Scotland is worst small country

[peejay 327]

Tommy: Doesn't it make you proud to be Scottish?

Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: It's SHITE being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the #ucking Earth! The most wretched miserable servile pathetic trash that was ever shat on civilization. Some people hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. Can't even find a decent culture to get colonized by. We're ruled by effete #######. It's a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won't make any #ucking difference!

That's pretty harsh, but hilarious if you have a sense of humor.

I have a Scottish surname, but I've never thought of myself as Scottish or claimed it. I'm neither proud nor shamed by it. I feel no connection to it. Apparently my ancestors came from Scotland to America so long, long ago that we forgot how or when it came to be. I was stuck with the name from birth from my American father as he was from his American father. Welcome to America.

Actually my father's family tree also has English, Irish, and German surnames, but I feel no connection to those countries either because my ancestors were Americanized long ago in the 18th and 19th centuries.

My mother was a Byelorussian girl born in America to Byelorussian immigrants in the 20th century. I have actually traveled to Byelorussia many times to meet my relatives there and have seen the village where my grandparents were born. I went to the cemetery where my Byelorussian ancestors are buried. I met my Russian wife in Belarus (Byelorussia).

Am I Scottish just because I inherited the name? I don't think so. I'm an American that is not ashamed of having a Scottish surname.

I don't have much of a stake in this pissing match.

[JoeMama 0]

I hope to one day visit Scotland. And it's not because of my love for music by The Bay City Rollers either. It's the only place I know besides New York where a man wouldn't get rolled for wearing a kilt. Which most men here would call it a skirt

[JODO 2]

I think the kilts are super cute

Edited June 12, 2007 by JODO

[pedroh 21]

wearing a kilt PWNS.. i have a picture somewhere, of Pedro the Mexican Highlander

Edited June 12, 2007 by pedroh

[JoeMama 0]

wearing a kilt PWNS.. i have a picture somewhere, of Pedro the Mexican Highlander

I hope you added a touch of Mexican flavor to it with a sombrero!

[pedroh 21]

wearing a kilt PWNS.. i have a picture somewhere, of Pedro the Mexican Highlander

I hope you added a touch of Mexican flavor to it with a sombrero!

lol, no, i was hatless.. but nevertheless, a very macho highlander

[JoeMama 0]

wearing a kilt PWNS.. i have a picture somewhere, of Pedro the Mexican Highlander

I hope you added a touch of Mexican flavor to it with a sombrero!

lol, no, i was hatless.. but nevertheless, a very macho highlander

hatless...okay...I hope you were at least wearing underwear under that kilt! I'm sure you didn't want someone running up trying to play your bagpipe!

Edited June 12, 2007 by JoeMama

[pedroh 21]

wearing a kilt PWNS.. i have a picture somewhere, of Pedro the Mexican Highlander

I hope you added a touch of Mexican flavor to it with a sombrero!

lol, no, i was hatless.. but nevertheless, a very macho highlander

hatless...okay...I hope you were at least wearing underwear under that kilt! I'm sure you didn't want someone running up trying to play your bagpipe!

yea i was wearing underwear.. my friends were pickin on me tryin to lift my kilt.. so i was prepared

[Rhiannon 0]

Well a friend brought me back some shortbread cookies from Scotland once and they were heavenly! She said the Scots were very nice and she really enjoyed herself. I am sure Scotland is lovely and who can resist a man in a kilt?

Scotland is nice; I do encourage people to visit it. Edinburgh in particular was a striking and graceful city. However, the social problems there were obvious and in your face. I've never been anywhere else and seen people shooting heroin in the streets. Maybe we were just unlucky, I don't know.

My concern for Scotland is that it would not benefit from independence. Already, things have improved immensely in Scotland and though they have some serious problems, they also have some programs they can really be proud of. I wouldn't want to see it backslide due to financial woes from independence. My concern is chiefly for the Scottish people and their standard of living; I wouldn't want to see it worsen.

Yes there is a lot of tax money going to Scotland but as Kez says it hardly compensates for the hundreds of years of colonization and being told you were a second class citizen; that being said at some point you have to just take it as it is and take your future into your own hands, and not spend so much darn money on a Parliament building!

As a tourist I enjoyed Edinburgh (my fiance lives there) and parts of the Hebrides thoroughly, and I also got called my very first U.K. racial epithet there - I thought it was pretty funny because I am not even Asian.

