I have some English friends who live in Scotland but still have family in England and can compare. In terms of lifestyle, they said that you get more for your money in Scotland in terms of standard of living; housing is generally cheaper and their bills (council tax, which I believe in most Scottish council incorporates water, energy) are generally lower for equivalent properties. Obviously this isn't true for everywhere. Schools are slightly different; Scottish pupils take Standard Grades and Highers instead of GCSEs and A-levels, and either start or finish a year earlier than English students (I can't remember at which end it is, but Scottish students are generally younger when they enter uni, hence degrees being 4 years up here). The NHS is generally recognised to be better up here, with shorter waiting times and better performance reviews. Culturally, Scotland is more to the left than England as whole, and particularly the southeast. Crime is pretty low outside Strathclyde, Lanarkshire and parts of Edinburgh and Dundee. Most of the English people I've met who live in Scotland (I should say that I work in a university, so we're talking mostly highly educated middle class) have said they wouldn't move back south. However, I've also met a handful who have found anti-English sentiment up here (particularly, shall we say, on a Saturday night when the pubs are closing?) to be an extreme annoyance, especially when it leads (as it can do) to violence. Sectarianism is also a problem, though again, this is mostly in certain parts of the country where it has the largest effect.
