Western Virginia is east of West Virginia.
America, what a country!
Like Simplicio said, piling on someone who is from another part of the world entirely not politically or culturally connected to the UK seems a bit mean. In a certain context such a scenario would be an exemplar of ignorance, and in another, an example of how difficult it can be to understand geopolitical divisions if one is not from that region, or politically/culturally connected to it.
Hell, I lived in the UK for a decade, and it took me a while to understand the difference between Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and England. As a youngster, I also thought it was strange that people who spoke the same language and were seemingly very similar were trying to blow each other up.
I think it’s just because the other half was to be called Southern Ireland (though it never actually became so). Since it comprises not just the south but most of the middle and some of the north, it would have been weird to call it “South Ireland”.
This is not the inflammatory political rant I had hoped for.
The Qatari lady, sure. Not the case with the Pakistanis who oversaw the whole thing. Especially in a law firm. In a country whose legal system is based on that of England and Wales. Where the UK constitution is a major part of the first year law school course.
Personal / vacation visas are issued at the airport. A business visa is another matter.
A few years ago, the winner of one of the seasons of Hell’s Kitchen was promised, as the prize, a job as a chef at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants in London. OOPS - apparently, the UK had just changed its visa laws, and had started to get really tough on people applying for jobs in the UK where there were already enough people there who could do the same job; as a result, the winner couldn’t get a visa to work there. Supposedly, the show’s producers gave the winner some alternate prize.
I might go start an IMHO poll over this, but I’ll start here.
Is it not commonly known that when people say “the UK” or “United Kingdom” that it is short for “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”
I know that countries often have full, formal names that aren’t well known, but I thought that the UK one was pretty obvious.
Kind of like how most people probably know that “US” or “United States” is short for The United States of America.
It’s commonly known (in the US and elsewhere) that “UK” is an abbreviation of “United Kingdom”. It’s not commonly known that it’s an abbreviation for “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Most non-Britons tend to think “UK” and “Great Britain” are interchangeable - even the ones who know Northern Ireland is part of the UK.
Probably isn’t helped by the fact that Northern Ireland is variously referred to as Ulster, the Six Counties, the north of Ireland, the province etc. by people north and south.
No, it’s not: I agree with Really Not All That Bright.
But it’s not at all uncommon for people to actually refer to “the United States of America” or “the USA.” I can’t remember ever hearing anyone refer to “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” in an informal context.
Fun fact: In Connecticut it’s called ‘thaims’ as the English river used to be called. The US one was named before George I took power and couldn’t pronounce TH. Americans apparently didn’t feel obliged to change just because some fop over the pond had a speech impediment.
Now that I think of it, I didn’t even know that until I was about 8 or 9, and happened to notice it on the front of my passport.
Are you sure about that? I’ve never heard that the river pronunciation has changed that dramatically. Wiki doesn’t mention it.
Didn’t Michael Collins call it Northeast Ulster?
This is very surprising to me! Thanks for sharing 
I guess in the US, we all say the pledge of allegience from before we can remember, which includes the words “of the United States of America.”
I guess I figured that there was something similar in the UK.
So now, I have to ask… what percentage of ADULT Britons don’t know what the full, formal name of the UK is? What would your guess be?
I just find this ignorance at least a bit coincidental because of the fact that someone was unaware that Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but it’s in the name of the state itself 
Well, if the SNP has its way, then maybe England can revive that verse instead of pussyfooting around it. As far as I know, the Danish King’s song still threatens both the helms and brains of those damned Goths.
Maybe claiming a unified Ireland does not fit the current reality, but those who claim that NI = Ulster ignore the fact that there are 3 other counties in Ulster, in the Republic though.
Yeah but the discriptor Ireland doesn’t usually imply the entirety of what is known as Ireland either.
I am not sure if it is any sort of answer to your question, but one further confounding factor is that that Northern Ireland does not include the northernmost part of the island of Ireland. That is in County Donegal, which is part of the Republic. (It is also part of the historic province of Ulster, a name frequently but misleadingly used as an informal synonym for Northern Ireland.)
What Wiki doesn’t know, well…
Webster’s dictionary
[\ˈtemz, ˈthāmz, ˈtāmz](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thames)
I still don’t understand. The Thames (tems) in the UK has always had the hard “t”. I don’t know where the “th” usage came from for the CT version but I’m sure it isn’t an historical relic from the UK.