Scotland isn’t a country, and I’m disappointed that FIFA lets them field a separate soccer team while we in NJ have to be stuck on the US team (even Northern Ireland & Wales have their own teams - surely their not countries as well, are they?). They share a monarch, currency, everything that binds the United States into one nation.
We can debate this until we’re blue in the face, but to anyone with eyes Scotland isn’t a country.
The UK is a unitary state.
England, Scotland and NI ARE countries even though they are part of the UK. They are the constituent countries that make up said state.