Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba ([ˈalˠ̪apə]  listen (help·info))) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

Shaun Richard Maloney (born 24 January 1983 in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia) is a Scottish footballer who plays as a attacking midfielder or winger for English Premier League club Wigan Athletic and the Scotland national team.

Maloney is known for his set-piece accuracy, technical ability and confidence when shooting. He is the first player to claim both the SPFA Players' Player of the Year and the SPFA Young Player of the Year awards in the same season, doing so in 2006 during his first spell with Celtic.

Maloney's family moved to his mother's home-town of Aberdeen, Scotland when he was 5 years old.

At a young age, Maloney found a love for sport, particularly football and tennis. By the age of 10, he had joined his first football club, Kincorth Boys' Club. He played regularly for his Primary School Team, St Joseph's. At 12, he moved to Culter Boys' Club then at 14, to Albion Boys' Club. He played a number of games for Cults Academy, where he was a student. He was then snapped up by Aberdeen's youth academy where he was eventually released for being deemed "too small".

Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003 becoming the youngest player to represent England (a record later broken by Theo Walcott). He is England's youngest ever goalscorer. He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals, briefly becoming the competition's youngest goalscorer. Rooney featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and is widely regarded as his country's best player. He has won the England Player of the Year award twice, in 2008 and 2009. As of September 2011, he has won 73 international caps and scored 28 goals. Along with David Beckham, Rooney is the most red carded player for England, having been sent off twice.

Aged nine, Rooney joined the youth team of Everton, for whom he made his professional debut in 2002. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window. The same year, Rooney acquired the nickname "Wazza". Since then, with Rooney in the team, United have won the Premier League four times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups. He also holds two runner-up medals from both the Premier League and the Champions League. In April of the 2011–12 season Rooney scored his 180th goal, making him United's fourth highest goal-scorer of all time.

Jack Andrew Garry Wilshere (born 1 January 1992) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Arsenal and the England national team.

Wilshere came up through Arsenal's youth academy and impressed from an early age. He made his first team debut in 2008, at the age of 16, and was Arsenal's youngest ever league debutant. In his short career thus far Wilshere has earned a number of accolades including the PFA Young Player of the Year, PFA Team of the Year, and Arsenal's Player of the Season as voted on by the fans for his performances in his first full campaign for Arsenal during the 2010–11 season.

Wilshere was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire and currently lives in Hitchin, where he grew up, attending Whitehill Junior School and The Priory School. He captained The Priory School Football team to County Cup and District Cup glory from Year 7 through to Year 10, and also added the Under 15s National Cup to his list in Year 8, playing alongside Leyton Orient's Jake Argent-Martin and Jack Reeves.

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, author, journalist, and broadcaster, and the Respect Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West. He was previously an MP for the Labour Party, for Glasgow Hillhead and then its successor constituency Glasgow Kelvin from 1987 until 2005. He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 because of his strident public opposition to the Iraq War. He subsequently became a founding member of the left-wing Respect Party, and was elected as the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005. In 2010, Galloway unsuccessfully contested the seat of Poplar and Limehouse, and in 2011 he unsuccessfully contested the Glasgow list for the Scottish Parliament, before being elected as an MP in the Bradford West by-election, 2012.

Galloway is well known for his campaigns in support of the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the late-1980s Hansard records him delivering a ferocious assault on the Ba'ath regime, and Galloway opposed Saddam's regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991. Galloway is known for a visit to Iraq where he met Saddam Hussein, and delivered a speech, which ended in English with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." He has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people in the speech. Galloway testified to the United States Senate in 2005 over alleged illicit payments from the United Nations' Oil for Food Programme.