Yy about the Scots question. I'm suspicious, I have to say! I wouldn't go as far as saying it's just English with a few dialect/ local words, said in a vaguely Scottish accent - it is, as rara says, very diverse - but there are some versions of it that aren't far off!
I'm not scottish and haven't had any training/ lessons or anything - just picked up the odd bit of vocab here and there, and got a bit more used to various accents. But I would genuinely say I can read and write it ( I DS had to write poems and stuff in scots during homeschool 
) Understanding is a bit hit and miss... I'd understand someone reading the gruffalo, or a "gentle" speaker, but not an actual Scottish person talking unprepared Scots. Just like I understand basic French spoken slowly, but not with a huge, esoteric vocabulary talking at nine to the dozen. And I don't speak it other than reading out stuff badly. So I wouldn't usually claim to have any expertise in it - any more than I would claim to speak/read/ understand Geordie by adding in the odd, why-aye man to my chatter.
I just think that if they can get a large proportion of the population claiming knowledge of it, they'll spend more time on it in school, do more adverts in it and so on, and I'm not contributing to that!!
Gaelic is different, obviously. That's a definite and distinct language, spoken as a first language by some and really not closely related to English at all. Much though I'm 
at the gaelic roadsigns in the central belt and all, I can understand it is worth preserving and promoting where there are communities where it is culturally important, and even outside those communities, there is nothing wrong with learning it as a language, with all the benefits that brings. Much like BSL, I suppose - I don't object at all to that being recorded and promoted. Scots just seems different to me, though...