6 Nations Rugby Tournament

[Phil]

[QUOTE=davecolorado72;490639]I think what you're saying is a bit misleading here. In regards to National identity the state I live in has nothing to with with my national identity. My passport lists me as a US citizen, not a Coloradoan. If the US is playing Mexico in the World Cup I am pulling for the US, not Colorado. [QUOTE]

I think what you're saying is a bit misleading here. In regards to National identity the state I live in has nothing to with with my national identity. My passport lists me as a US citizen, not a Coloradoan. If the US is playing Mexico in the World Cup I am pulling for the US, not Colorado.

I think McClef might have used a better analogy. What we have in the UK is a bit like the US & Canada. Wales is a bit like Colorado in that it has been subsumed into England for hundreds of years and, although it likes to retain a regional identity, has not been a sovereign nation since it was conquered by the English and does not have its own system of laws and education but follows those of England. Scotland, however, always was an independent nation with its own kings, laws, language and customs and only entered into a mutually agreed union in 1707 because England feared an alliance between Scotland and France and the then ruling classes in Scotland had squandered their money on an ill-fated expedition to Central America (The Darien Scheme). They saw this as a way of recouping their losses (bought and sold for English gold - Robert Burns) and, as most of them already had land in England it made no great difference for them. This was nothing new, by the way. Comyn, Edward's puppet at the time of Wallace, himself held substantial estates in England and self-interest is always a powerful persuader. Votes for all was a non-existent joke in those days so it was never a democratic decision. I hope you see, therefore, why Scotland has a distinct national identity, quite separate from its southern neighbour, England in much the same way as Canada, I assume, does from the USA.