I guess it's something we Americans, or we Texans, or maybe just this Texan, have/has trouble understanding, the "racial" aspect of it.

I suppose I paint the race lines with a very broad brush, and I (or Americans, or Texans, or once more just me) never really thought of the Scots and English and Irish as different races---at least in the modern, bureaucratic, anti-discrimination type way.

Then again, when I was first in Central Asia, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the distinctions between "nationality" and "citizenship."

My take on the situation is that it's just bad joss all the way around, from the English lassies taunting the pipe band to the official police reaction.