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Discussions on this page often lead to previous arguments being restated. Please read recent comments, look in the archives, and review the FAQ before commenting.

This article is written in Scottish English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, realise, travelled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Frequently asked questions

Introduction

Issues relating to the geography and politics of the United Kingdom and nearby territories can be surprisingly complex and controversial, and the subjects raised in this FAQ regarding the Scotland article are best understood in this context. We aim to be enyclopaedic and neutral. We also recognise that reconciling diverse views can be hard work as common phrases are sometimes interpreted in different ways in different cultures. We ask that editors new to this page read the following with an open mind. Where necessary, please research the facts rather than simply jumping to conclusions based on what you "know to be true".

Lead section

Q1: Is Scotland a "country"?

A1: Numerous reliable sources support the view that Scotland is a country—see for example the article entitled Countries of the United Kingdom, and a table of references at Talk:Countries of the United Kingdom/refs. This view is shared with other reputable encyclopedias. There has been a long-standing consensus to describe Scotland in this way.

This is one of the most frequent questions raised by visitors to this talk page. However, in the absence of a formal British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of terms exist which are used to refer to Scotland,^[1] England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the UK itself. Reliable and official sources support use of the word "countries", and this term has broadly won preference amongst the editing community. Note however, that a country is not the same as a "sovereign state", and that "constituent country" is also used in other parts of Wikipedia. The community endeavours to achieve an atmosphere of neutrality, compromise, and camaraderie on this issue.

Q2: Why don't we refer to Scotland as a "nation"?

A2: Widespread confusion surrounds the use of the word "nation". In standard British English, and in academic language, a nation is defined as a social group and not a division of land. This is also the approach taken in the article entitled nation, across Wikipedia and in other major encyclopedias (for example, the Scottish people and the Québécois are described as "nations"). The term Home Nations is generally used only in sporting contexts. It is not used in major reputable sources outside of sport.

Infobox-related issues

Q3: Why are two flags used?

A3: There have been extremely complex discussion about these matters. The Royal Standard of Scotland (commonly referred to as the "Lion Rampant") was used by the King of Scots until 1603. Today, its correct use is restricted to official representatives of The Monarch.^[2] The blue and white Saltire is the flag of Scotland and is widely used by national and local government offices and in numerous other less official capacities. As with other issues described here this outcome is to some extent a compromise solution that seems to suit all parties in that it identifies symbols of Scotland as an entity in its own right, whilst also emphasising the importance of the relationship with the United Kingdom.

Q4: Isn't Flower of Scotland the national anthem?

A4: There is no official Scottish national anthem. Although there is no doubt that Flower of Scotland is currently amongst the most popular unofficial national anthems in Scotland, it is not the only one, nor even the longest established.

Q5: What is the reference to the "Scots language" about?

A5: Scots is spoken by 30% of the Scottish population (approximately 1.5 million individuals) according to the 1996 estimate of the General Register Office for Scotland.^[3] It is recognised by the European Union's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[4] By contrast, Scottish English is a variation of standard British English. Whilst the distinction is by no means clear cut, Wikipedia policy permits the use of Scottish English words and phrases where appropriate. Scots, on the other hand, has its own site: see the Scots Wikipedia.

Q6: Wasn't Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom the first Queen Elizabeth to reign over Scotland?

A6: Yes, but "Elizabeth II" is her legal title, as resolved in Scots law in the legal action entitled MacCormick v. Lord Advocate.

Related issues

Q7: What is the difference between "Great Britain" and the "United Kingdom"?

A7: See the article entitled "Terminology of the British Isles". Great Britain is the name of the largest island that the UK encompasses, and is not generally used in source material as the name of the sovereign state.

Q8: Isn't Northern Ireland a province, and Wales a principality?

A8: This view is supported by some sources, but the current consensus amongst the editing community is aligned to a greater body of work which describes both Northern Ireland and Wales as countries. However, the terms are not all mutually exclusive: a country can also be a principality or a province, and these terms are mentioned throughout Wikipedia as alternative names in afternotes.

References

^ Scottish Parliament. "Your Scotland questions; Is Scotland a country?". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2008-08-01. As the UK has no written constitution in the usual sense, constitutional terminology is fraught with difficulties of interpretation and it is common usage nowadays to describe the four constituent parts of the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as 'countries'.
^ The "Lion Rampant" Flag The Court of the Lord Lyon. Retrieved on 10 October 2008.
^ "Scotland's Languages" University of Glasgow. Retrieved 7 December 2008. The proportion is said to rise to 90% in the North East.
^ Both Scots and Scottish Gaelic are officially recognised as autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. See "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" Scottish Government. Retrieved 27 September 2007.

