Best Of

Meanwhile, in "auld acquaintance" news,



And yes, I pass this on purely to cue up the meme.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/31/i-hate-to-say-it-but-zulu-is-a-left-wing-film/

Former PB contributor @SeanT has just caught on that Zulu is a class-based critique of the class structure in the British army. Next week, he'll write an article about how Rosebud is the sled (yes I know about the Marion Davis clitoris theory). Piercing insight, our lad.

One of the saddest things about getting old is how the next generation is excitedly discovering things about the past that were either blisteringly bloody obvious at the time, or totally wrong. Tom Harwood on Twitter is excitedly and neurotically reporting that the abbreviation for the United Kingdom (UK) is a neologism that wasn't really used until the Good Friday agreement, which is just plain wrong. A generation is getting its info from Twitter and Grok instead of books, and they are thick as horseshit.

There is just a smidgeon of truth there. Britain was an official synonym for the UK. Britain, not Great Britain.

‘The UK’ only replaced ‘Britain’ as the usual collective name when Boris shoved it down our collective throats to gaslight the good people of Northern Ireland that he hadn't just sold them out by placing a border down the Irish Sea.

Representatives of the UK have been seated next to reps of the US for as long as I can remember (I'm over 75).

Yes, that is the name of the country. Britain (and hence British) is a synonym for UK, not for Great Britain. However, the recently increased prominence of UK dates from Boris selling out Northern Ireland (possibly because he never understood the issue of the border in the first place).

For instance, your passport probably says British at the top and United Kingdom at the bottom, yet we have only since Brexit changed number plates from GB to UK. In the Olympics I think we are still GB&NI with &NI in very small letters.

I think this is entirely in your head.

And your evidence is... what? Clearly I'm right about the use of Britain and British, clearly I'm right about the Brexit barrier down the Irish Sea which Boris had earlier ruled out, and clearly I'm right about the increased use of UK since Boris's time, so the only part I could be wrong on is Boris's motivation.

the notion that the use of the term UK is anything to do with Johnson, it's been common parlance my entire lifetime

The increased use, not use.

There's no evidence of increased use of United Kingdom over Great Britain

I suspect an analysis of the BBC's output would show a different picture. This story is typical:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy594gkele3o

We may be missing a trick. The (percieved) increased use of UK may be simply down to the rise of the internet ".uk" suffix. For example, here is the BBC Politics 97 site from 1997, before the GFA https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/

Meanwhile, in "auld acquaintance" news,



And yes, I pass this on purely to cue up the meme.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/31/i-hate-to-say-it-but-zulu-is-a-left-wing-film/

Former PB contributor @SeanT has just caught on that Zulu is a class-based critique of the class structure in the British army. Next week, he'll write an article about how Rosebud is the sled (yes I know about the Marion Davis clitoris theory). Piercing insight, our lad.

One of the saddest things about getting old is how the next generation is excitedly discovering things about the past that were either blisteringly bloody obvious at the time, or totally wrong. Tom Harwood on Twitter is excitedly and neurotically reporting that the abbreviation for the United Kingdom (UK) is a neologism that wasn't really used until the Good Friday agreement, which is just plain wrong. A generation is getting its info from Twitter and Grok instead of books, and they are thick as horseshit.

There is just a smidgeon of truth there. Britain was an official synonym for the UK. Britain, not Great Britain.

‘The UK’ only replaced ‘Britain’ as the usual collective name when Boris shoved it down our collective throats to gaslight the good people of Northern Ireland that he hadn't just sold them out by placing a border down the Irish Sea.

Representatives of the UK have been seated next to reps of the US for as long as I can remember (I'm over 75).

Yes, that is the name of the country. Britain (and hence British) is a synonym for UK, not for Great Britain. However, the recently increased prominence of UK dates from Boris selling out Northern Ireland (possibly because he never understood the issue of the border in the first place).

For instance, your passport probably says British at the top and United Kingdom at the bottom, yet we have only since Brexit changed number plates from GB to UK. In the Olympics I think we are still GB&NI with &NI in very small letters.

I think this is entirely in your head.

And your evidence is... what? Clearly I'm right about the use of Britain and British, clearly I'm right about the Brexit barrier down the Irish Sea which Boris had earlier ruled out, and clearly I'm right about the increased use of UK since Boris's time, so the only part I could be wrong on is Boris's motivation.

the notion that the use of the term UK is anything to do with Johnson, it's been common parlance my entire lifetime

It’s a weird new alt-right trope that it is essentially concurrent with the Boriswave and is an attempt to provide a deracinated name for the country formerly known as “Britain”.

