National symbols

The United Kingdom has few shared symbols aside from the Union Jack and "God Save the Queen". Each of its constituent nations, however, has a rich collection of national myths and symbols, often apparent in banal, day-to-day contexts, but also celebrated on set-piece occasions.

The basic national symbols are:

• for Wales the red dragon, the leek, the daffodil, the harp
• for Scotland the red lion rampant, the thistle, the bagpipes
• for England the lion (passant in heraldry, but often couchant in popular imagery) and the rose

The flag of Wales shows the red dragon of Wales. The national day of Wales is St David Day's, 1 March. It is not a public holiday. On this day people might wear a leek or a daffodil.

The flag of Scotland shows the saltire, or Cross of St Andrew, in white on a blue background. Scotland's national day is 30 November, the Feast of St Andrew. It became a public holiday in Scotland in 2007. Some people might wear a thistle on this day.

The flag of England shows the red Cross of St George, on a white background. England's national day is St George's Day on 23 April. It is not a public holiday. On this day people might wear a red rose.

In both England and Scotland the formal national anthem is "God Save the Queen", but on occasions where it is desirable to distinguish between the English and the Scots (such as international sporting fixtures) it would be inappropriate for both to be singing the same anthem. At football matches the Scots used to sing "Scotland the Brave" (still the anthem of the Scots team in the Commonwealth Games), but that is now surpassed in popularity by "Flower of Scotland" (sung before Scotland's international rugby and soccer matches). On such occasions, the English sing "Jerusalem"

The Welsh have an official national anthem, Land of Our Fathers. There is also an "unofficial" anthem, Men of Harlech (sung here with harp, daffodil, and male voice choir, at the Prince of Wales's 50th birthday celebrations). Both make reference to fighting "foemen" (meaning the English).

Scotland

At its union with England, Scotland retained

• its own legal system (based on principles of civil law rather than common law),
• its own educational system (with far higher literacy rates than elsewhere in Britain, and a proud claim to be "the first country in the world with universal education"),
• a separate established church (the Church of Scotland),
• and its own aristocracy and gentry.

All this was accompanied by all the heraldry and symbolism of legal, academic, ecclesiastical and noble life.

Scotland is more sparsely inhabited than England, but contains a number of impressive cities. The largest is Glasgow, a major centre of industry and ship-building in the 19th century, "the second city of the Empire", with all the social problems attendant on industrialization and postwar industrial decline.

Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, is a centre of administration, law, banking, learning and culture.

Aberdeen, anciently important in North Sea shipping and fisheries, and a minor centre of 19th-century industry, became the energy capital of the U.K., and to some extent of Europe, after the discovery of North Sea oil.

Geographically and culturally, the Highlands of Scotland are set apart from the Lowlands. Much of the romantic imagery of glens, lochs, castles, crofts, kilts, bagpipes, etc. derives from the Scottish Highlands.