UK question
 

They used to call (England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland) the collective "Great Britain".

Now they just call it Britain or UK. When did they stop being great?

When they stopped using Lucas Refrigerators.;)

When British Leyland was formed.

I was watching Top Gear last night and Jeremy said Great Britain. So it was GB up until at least Season 20 of Top Gear.

I read up on this topic prior to a recent-ish trip across the pond. The goal was to not appear to be an ignorant American, though I don't think it was achieved.

Great Britain is the name of the island on which the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales reside. The United Kingdom is a sovereign state comprised of these countries plus Northern Ireland and many smaller islands. So GB refers to geography and UK to the political organization. That said, people tend to use GB or just Britain to refer to the government as well. So the context in which the term is used is important.

my guess is they stopped being great when the Beatles broke up.

According to Woody Harrelson, the only 2 good things that came out of there was America and The Beatles. I am inclined to agree.

Once in a while I get cornered by a bitter and twisted resentful Dutch person demanding "what's so great" about Britain.

My initial response is "what's so great about your understanding of English"?

So many people think that the word "great" in this context is some kind of arrogance. It isn't. It doesn't mean "we're so ****ing great and you're not"...

...the word great has several meanings =>

great - definition of great in English from the Oxford dictionary

In the context of a land mass great just means large or the larger part of - see definition 1.3 in the link above.

At the moment GB (the abbreviation of Great Britain) is used on every "euro" number plate. It is still in common use although because a large part of the non native English speaking population on planet earth thinks we're being arrogant, in our use of the word great, often the misnomer "united" is used.

We're not united and there's very little kingdom left!

Us americans mostly like to have ONE definition for a word, you don't mind. Keeps things simple like.

Webster == American right?

Great | Definition of Great by Webster's Online Dictionary

Out here we got a name for things,

For rain and wind and fire.

The rain is Tess, the fire is Joe,

And we call the wind..... Maria.

Mariah.

wait for it, I have an early copy of Idle's response which is coming soon!

"no actually in the first version which I co wrote with myself and other notables including Me and I, the original name was Maria. Mariah was just a factor of Lee Marvins speech impediment impacting Alan Lerners (my assumed name) writing during filming where I was the director as well. Later on Lee gave birth to Mariah Carey, who I also know intimately. "

Nope, It's "Maria", might be pronounced as "Mariah" but the spelling is "Maria". Shucks, and we thought it was only those crazy Brits who pronounced words funny!:D

Great Britain = England, Scotland and Wales
GB or Britain is short for Great Britain
United Kingdom is short for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
UK is short for United Kingdom