"Stephen Kellett" wrote in message
...
Taking your logic a stage further... When you install Windows it asks
you for configuration information. Country options include "United
Kingdom" not "Great Britain". Are Microsoft making a political statement
about Northern Ireland with their Windows Installation procedure? Using
the logic you provide above, you'd have to conclude they are.


[Mild, off-topic rant]

The American way to cut through the confusion is to regard everything in
this region as UK, except that quite a lot of them (unlike some English
people) know that the Republic of Ireland is a separate state!

Pity the people living in the Isle of Man (where I lived once) or in the
States of Guernsey or the States of Jersey. They never get a mention in
those drop-down lists, even though each one of them has a top-level country
domain on the Internet.

Pity, also, the sizeable part of NI's population (and not only Republicans)
that does, of course, live in the UK but hates to have to say so. The same
goes for many Scots and Welsh and, indeed, an increasing number of English
residents.

What, with our partly-devolved (dis)United Kingdom, our Countries, Provinces
and Principalities, our Dependent Territories, etc., with a multitude of
flags (for land and sea) to go with them, Britain rules the world in
constitutional confusion. Many Britons seem to be trying to take the No.1
International Language down the same route, as well.

Peter.