oops I think you may have upset a few of our regulars with that second paragraph there AengusOg!
Plus the first corner shop I ever went into in Edinburgh was ran by a very scottish speaking indian man!!! and that was over 20 years ago - he definately was not english

Anyhow I think the scots and the irish are the same peoples - my maiden name was Kilbride, and most of my relatives are from Southern Ireland but I can copy the scottish accent perfectly and feel just as much at home there as I do here - even though I was born in England.
Best to be British me thinks
Julie x
Actually, the Asian communities in Scotland have a sense of community and integration which is, sadly, lacking in many of our other immigrants. They (the Asians) have little desire to change everything (when was the last time you saw a cow in the road in Glasgow

), and they are generally friendly, and tolerant of our quaint Scottish ways.
You are, of course, correct when you point out the similarities between the Irish and the Scots. The main difference is that the Irish fought long and hard, and will do so again, to resist English rule, whilst the Scots just seem to accept it being done by the back door.
It's actually laughable when the Arbroath people get all animated on the subject of the Declaration of Arbroath, getting dressed up to mark the anniversary of the famous rag......you know, the one which declares to all and sundry, and the pope of the time, that "as long as one hundred of us remain alive, we will never succumb to English rule"...................Arbroath must be the only place in the country where it's believed that we don't still live under the dark cloud which is England, despite having a re-emergence of our own Parliament after 300yrs of servility.
I've no doubt that the English would love the Scots to forget all about the 1000 years of oppression, and our fight for a basic freedom to live our lives, within the confines of our tiny plot of land, without being constantly invaded by our covetous and base neighbours.
Strangely enough, the English who still live in England are beginning to realise what it may mean to lose their national identity, even if they missed the fact that they had one in the first place

, and are now beginning to think that they may, perhaps, wish to keep a little bit of good old Blighty for themselves, as they see it being slowly taken away from them by incomers. Maybe the intensifying English sense of nationality will be the saving of Scotland by some perverse quirk of fate.
The French have the rights of it, I think, when they refuse to employ non-indigenous persons.
I don't want to be British................not when I see how the English, under the umbrella of 'Brits', behave in other peoples' countries.

:

Shades of being tarred with the same brush, I fear.
