I find that America in particular has a fascination with the history of other countries- that may be due to the fact that America is a relitively young nation in the grand scheme of things, and secondly because the majority of its residents hail from other lands, large numbers of Irish left for the states so its no suprise that Irish culture (and Scottish) is celebrated, its less usual for people in England to have this fascination with their roots, take for example Steve McLaren hes got a Scottish name and red hair but regards himself as English, which of course is his choice, Tony Blair was born and educated in Edinburgh, but regards himself as English, Sandy Lyle was born in England but regards himself a Scot, I have family born in England but they considor themselves as Scots, so your roots are a factor but less so in the UK, Gordon Brown has been promoting britishness and was seen last year on telly, rooting for the England football team, so there is a big overlap of cultures, in todays society people like to "pidgeon hole" you as something, in the UK you tend to be judged on how you speak, for example, Colin Montgomeryand Gordon Ramsay, both have English accents as do a lot of Scots Lairds etc, but Scots non the less.

Rod Stuart is someone who has made a living from being a "professional" Scot, despite being born in London (to Scots parents) there was a scatihng article about Rod in the Scotsman a few years ago criticising his Scottish credentials as bogus because he was Born in London, which was a little unfair , Rod has got Scots blood and promotes Scotland all over the world, albeit in a slightly stereotyped way.