Are English scones savoury? I know that scones are often seen as an unhealthy snack, but many English recipes don't actually include that much sugar and English scones contain much less sugar than American scones (why do Americans put sugar in everything?), so it got me wondering whether English scones were classed as savoury or sweet. They are often seen as sweet, but don't usually taste as sweet and are usually served with clotted cream and jam to make them sweeter.

Are plain English scones savoury, or are they sweet due to their sugar content?
They are both sweet and savoury.

You can use the same recipe &amp; put clotted cream &amp; jam on them, or butter [salted, of course], or slices of cheese, ham, anything you like… even Marmite. 

This is what you get searching the BBC [good old Auntie Beeb, can't get more stiff-upper-lip British ;) - BBC Good Food - Savoury scone recipes  Because I specifically searched 'savoury' these tend to not include sugar - but there's no reason at all that they can't.

There's a particular tang to those foods which fall perfectly between the two stools… pancakes &amp; crêpes are the obvious ones. There are British biscuits [cookies] that embody this sweet/salt dichotomy, even though they are in themselves considered 'sweet'. I'm thinking of the traditional Scottish shortbread &amp; the modern pretender, the Hob Nob. Heck, over here we even put cheese on xmas cake ;)
This sweet/salt is not the same as sweet &amp; sour, but a similar effect, I guess.