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Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

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Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#11

Post by thebruce87m »

moomin wrote: post #8
thebruce87m wrote: post #4

> The acquisition is expected to secure up to 100 skilled jobs in the North East and safeguard a critical part of the UK’s defence infrastructure. The “North East” in the context of the UK and “the North East of England” are not interchangeable.

It makes no sense but it’s common parlance. It’s like “Northern Rivers” in Australia meaning “an area on the east coast south of Queensland”. Similarly “The North East” rarely means an area containing Aberdeen, which would make more sense.

My experience is that only people in England think it is common parlance. If you are taking to someone in Scotland about the uk and mention the “north east” with no further context, they are not thinking about England.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#14

Post by dboreham »

thebruce87m wrote: post #11
moomin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes no sense but it’s common parlance. It’s like “Northern Rivers” in Australia meaning “an area on the east coast south of Queensland”. Similarly “The North East” rarely means an area containing Aberdeen, which would make more sense.

My experience is that only people in England think it is common parlance. If you are taking to someone in Scotland about the uk and mention the “north east” with no further context, they are not thinking about England.

North East of London, obviously.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#15

Post by modernpink »

thebruce87m wrote: post #4

> The acquisition is expected to secure up to 100 skilled jobs in the North East and safeguard a critical part of the UK’s defence infrastructure. The “North East” in the context of the UK and “the North East of England” are not interchangeable.

The "North East" is the proper name of a NUTS 1 [0] region of the UK. It is distinguished from your interpretation of it as the "north east of the UK" by its use of capital letters, as is standard in English [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Leve...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Modern_English_cap...

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#16

Post by thebruce87m »

gpjt wrote: post #9
thebruce87m wrote: post #4

> The acquisition is expected to secure up to 100 skilled jobs in the North East and safeguard a critical part of the UK’s defence infrastructure. The “North East” in the context of the UK and “the North East of England” are not interchangeable.

I'd love to know more about what you mean by that -- is it that the North East of England (which this factory is certainly in, it being in County Durham) is not the same as the North East of the UK (which I guess would be Aberdeen)? Or is there more to it than that?

That’s pretty much it. If you visit somewhere like r/CasualUK you will get people talking about “up north” and “being a proud northerner” and such like. They are all English people talking about England. Which is fine, but it’s supposed to be a UK subreddit.

Even when foreigners are asking about travel advice. Must confuse the hell out of them. Or maybe some foreigners think that England = UK anyway so it all balances out?

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#18

Post by thebruce87m »

modernpink wrote: post #15
thebruce87m wrote: post #4

> The acquisition is expected to secure up to 100 skilled jobs in the North East and safeguard a critical part of the UK’s defence infrastructure. The “North East” in the context of the UK and “the North East of England” are not interchangeable.

The "North East" is the proper name of a NUTS 1 [0] region of the UK. It is distinguished from your interpretation of it as the "north east of the UK" by its use of capital letters, as is standard in English [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Leve... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Modern_English_cap...

Unless I am missing it, all references to “North East” in your first link are accompanied by “England” directly after.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#19

Post by steve_adams_86 »

thebruce87m wrote: post #16
gpjt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to know more about what you mean by that -- is it that the North East of England (which this factory is certainly in, it being in County Durham) is not the same as the North East of the UK (which I guess would be Aberdeen)? Or is there more to it than that?

That’s pretty much it. If you visit somewhere like r/CasualUK you will get people talking about “up north” and “being a proud northerner” and such like. They are all English people talking about England. Which is fine, but it’s supposed to be a UK subreddit. Even when foreigners are asking about travel advice. Must confuse the hell out of them. Or maybe some foreigners think that England = UK anyway so it all balance…

England == UK isn’t a thing here in Canada, but I imagine it isn’t in any commonwealth nation. I think we learned more about the UK as kids than we did about the United States.
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