True, it's not in the poorest of European countries, so maybe "very very poor and depressed" is not accurate. I feel it is a lot poorer than it should be though and whenever I visit Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen they don't feel vibrant and alive, they feel depressed, like everybody who wants to make a change has left.

The oil situation is definitely worth talking about. Not because I think the English should give the oil back, but because it's an example of what the problem is. There will be other oils in the future. The way the oil wealth has been extracted is how England plays the game. English companies and english investors take the lion's share with tax revenue and even oil flowing south of the border to be refined. I would be willing to wager that London did better out of North Sea oil than Edinburgh ever did. Of course they spend money on social services in Scotland all the while claiming that the Scots are lazy and tight fisted and could never manage their own affairs. If England wasn't running things up there the whole place would fall apart. It's the same story they have used everywhere, from Ireland (lazy drunken Micks) to India, the Caribbean etc etc. I just found out yesterday that the term "welch" as in to renege on a promise just means Welsh as in to be from Wales. Slightly ironic given how the English are welching on their international commitments in Northern Ireland.