Differences between the nations of UK

[BlueCowWonders]

This feels daft to have to ask, but where can I find differences in day-to-day living between England/ Scotland/Wales/ Northern Ireland? I'm thinking particularly for students from one country but studying in another. Scottish students don't pay tuition fees (I think) and people in Wales don't pay prescription fees etc

Dc has chosen to study in another country (probably to get further away from family ) but I feel as if I need more info!

You don't pay for prescriptions or eye tests in Scotland.
Uni fees in Scotland are free for Scottish residents and I think maybe only if you go to a Scottish uni. The whole education system in Scotland is different and I've still not got my head round it!

In Scotland you don’t pay prescription fees either. Which country are they going to and where are you currently, that might help?

No prescription charges in Scotland either

@emmathedilemma I’m Scottish and can’t get my head around the English system. I hate when a poster says ‘year 9’ erm what is that? How old is that?

[quote BashfulClam]@emmathedilemma I’m Scottish and can’t get my head around the English system. I hate when a poster says ‘year 9’ erm what is that? How old is that?[/quote]
Add 4 to the year and that will give you their age at the beginning of the school year.

@BashfulClam

In Scotland you don’t pay prescription fees either. Which country are they going to and where are you currently, that might help?

England and Wales in our case but I'm fascinated by the same-but-different nature of every day things.

And of course students/ young people get treated differently anyway.

In Scotland teacher's teach instead of doing uniform inspections and sending children out of class

And IME they don't do lunchbox patrol either!

No SATS in Scotland.

Ok I'm well out of primary schools but I'd be really grateful if anyone could point me towards more general sources of info

I’m Scottish, but by christ are some of the above posters chippy

@BlueCowWonders

Ok I'm well out of primary schools but I'd be really grateful if anyone could point me towards more general sources of info

Welsh Government website/Twitter?

The university website may well have some resources for international students that you find useful.

WALES (by a Welsh woman):

NHS waiting lists in Wales are far longer than England.

Finding a NHS dentist taking on patients would be less likely than a lottery win.

Council tax higher than fancy London boroughs. Ditto fuel and food prices.

Free prescriptions mean little when you can’t get a GP appt when you need one.

Still the best place in the world though.

Free prescriptions in Northern Ireland.

In scotland under 26s don't have to pay dental treatment and they are rolling that out to anyone.

Schools are different here we start school a year later then England and wales.

Uni is free if scottish and going to a Scottish University.

Precriptions are free, scotland has its own nhs system.

They are also taking over disability payments for children and then adults.

It does make everything feel more devided, i think its good but can make it confusing to know what happens in the other 3 countries x

Our uni fees are approx 1/2 of English ones

Scotland also has a different tax amount to. I think its higher than the other nations possibly.

Schools start six months later in Scotland than England, not a year

More common to defer though.

Stay in your own country folks.

@pareyea

I’m Scottish, but by christ are some of the above posters chippy

I don't know what this means (probably because I can't read any time and don't know what 'choppy' means) but nothing above is untrue?

Renting property privately: private tenants are better protected in Scotland than in England (IMO). Tenancies are open-ended, and landlords have to give a reason and supply proof if they want a tenant out. (This might not apply to student letting.)

Scotland doesn't really have freehold/leasehold (property). Feuhold is the Scottish law equivalent of freehold (although it's technically a bit different to how English law would define freehold). There are leasehold properties in Scotland but not many.

Arson doesn't exist in Scotland. Legally speaking, at least. The offence that you and I would recognise as arson is called 'wilful fire-raising' under Scottish law.

Drink-driving limit is higher in England than in Scotland. I.e less alcohol will put you over the limit in Scotland. (In fact it's so low you might as well not drink at all, which is good advice all round really.)

It's hard to think of a website that would give you the info you're after OP because things probably differ more on other aspects rather than country, such a specific location (seaside/city/suburb etc), age, gender, interests, students vs employed, etc.

e.g. I've lived in Bristol, Cardiff, and Aberystwyth. Living in Cardiff and Bristol were much more 'similar' that Cardiff and Aber, even though those two are in Wales and Bristol in England. Living in London was different again.

A 19 y/o male student in Swansea and a 19 y/o male student in Leeds would probably have a lot more in common than the 19 y/o Swansea student would have with a 60 y/o woman living in Anglesey, etc etc.

Generally I don't think there's a huge difference in day to day life between the UK countries.

One or two things I can think of for england/wales differences specifically:

• Rugby is a BIG THING in Wales. My english friends were a lot more bothered about football, for them only posh boys played rugby whereas in Wales nearly everyone, from children to grannies, tend to watch the 6 nations, go to the matches, play it in school, etc etc. Cardiff is mad during match games.
• Wales tends to be a lot less class conscious. You don't get all this 'Am I middle class' faffing you see on MN. I think this is because it's a generally poorer country anyway, and also because we don't have grammar schools and only a tiny number of private schools (some counties don't have any) so nearly all kids go to the local comp regardless of what their parents do.
• everything 'official' that's written in wales is in supplied in both languages, from road signs to council tax letters etc. Some places put the Welsh first so she might panic if she gets something completely written in Welsh as my old housemate did, just turn it over and 99% of times the English is on the other side!
• a few different vocab words and idioms (scram rather than scratch, bobbles for hair tie, cwtch for hug, now in a minute), etc. but these would be the same if she was moving from, say, Devon to Newcastle. Depending on where she's moving to she might hear a lot of spoken Welsh, or none at all!

Scotland has different laws about house purchase. Less scope for spiv estate agents and underhand practices.

Scotland:

From the end of Jan 2022 bus travel should be free for everyone under 22.

BA/BSc (hons) are 4 years not 3 as in England.

Tax is higher - different bands, the higher threshold kicks in earlier and is 1% higher. Teeny tiny saving though if you are low laid - might buy a cup of coffee if you're lucky.

As others have said free prescriptions, dental check ups.

In my experience - council tax is a lot higher and the higher bands kick in really early.

Water - has not been privatised and is added to your council tax bill.

The route from school to university is incredibly flexible with many articulated routes via college which means that screwing up your final years at school can be overcome very easily.

The free tuition at university level is a double edged sword - many Scots no longer look outside Scotland because of the much higher costs elsewhere in the UK. There are strict limits on Scottish students which mean that students from elsewhere in the UK can get admitted with lower grades and have a much higher probability of acceptance.

Scotland has its own legal and education system. Divorce, inheritance, tenancy, property ownership etc. are all very different from England.