Ebbie, I agree that in many cases English and British are considered, wrongly, the same thing. It seems to me from this side of the Atlantic, however, that the large numbers of US Americans who consider themselves to be Irish, Scots-Irish, Welsh etc do seem to understand the difference yet 'forget it' when talking about bad things from history. The BBC do it too; a few weeks ago a programme about ancestors was in Southern Ireland and, although talking about events around 1800, continually referred to the English government/troops etc rather than British.

One way to wind up a Scotsman (or woman) is to call them English. It winds me up when the British are called English.