Template:Outline of knowledge coverage

Scotland has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 14, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
August 12, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
December 29, 2006	Good article reassessment	Kept
May 12, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
October 2, 2007	Good article reassessment	Kept
January 25, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
January 13, 2009	Good article reassessment	Kept
Current status: Good article

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	Scotland is within the scope of WikiProject Celts, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the ancient Celts and the modern day Celtic nations. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article or you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks or take part in the discussion. Please Join, Create, and Assess.CeltsWikipedia:WikiProject CeltsTemplate:WikiProject CeltsCelts
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	Scotland notice board
	Regional Notice Boards

Archives

Index

Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
Archive 4	Archive 5	Archive 6
Archive 7	Archive 8	Archive 9
Archive 10	Archive 11	Archive 12
Archive 13	Archive 14	Archive 15
Archive 16	Archive 17	Archive 18
Archive 19	Archive 20	Archive 21
Archive 22	Archive 23	Archive 24
Archive 25	Archive 26	Archive 27
Archive 28	Archive 29	Archive 30
Archive 31	Archive 32	Archive 33

This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by when more than 5 sections are present.

References

Population

Sorry I tried to update the population figure but I mucked it up. Here's the new figure and the reference. 5,295,000 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20754750

First Glasgow Wiki Meetup

You are invited to the first Glasgow Wiki Meetup which will take place at The Sir John Moore, 260-292 Argyle Street, City of Glasgow G2 8QW on Sunday 12 May 2013 from 1.00 pm. If you have never been to one, this is an opportunity to meet other Wikipedians in an informal atmosphere for Wiki and non-Wiki related chat and for beer or food if you like. Experienced and new contributors are all welcome. This event is definitely not restricted just to discussion of Scottish topics. Bring your laptop if you like and use the free Wifi or just bring yourself. Even better, bring a friend! Click the link for full details. Looking forward to seeing you. Philafrenzy (talk) 21:14, 6 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Country/Constituent Country

Hello, I believe defining Scotland as a "country" is highly misleading. I understand that it may well be definied as one, however "country" is more widely expressed as Soveriegn State (ie. The United Kingdom/Kingdom of Spain). I know that a large number of people in Scotland would deny that they are British or even acknowledge the United Kingdom is in any form, a country. The beginning of this article does not go into any detail of what the United Kingdom is and suggests Scotland is a soveriegn state ? Can this please be corrected to something which gives readers a better understanding of what Scotland really is ? Italay90 (talk) 16:29, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The first sentence is a catastrophe, imposed upon this article years ago by a disgraceful cabal of now largely blocked, banned, de-adminned and retired anti-Scottish POV merchants. However, most Scottish Wikipedians are so sick of this pathetic dispute that we quite simply cannot be arsed anymore.

This article will never get to FA status with the current opening line, but that's what happens when topics get highjacked for political grandstanding by morons with zero knowledge of the subject at hand. Funnily enough, none of the attack accounts used to "vote" through the first sentence at the Talk page "discussion" had ever added any substantive content to the body of the article. They turned up solely to change the first sentence, and then haven't been seen again since.--Mais oui! (talk) 16:39, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for explaining :) Italay90 (talk) 16:43, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, a region of the UK. I'm changing it and will continue to do so. 86.153.187.25 (talk) 10:33, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And it will continue to be reverted until you obtain consensus for the change. Britmax (talk) 10:42, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Consensus out the window, this should be a factual piece of literature; not a misleading bit of Nationalistic drivel. I advise you to not to reverse it again. 86.153.187.25 (talk) 11:13, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I am now using this account Samsung2013 (talk) 11:21, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

As you appear to be new to Wikipedia you may like to acquaint yourselve with relevant policies such as WP:TALKDONTREVERT. AllyD (talk) 11:26, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've made my point, the article is very misleading; it totally ignores the fact that Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom. Highly misleading, Wikipedia is about factual non leading resource - this gives the wrong impression there for "constituent" will have to be added. Samsung2013 (talk) 11:30, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. 'Constituent' means 'part of'. as the sentence already explains that Scotland is 'part of' the UK, adding 'constituent' as you have done is introducing tautology. Therefore, I've reverted it. Regards Fishiehelper2 (talk) 11:41, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, The article suggests that Scotland is a sovereign state, which is not the case. Tautologically phrasing is not the case as "constituent country" is a term that distinguishes a sovereign state and a constituent that is part of a sovereign entity; that being the United Kingdom. The term needs to make it clear, Scotland is a constituent. Samsung2013 (talk) 11:50, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The article does not suggest that Scotland is a sovereign state. It says that it is a country. If you read the article on country, you may learn that the two terms are not necessarily synonymous. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:10, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

see Talk:Scotland/Archive_Summary#Scotland_-_A_Nation.3 and Archives 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18. Also see Archive 20 "Consensus on Intro" and Archive_23 "Opening paragraph" Yours ever, Czar Brodie (talk) 12:24, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Economy

From here I have added the financial figures to the %'s so it reads "Despite only making up 8.4% of the UK population, Scotland generates 9.6% (£56.9 billion) of UK revenues and receives 9.3% (£64.5 billion) back from the UK Government" as stating the statement without the figures is holly misleading and gives the appearance there is some subsidising going on, I suggest removing the whole statement as it actually illustrates nothing and is at best deceptive with the "despite" and "receives back" without stating that the money received back is close to 10 billion £ more than is paid in.

