A question for our UK/GB (or whatever) Oppos

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
02/14/2018 at 10:26 • Filed to: None

So, I’m watching women’s curling at the Olympics, and the entire GB team is from Scotland. Which makes sense, since it’s a Scottish sport, and Scotland is part of the UK/GB. But at what point do the individual countries play for themselves? I watch the Six Nations rugby, and you get England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (and France and Italy). Is it tradition that keeps the UK/GB together for the Olympics?

And furthermore, is Great Britain really that great, and is the United Kingdom really united?

DISCUSSION (28)

not for canada - australian in disguise > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:36

Speaking as a non-Brit, I think it’s only really during the Olympics that the entire UK competes as one. In events like the Commonwealth Games, the Euros, the World Cup, et cetera, each country competes separately.

Azrek > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:37

The UK is actually like 4 countries...and it depends on whoever got angry over a rock throwing event 2000 years ago if they compete together or not.

And Eve Muirhead is hot.

ttyymmnn > Azrek
02/14/2018 at 10:39

You can’t have Eve Muirhead—she’s mine.

WilliamsSW > Azrek
02/14/2018 at 10:40

Holy crap you’re right

djmt1 > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:45

We play as team GB because we always have and we’re are too lazy to change it. It should really be team UK since the Northern Irish compete under GB. So yeah I guess it is tradition in a sense.

As for the state of this country in general. Yeah Britain is pretty great but the only thing we are united in is our mutual hatred of each other.

Azrek > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:47

There is only one way to settle this...Swords or pistols at dawn?

facw > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:49

You can contrast with the US, where Puerto Rico sends a separate team (even though all Puerto Rican athletes are eligible for the US team).

This yeah, they sent a single Ohio-born skier (who does live in Puerto Rico in the offseason)

ttyymmnn > Azrek
02/14/2018 at 10:49

Biathlon rifles at 50 meters. But only after skiing a few kms.

Kinja'd!!!

Azrek > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:52

It’ll be tough to shoot you with a .22 after you ski that far away. But I am game to try!

Svend > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:54

A lot of those actually come from just over the border in Dumfrieshire, South West Scotland and train in Lockerbie.

Cé hé sin > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 10:55

Well, let’s see...

The rugby began as the home nations - Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales - as they then were. Following Irish independence matters continued exactly as before because the type of person who played and administered rugby was more likely to be of a unionist persuasion. France joined much later to make the Five Nations (because France is nearby and a major rugby playing country) and Italy later again because they also play, albeit not very well.

“Great” as in Great Britain meant “large” and was originally so used to distinguish between little Britain (Ireland) and what we now refer to as Britain. Later the term was used to distinguish between the island of Britain and Brittany in France, which was settled from SW England following the departure of the Romans. Until about WW2 many people in western Brittany still spoke Breton, which was derived from Cornish and related also to Welsh.

Svend > djmt1
02/14/2018 at 11:00

Ye’, but we’re like that within ourselves from county to county, then within each county from city to city, town to town. It’s mostly banter.

Myself as a county, I’ve got Scousers, Mancunians, Brummies, etc... to the south, Sand Dancers, Mackems and Geordies, etc... to the east.

Within the county we have the ‘west coast’, ‘inbreds’ where the gene pool is very shallow.

Lol.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 11:01

Scotland is like the Texas of the UK.

HERITAGE NOT HATRED! Or something. Blue and white flag, etc.

To paraphrase Clarkson loosely, if they win a medal, London will brag about the UK team. If not, it’ll be a Scottish loss.

djmt1 > Svend
02/14/2018 at 11:05

To quote a great man.

“The Irish hate the English. The Scottish hate the English. The Welsh hate the English and the English hate everyone else including most of the English”.

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often
02/14/2018 at 11:08

Rebuild Hadrian’s Wall and make the Scots pay for it!

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn
02/14/2018 at 11:10

The star at right is big and bright (clap clap clap) — for recommending your post!!

Svend > djmt1
02/14/2018 at 11:15

Most hate the English. Lol.

There’s only one country most countries are agreed on, but I’m not going to say on here.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Cé hé sin
02/14/2018 at 11:17

Very accurately put.

Which always amuses me when you hear boneheaded nationalists talking about ‘native British/English’, when the vast majority of who they refer to have significant Anglo-Saxon (read Germanic) heritage, and the actual ‘native British/English’ live primarily in Wales, Cornwall and a small part of France (Scots and maybe north-Welsh are primarily Gaelic which were settlers/invaders from Ireland).

Turns out the demographics of a teeny-tiny country which has been almost continually invaded until the Normans is a little tricker to delineate into convenient nationalistic groupings...