This is a thing in the US too.
Even down to what we call soda.
To be fair, the US east coast is more like Europe, tons of accents.
and then there’s the south. And Texas, considered the west, despite being east of much of the midwest.
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It’s also that 1 single official English language didn’t start to take shape until after the great vowel shift in the 15th century. Then, the London dialect started to take over because that was the dialect of government. Add in the fact that the aristocracy didn’t speak English as a primary language until the 14th century, differing levels of Scandinavian influence through the country (a lot of the Yorkshire accent is a remnant of this), England not being a single country until Aethlstan in the 10th century with all of the different kingdoms in the heptarchy speaking different versions of old English, then there’s Wales and Cornwall. Yeah man, there’s a lot of different accents on that fairly small island.
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I read recently that it also has something to do with population density. Apparently language and accents change more the denser a population is and American density population took quite a while to increase and is still well below that of the UK. Be careful about referring to England as opposed to the UK. We still speak English in Scotland! 
This is also why, despite the claims of many Brits, many of those ‘Americanisms’ are frequently closer to old English than what is spoken over here!
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And I thought you were speaking Scots up there 
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Oops yes, sorry
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I said Britain as opposed to the UK because I really didn’t want to have to explain Northern Ireland to anyone who didn’t understand 800 years of Irish history (short version - The English behaved very badly toward the Irish)
I’m Welsh and grew up speaking it. But for the sake of harmony and forgiveness didn’t bang on about English repression (building castles, trying to stamp out the Welsh language you know the usual stuff) and the terrible way you’ve behaved (to pretty much everyone) for the past thousand years 
However you live in Scotland but don’t speak the language (Gaelic) because you’re a foreigner or sassenach 
Now living in Canada it’s funny to realize that there’s very little difference in regional accents. You have to drive a long way before hearing a difference. Young country I guess? Nearly half of Canadians are first or second generation immigrants.
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Well I used to live in the Shetland Isles and there they are very even handed and just have it in for anyone from outside the Shetlands, referred to as soothmoothers! Actually they didn’t, they were very friendly but still referred to any ‘foreigners’ as soothmoothers. I had a letter delivered to me once addressed to ‘Shetland Isles, Scotland’ and someone in the post office had kindly scribbled out the ‘Scotland.’ And I’m not sure you could quite describe their dialect as English, with the amount of local words used!
But we digress (for a change!).
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Something that >1/3 of all nations can understand.
(There are 195 nations today. 65 nations gained independence from Britain.)
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The recent comment drew my attention back to this slightly barbed comment. To which I will make a couple of observations. Both sides of my family originated in Scotland though I was not born there and I have lived there for 28 years. Does that make me more or less native than you are in your chosen country?
So everyone who doesn’t speak Gaelic is a sassenach? According to statistics I have seen, 2.5% of people in Scotland have some ability in Gaelic which means, by your standards, the majority of the population are not Scottish. Whereas some 22% of Canadians speak French. Maybe you do too, I wouldn’t dream of making any assumption about that as I do not know either way.
Just for reference many forget that Gaelic is not the only non-English language of Scotland; Scots, which is recognised as a distinct language, was much more common on the East.
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It doesn’t make us anything. I have a Canadian passport but what makes me Canadian? We’re all immigrants to some degree. Don’t take it too seriously.
I have no time for jingoism (We’re the greatest country etc) Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Everybody’s ancestors behaved badly but the English were really bad
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Ah nice, I grew up in Wales, my parents are still there. Wish I could remember more of the language.
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It’s true that the more you travel abroad, the dumber that nationalism sounds to you. The world, it turns out, has a lot of nice places.
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I agree but the reverse - insulting other nations - is equally bad. Especially when it is based on history that no one today has had any influence over.
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I don’t think it’s an insult to say that the English have behaved very badly for quite a few centuries.
They’re the facts. England sailed round the world and subjugated populations all over the place. If they saw someone wearing a grass skirt on a tropical island they shot them and planted the union flag 
But fear not the Dutch, Germans, French etc have all done it.
This is my point about being overly proud or patriotic. It’s all a smoke screen. Live, work and immerse yourself in the culture of different countries and all of that melts away. There are good interesting people everywhere.
For example I’ve lived and worked in America. I loved it and made many American friends.
Here’s my favourite song that brilliantly points out the dichotomy of patriotism.
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This is Wales to me … Rhys Ifans … “True love, here I come!” 
