The term British Isles can be a bit irritating - but not so much if you think of it as just meaning the bunch of islands of which the island Great Britain (so called to distinguish it from Brittany across the channel) is the largest.

In fact there is not any political entity called Britain. There's an island called Great Britain, a political entity called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, made up of the nations of England, Scotland and Wales and a portion of the Irish province of Ulster.

So as well as the UK, the British Isles includes, the rest of Ireland and also the Isle of Man. But not the Channel Islands, which aren't part of the UK either Confusing...

But how Dave the gnome, and 93% of callers to the Mancghester Evening News can evidently persuade themselves that "The British are not a race" is "a pretty clear statement" that "the British don't exist" - I find that even more confusing.

If the man had said had said that a hippopotamus was not a carrot, that would not be to deny the existence of either hippopotami or carrots, hard though that may be to believe.