot, William's goal is to save "the entire British Empire", but he almost never strays beyond the boundaries of England — and when he does, it's to places like India and America, not Scotland, Northern Ireland, or Wales.
Comic Books
- Asterix in Britain: Downplayed; despite taking place in ancient Roman times, 500 years before the Anglo-Saxons landed, Britons are portrayed as caricatures of modern-day English people anyway. The ancient city of Londinium (which did not actually exist when the story is set) is a stand-in for modern-day London, and there are multiple jokes about the English language, while the Britons actually spoke a Celtic language that Welsh evolved from. The comic does feature a Hibernian (Irish) warrior, Caledonian (Scottish) bards with bagpipes, and a snark about Caledonian thriftiness.
Fan Works
- In Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami, "Whales" is introduced as "a town in England." Given this is a Crack Fic, the mistake is probably deliberate.
Films — Live-Action
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur calls himself "Sovereign of all England". Although he's following Late Medieval stories like Le Morte d'Arthur where Arthur is called king of England, it makes no sense in context, considering he had just announced himself as "King of the Britons" and "Defeater of the Saxons". The Saxons were one of the groups who established England in the first place, while the term "Britons" during the Middle Ages referred to the Brythonic Celtic natives among whom Arthur's legend originated. Possibly justified by the film being set in 932 AD, after England's consolidation under Alfred the Great — but also roughly 400 years after Arthur is traditionally dated.note
- The Man Who Never Was: Montagu tells the father of the dead man whose body he wants to use that this is an opportunity to "do a great thing for England." The father, who is a Scotsman, takes umbrage.
- In The Western The Settlers, Alexander is Scottish but Bill (who is American) keeps calling him English. Alexander doesn't seem to mind, but another Scottish character eventually kills Bill and asks Alexander how he can let that go.
- Sean Connery's character John Mason in The Rock is referred to (correctly) as British throughout the movie by the US officials, and said to be from Great Britain, with his place of birth being Glasgow. However, later in the film, one of the terrorists calls Mason an 'English prick' during a fight, regardless of the fact that Mason is evidently Scottish. In spite of this, this is never corrected by Mason.
Live-Action TV
- The Grand Tour: Jeremy Clarkson amusingly mentions that every English historical figure is recognized as English, but every other British nationality is referred to as British, suspecting that England is trying to take the credit for their notoriety at their native countries' expense.
- Legends of Tomorrow: Henry VIII calls himself the king of the British Empire, despite only being the King of England. Britain as a de jure unified country, let alone the British Empire, wouldn't exist until long after Henry's death.
- Justified in Pennyworth which takes place in an Alternate Universe where Scotland and Wales have broken off from England. As a result both sides in the civil war refer to themselves as English, and the Raven Union is allegedly planning to regain Scotland and Wales by force once they've taken over the country.
- Torchwood: Miracle Day episode two "Rendition" has CIA agent Lyn Peterfield say to Gwen Cooper "If you're the best England has to offer, God help you," to which Gwen responds "I'm Welsh!" before punching her out.
Music
- Played for Laughs in the music video for the Comic Relief cover of "Islands in the Stream", in which Nessa and Bryn from Gavin & Stacey (plus Tom Jones) attend a karaoke competition in Las Vegas and are introduced by the American presenters as being from "Wales, England".
Video Games
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: Fairly early in the game, a character dismissively calls Player Character an Englishman. Edward irritatedly retorts that he's Welsh, not English.
- Total War
- In both Medieval: Total War and its remake, Medieval II: Total War, this can occur if the British Isles are dominated by the English. Both games have Expansion Packs with campaigns focused on the British Isles. Medieval has Viking Invasion, in which England is divided between three Saxon factions, and the Kingdoms expansion for Medieval II has the Britannia Campaign, which kicks off in the 13th century.
