On St George's Day 1993 John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, addressed a group of the Conservative party as follows:

This passage illustrates vividly the type of Anglo-centricity which I criticise in The British Isles. John Major refers to Britain, an island which encompasses Wales and Scotland, but the ‘Britain’ which he evokes is very much an idealised version of southern England. There is no hint here of the industrialised cities of northern England, South Wales and south-west Scotland with their commitment to football grounds set in grimly urban surroundings. Nor is there any hint of the way in which new ethnic groups are changing the ‘essentials’ of Britain, especially in the capital, London. Missing also from Major's nostalgic musing is any sense that the most determinedly British element of the United Kingdom is to be found in Northern Ireland, where in some Unionist areas pavements are painted red, white and blue.

The Southern England of John Major's vision undoubtedly exists. It is, however, merely part of a wider United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, whose history until recently also included that of ‘the British Isles’ as a whole.