What we owe to the Normans

Sir, - I was disappointed at the lack of coverage in Scotland last month of the Battle of Hastings anniversary.

The power and character of our language, English, owes so much to that event. The Norman conquest overlaid a Romance vocabulary on a West Germanic language, and thus guaranteed us a language rich in synonyms, and largely lacking in inflections.

The struggle for power between the Norman kings and their imported aristocracy led to Magna Carta, the English common law and ultimately to our notions of individual liberty.

The Declaration of Arbroath by contrast was about the collective freedom of the Scottish elite to choose their king, not about individual liberty.

Christians do not base their case against same-sex marriage on two verses in Leviticus and the Ashers case was not about discrimination against homosexuals