Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Alistair Campbell wrote:If I were cynical, I suspect the shuttle diplomacy that Nicola was carrying out had two purposes - to make her look stateswomanlike, and emphasise the difference between Scotland and England.
So what are the differences?
Apols for the delayed response. That is a good question – maybe I should ask you the same?
A different history, clearly. This is usually thought of as being manifested by:
A slightly different legal system
A slightly different education system
A different established church
There is a slightly different language – different words, different pronunciation, different accents
Different banknotes, different sporting structures, slightly different broadcasting and other media. A different geography. Different voting behaviours (but not necessarily different social attitudes).
Things like tartan, haggis, bagpipes…
Are those big differences? Not particularly – I don’t think an English visitor would take too long to adapt, but if you weren’t sure, you would soon be able to tell that you were in Scotland.
Are those differences bigger than between Yorkshire or Cornwall and the rest of England – undoubtedly IMO. Than Estonia and Russia, say? Probably not. Between North of Italy and the South, or Catalonia and the rest of Spain? I wouldn’t like to say.
A “class” analysis might argue that e.g. a worker in Glasgow has more in common with one in Liverpool or Newcastle than with one in the Highlands.
There are commonalities – 300 years of shared history, a language, the BBC, Sterling, the Queen, the island.
Scots get irritated by things like referring to England when Britain or the UK is meant, by references to the North West to mean Liverpool and not Ullapool, by Scottish sporting news being a seeming afterthought on the news programs, and are bemused by the ignorance (and indeed the ignorance) of some to all things Scottish.
Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Do Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland have more in common with England than with continental Europe?
I would say yes.
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Are those debating this in Scotland aware of what the debate is like in Gibraltar at the moment?
I wouldn’t have thought so.