How culturally distant are these countries from eachother really? They all seem pretty much the same to me...

How culturally distant are these countries from eachother really? They all seem pretty much the same to me, at least the differences are more like those of different US states then sovereign nations.

They used to be more distant in the past, but they're pretty much all English these days.

Their differences are mainly political these days.
(note that the UK uses FPTP)

In fact pic related was a major catalyst for the independence referendum.

How culturally different were Celts, Picts, Romans, Saxons and Norse, plus whatever was there before those human migrations and invasions.

Bunch of angry crackers.

This is the same for most of the world. If you live a modern western city or a suburb your life experience as the douche in the next country over. Meanwhile all this nationalism.

The Scottish people are entirely justified in desiring independence when views on politics (and via that, ethics, morality etc) are not represented.

The opinion you hold was debunked quite thoroughly in

Do they really desire independence though?

The vote was 45 - 55. Majority didn't want independence for various reasons, but most Scots were still miffed that their political opinion is not represented in the Gov.

But 45% wanted independence. That is significant and it's hard to argue that a "tyranny of 55%" is entirely justifiable.

Like all western countries their culture has been commodified to nothing.

Not much. Scots Drink more, tend to be rougher and poorly and less educated and intelligent, while also being overly patriotic for no real reason.

Everyone else is basically the same just with wildly different accents.

In my experience Scots are actually pretty well educated even if they talk like they've recently had a stroke.

Their banter however is fucking brutal even compared to our own banter in NI.

It should be noted that despite winning 98% of all seats in Scotland during the 2015 General Election, the SNP only secured ~50% of the vote, FPTP; it just works

Not to mention the SNP lost first and only majority in Holyrood back in May, with the Conservatives filling the Unionist vacuum left by Labour asserting themselves as the second party in Scotland running on an highly Unionist platform, beating Labour for the first time in the north since 1955

Speaking as a Scot I feel the SNP may have reached their peak are are falling into a slow decline, and Sturgeons insistence on a second referendum is working against her, especially with pools even showing the population still oppose another referendum even if Scotland voted to remain in the EU, and the UK as a whole voted to leave.

And constant referendums held until the yes side gets their result is fine? A constant divisive statue hanging over the country, more years of the SNP focussing on the referendum rather than governing. It'll just be the tyranny of the 45%, at least the 55% holds proper majority.

It's all the same culture. I know states in the US with more differences within their borders

Well you have the English who are right and proper sensible chaps. Best in all of Britain. Close second are the Ulstermen, a bit loony and insane but top lads all around.

Then you have the ghastly dregs, the leftovers. Welsh, Scots, Irish who will stop at nothing to destroy England for no rational reason. The countries who were dragged into civilization by their far superior and richer neighbor, and resent them for it. Sinn Fein, who would rather have a thousand Africans flood Norther Ireland than one Protestant. The SNP, who whine constantly about how evil England is and want to break off so they can enact their islamic socialist republic in peace. God, I wish they would all fuck off.

>eternally buttblasted anglo detected

I knew you were biased and talking nonsense as soon as you said "Ulstermen a close second."

Nigger, are you fucking serious?
Maybe the moderate unionists or the ones who will just stay or leave depending on economics, but jesus christ, Ulster Unionists are the biggest bunch of fucking babies in the british isles.

>OUR FLAGGGGG
>OUR CULTUREEEEEE
>WE'RE OPPRESSSSEEDDDDD
>WE WANT TO BE BRITISHHH|
>But not the british laws we don't like :^)

Sinn Fein can fuck off, but the DUP/TUV/Pretty much any hardline protestant unionist party is outright cancer and is making NI a joke. Ulster Unionists are tumblr-tier crybabies

plastic anglos are the worst

for God, Muire and ULAIDH, not G*d and Queen, m'kay

Scots are the best educated people on average in Europe

Important to remember that Lowlanders are the cultural hegemons in Scotland and have been for a few centuries.

Lowland Scots are essentially Germanic settlers that avoided the Norman Conquest. The Scots dialect as spoken today still maintains a lot of North Germanic vocabulary that is absent from standard English.

Traditional Scots culture is an odd portmanteau of puritanical Calvinism and enlightenment liberalism. Saying that, the gigantic influx of Irish mendicants has altered the social dynamic irreversibly.

Most ignorant post in the thread. In Britian two neighboring streets can have wildly different accents

I lived there for 5 years and that is not my experience. The average scot is like an English chav but worse

>And constant referendums held until the yes side gets their result is fine? A constant divisive statue hanging over the country, more years of the SNP focussing on the referendum rather than governing. It'll just be the tyranny of the 45%, at least the 55% holds proper majority.

Strawman.

I never said any of those things which you implied i said. It's one of the inherent flaws of democracy.

>Ulstermen
>top lads
>drive around catholic neighborhoods decked in orange and the British flag hoping to be shot to restart the troubles and fulfill their IRL counterstrike fantasies.

