A QUEEN AND CONTINENT BY ANY OTHER OTHER

Salud, Kids!

Let's just call her...Madame Monarch,
what do you say? Maybe not.

As I mentioned previously, Queen Elizabeth has her stooges (royal ones, I'm sure) doing a Facebook page for her and I'm happy about that as I love to see what's shaking over there in the UK, GB, England, Scotland, Wales and any other place where accents aren't similar to mine.

HRH and all her fab kin are on Facebook and I called her the Queen of England, off-hand. Kids, I was all sorts of wrong, but what else is new? Anyway, British-Brian hit a croquet ball across the pond and it is filled with proper verbiage on all things UK, Great Britain and Queen Elizabeth (all due respect here).

Oh, I used a photo of Queen Victoria today as I adore the history of her, plus I met British-Brian on the Queen Victoria, so it all fits, right? Never mind, let's just move on.

British-Brian sends this post with all his best regards, and if you don't believe that he will send a swarm of his best-bad-bees over to our continent to get ya (he didn't say that, I did as I love to toss in some conjured up drama here and there). Yeah, he is a master keeper of humming and working bees (I know less than nothing about keeping bees), but that's another blog that I promise will come later (if British-Brian is so inclined).

Read on and learn what you need to know, may want to know or may already know...

Contributed By: Brian Wilson
Bath, UK
________________________________________

I hope you do not mind if I clarify the English/British conundrum.


I noticed, like many in the US, used the phrase "Queen of England."


England - Britain? - a bit of history.

•True to type, us Brits can make things complicated.
•Before 1707 there were 4 countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
•The Act of Union in 1707 brought England, Scotland and Wales together as "Great Britain."
•In 1801 the island of Ireland became part of this union and it was called "The United Kingdom."
•in 1921, after the Irish War of Independence, Eire left the UK, leaving Northern Ireland as part of the UK.
•So, Great Britain comprises England, Scotland and Wales.
•The UK comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


I have heard many people from the US - even those in power - to say "England" when they mean GB or the UK.
The Scots and the Welsh can get upset - think of thinking the US as being the "Northern States" and seemingly to forget about the "Confederate States."
So, our Queen is Queen of the UK (actually she is also Queen/Head of State of 15 other Commonwealth countries (these used to be part of our empire).

##

Thanks, Brian. I may stick will just saying, HRH, and call it a day!

My bigger question in all this is...what do I call Brian? British-Brian? United Kingdom-Brian? Bath-Brian (the town, not the act of bathing), Great Britian-Brian? Red-Sock-Brian? Beekeeper-Brian? Croquet-Brian? All of them? Yeah, that's it.

God Save The Queen!!

See ya 'round the beaches-real or virtual.

Friend us on Facebook, Indiscreetly Us