I don’t follow Guardian links any more but my first reaction to that is ‘so? Call it anything you like, call Canada North America, but that might be viewed as an address, or the States as South Canada, doesn’t alter anything, just as there is only one country in the world which does not call the Gulf Mexico the Gulf of Mexico’ . Not even worthy of the junior playground, what a prat. 
In any case the British and French live quite amicably with the Channel Islands/Isles Normandes and The Channel/La Manche. 