I don't really understand it, although it’s true that early in the 20th century, the shorthand “England” became “Great Britain” and perhaps much later, “Great Britain” seems to have become “United Kingdom”.

I feel like Thatcher used Britain more, but Blair may have heralded the move to United Kingdom? The latter is technically more correct and is maybe therefore suspiciously technocratic as opposed to the virile connotations of Great Britain.

...but this is kind of the problem. The use of "United Kingdom" as the shortform name of the state has been around since the 1940s at least, but a lot of presumably intelligent people (such as yourself) now believe that it's a post-GFA coinage. This is because people get their info from the internet, and it's not always right. And by the time I do something like request a copy of the CIA factbook from the 1960s to show this, everybody has moved onto the next thing. Aaargh!

That’s not my claim.
I don’t think it’s recently coined.
However I suspect (but don’t know) that it’s replaced “Britain” in political discourse.

But I’d kinda want to see some Hansard evidence.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/search?endDate=2025-12-31&partial=False&searchTerm="United Kingdom"&sortOrder=1&startDate=1800-01-01

286739 mentions since 01/01/1800. Peaks were at 1980, 1997, 2020

https://hansard.parliament.uk/search?endDate=2025-12-31&partial=False&searchTerm="Great Britain"&sortOrder=1&startDate=1800-01-01

75675 mentions since 01/01/1800. Peaks were at 1912, 1927,

Meanwhile, in "auld acquaintance" news,



And yes, I pass this on purely to cue up the meme.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/31/i-hate-to-say-it-but-zulu-is-a-left-wing-film/

Former PB contributor @SeanT has just caught on that Zulu is a class-based critique of the class structure in the British army. Next week, he'll write an article about how Rosebud is the sled (yes I know about the Marion Davis clitoris theory). Piercing insight, our lad.

One of the saddest things about getting old is how the next generation is excitedly discovering things about the past that were either blisteringly bloody obvious at the time, or totally wrong. Tom Harwood on Twitter is excitedly and neurotically reporting that the abbreviation for the United Kingdom (UK) is a neologism that wasn't really used until the Good Friday agreement, which is just plain wrong. A generation is getting its info from Twitter and Grok instead of books, and they are thick as horseshit.

There is just a smidgeon of truth there. Britain was an official synonym for the UK. Britain, not Great Britain.

‘The UK’ only replaced ‘Britain’ as the usual collective name when Boris shoved it down our collective throats to gaslight the good people of Northern Ireland that he hadn't just sold them out by placing a border down the Irish Sea.

Representatives of the UK have been seated next to reps of the US for as long as I can remember (I'm over 75).

Yes, that is the name of the country. Britain (and hence British) is a synonym for UK, not for Great Britain. However, the recently increased prominence of UK dates from Boris selling out Northern Ireland (possibly because he never understood the issue of the border in the first place).

For instance, your passport probably says British at the top and United Kingdom at the bottom, yet we have only since Brexit changed number plates from GB to UK. In the Olympics I think we are still GB&NI with &NI in very small letters.

I think this is entirely in your head.

And your evidence is... what? Clearly I'm right about the use of Britain and British, clearly I'm right about the Brexit barrier down the Irish Sea which Boris had earlier ruled out, and clearly I'm right about the increased use of UK since Boris's time, so the only part I could be wrong on is Boris's motivation.

the notion that the use of the term UK is anything to do with Johnson, it's been common parlance my entire lifetime

The increased use, not use.

There's no evidence of increased use of United Kingdom over Great Britain.

Meanwhile, in "auld acquaintance" news,



And yes, I pass this on purely to cue up the meme.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/31/i-hate-to-say-it-but-zulu-is-a-left-wing-film/

Former PB contributor @SeanT has just caught on that Zulu is a class-based critique of the class structure in the British army. Next week, he'll write an article about how Rosebud is the sled (yes I know about the Marion Davis clitoris theory). Piercing insight, our lad.

One of the saddest things about getting old is how the next generation is excitedly discovering things about the past that were either blisteringly bloody obvious at the time, or totally wrong. Tom Harwood on Twitter is excitedly and neurotically reporting that the abbreviation for the United Kingdom (UK) is a neologism that wasn't really used until the Good Friday agreement, which is just plain wrong. A generation is getting its info from Twitter and Grok instead of books, and they are thick as horseshit.

