How Do You View The UK Home Nations?

This is something me and my friends talk about all the time and since this is the largest multinational forum I know, why not ask it here? What do you both personally and nationally view the four nations that make up the UK?

• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northen Ireland

What do you think of both the people and the country, both historically and currently and how has it changed over time?

Wife and I flew into Dublin and stayed for a week and flew into London for two days and a half. Never got to drive up to northern Ireland and see the giant steps or the place where they built the titanic. London people were nice, was not a fan of your breakfast but I really don't like breakfast in general. If you guys ever got invaded I would come over to help defend.....but I am 35 and to old for the military now. But maybe after the 2nd draft they would be desperate and I might get picked. My wife loves the Beatles so we went to Abby road and reenacted the record picture. There were several people also doing this. I bet the people that live and work there hate the tourist.

@cerebus: By breakfast do you mean a full English?

2/5 Would not join again.

Nah, it's okay.

I live in the south west of England and it's fine... i don't know, it's hard to point out the good things when you've had them your whole life, i've managed to not get flooded yet (cross fingers).
Being on the internet and seeing how people suffer makes me say the National Health Service (NHS) is an amazing brilliant thing everyone in the world should have access to, as a 27 year old still living with my parents i can say houses are FAAAAR too expensive, at this point i can't see myself ever moving out.
Most people i see here are extremely self entitled, i think because life is relatively easy so it makes people think they are untouchable, so i find it hard to get on with people as most can't see inward and how up themselves they're being.
I can only give impressions of the other nations as i've never been to them, i see a lot of Welsh people living where i do and i hate the accent :P, nothing personal but the rhythm of the way Welsh people speak drives me nuts, loads of them come over to England for work so i guess life is fairly slow over in Wales, i can't stand listening to Alex Jones on The One Show. I've always found Scottish people to be friendly, no nonsense, straight to the point, not much else to say really, i like Billy Connolly. Ireland is a tricky one, the only Irish people i meet are either shouting or stealing things, the traveller kids i went to school with all got expelled for fighting, i work in retail and i'd say 40% of the people we catch stealing are Irish, though recently Romanians are dominating the stealing leaderboards, thanks immigration! TV has an obsession with Irish voice over, i don't watch TV much at all but whenever it's on there's an Irish announcer at some point, i like The Cranberries.

@ukoan72g8j: I love Belfast I've probably spent more time there than Glasgow even though I'm Scottish. Stranraer isn't that far away.

I'm Northern Irish/Irish/British/whatever annoys or doesn't annoy people depending on my mood.

Lived in England for over a decade before moving back here (2 miles from the border with the Republic) about 10 years ago. I'm old enough to both remember and have been directly affected by the Troubles, in fact wanting to get out of the country for somewhere where people were less shitty to each other was what made me move in the first place. I loved my time in England but eventually felt it was time to come 'home'.

Our local government is a massive shower of incompetent yokels but we're not bombing each other any more. Not very often, anyway.

It's a place with problems but I love it to bits.

If you look into any nation's past, you're gonna find dirt. The UK folks I've met and interacted with have all been pleasant enough. I'm an immigrant in the US so I think UK sensibilities are a lot more in line with mine than the American ones even though I've lived here for 20 years. Also, I think Wales has a dragon on their flag so that's game set and match as far as I'm concerned.

@liquiddragon: Yeah it does.

As someone from the midlands, with family in both N.I and the Republic, I don't think there are a great many differences. Although Welsh and Scottish folks I've had the good fortune of knowing all seem to have a bit of chip on their shoulder's about being called 'British', which I totally understand. I generally refer to myself as English, or Irish descent, rather than British - I always refer to residents from other home nations by their country's nationality.

In terms of England, I think money and politics is swayed far to heavily towards the south of the country - to the point where large swathes of the north just get 'left behind'. I think London is a great tourist destination, but it's a complete ballache to live in. Also, anything south of Warwickshire is usually way too expensive - especially those house prices. I do think HS2 will will be beneficial in redistributing the wealth and freezing the rise of house prices in the south.

TLDR: It's okay?

@timeleap: I lived in the W Midlands for 6 years, amongst some of the warmest, funniest people I've ever met. The region gets a fair amount of flak from the rest of England, probably because it's caught between the relative prosperity of the south and the feistiness of the north. I saw a place decimated just as much as the north was due to the collapse of British manufacturing industry.

