"But I despise Political Correctness in all of its forms. "

...and yet you exhibit so much of it yourself, just the other kind.  DO stop hanging out at the Daily Mail website -- it will rot your mind (the symptoms are showing already).

The "accepted terms" of British or UK are as they are because those are what the nation is called -- Britain, or the United Kingdom.

"IMO -- the English have a long and proud history."   In your opinion. Well we'll take that into consideration.

My father was Welsh, but his family name (Pearce) is common in Cornwall, from whence tin-miners travelled to Wales as coal mining was more lucrative.   I was born in England, my mother's father was from Northern Ireland.  My father's mother's people came from Northumberland, on the north-east coast near the Scottish border, and more than likely had Viking ancestors, in common with many of the people in that part of the world on both sides of the border.  Oddly, my father, despite his English birth,  fought with the Black Watch regiment, an extremely Scottish outfit with an ancient and proud history, in WW2.

So, Xen, piss off and stop telling the Brits how to be British.  It's getting very, very, very, very boring and, more to the point, no fun anymore. Go wave your stars `n' bars for GWB.

EDIT: incidentally, you ARE aware that Ireland is an independent nation, so no connection with Britain?  No?  Thought not.