[Leney 0]

Sorry I was slow in seeing this topic But I will repost what I posted in a thread once before - to preface this, I love Scotland, I have lived in Scotland, my sons are Scottish, my husband is Scottish and we are all very proud. This post was originally in a thread regarding Scottish Independence:

I was a student of history and political science before I decided to have a family, and this entire thing fascinates me to no end. Especially having a keen interest in the American Civil War - brought on, at the true root, by unionist and anti-unionists. As I said previously, I wouldn't want to discuss or debate this with friendly folks - it is something that is felt deeply by the people who believe in it, and it's not really even my place to judge.

One thing I see, that astounds me is the "union" of England and Scotland is 300 years old, while the "union" of the states is 69 years younger. You would be hard pressed to find many with such strong anti-union sentiments in the states (at this point in history!), and if you did, they would be brushed off as cooks and extremists. Yet you see such passion in anti-unionists in Scotland as though they were wronged in their life time. Having lived in both Enland and Scotland, the difference is night and day to me. I liken the pride of Scottish nationality to the pride Americans (please don't take that in a negative) for their country, it's heart warming to see, and it makes me feel honored to have married into such a culture and heritage.

Perhaps Braveheart is to blame for the finger pointing and Westminster hating - darn that Mel Gibson There are painful incidents throughout history for both sides of the coin, and it is easy to lay blame, but after watching Bob the Builder in Gaelic many a Sunday morning (at our children's insistence) and wondering why god why, I think, in reality the union has worked out for all involved to varying degrees and to think otherwise is perhaps naive. Do I wish my state ruled all I did, and I didn't have to adhere to national American laws? Of course! It would be ideal to not have to pay national and state taxes, to not have to deal with a national government for my passport or to worry about national social security, but in reality, in the world scope, it would be impractical and a bit silly. They say there is always a price for freedom, but at what point do you start getting ridiculous and grasping at straws.

I think it's a co-dependent relationship. The UK would hurt without Scotland, just as much as Scotland would hurt without the UK. I think Scotland spoke for herself in pre-election poling and on the nationhood debate tour, stating yeah okay - we want change, we want to see a Scotland with less Labour, but we want the Union. (source http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=72882007)

I also look at it like this, because sometimes we look to the familiar to explain things that are a bit beyond our scope of personal experience - Can you imagine Pennsylvania, as a country independent from the rest of the USA?

Here is a comparison - merely facts:

Scotland - 30,414 sq mi in area, estimated population of 5,116,900 in 2005, largest city is Glasgow (629,501 population)

Pennsylvania - 46,055 sq mi in area, population of 12,281,054 at the 2000 census, largest city is Philadelphia (1,463,281 population)

As written on the PA wiki: Pennsylvania's 2005 total gross state product (GSP) of $430.31 billion (£215.91 billion) ranks the state 6th in the nation. If Pennsylvania were an independent country, its economy would rank as the 17th largest in the world, ahead of Belgium, but behind the Netherlands. On a per-capita basis, though, Pennsylvania's per-capita GSP of $34,619 (£17,370.26) ranks 26th among the 50 states.

As for Scotland, as written on the Scotland wiki: In 2005, total Scottish exports (excluding intra-UK trade) were provisionally estimated to be £17.5 billion ($34.88 billion), of which 70% (£12.2 billion) were attributable to manufacturing. Scotland's primary exports include whisky, electronics and financial services. The United States, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain constitute the country's major export markets. In 2002, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Scotland was just over £78.5 billion ($156.45 billion), giving a per capita GDP of £15,523.00 ($30,937.41).

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Ok - having said all that - here's another thought. The world has been looking at Scotland recently, not only for the elections, the question of an independent Scotland, for the Isle of Skye renaming itself - what does all this do in the grand scheme of things?

Do SNP leaders honestly want an independent Scotland when they go to bed at night? Who knows, but it is definitely a genius little plan to watch the drama unfold as the World looks to Scotland with new interest and attention - generating tourism, business aspirations (Trump is already over there trying to build a golf course now hehe), etc.

I don't have answers really just observations and facts So take from it what you will or ignore it totally!

[Twomoles 8]

I am always amazed how researches are made, about some manipulative facts, judging things overall, always putting the same speculative statement- they wouldn't survive without us. Like its some big brothers protection, what actually nor Ireland, nor Scotland needs. Its standard political game is made up in all occupation territories beside bigger neighbors, what actually is interested to keep of dependency for their own benefits. UK said the same about India and all other colonies, same as Russia said almost about half of Europe, when they "set free and rescued and helped", and you could read this in any press and research in this time, but what is proven wrong now, when things happen, they rule their own things and get very far and flourish. Everyone should have their chance both to go up or fall.