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

[Lynsey953]

I often see a lot on the news about British Culture and UK culture but I know that Scotland has a different education system to England and Wales as well as higher taxes paid to the government and a lot of "free" things paid for by these taxes i.e. free prescriptions, free university tuition etc ... A lot of people in Scotland also identify as Scottish, not British. Do you think this means Scottish people have a different cultural identity than English or Welsh people?

The best way I’ve heard it described is that the United Kingdom is a premodern state. The Act of Union came about a century after the union of the crowns under King James I and preserved all of the Scottish institutions except 2: the royal mint (no longer needed as a shared currency was agreed and brought enormous economic opportunity) and Parliament (which was absorbed into Westminster until Tony Blair started devolution). This is largely because Scotland requested the union, so it came about as an act of collaboration. By contrast, most modern states have come about because of conquest or revolution.

I have a Scottish parent and an English parent, so I grew up with both sets of grandparents. The cultural differences were subtle and I’d say that Glaswegians traditionally had more in common with Liverpudlians, as big industrial port cities, than with folk from Edinburgh.

YABU to omit Northern Ireland from your OP.

While nominally "British", the House of Parliament and House of Lords were overwhelmingly composed of members from England during the 18th, and 19th centuries. And no, obviously before universal suffrage those bodies weren't made up of a representstive sample of English people, and therefore "not all English", but to say it was "British" is disingenuous.

Im Irish in Northern Ireland and I concur.

When people say "the English" (or "the Scots") did such and such, that's unfair as its specifically the minority who make up the elites as you say, not everyday folk.

A regular English person has nothing to do with actions of an aristocrat or a colonial governor.

When I comment on the white settler entity that is america with its ethnic cleansing of the Natives and enslavement of Africans, I'm referring to the elites who carried it out, ie. the planter class (racist, genocidal slave owning tyrants like george washington and thomas jefferson), not everyday folk.

In regard to OP's question, there are minor differences among the nations of the two islands but there is far more common than not. In Northern Ireland we are a hybrid of Irish and British culture (although even the Republic of Ireland its a hybrid of the two as its a shared culture in the two islands). I was at uni in Liverpool and I might as well have been in Belfast or Dublin.

Think the one big difference can be seen during Prime Ministers Questions as the commons goes eerily quiet whenever a Northern Ireland politician gets up to speak (as opposed to the usual noise with barbs being thrown around) as the other MPs have no idea what they are on about. Politics in Northern Ireland is very tribal/backward (orange vs green) which regular politicians cannot relate to.

No read the full thread but just to say, Wales has different GCSEs to England too- we've not gone over to 1-9s.

I'm from NI, there are very distinct cultural differences in this tiny region alone. Nevermind the rest of the UK.😂

I think of myself as British, but I suppose I'm English. I moved from London to East Anglia a few years ago and it's a very different culture. I love it.

Contrary to PPs, I'm proud of our long, rich & varied history. A seafaring nation that really did rule the waves!

Cofiwch Dryweryn. Enough said.

And yes. Ditto Cornwall and Isle of Man, too.

Separate cultures to English culture.

In a Scot living in London. It's so different ! Scotland is much more egalitarian. I think that is I part to do with the shear amount of wealth down here. It just doesn't exist where I come from so there isn't the same schism between rich and not. Plus there is not as obvious a class system. Everyone down here think I'm from a council estate. I'm not. I am horridly middle class but have. Scottish accent.

I'd say there are actually five counties though. England Scotland, wales , n.i and London. London is a world of its own. Go beyond the m25 and you are in an alien environment. I don't think of living in England here as it's a world city . Few people here 'come ' from London. Just outside of it I feel very Scottish! I feel like an outsider in a country that is foreign to me. Attitudes are very conservative and every is so polite. Back home we are blunt and took the point. Gets me into trouble sometimes.

Of course there are cultural differences. That's like asking if there are cultural differences between Texas and California, Greece and Denmark, America and Canada, or Russia and Ukraine.
Sometimes they are small and subtle, like scones and jam, sometimes they are so big people die for them- get the fuck out of Ukraine Russia.

We are a melting pot of historic cultures here in the UK, a shared and often bloody history that unites us and divides us at the same time. Devon and Cornwall take their scones differently, but if anyone told them they had to eat them without jam, they would join together very quickly to put a stop to that nonsense. And that's just a small region, of one country within the UK- imagine the rest of the countries.

ffs 🤦‍♀️

This is a huge generalisation. It very much depends where you live in Wales. I know plenty of people who have been to and who send their children to private school, and plenty more who use private health care.

