Britain, England, etc., redux: Here's a new one

[Candyman74]

@Ximenean

True, but most foreigners do that. Even in Europe, people routinely refer to England when they actually mean Britain as a whole.
The fact of the matter is that the internal make-up of the UK is complicated, and it’s not too surprising that foreigners fall back on nearly-correct shorthand. It was quite common in Britain to refer to the USSR as “Russia”, after all, even among people who knew the difference.

Or indeed, The Netherlands as Holland.

[Ximenean]

@Candyman74

Or indeed, The Netherlands as Holland.

Yes, that’s true. Although, in mitigation, ISTR hearing Dutch football fans chanting “Holland, Holland” in support of their national team. Maybe only the ones from actual Holland do that, and the other Netherlanders are slightly pissed off about it?

[SanVito]

@Ximenean

Yes, that’s true. Although, in mitigation, ISTR hearing Dutch football fans chanting “Holland, Holland” in support of their national team. Maybe only the ones from actual Holland do that, and the other Netherlanders are slightly pissed off about it?

Yeah, I shared a student house with a girl from Maastricht, and she didn’t like it at all, Maybe Doper **Maastricht **can comment.

[Lust4Life]

Just add that the U.K.s national bank is the Bank of England, NOT the Bank of Great Britain.