>ulster
>anything but bottom-feeder tier

Ulster prods are slav tier, user. They are the shame of the british isles and I'd honestly let those irish faggots unite and leave us alone if it meant we could remove fucking ULSTER NO SURRENDURRRRR men

Ulster prods are the niggers of ireland, who are the niggers of the british isles tbqh

According to archaeologists daily life was indistinguishable for Picts, Gaels, and Anglo-Saxons

Oh, Neds make English chavs look like upstanding members of society. But the non-subhuman part of society in Scotland are pretty good.

According to archaeologists in the future daily life would be indistinguishable for Americans, Brits and the French. It doesn't mean there's no abstract cultural differences.

>muh accents
Yes, but is there any difference apart from that? Even in the slang used? No? Then shut the fuck up.

Aren't Scots known for having good education

Yes.

Scots are the best educated people in Europe (in terms of average educational attainment) on average and Scotland has more unis in the top 200 per capita than anywhere else in the world.

At the act of Union, there were five universities in Scotland and just two in England.

Having a degree in "media studies" or "battered mars bar studies" does not make you educated.

It's also important to mention that many of the "no" voters were members of the elderly population of Scotland. Give it a decade or two for them to die off and Scotland may end up getting another referendum, which will pass.

>Yes, but is there any difference apart from that?

It's like another world mate. Even what's had for tea time could differ tremendously.

In London you can drive for an hour and go through a jungle, a tourist attraction and a caliphate.

>Close second are the Ulstermen, a bit loony and insane but top lads all around.
Literally have lower IQs than Gypsies or Pakis

You sound underage mate, seeing as you simply can't grasp national identity.

>moderate unionists who stay or leave based on economics

Only an absolute baffoon would insist that Ireland could ever - even in the instance of a second Celtic tiger - maintain the subsidies required to annex Northern Ireland. The amount of misplaced public sector jobs would be impossible to deal with, especially with a government as pitifully cretinous as Fine Gael/Fianna Fail.

You should also stop affiliating east Belfast loyalists with ulster unionists, because quite frankly you're embarrassing yourself.

>Close second are the Ulstermen
Orange bastard detected
Go get your banner and union flag you proddy cunt

>Only an absolute baffoon would insist that Ireland could ever - even in the instance of a second Celtic tiger - maintain the subsidies required to annex Northern Ireland. The amount of misplaced public sector jobs would be impossible to deal with, especially with a government as pitifully cretinous as Fine Gael/Fianna Fail.
The North will remain on life support as long as partition continues. Whether the short term issues of integration are worth the long-term decay of NI is debatable, and I'd accept if you don't think so. I agree about FG/FF being cretinous however they are faced with reform or obsolescence. They can't continue in their current state.

Depends what you mean. Over all we are very similar as far as countries go. The celt belt countries generally get on well with eachother, English people can be great or awful depending on class and location. All in all we have fairly compatible cultures for friendship, immigration/emigration etc.

I think the cultures are incompatible for political union, England and Wales could stay unified but Scotland will probably go and Ireland is long past the point of no return. Values are too different as is the political conscience.

As for deeper aspects of culture, Manners are very different as are ideas about formality, respect for authority, etc. Sense of humour is different though irish people are very familiar with the English sense of humour and are very fond of it. Not sure if the reverse is true. I've no idea what the Welsh sense of humour is but the Scottish seems to be somewhere in between England and Ireland.

Patriotism is handled differently in different countries, the celtic countries seem to have a left-wing nationalism where England's is right-wing. English people are more likely to value British identity and some English people are uncomfortable with displays of specifically English nationalism (no idea why)

Traditional culture, folklore and mythology are completely different between the Gaelic, Briton and English areas. Some areas have a Norse influence too. There is a huge amount of shared repertoire for folk songs, shared themes between Gaelic/Welsh mythology and overlap in a lot of areas, but the traditions themselves are independent and predate any union between the countries. It is important to note, however that these traditions do not follow strictly national boundaries. Lothian is closer intraditional culture to Newcastle than to Lewis, despite both places being Scottish. Likewise Cornwall is closer to Wales than to Manchester.

Modern pop culture is more based on cities. London has it's own scene different from Bristol, etc.

The best thing about NI is that we literally sponge of Westminster and get to have the most bloated, bureaucratic public sector in the UK. We are literally giving Westminster money to let us lower corporation tax despite companies telling the Executive they won't come her and half the industry is leaving. The fact that the SDLP and UUP are being applauded, viewing themselves as heroic, for going into opposition is laughable considering they are only in their mess because they have failed to engage the electorate. Everything about this place is a joke.

English nationalism is uncomfortable for people because it's associated with the EDL, the BNP and other right groups. Also because England is the dominant region they see themselves as British, though it is an interesting point.