There is just a smidgeon of truth there. Britain was an official synonym for the UK. Britain, not Great Britain.

‘The UK’ only replaced ‘Britain’ as the usual collective name when Boris shoved it down our collective throats to gaslight the good people of Northern Ireland that he hadn't just sold them out by placing a border down the Irish Sea.

Representatives of the UK have been seated next to reps of the US for as long as I can remember (I'm over 75).

Yes, that is the name of the country. Britain (and hence British) is a synonym for UK, not for Great Britain. However, the recently increased prominence of UK dates from Boris selling out Northern Ireland (possibly because he never understood the issue of the border in the first place).

For instance, your passport probably says British at the top and United Kingdom at the bottom, yet we have only since Brexit changed number plates from GB to UK. In the Olympics I think we are still GB&NI with &NI in very small letters.

I think this is entirely in your head.

And your evidence is... what? Clearly I'm right about the use of Britain and British, clearly I'm right about the Brexit barrier down the Irish Sea which Boris had earlier ruled out, and clearly I'm right about the increased use of UK since Boris's time, so the only part I could be wrong on is Boris's motivation.

the notion that the use of the term UK is anything to do with Johnson, it's been common parlance my entire lifetime

The increased use, not use.

There's no evidence of increased use of United Kingdom over Great Britain

I suspect an analysis of the BBC's output would show a different picture. This story is typical:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy594gkele3o

Meanwhile, in "auld acquaintance" news,



And yes, I pass this on purely to cue up the meme.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/31/i-hate-to-say-it-but-zulu-is-a-left-wing-film/

Former PB contributor @SeanT has just caught on that Zulu is a class-based critique of the class structure in the British army. Next week, he'll write an article about how Rosebud is the sled (yes I know about the Marion Davis clitoris theory). Piercing insight, our lad.

One of the saddest things about getting old is how the next generation is excitedly discovering things about the past that were either blisteringly bloody obvious at the time, or totally wrong. Tom Harwood on Twitter is excitedly and neurotically reporting that the abbreviation for the United Kingdom (UK) is a neologism that wasn't really used until the Good Friday agreement, which is just plain wrong. A generation is getting its info from Twitter and Grok instead of books, and they are thick as horseshit.

There is just a smidgeon of truth there. Britain was an official synonym for the UK. Britain, not Great Britain.

‘The UK’ only replaced ‘Britain’ as the usual collective name when Boris shoved it down our collective throats to gaslight the good people of Northern Ireland that he hadn't just sold them out by placing a border down the Irish Sea.

Representatives of the UK have been seated next to reps of the US for as long as I can remember (I'm over 75).

Yes, that is the name of the country. Britain (and hence British) is a synonym for UK, not for Great Britain. However, the recently increased prominence of UK dates from Boris selling out Northern Ireland (possibly because he never understood the issue of the border in the first place).

For instance, your passport probably says British at the top and United Kingdom at the bottom, yet we have only since Brexit changed number plates from GB to UK. In the Olympics I think we are still GB&NI with &NI in very small letters.

I think this is entirely in your head.

And your evidence is... what? Clearly I'm right about the use of Britain and British, clearly I'm right about the Brexit barrier down the Irish Sea which Boris had earlier ruled out, and clearly I'm right about the increased use of UK since Boris's time, so the only part I could be wrong on is Boris's motivation.

the notion that the use of the term UK is anything to do with Johnson, it's been common parlance my entire lifetime

It’s a weird new alt-right trope that it is essentially concurrent with the Boriswave and is an attempt to provide a deracinated name for the country formerly known as “Britain”.

I don't really understand it, although it’s true that early in the 20th century, the shorthand “England” became “Great Britain” and perhaps much later, “Great Britain” seems to have become “United Kingdom”.

I feel like Thatcher used Britain more, but Blair may have heralded the move to United Kingdom? The latter is technically more correct and is maybe therefore suspiciously technocratic as opposed to the virile connotations of Great Britain.

...but this is kind of the problem. The use of "United Kingdom" as the shortform name of the state has been around since the 1940s at least, but a lot of presumably intelligent people (such as yourself) now believe that it's a post-GFA coinage. This is because people get their info from the internet, and it's not always right. And by the time I do something like request a copy of the CIA factbook from the 1960s to show this, everybody has moved onto the next thing. Aaargh!

That’s not my claim.
I don’t think it’s recently coined.
However I suspect (but don’t know) that it’s replaced “Britain” in political discourse.

But I’d kinda want to see some Hansard evidence.