Talk:Hillclimbing in the British Islands

Use of the term "British Isles"

 * I know the phrase is controversial in some quarters (see discussion at British Isles (terminology)) but as it's the most common by far I felt it reasonable to use it here. There's not (yet?) any discussion in this article of hillclimbing in the Republic of Ireland, and although the Channel Islands are not geographically part of the British Isles, nor politically part of the UK (which is why this is not "Hillclimbing in the United Kingdom"), I can't really call the article "Hillclimbing in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man"! I don't think there is a perfect and universally accepted term, so if any Irish readers feel aggrieved I can only apologise and say that it's the best I could do. Loganberry (Talk) 02:25, 14 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The fact that the "some quarters" in question happens to be Ireland, allegedly one of the two islands that make up this British Isles thing, is quite significant. Why, pray tell, do you feel the need to claim lands which are most assuredly not British as "British"? Why can you not be happy enough writing about 'Hillcliming in Great Britain' without having the impulse to go beyond your island into others? If there was not a strong amount of nationalism in this article, why isn't it about 'Hillclimbing in Europe', for instance? Same old so-so: keep Britain separate from Europe and keep as much land as possible in the British remit in the process. That is the history of British nationalism, and every utterance of "British Isles" confirms the truth of that most nationalistic dynamic. 89.100.195.42 11:57, 16 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Because "Hillclimbing in Great Britain" would be inaccurate. The British Hill Climb Championship includes rounds in Northern Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey. Since these are all of the short-course form common in the UK but less so elsewhere in Europe, they need to be kept together with the rounds that are in Great Britain. Loganberry (Talk) 23:33, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Loganberry - The phrase holds no controversy whatsoever except for certain extreme and deluded Irish nationalists such as the user above. British Isles is an ethnically and politically neutral term which has historical precedence over any sovereign state now extant in this geographical area and controversy over its use is a modern phenomenon created by the aforementioned Irish nationalists as seen above who try to impose an anachronistically modern meaning upon it. siarach 12:46, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

From Verifiability Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has said of this: "I can NOT emphasize this enough. There seems to be a terrible bias among some editors that some sort of random speculative 'I heard it somewhere' pseudo information is to be tagged with a 'needs a cite' tag. Wrong. It should be removed, aggressively, unless it can be sourced. Aatomic1 22:16, 14 May 2007

I personally do not like the term British Islands; but it is a verifiable term Aatomic1 22:48, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * From where? Where is this term commonly used? And if there is a dispute, surely the concern is over the term "British", not the rather fatuous quibble over whether you use the modern "Islands" or the archaic "Isles"? Britian is a collective term which dates back to Roman times, and actually used to include Lesser Britain (now Britanny in France). Ireland seems to have no problem with hosting rounds of the British Hill Climb Championship, the British Superbike Championship, or the British Touring Car Championship in recent times. I realise that the British Lions rugby team has been renamed the British and Irish Lions, but "British Isles" is a geographical term that refers to the archipelago off the north-west coast of mainland Europe, whereas "British Islands" sounds, to me, more like a possessive term. If you do feel like moving a page, please could you have the common courtesy to discuss it first. And if the consensus is for the move, can you please do it using the proper "move" functions, and not just a crude cut-and-paste.  Pyrop e  07:57, 28 September 2007 (UTC)