To wonder if differences between Scotland and rUK are generally known?

[weescotlass]

I see lots of posts about UK and British issues, that seem to refer to England only.

Is it generally understood that Scotland was a separate country pre 1707 and already had its own legal and education system in place, which were retained on the creation of the United Kingdom?

Therefore house buying, school exams, wills, divorce, university degrees, criminal law, policing etc have real distinct differences.

Are people who use the term UK not aware of the differences when refering/advising on something that affects England only?

Genuinely interested and not meaning to cause an argument. I find the differences really interesting, things like inheritance law when people ask about wills, or issues when a buyer pulls out of buying a house. I don't want to comment on new/current controversial legislation!

@weescotlass I think few people can you give you the detail of what the differences in various areas are, unless they have had to focus on a particular area due to circumstances, but I do think more of those who live in Scotland, Wales and NI are aware that there ARE differences.

Personally I think Everyone on MN should be saying where they live in the OP

I don’t think anyone’s expecting all English/Welsh posters to have expert knowledge of the conveyance system. Just to appreciate that there are differences and that weighing into a thread to confidently state that x or y will definitely apply isn’t that helpful

Actually, there's just three legal jurisdictions in the UK:

1. England & Wales

2. Scotland

3. Northern Ireland

England, Wales and Northern Ireland legal systems are most similar whereas Scotland's has more differences.

Somewhat similar to how each State in the United States has differing laws on the same things.

Both have overarching central government laws.

I think that maybe English/people living in England may fall into the higher proportion of MN users. Criacnet and Scotsnet wouldn't have to exist if that wasn't the case.

Also, OPs not based in England start a thread about divorce, inheritance or education but fail to mention where they're from, it also points to them not realising that each country does things differently.

I don't think so. 'American' is an accepted colloquialism. Canadians are Canadian, a Brazilian might use Latin/South American. I'm also from a region considered to be part of 'The Americas' but don't use American at all.

I think there is often an assumption of London/South East based TBH.

yes I think so.

@Mrsjayy
Fully agree, I read a post once where an OP was spoken to nastily because she was in Australia, how dare she not realise she had to live in SE England!!

I think there is a growing awareness on MN - eg you see people making the point that any legal advice they are giving relates to England, or Scotland or wherever. It would help if people would always say where they are, including England. It's not just the UK and Ireland - people talk about a scenario which makes no sense in a UK context (eg talking about not being invited to a BBQ in December) and only when people say "erm what" do they acknowledge they are in New Zealand or whatever.

The BBC always talks about the "NHS in England" (but never seems to talk about the NHS in Scotland). When I am writing articles about legal things, I always refer to the UK government and not just the government.

It isn't hard to be clear - but MNers also need to stop the gotcha type thing and be clear about where they are when they ask for advice on things.

And yes, I've known that school holidays are different in Scotland for about 20 years, largely due to going on holiday there in the English May half term, which Scottish schools don't have.

Yes this is interesting - in Germany they always say US-American - it's not something I've ever heard in English speaking countries.

I'm Northern Irish, went to University in Scotland, lived in England for 33 years (almost), have a Scottish DH, and an English child.
So I'm pretty well versed except for Wales.
I can honestly say that most English people have little or no understanding of the rest of the UK, nor do they care. Sadly, including my 15yo, despite my best efforts!

I find the faux ignorance regarding school holidays, regional accents/pronunciations frustrating. Surely if your a MN high earning RG graduate you'd know these things 🤣

drop gotten or outwith into a post and watch them explode with rage 😃

It's not so much the faux ignorance as the poster thinking they have a massive "gotcha".

First week in July someone posts they are on holiday in Spain with the kids and X or Y happens, won't be long until someone's accusing them of trolling or to expect a huge fine for taking the kids out of school in term time.

Or someone posts a long saga about something which happened on a Sunday afternoon and says they had no alternative but to do the "big shop" at Asda at 9pm and along come the posters to say she MUST be lying because everyone knows shops are only open until 4pm or 5pm on a Sunday.

They think they're being clever. They're really not.

It's an English-owned and -based forum and with England having a much larger population within the UK, the probability and working assumption is that more users will be English, so it is reasonable for people to state that they are posting from Scotland or other part of the UK which may have different laws or systems.

Most people have a very low level of understanding in my experience. I've worked with UK civil servants who aren't aware of the differences, and therefore do not understand the limitations of their remit and powers. For example attempting to distribute funding that needs to get to schools across the UK by handing it to DofE who have no mechanism to get cash to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Or drafting (and passing!) legislation that says 'and amends the equivalent legislation in Scotland' when there is no equivalent legislation because we've had separate systems for hundreds of years (and that happens all the time - look at any immigration legislation that touches on devolved areas like children, social work, health for example). If the people running our country don't understand the differences, then the chances of your average person understanding are slim-to-none. As you point out many of these differences are hundreds of years old - I can only imagine how much worse it was before devolution!

Obviously I don't have the context, but when it comes to asking for advice, TBH, (and nastiness aside) I don't get Australians posting on this site. I don't go on Australian forums asking for advice?

This this this!!!!

Aye, by that you mean Robert Gordon University. RG. RG.🤪

Definitely this.

You just called a whole nation racist? Ffs

No. To be fair, plenty of people don't have very detailed knowledge about how those things work in the part of the British Isles where they live themselves, never mind in any other bit.

@Seeline

When I'm asked what I am, I say I'm English - never British.

And if people ask why I make such a distinction I say because that's the country / culture I'm familiar with and that I'm not familiar with Scotland etc, and that they have their own distinct cultures.

But I get what you mean, there's some definite cultural relation between people who are "PROUD TO BE ENGLISH" and well, racism. It's an unsavory truth

Many years ago after moving back to Scotland from Northern Ireland I called the CB agency to change my address, they told me i wasn't entitled to any child benefit as i had been overseas, no amount of arguing made the fool on the other end of the phone understand that N.I was part of the U.K I lost 3 months worth of CB.

I only found out through MN last week that there are schools in Wales where Welsh is the language used! I'm 37 and never knew that!

Does Scotland have Gaelic schools?