The purpose of using percentages is to show that relative to the rest of the UK, Scotland's public finances are in a healthier state. While it is true that Scotland has a public sector deficit at present - as actual figures illustrate - the deficit for the rest of the UK is relatively worse. Therefore, giving percentages helps tackle the unfounded belief (sometimes promoted for political reasons) that Scotland is subsidised by the rest of the UK. Regards Fishiehelper2 (talk) 18:34, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have restored the changes made as clearly giving the figures alongside the percentages is quite within wiki rules and giving both avoids any claims of bias, perhaps if you want to show that relative to the rest of the UK, Scotland's public finances are in a healthier state then you should say so rather than using statistics that imply a deficit of well over 7 billion is not there, this is supposed to be a factual site not an opinionated one. You also removed the link to the official government accounts that you use for your percentages that also show the disparity and I believe hiding the evidence of your own claims simply confirms my case that the percentages are there to mislead.

On the contrary, giving the actual figures without making clear the context of an overall UK deficit gives the false impression that Scotland is subsidised. Perhaps I can reword this in a way that works for both of us. Fishiehelper2 (talk) 20:30, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please do, I just feel that the original imply's Scotland is hard done by and gets back less than is paid in when that's not the case as all the UK countries are in deficit and it is the combined union that pays for it all while it is still true Scotland compared to the other three UK countries combined is in better shape, I'm not really sure why out of a union of four countries one would take one country out and compare it to the other three as a block when it would be more credible to compare Scotland's performance with England's and Wales and Northern Ireland's, just a thought. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.30.224.117 (talk) 20:49, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Scotland contributes a larger proportion of UK tax revenues than the proportion of UK public expenditure it receives:" <- that is still incorrect, Scotland generates more per head in taxes with a full share of geographical oil accounted for and as a consequence receives more per head of population back in expenditure than the rest of the population outside the London accounting area.

[IsScotland?-1] Scottish Parliament. "Your Scotland questions; Is Scotland a country?". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2008-08-01. As the UK has no written constitution in the usual sense, constitutional terminology is fraught with difficulties of interpretation and it is common usage nowadays to describe the four constituent parts of the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as 'countries'.

[2] The "Lion Rampant" Flag The Court of the Lord Lyon. Retrieved on 10 October 2008.

[3] "Scotland's Languages" University of Glasgow. Retrieved 7 December 2008. The proportion is said to rise to 90% in the North East.

[4] Both Scots and Scottish Gaelic are officially recognised as autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. See "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" Scottish Government. Retrieved 27 September 2007.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Revision as of 03:27, 8 June 2013 edit MiszaBot I (talk \| contribs) 234,552 edits m Robot: Archiving 2 threads (older than 90d) to Talk:Scotland/Archive 29. ← Previous edit		Revision as of 10:25, 8 June 2013 edit undo 92.24.249.88 (talk) →Economy Next edit →
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	Please do, I just feel that the original imply's Scotland is hard done by and gets back less than is paid in when that's not the case as all the UK countries are in deficit and it is the combined union that pays for it all while it is still true Scotland compared to the other three UK countries combined is in better shape, I'm not really sure why out of a union of four countries one would take one country out and compare it to the other three as a block when it would be more credible to compare Scotland's performance with England's and Wales and Northern Ireland's, just a thought. <span style="font-size: smaller;" class="autosigned">— Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures\|unsigned]] comment added by [[Special:Contributions/92.30.224.117\|92.30.224.117]] ([[User talk:92.30.224.117\|talk]]) 20:49, 7 June 2013 (UTC)</span><!-- Template:Unsigned IP --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->		Please do, I just feel that the original imply's Scotland is hard done by and gets back less than is paid in when that's not the case as all the UK countries are in deficit and it is the combined union that pays for it all while it is still true Scotland compared to the other three UK countries combined is in better shape, I'm not really sure why out of a union of four countries one would take one country out and compare it to the other three as a block when it would be more credible to compare Scotland's performance with England's and Wales and Northern Ireland's, just a thought. <span style="font-size: smaller;" class="autosigned">— Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures\|unsigned]] comment added by [[Special:Contributions/92.30.224.117\|92.30.224.117]] ([[User talk:92.30.224.117\|talk]]) 20:49, 7 June 2013 (UTC)</span><!-- Template:Unsigned IP --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->

			"Scotland contributes a larger proportion of UK tax revenues than the proportion of UK public expenditure it receives:" <- that is still incorrect, Scotland generates more per head in taxes with a full share of geographical oil accounted for and as a consequence receives more per head of population back in expenditure than the rest of the population outside the London accounting area.