Which country has been facing a bigger existential crisis lately, UK or US?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The interesting thing is that Britishness is really a Scottish (and yeah also NORN ION) concept; there was never a question of two identities in England or even Wales, where 'British'* just = as you were plus an extra flag with a bit of blue on it.

_{*As a national-political identity. Obviously all parts of the islands are part of a distinctive cultural region, whether part of the United Kingdom now or in the future or not. And had been so long before the Act of Union.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Oh for sure. But I think this explains a lot of the misunderstandings between Scottish polity and that of the rest of GB, which have resulted in (thus far) 45% of the Scottish electorate voting to break away. Both sides of the political relationship have a very different understanding of what it is and don't really understand that this is the case. The phrase 'the Union' is basically never used south of the Tweed for instance. Or consider the Thatcher government: there was genuinely no awareness at all that making the Scottish Secretary the Government's Man In Scotland (rather than Scotland's Man In The Government) would be seen as breaching a constitutional convention.