# What is Scotland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087 "2011-05-24T23:22:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/161 "2011-05-30T15:18:28Z")
> [@Elvis\_Chimney](#): > > Have you ever actually been to Scotland, or spoken to a Scot? Not that either of these should be prerequisites to having an informed opinion, but I’m interested in where your impressions of the opinions of Scots are coming from. > > I’m Scottish, and I certainly don’t feel this way, and I don’t know anyone who does. There may be some ultra-nationalists that do, but I don’t believe they even form the majority opinions of the pro-independence groups. > > Mind you, now that there’s a Tory government again, I might start to hear it more often. Given the number of Scots in the previous cabinet, I more often heard complainst from English people that we were being ruled by Scotland. Now, however, we’re all being ruled by Eton. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/162 "2011-05-30T15:24:13Z")
> [@Elvis\_Chimney](#): > > Mind you, now that there’s a Tory government again, I might start to hear it more often. Right, from Smith to Brown (at the very least), Labor was really the Scottish Party. ---
**Author:** ![Elvis\_Chimney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/50afbb/32.png) [@Elvis\_Chimney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elvis_Chimney)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/163 "2011-05-30T17:27:08Z")
On a semi-related note, here’s a [flyer](http://i.imgur.com/aHBEr.jpg) that I found in the gents toilets (because I’m classy like that) in the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh about a month ago. I couldn’t resist picking it up to mock at leisure. I think it provides a decent insight into the level that some of the “foreign rule” types are operating at. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/164 "2011-05-30T18:14:52Z")
Quoth **samjones** : > [@](#): > > They’d all declare independence tomorrow if only they could take the Tristate area with them. A bit of an aside, but could you be a little more clear about which tri-state area you’re referring to? Every place in the US aside from Alaska, Hawaii, and the Four Corners region is part of an area the locals refer to as the “tri-state area”. I presume you don’t mean Montana-Idaho-Wyoming. ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/165 "2011-05-30T18:20:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Every place in the US aside from Alaska, Hawaii, and the Four Corners region is part of an area the locals refer to as the “tri-state area”. Maine. Not Maine. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/166 "2011-05-30T18:31:19Z")
Maine-New Hampshire-Massachusetts is a tri state area ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/167 "2011-05-31T03:16:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Maine-New Hampshire-Massachusetts is a tri state area Only to the New Hampshirites. Maine only has a bi-state area. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/168 "2011-05-31T03:18:19Z")
**if it’s not Scottish, it’s [SIZE=“6”]CRAP![/size]** ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/169 "2011-05-31T03:23:52Z")
Do you have any actual polling that has been done in which secession from the United States has been supported by a majority of respondents? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/170 "2011-05-31T03:38:02Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Do you have any actual polling that has been done in which secession from the United States has been supported by a majority of respondents? [Here’s a poll](http://middleburyinstitute.org/zogbysecessionpoll2008.html) from 2008, although it’s short and couched in hypotheticals. Certainly no majority, but a larger minority than I would have expected. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087/171 "2011-05-31T03:41:59Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > **if it’s not Scottish, it’s [SIZE=“6”]CRAP![/size]** Wait, don’t tell me: if it is not Scottish and not crap, it is not truly not Scottish, right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-scotland/583087.md?page=8)