Thanks, weelittledrummer, for some much-needed balance. I presume a lot of us would agree that he was right about some things and wrong about others ... and would also bet that we'd disagree about which things fell into which category. As you said, each to their own ...

Have to admit, though, it does seem deliberately confrontational when people talk about "Scotch" accents. Where I come from, Scotch certainly doesn't denote a people, it doesn't even always mean whisky - it's a kind of beer.