Different times

Eric Melvin is quite right when he says that the 1707 Union was not “voluntary” in present-day terms, but there again, what was in those days (Letters, 30 November)?

It could be argued that before universal suffrage in 1928 nothing was voluntary, as it was not put to a vote. The only vote on the Union to have been held was in 2014 and it was a resounding acceptance of the Union, with almost one quarter more people voting to remain part of the United Kingdom than voted to leave, so that is, by definition voluntary.

If we are to analyse the Union is terms of its legitimacy, then everything that went before must also be similarly analysed.

When he claims that Scotland had been “forced into a corner” in 1706, Coldingham kirk session records from the time, for example, pray for the Scottish “plantation”, ie Darien, a wholly Scottish enterprise which bankrupted the country. They regularly mention famine which stalked Scotland for many years. This was nobody’s fault but our own and, (arguably) divine intervention.

Scotland, with one fifth of England’s population, but only one-fortieth of England’s wealth, sought prosperity and an end to famine. England sought security and a common Protestant succession. For all its faults, the Union gave each what it sought, but like EU membership, it has not always been to everyone’s taste.

Nothing before the Union was remotely voluntary. Decisions were made by kings and lords, not the people. That is simply the way it was, but to question the validity of the Union demands that everything that preceded it must also be questioned. Much will be found wanting.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Edinburgh