God Tier: UK

Top Tier: Scotland

Mid Tier: Northern Ireland

Bottom Tier: Wales

It's not a question I consider very often, but I was interested to note that my own immediate reactions where that I think of England as a varied and heterogenous population, but don't generally think that about Wales/NI/Scotland. I maybe think about the difference between Edinburgh and Glasgow but that's about it. I went to the west coast of Scotland (Skye and nearby) for my Honeymoon and it was quite eye opening meeting some of the different people there.

Obviously I know intellectually that this is an ignorant way of thinking. I suppose it has something to do with the way people present themselves? I'm not especially well travelled, so a lot of my experience is from meeting people where I live. Welsh people tend to say they are Welsh rather than that they are from Bangor or wherever. Someone from Manchester is more likely to be more specific.

I don't really have any particular ideas in my head about people from any of these places though. Geography isn't especially important to me.

@thomasnash: I was wondering if you could expand a bit more on your first paragraph?

@dave_tacitus: Yeah, you're right. Being from Birmingham myself, I'm pretty sure all 'Brummies' are born with a chip on their shoulder about being made fun of. It's funny, most people that give it a hard time have never visited, they basically feed off of it's bad reputation from the 80s.

@jonny_anonymous: I can try, but it was a bit of a hot take.

I don't know if it matters, but I've lived my entire life in East Anglia (Cambridge, then Norwich), which is an odd and pretty unique area in a lot of ways. Generally it gets lumped into "the south" but it's really it's own place. It's very flat and mostly rural. It used to be very rich so there's a fuckload of churches all over the place. It's still quite difficult to reach so it's quite an insular place. I know that there's quite a lot of difference between someone from Cambridge, Norwich, Kings Lynn, Peterborough etc. Likewise, although it tends to get bundled up as "the North" I tend to think of people from Hull as different to people from Manchester, or Birmingham, or Cumbria or wherever. I don't necessarily have particularly fully formed opinions of what those differences are, but I just have those divisions in my mind?

I think a lot of it comes down to who you meet particularly at Uni?). English people will say what town or county they are from, whereas people from Wales tend to just say they're from Wales?

My perspective as Johnny Foreigner:

• England: umbrellas and top hats
• Wales: great accents
• Scotland: haggis and kilts
• Northern Ireland: bombs? ok, not these days... how about Ireland's hat?

All four combined: alcoholics

Ok, being slightly facetious. Except for the alcoholism thing. That's definitely true.

The more southern someone is the more of a dickhead they are, that's how I notice it from talking to people from all over these silly Isles every day for work. The nicest people are 100% from Yorkshire though.

Oh yeah, I see what you mean. When I am around English people I usually do just say I am from Scotland because I always assume unless your from Glasgow or Edinburgh people just won't have a clue if I get more specific. But like you said before there definitely are differences. The Highlands and the Lowlands have pretty different cultures as do the east coast and west coast.

@jonny_anonymous It's odd that I've never noticed before, but around English people, I also just say i'm from Wales. From my perspective (having lived in Manchester & London), North England/South England is just as different in attitudes and temperament, than England/Wales/Scotland. Historically, i'd say Birmingham and North West England have changed massively; not only from refactoring from industrial to service industries, but also from remembering the effect of terrorism in both Warrington and Manchester. Going forwards, Manchester has so much going for it, I just hope the wealth spreads to surrounding areas, rather than just being tied up in the centre. Cardiff has this small-rustic town vibe set against all the trimmings of being a capital city, which is great (also the greatest breakfast burger); but again, I feel the more rural areas of Wales are going to suffer, as I feel the margins on agricultural businesses aren't there, which may explain why most fields are turning into solar panel farms these days.

A pleasant Scot is a bit like a unicorn in my experience. They probably exist.

As an Ameican who lives in a part of the country that is basically Cuba and only rarely thinks of the U.K.:

England: The one I've visited. A wonderfully pleasant place, if not a bit too sterile. The culture is rich and the cities are nice, but the people tend toward the pompous side.

Northern Ireland: When considering the part of the island in the UK, all I think is IRA. For the island as a whole, my perception is colored because I have numerous Boston-Irish friends. They all fulfill the beer-swilling, meat and potatoes noshing stereotype proudly. As for the place, the impression I'm given is that-- aside from the dense area in and around Dublin-- it's all rolling green hills.

Scotland: Goats and incredibly attractive women. I dig that accent to a degree that surprises even me.

Wales: Princess Di. That's it, sorry.