Is there cultural differences between the 4 countries of the UK?

Given that there are cultural differences within the 4 countries of the UK (i.e. North and South Wales, Highlands and Lowland of Scotland etc), of course there are cultural differences.

How, both are couple going out for an evening where alcohol is served. You could even throw in French and Spanish couples going to meet in a taverna into the mix and it's pretty much the same thing

Of course there are cultural differences but some of the perceptions of culture are really not so very different as people love to think.

Massively so! They have their own history and languages and all the literature, art, music and cultural norms and traditions that come with that. It’s incredible to me that so many English people don’t have a clue about the variety of cultures within our own Island!
Any day of first week of August, please come to the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham for a taste of Welsh culture!

(We do have free prescriptions in Wales, but we do also have to pay tuition fees. It’s Scotland that doesn’t have tuition fees.)

So if I said that Lachlan/Morag from the Highlands were meeting Pat/Saiorse their BFFs from Cork in a Wegie pub, vs Nigel/Penelope from Newbury meeting Tristan/Drusilla from Salisbury in a Chelsea wine bar, you would all instantly identify with the intrinsic cultural differences implied. :))

Of course you could have same sex pairings….you never heard of the Gay Gordon’s!? Honestly, these are kids at primary school, let’s leave the pc nonsense behind for five minutes 🙄

I grew up in Dundee and still have some extended family there. There was a clear distinction between those who said ‘eh’ and ‘peh’ etc., and those who didn’t. It still exists. My mother was from a large W/C family, none spoke in the vernacular. They sounded more like my father who went to private school. Pretty standard Scots English.

My great aunt was a weaver in a Dundee mill, but the next generation of women, my mum’s siblings, went into offices. They had to speak ‘properly’ to get those jobs back then, and it was instilled into my generation of the family, 1940s and 50s. I’ve never had a problem being understood since I moved to England, although it’s still obvious where my origins are.

most people speak a colloquial dialect of English that is specific to their county/region/ city;
Dundee famous ‘eh and peh’ doesn’t seem to be permeate into Angus. these dialects are more akin to English than Scots.
I think Doric is the only official dialect of Scots.

Scotland does have Cathedrals; St Giles in Edinburgh,
Dornoch and Brechin for example.

Id say most Scottish people speak at least some Scots, even if they don’t realise it.

Of course. It would be hard not to have differences when we have different languages. Speaking another language changes more than just what you say, but your whole world view is different.
I think it’s great that we have those differences, diversity is a great thing.

Yes, I think people forget the warrior queen Boudicca was Celtic. From around Norfolk I think. The Celts settled as far east as Russia and all the way down into southern Europe.

There are no grammar schools in north east England either. This isn’t a difference between countries, it’s a difference between areas of the UK.

1. 1% of Scotland speaks Gaelic. 7. Is the same in England.

I’ve moved around England a fair bit. Cultural differences exist between counties, never mind countries.

There has to be a way of comparing performance. PISA is an international testing system. But on any public exam measures or percentage of young people going to university Wales is always behind England. You simply cannot have an education system where no comparisons are made of attainment either between students or between different areas/demographics etc.

One new difference: Assisted Dying.

And Partition in Ireland in 1921.

The arbutrary removal by Westminster of 6 Irish counties from their 26 fellow counties to make "Northern Ireland".

Why do you think a single, standardised, written test is an accurate measure of attainment?

Highland clearances were not the oppression of the Scots by the English.
Many Scottish landlords wanted to depopulate the highlands for their own gain. Yet again the poor people received the shitty end of the stick.

Whilst I do not agree with the brutal highland clearances I imagine the Highlands and Islands of Scotland would look very different today if they had not happened; perhaps not as much nature and biodiversity but better infrastructure and increased population? Who knows. As flower of Scotland says; those days are gone now and in the past they must remain.

There was an interesting article in the critic a few months ago about grooming gangs suggesting that the problem stems from the tribal areas the ethnic minority males come from which have been translated to a micro community here in the U.K. rather than their faith.
It made me ponder if the tribal Scottish clans implemented the same behaviour.
elder men implement their laws, having final say so on many everyday matters;
outwith the clan is seen as not one of us so any atrocities done are not that bad and there are not many repercussions from your clan;
waring clans can have blood feuds for generations;
within the clan any crimes committed need to be dealt with fairly and swiftly as there is strength and success in keeping a harmonious clan together.

But let’s face it the ones who were ‘cleared’ or chose to clear (and there were lowland clearances too) went mostly to the US and a better life.

Well, here in Wales we have got the lowest rankings of all 4 nations in PISA tests, so something's not working.

You and I didn't do any oppressing. Ancestors of the ruling classes did, people living in poverty had a choice to do the bidding of those people or starve like everyone else but they didn't make the decisions

My ancestors came from all over, most were not in positions to make big decisions, just to carry out the grunt work, even the wealthy higher born ones. Some worked on their doorstep for a pittance, some had to buy their food with tokens from the factory shop and lived in a warm bed system, some spent their lives working on the land and had to pay for any help out of their own wages, quite a lot of them died in battles or of the usual military ailments. Those people were English or lived in England, not people who made big decisions and oppressed people off their own back. I get fed up of people labelling all English as one big oppressive mass, most English were just normal people going about their day, raising their families and dying for their country in wars they didn't start in places under different stars.

Correct, I'm amazed the Welsh language has survived. Completely discouraged well into the 1970s.

Some of the cultural oppression of Wales and Scotland is not ancient history of hundreds of years ago.

The Welsh not (punishment for speaking Cymreag) was in existence until Victorian times and those of my family who started teaching in the 1890s were not allowed to teach in Welsh, having to do remedial English lessons for the local mining families.

The Highland Clearances in Scotland continued until at least 1855, and were not formally outlawed until 1886.

There are things in common, but many cultural differences between the four countries of the United Kingdom.