Blair's legacy

I was interested to learn that Andrew HN Gray (Letters, 24 May) had misgivings about the military invasion of Iraq engineered by Tony Blair. This was condemned as illegal by Kofi Annan, the then secretary-general of the United Nations. However, because Blair was born in Scotland, I would not see that as evidence of the existence of a Scoto- American foreign policy.

Blair appears to have disliked Scotland and his main contribution in history will probably be the creation of a New Labour Party resplendent with Labour peers, which Keir Hardie would not have recognised as his creation.

I cannot imagine how Andrew Gray imagined I was born in a remote parochial village called Brigadoon in the Borders, although I was certainly never far from the sight of Abbotsford. The fact of the matter is, that I now have two English grand-daughters and the loss of a sense of community identity in over-populated England is a matter of concern to me.

Robert Veitch takes pride in the sacrifice of Scots lives in the Second World War which could not have been avoided. Having narrowly survived that war, I hope it taught me the lesson that the evil lies in planning for nuclear war and deliberately engineering unnecessary wars in the Middle East against countries which are no threat to Scotland.

DR DAVID PURVES

Strathalmond Road

Edinburgh