It's also completely untrue that there's less focus on class - there's plenty of focus on the differences between the working classes and areas of deprivation of the valleys and certain areas of Cardiff compared to the middle and professional classes of other areas of Cardiff and parts of the vale of Glamorgan for example, and this is played out all over south wales.

they're probably English tbf 😁

There are many Londoners who are London born and bred and have family from London, it didn't used to be a global city and the people who are not originally from London just added to the population, I don't think that means it's devoid of Londoners who are not global citizens! Also, DH and I are born and bred Londoners but have a very diverse heritage between us. I am British, English but have recent Danish family and still visit extended family, I also have Irish heritage as does DH and he has an ethnic heritage that it s not really found in many parts of the UK. We therefore don't see ourselves as these English oppressors as our families were pretty much not English, in London that isn't really particularly uncommon!

Hmmm can't agree with most of this

Yes it varies by area but you could say the same about anywhere else - the culture of Tower hamlets is going to be pretty different to the culture of Oxford or Brighton.

You could break "different lifestyles and experinces" down to different neighbourhoods only streets away from each other in pontcanna vs Riverside but that wasn't what the op was asking - they were talking on a national level/ the countries as wholes and it is undisputable fact- there are NO grammar schools in the whole of Wales and, while YOU might know a number of people who went/go to private school but statistically,, in the country as a whole, that's unusual - according to This there are only 19 private schools in the whole of Wales- and those are concentrated in certain areas (mainly Monmouth and cardiff) so there are whole counties in Wales without any private schools at all. The same article says that 5 counties in Wales didn't have any children educated privately.

So instead of 7-10% of kids going to private school and another 10-15% going to grammar, 99-100% of kids in many many areas will go to the local state school regardless of their family background. That is going to have a huge impact on the way people interact and grow up.

As for the rest - that's your experience -I can only report my own and say that, despite of course understanding growing up that some families were richer/poorer than others and some parents did different jobs, I didn't have anything like the concept of defined social "class" that ALL the new English friends/acquaintances I met at uni seemed to have an inherent understanding of, and even now that I "get" it, it's not something that figures in my daily life or I ever discuss and think about - whereas the extent to which the topic is discussed on here (not to mention all the newspaper articles, books etc) on it suggests there are a lot of people in England who are still very interested in it.

Just one example -it's weird to me that riding/keeping horses is seen as a middle or upper class activity when every single person I know who rides regularly is very much not posh or well off at all, just live in the countryside!

Just ask what the name of a small single portion of bread baked in a round formation is called and you will see just how different all areas of the UK and regions within are.

But we have much much more that unites us than divides us, one of them being we in the UK like to massively focus on our divsions. Like a lot of dysfunctional families who gripe widely about each other, when an outsider tries to join in, they are definitely not allowed.

As for the single portion of bread, it's a cob.

I always get confused with Northern Ireland as I believe they are part of the UK but not Britain? Ot vice versa?

Sorry if this is wrong.

Thanks everyone for your views. I put England and Wales together because News reporters do but I can see from comments that people feel it's very different.

Do Welsh people pay higher taxes than English people?

I’m Welsh. Moved to England at 15 and Scotland at 23 (never been to NI). I’ve not noticed any particular differences. I did live briefly in London and would say that feels like a different world to the rest of the UK, however.

There are loads of born & raised Londoners in London but people seem to not realise this for whatever reason.

I think England is more outwardly class obsessed & controversially people are more uptight & less funny than the other nations.

Welsh not British. If someone thought I was English, I'd be highly offended. Thankfully things are different here, and we won't have GCSEs either, as of next year.

Wales has a wonderful, rich history and culture. Shame about the English trying to eradicate it.

I am Northern English and have Irish and Scottish grandparents. It is blurred lines.

I don't feel culturally linked to London, the monarchy is a mild source of anachronistic annoyance and Radio Four leaves me cold - it is much further away culturally and geographically than say Glasgow. However I think this is more related to being brought up working class in the North during the 80s and hearing stories of (Southern) English perceived persecution of Northern cities.

or your actions in Northern Ireland which are not 100s of years ago???
That’s the problem when there are no apologies or acceptance of responsibly- makes it hard for anyone to forgive or move on.

The Northern Irish are about as different as you can get from the English!! More in common with the Scots perhaps but MUCH less so with the Welsh.
So yes, all very different.
Great Britain is essentially Scotland &’Wales & England - the mainland- while U.K. is all 4 nations - at least for now…