Getting Familiar with Scotland, Geography, Culture, and Economy (Part 2)

Getting Familiar with Scotland (part 2)

This is the continue of another article entitled "Getting Familiar with Scotland, Geography, Culture, and Economy (Part 1)". This is the second part. Stay with us with the topic of getting familiar with Scotland.

Policy

Policy is the first topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. With the topic of getting familiar with Scotland, the 7th subject we address is about the policy. All of these countries send members of parliament or MPs to Westminster, London, for the 650-member national parliament, for terms that cannot exceed five years between each election. All countries except England have some form of devolution, or autonomy, with an assembly or parliament that has varying degrees of power to enact laws that relate to domestic affairs within that country.

Of these devolved assemblies, the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh has the most powers and forms a rather long and complex list. For instance, food safety, education, and agriculture are within its purview, whereas broadcasting, pensions, and drug policy are not.

Most importantly, defense and fiscal and economic policy are determined as a whole UK. While this may sound like a federal structure, it is not, since England has no parliament, and indeed the 59 MPs from Scotland can still, rather controversially, vote on issues in the national parliament that might only affect England. There are some areas, however, that have forever remained separate from England.

Scottish law, for instance, was never harmonized with English law, and legal terms and court procedures have always been different.

Within Scotland itself, like in the rest of the UK, the next subdivision is at the local authority level. There are 32 such authorities, ranging in size from the large Highland Council down to the six councils that collectively encompass the Greater Glasgow area. \In the Cato Institute’s latest Human Freedom Index, compiled now from data that includes the events of 2020, Scotland, considered as part of the UK, ranks 20th globally, which is very high.

In this article we will investigate follow subjects about Scotland:

• Freedom
• Flag
• Sports
• Clothes
• Inventions
• Music
• Culture
• Economy
• Food

Personal Freedom

Personal freedom is the 2th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. Like most countries during this time, personal freedom in the UK dipped sharply in the wake of lock-downs imposed by the governments of all four UK countries in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. This aspect can be seen in the UK’s score within the Section “Movement”. The Scottish government was free to pursue different lock down and masking policies to those of England, and they imposed them with greater vigor and for longer periods.

The flag

Flag is the third topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. The flag of Scotland is a white saltire, meaning a diagonal cross, against a blue field. It is also known as the Cross of St Andrew – the patron saint of Scotland. The saltire forms the blue and white part of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. The white saltire on a blue field has been associated with the Scottish military and heraldry since the Middle Ages.

The Royal Arms of Scotland is a red lion rampant on a golden shield. Dating back also to the Middle Ages as part of Scottish Royal Heraldry, it was quartered with the English arms when James VI of Scotland became also James I of England in 1603, and so it takes its place today on the official United Kingdom coat of arms.

That said, a special coat of arms for the Union is used within Scotland, giving the Scottish Lion pride of place on the main shield. On these arms, the Latin “Nemo me impune lacessit” translates as “No one provokes me with impunity” – a motto dating back to the Scottish military of the Middle Ages.

Economy

Economy is the 4th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. On the economic side, the main weakness is the continually increasing size of government within the UK, with tax rates now being at a 70-year high.

The Scottish economy is an advanced mixed economy typical of highly developed Western countries. The estimated GDP in 2020 was $US 205bn, which, if viewed as its own country, would be the 50th largest in the world, and around the size of that of Greece, New Zealand, and Peru. Once a hive of heavy industry, in particular coal, steel, and shipbuilding, these industries declined in the latter half of the 20th Century, and today most of the Scottish economy is in the service sector.

Exporting Alcoholic Beverages

Export is the 5th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland.

Scotland’s most famous export is a certain distilled alcoholic beverage.

Also, there are several more famous beverages, too. whisky (‘uisge beatha’, or ‘usquebaugh’ “water of life” Gaelic), the distilled fermentation of malted or germinated barley. Distilleries can be found across Scotland, but with the largest concentrations in Speyside in the Northeast, and Islay in the Southern Inner Hebrides.

In 2018, Scotland exported over £4bn of whiskey.

Oil was discovered in the North Sea to the north and east of Scotland in the 1960s, and production began in the 1970s, peaking in the late 1990s, but is still today a significant employer within Scotland, a generator of tax revenue for the UK government and is the country’s largest export.

Tourism

Tourism is the 6th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. With such distinctive natural beauty within the Highlands in particular, as well as dozens of castles, palaces, and the unique historical draw of the capital Edinburgh, it is no surprise to find tourism as a significant industry in today’s Scotland.

An estimated 3.5 million visitors came to Scotland in 2018 spending about £6bn, and contributed about 5% to the national economy.