- In the A New World expansion of Empire: Total War, no new voices were recorded and so the now playable Minor Factions are represented by the most adjacent voices from the archive. The result of this is that the independent Scottish and Irish characters speak with the English accents of Great Britain.
- Conversed in Love of Magic. The game takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland, but various people (notably Mom) call it England. Scots like Katie do not take kindly to this.
Mom: Katie, Bella, it was so nice to meet you, and to know my son has found such nice new friends here in England.
Katie: (after leaving the pub) Bloody yanks; the difference between Scotland and England ought to be clear to anyone.
Web Videos
- In his review for Birds of Prey, Doug Walker, when talking about Ewan McGregor's accent occasionally slipping, refers to the performed accent as "American" and the natural accent as "English". As his name would suggest, Ewan McGregor is Scottish.
Webcomics
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland actually do exist as characters, but England is also known as the UK even in canon and represents the entirety of Britain much of the time.
- Scandinavia and the World: In the early comics, "England" wears a Union Jack shirt and seems to symbolise an overall British stereotype. Later on Ireland and Scotland show up and he explains he wears the Union flag because the Cross of St. George makes him look like a member of the Red Cross.
Soon the comic switched to England wearing just the Cross of St. George.
Western Animation
- Animaniacs: Zig-Zagged in the song "Yakko's world". When he mentions "England", the whole of the UK is highlighted, which is strange because "Scotland" had already been listed separately.
Real Life
- The name some languages use for the UK is derived from "England" or "English," such as Yīngguó in Chinese and Igirisu in Japanese, which also has a more formal name for the UK, Rengō Ōkoku, though this latter name is only really used in official documents and in government affairs.
- Well into the 20th century, it was extremely common to refer to "England" when really "Great Britain" or "the United Kingdom" would have been correct.
- The sovereign of the UK is colloquially referred to as the King/Queen of England.note
- The famous signal of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar was not "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland expects every man to do his duty" or even "Great Britain expects every man to do his duty"; it was "England expects every man to do his duty", even though at that point "England" had not been a separate state for almost a century.
- Scottish-born and educated Field Marshal Haig, leader of the British Expeditionary Force, and scion of the famous Scottish whiskey family saw no contradiction in referring to himself as British, Scottish, or even English in letters written during the Great War.
- As late as the 1960s, when John F. Kennedy was signing a proclamation that Winston Churchill was to be made an honorary United States citizen, the President referred to "the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone" — at that point, "England" had not "stood alone" for over 250 years (since the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707).
- Churchill himself sometimes casually referred to "England" as synonymous with "the United Kingdom" in public speeches ("Stripped of her Empire...England would sink to the level of a fifth-rate Power"). It was probably not until the late 20th century that most people finally learned to stop saying "England" when they meant "the United Kingdom" or "the UK".
- The choice of page image on this very page demonstrates the wider confusion about what is and isn't meant by England/Great Britain/the UK/the British Isles/etc. The context of the cartoon suggests the central, 'English' figure is being harangued by figures representing the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom about why he's wearing the UK flag rather than the English one, when they're wearing their specific countries' flags. The problem is, the right-hand figure is wearing the flag of the Republic of Ireland — which is a completely separate country.
- Not helping matters is that while England does have its own flag, the famous St George's Cross - this being the red cross that forms the centre of the Union Jack - misinformed (or deliberately aggressive) people like to claim that it's a racist symbol due to its association with English ultra-nationalism and far right political parties, both of which are known for their rather questionable views on race and diversity. While there's nothing stopping people from flying the flag for its intended purpose, and plenty of efforts have been made to reclaim the flag as a rightful symbol of England, the frustration and general irritation people get from having to counter the arguments of it representing racism means that the Union Jack tends to be used as a 'substitute' for the St George's Cross instead. This has also led to some rather pointed arguments levelled at the use of the flags of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all of which tend to be flown with very little criticism; plenty of people have argued that if it's okay for the other nations of the United Kingdom to fly their own flags, then England's population should be allowed to do the same without complaint.