why?

The Scotts resent being under the United Kingdom catagory. <BR>All who agree, send a message.

Who are the Scotts?

Who are the Scotts? Are they Scots, or are they English, or are they Canadians, or are they Australians, or what. The Scotts who are Scots or English are probably in the UK, so what other category might they prefer to be under?

i agree

Scotland

Sassenach

In a word - Culloden

gripper

get a grip. I am a proud Scot, but I am also British and living in 2002 not hundreds of years ago.

Sassenach

Being English we are the ones that should really get peeved about being lumped in the UK. <BR><BR>At least the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish have retained a sense of national identity - we haven't, which is extremely sad and probably borne out of deep sense of embarrasment of our past.

xxx

Is there really no identity left for the Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Norsemen, Picts and Druids who populated the southern half of that fair island?<BR>

ttt

topping<BR>

Colin

There is a small but active druid community on Ynys Mon, North Wales. But in trying to keep the bloodstock pure they do suffer terribly with the typical interbreeding problems.

partly

Well, as the Scots recently voted in a referendum to have self determination within the UK, their resentment doesn't go too deeply.<BR>One tbing for which they have always had a good reputation is in education. Most of them can probably spell Scot and category.<BR>I agree with Sassenach. It's the poor English who are downtrodden. We are soon about to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the merging of the crowns when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England. Most of the cabinet are Scots. Scottish MPs can vote on English matters but English ones cannot vote on Scottish ones. If a Scot achieves anything the headlines will be something like "Scottish scientist achieves breakthough". If an English person does the same it will be "British scientist etc. etc." Every person in Scotland receives about 25% more of public money than an English person.<BR>Arise English nationalists and shake off the Scottish yoke!

Sassenach

We are in the World Cup though so not everything's bad

Scot

I have to debunk some of the myths which "partly" holds so dear.<BR><BR>Firstly, you state that "most of the Cabinet are Scots." That may well be true, but remember that for most of the 1980s there were hardly any Labour MPs in England, so most of those who had experience in the Commons and were best suited to becoming ministers were Scottish or from the North of England. As time goes on their influence will decrease and the influence of English in the Cabinet will increase. Also, I didn't hear many complaints in the 1980s when most of the time the only Scots in the Cabinet were whoever was the Scottish Secretary and Malcolm Rifkind at the FO/Defence.<BR><BR>"Scottish MPs can vote on English matters but English ones cannot vote on Scottish ones." Well, that's really a problem for you English to sort out. My own feeling is that it is a pretty stupid situation, but as a Scot I'm not about to tell you how to run your country. You need to get on and do something about it if you don't like it.<BR><BR>"If a Scot achieves anything the headlines will be something like "Scottish scientist achieves breakthough". If an English person does the same it will be "British scientist etc. etc." " Oops - got that the wrong way round! The BBC in particular are still bad at distinguishing between England and Scotland. Watch the reports from the World Cup. If there's trouble at England games, it will be "British" fans who are arrested. They are not there representing Scotland (actually, any Scottish fans there are likely to be adopting their traditional second team - "anyone playing England!")<BR><BR>"Every person in Scotland receives about 25% more of public money than an English person." I'm not going to deny that Scotland gets a higher percentage per head of public money than in England, but I would dispute 25% more. In any case, Scotland traditionally has had more money because of "social issues" (ie the closure of mines, steelworks and shipyards) and also council tax rates are approximately 50% higher than in England & Wales.<BR><BR>

Sassenach

I think we should take this all further. Let's devolve London and the South East from the rest of the country and see how they get on without our taxes and economy

Annie

And see how the Londeners get along having to pay a 30% tax on all of the goods imported from the rest of the UK.

Sheila

Don't you just LOVE generalisations? There are 6 Scots in the Cabinet and 17 non-Scots.<BR><BR>English MPs vote on Scottish matters all the time. There are some Scottish matters on which MPs for English constituencies can't vote; and it's a less than moot point whether or not this is worse than the last two Conservative parliaments when there was not a Scottish MP to express a voice for Scotland in cabinet.<BR><BR>And I would have fallen for partly's serious points had he not trolled with the paragraph about headlines. most English newspapers think Scotland is PART of England. I'd be interested in a list of English/British as opposed to Scottish/British headlines. In that little fight we'd win(lose?) hands down.<BR><BR>And, no, dear Scot, you should not be conceding the subsidy point. It'sa myth as well.<BR><BR>Official statistics suggest that the per capita spend in Scotland is around 20% higher than the UK average. But these figures are based on a very narrow interpretation of public expenditure, and do not include the massive amounts spent on defence, or on the huge panoply of tax reliefs from which developments such as the London Docklands benefit. It's not total public expenditure, it's only part of the public expenditure which is accounted for in Scotland.<BR><BR>This 20% discrepancy is due to the fact that Scotland needs more dole money than it should, and has more public-sector housing and far fewer private schools and private hospitals than most parts of England. And the figures ignore the benefits private schools receive from their charitable status, or that there are tax allowances on private medicine for the over 60s. <BR><BR>Scotland's share of identifiable expenditure is about 11%. A significant proportion (more than double that) cannot be ascribed a georgraphic region. But much of it (and probably most of it) goes into London and the south-east.<BR><BR><BR>persoannly I'm all for devolution to the English regions. Or even to England. But they don't seem to want it.<BR><BR>Now, excuse me; I must go and look out my Sweden scarf

Barbara

Way to go, Sheila!

Jack

Scotland category will have to wait until the Scotts have the guts to unilaterally declare independence. Which means never. Period.

Sheila

We'd have to want it first. And all evidence is that we don't. So it's not lack of guts, but lack of desire- a wholly different thing.

Tony Hughes

Question is, why dont we want it? My opinion is that we're fed dis-information, the sort of stuff telling old people that they'll lose all benefits under independence, that there will be (more) massive unemployment etc..all nonsense.<BR><BR>There isnt another country in the world like Scotland and I mean that in every sense of the word, both positively and negatively. It's just a pity the proletariat suck up all the crap that the british govt. tell them. <BR><BR>Maybe partly why I'm leaving.

scot

Weell, (puts on asbestos suit), in my profession we certainly get the benefit of those subsidies. Health spending in Scotland is up to European standards. I voted against devolution, the "Braveheart vote" as my wife calls it because I was afraid that the poorer English regions are going to demand their fair share of funding.<BR>Yes, partly I share your faith in the spelling ability of the average Scot, as least those of my generation.