Culture

Culture is the 7th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. Scotland has a very rich and distinctive culture that has emerged over centuries through its blend of Celtic and British influences. In terms of architectural treasures, Scotland hosts several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The oldest of these are the Neolithic villages of Skara Brae, in Orkney, the best-preserved Stone Age ruins in Europe.

Then there are the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh. The unique old city center of Edinburgh once had the tallest residential buildings in Europe during the 16th and 17th Centuries, and these towering stone buildings flank you as you walk up the Royal Mile to the spectacular Edinburgh castle at the highest end of the hill, its outline dominating the city skyline.

Just to the north is the “New Town” of Georgian terraces and crescents built during the city’s expansion of the 18th century following the Union with England, and a living testament to the days of the Scottish Enlightenment. Not far away is the Forth Bridge, a colossal cantilevered railway bridge built from tubular steel, and completed in 1890. The bridge, my personal favorite among all the world’s bridges, has an impressive total length of 2.5km, with the two central spans each being over 500m.

Subject to the salted winds of the Firth of Forth, the vast amounts of steel need to be painted so much that when a crew supposedly finishes painting it from one end to the other, so much time has elapsed that they must start again at the beginning. And so the expression “painting the Forth Bridge” entered the English lexicon, referring to a task that would continue without end.

Food

Food is the 8th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. Scottish cuisine is famous for two things. Haggis and… deep frying. OK, so the deep frying is a bit of a dig at the Glaswegian propensity among fast food outlets for putting almost anything in batter and deep frying it. Perhaps this once started in the tradition of the British national dish of deep-fried cod or haddock with chipped potatoes that is Fish and Chips, which, by the way, are the best in the world.

This table represents a summary of traditional food in Scotland:

But the eclectic denizens of Glasgow sought more from the fryer, and so battered and deep-fried sausages and chicken then suddenly jumped to Mars bars and even ice cream! And what about the mysterious haggis? Is it some rare creature found among the glens of the highlands? Actually, no, it is just a mix of sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs minced with onions, oatmeal, and various spices, wrapped in a sheep’s stomach, and boiled.

Something perhaps more palatable was the Scottish development of shortbread biscuits or cookies, composed simply from butter, sugar, and flour. We have already mentioned the giant in the world of food and drink, which is Scottish whiskey.

Here you can get familiar with 11 Scottish food.

Music

Music is the 9th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. Although bagpipes are not unique to Scotland, it is those of Scotland that are internationally famous, and today form the core of ceremonial music in Scotland and often as Britain as a whole.

The bag, traditionally made from the stomach of a sheep, is inflated by the performer, allowing them to breathe independently and provide a constant source of wind for the base set of chords emerging from the top three pipes, and the bottom pipe which has the active melody played from it. Where you find a bagpipe player, you’re guaranteed to also find that other Scottish hallmark, the tartan.

Clothes

Clothes are the 10th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. Tartan is a woven wool cloth made into cross patterns that soon developed into unique colored signatures that would define a particular family or clan. Both tartan and bagpipes came from the Gaelic tradition, as evidenced by the Irish today having their tartans and their bagpipe known as uilleann (“ILLUN”) pipes. Tartan was worn by highlanders when they went into battle in the form of a skirt known as a kilt, and today, on formal occasions and ceremonies Scottish men usually wear a kilt in place of trousers in a suit.

In this video, you can see tips about what to wear in Scotland:

Sports

Sport is the 11th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. As for sports, well, Scotland brought us one of the most universally popular outdoor pastimes. I refer to the game of hitting a ball with a club across long distances.

Golf

Golf first appeared in Scotland as early as the 15th Century, with the modern game of 18 holes being developed in St Andrews in the 18th Century, and the first tournament being the Open Championship taking place in Scotland in 1860.

Inventions

Inventions are the 12th topic we investigate regarding getting familiar with Scotland. For a country with a relatively small population, Scotland has been the breeding ground for an astonishing number of inventions that have gone on to change the lives of everyone around the world. The usable steam engine by James Watt has already been mentioned, but Scottish inventors were the first to bring us the modern road surface, the telephone, the television, the refrigerator, the flush toilet, the encyclopedia, pedaled bicycles, pneumatic tires, the kaleidoscope, the seismometer, and the oil refinery.

Antibiotics, logarithmic mathematics, modern geology, electromagnetism, the absolute zero of temperature, color photography, and numerous objects in our galaxy were either discovered or significantly advanced by Scottish scientists.

This is the end of our article regarding getting familiar with Scotland. We hope you like it. Tell us in the comment.