I also fail to see the insult. It's just a matter of terminology. It is probably true that many U.S. citizens fail to recognize the term "United Kingdom", but I don't think it's due to lack of geographical knowledge. It's just that the term is not part of U.S. common parlance and there are other terms which are more or less synonymous with it. (I know they're not really synonymous, but let's not split hairs, please.) I use it on this forum as a courtesy to UK 'Catters (and I avoid using the term "American" to refer to U.S. issues as a courtesy to Canadian 'Catters), but I seriously doubt that I have ever used "United Kingdom" or "UK" in everyday conversation.

Bruce