OK - right, hold your breath - here goes....

England, Wales and Scotland are countries (but not legal nation states), England and Scotland are/were kingdoms, but Wales is a principality and Northern Ireland is a province... put England, Scotland and Wales together and you get Great Britain (or is that just simple ordinary, mediocre Britain - I forget.) Add Northern Ireland - Oh and the Isle of Man I think (where the Queen is Lord) and you get the UK (sort of)........ Oh I give up!

It is ridiculously complicated and I think you'll find very few of us Brits who completely get it!

[url=http://alt-usage-english.org/whatistheuk.html]This site...

OK - right, hold your breath - here goes....

England, Wales and Scotland are countries (but not legal nation states), England and Scotland are/were kingdoms, but Wales is a principality and Northern Ireland is a province... put England, Scotland and Wales together and you get Great Britain (or is that just simple ordinary, mediocre Britain - I forget.) Add Northern Ireland - Oh and the Isle of Man I think (where the Queen is Lord) and you get the UK (sort of)........ Oh I give up!

It is ridiculously complicated and I think you'll find very few of us Brits who completely get it!

This site gives about as clear a definition as I've seen, but if I were you I'd just call us all English because that really annoys the Scots and the Welsh which is always fun

Britain is somewhere vaguely in the British Isles, and also includes the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, Jersey and other Channel Islands. However, a complication noted by Wiki is:
"The term British Isles is controversial in relation to Ireland,[4] where many people may find the term offensive or objectionable; the Irish government also discourages its usage.[5]

There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland.[6] The group also includes the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago.[7] There are other common...

Britain is somewhere vaguely in the British Isles, and also includes the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, Jersey and other Channel Islands. However, a complication noted by Wiki is:
"The term British Isles is controversial in relation to Ireland,[4] where many people may find the term offensive or objectionable; the Irish government also discourages its usage.[5]

There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland.[6] The group also includes the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago.[7] There are other common uncertainties surrounding the extent, names and geographical elements of the islands."

Scotland, as a devolved country with its own parliament led by the Scottish Nationalist Party is an interesting case in that there is a realistic movement towards independent statehood.

England is further divided into North West, North East, South East, South West, North, South, East, West and Central, with Central gradually replacing the word Midlands. Central England or the Midlands is divided by an arbitrary line so that, for instance, sometimes Manchester is in the North West and sometimes in the Midlands (Central). These divisions have to be understood within the similar division applied to the British mainland, so that, for instance, the North West refers to the Scottish extremities, and the English North West becomes the South. Within a region such as the English North West, even when it is called the Midlands, there are the south, north and east of the rgion but not...

England is further divided into North West, North East, South East, South West, North, South, East, West and Central, with Central gradually replacing the word Midlands. Central England or the Midlands is divided by an arbitrary line so that, for instance, sometimes Manchester is in the North West and sometimes in the Midlands (Central). These divisions have to be understood within the similar division applied to the British mainland, so that, for instance, the North West refers to the Scottish extremities, and the English North West becomes the South. Within a region such as the English North West, even when it is called the Midlands, there are the south, north and east of the rgion but not the west which is sea, and the weste is thereby referred to as coastal region (of the North West implied). The extreme West of the South West,
the north North West (Cumbria, which is a relatively new area made of the older Cumberland and Westmoreland) and western North Wales are the areas
which contain the residues of the original Britons. The River Mersey is one of the borders between the kingdoms Mercia and Northumberland, and roughly applies to the border between what folk 'down south' call 'up north' and v.v.