Ok, a step at a time;

I was thinking of Lindisfarne when I said Isle of Wight. Still chuckling that some poor sod got the maps out to check depths.. Sorry & all that, but if only people would go to such depths (getting better Willie!) to counter the "this country is crap" comments from the moaners and knockers.

Ok leveller, I did say she is monarch by consent of the people these days and she wouldn't raise an army if we had a referendum, so I reckon the idea of subject is a nice twee historical quirk rather than something to get hung up over. Talking of getting hung, I recall Charles II had Cromwell's body dug up and hung....

before we get too het up over names given, at least we can go back to Roman times for names of our geography. The vast majority of countries have borders and therefore names that are 20th century concoctions, usually imposed by er... we Brits...

United Kingdom does sound a bit grand and contrived, especially as united is a moot point for many and perhaps fans the flame of silly nationalism, leading to bigotry and ultimately gun running and emotive songs being sung in small village pubs. England and English (for me) is technically correct, but I find nationalism repugnant so prefer more inclusive terms, hence the circular argument of UK upsetting dangerous idealists and those who are told by the dangerous idealists to be angry.   

We have a history of not getting excited by such things. Although old pictures from Edwardian times show jingoism on street corners, we have always left it to Johnny Foreigner to stick flags up on lamp posts. The St George flags around football tournament times may be innocuous enough but when they stay up after the event, I get a small feeling that there is something ugly creeping into society.

Wonderful that those who claim they don't want Turkey in The EU at any cost tend to be the same people happy flying the flag of St George? A bit like little England idiots invoking the Churchill spirit. Churchill was a huge advocate of what has now become The EU. In fact, he was the one proposing a United States of Europe.

For our American friends, so you see yourself as American, North American, citizen of Texas etc? Where do loyalty boundaries lie? Here, you can always tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much.