British feeling

Not for the first time I have found myself puzzled by some of the facts and figures presented by Gill Turner (Letters, 5 August ) in her unre - lenting campaign to discredit Britain and everything British.

The latest questionable figure presented was “evidence for this can be found in the UK census of 2011 which found that only 29 p er cent of the census participants in England identified themselves as feeling any sense of British identity at all”.

An astonishing figure, if true, so I attempted to verify it from said census but, perhaps due to deficiencies in my research methodology, I was unable to find any reference to it.

Whilst it would be foolish of me to deny the accuracy of figures which I could not find, I was sufficiently sceptical to check elsewhere for verification. This led me to a BBC News survey from June 2018.

Now, whilst one might expect some variation between official census results and those of a BBC survey, I was surprised by the degree of difference between those figures quoted by Ms Turner and those from the BBC survey, where it was reported that 82 per cent of people resident in England identify strongly as

British. So much for Ms Turner’s claims of “failing state of Britain,” and “ambivalence to the concept of Britishness”. I can assure her that the majorit y of the p eople who live in Scotland, as well as those who live in England, still identify as British and eschew her desire to see the Great British state broken up.

ALAN THOMSON Kilcamb Paddock, Strontian

Nicola Sturgeon has let her first indyref2 poll lead since 2017 go to her head. It is patently obvious that Scotland can not be independent on its own, otherwise seeking EU membership as part of indy ref 2 would not benecessar y. Given this important fact, the very urgent question of what the terms of membership might be, if Europe even wants us, are pertinent.

The Scottish National Party claim Scotland to be the 14th wealthiest country in the world rankings. If this is true, the EU will be wanting a slice of this, so we will be net contributors. Conversely, if Scotland is actually poorer than claimed, it will need support from the EU.

Why would the EU states want to accommodate yet another country in need of aid when the EU itself is in financial trouble? Independence is a lonely experience without friends. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Scotland needs to be very careful about what it appears to wish for.

GERALD EDWARDS Broom Road, Glasgow

Andrew Vass (Letters, 5 July), an indefatigable opponent of Brexit – to allow our escape from the EU, giving the UK selfgovernment again – does not explain practical reasons for his standpoint.

The referendum in 2016, won by us “British Nationalists”, surely counts as an expression of democracy, of which the EU is not a convincing exemplar.

Mr Vass’s disapproval of the PM and his policies on the EU is a fair point in political opinion but how do he, and other fer vent Remainers, justify their rejection of Brexit?

The‘ Common Market’

referendum in the 1970s gave us entry to a trading collaboration but its evolution into the EU, with the clear objective of forming a ‘United States of Europe’, with features of a nation state, is a very different

proposition. AUSE lacks any democratic mandate from the EU’S member states.

CHARLES WARDROP Viewlands Road West, Perth