Seriously has anyone ever been flattened at a Scotland v England rugby match for shouting for either of the teams? Yes you get some bigots everywhere and I personally have had two very bad experiences in England simply because I had a Scottish accent - one ended up in an unprovoked attack on my friend who got a bottle pushed in his face. I would never suggest that meant Scots were hated in England though. It was just a bad experience. Likewise my brother-in-law from Norfolk was beaten up in Scarborough simply for being southern!! Unfortunately these things happen everywhere and they can and do happen in Scotland too.

There have actually been detailed studies of being English and living in Scotland. One was done by Dundee University and resulted in the 2003 book "Being English In Scotland" by Murray Watson. The findings were that although there were twice as many English born people in Scotland than all the other incomers put together the percentage of assaults, verbal abuse reported by English incomers was only like 5% of that reported by other incomers. You are far less likely to be abused for being English than incomers in general are likely to be abused.

Added to that the vast majority of English people (again it was over 90%) who did complain about a negative reaction to them conceded it was low level teasing about sport and politics that bothered them. I imagine that if you are an English left-winger then being blamed for voting for Margaret Thatcher might get a bit tedious.

I've seen myself how different people react though. My wife has been living here for over 30 years and has no complaints or reservations whatsoever. Her mother on the other hand has been here for over a decade and she is hyper sensitive. She sees people not cheering for an England football win as being discriminatory against her personally. The horror story she has recounted countless times was when my wife and her were visiting an old woman in hospital who said "there's one of the enemy in the next bed". Mum in Law almost saw that as positive proof that she herself was hated for being English - whereas my wife says the two patients were friendly and the old woman was simply joking in the way Edinburgh/Glasgow folk joke about each other.

So yes some people don't take so well to living in Scotland but the facts speak for themselves and something like 9% of the Scottish population are English born. There are no English areas or English ghettoes etc. English people in general fit perfectly well into Scottish society and do not in general suffer through being hated.

That is not to say there are no bigots. Of course there are - but you can't suggest the vast bulk of the population are like that!