Empire games

John Kelly’s view of the 1707 Union (Letters, 20 September) is presumably the official British view, which he, like most of us, was taught in school.

However, many of us have come to learn that the real story was rather different. Popular opposition in Scotland, to that Union, was almost universal. Our then parliamentarians agreed to it partly because some were paid to do so, partly because the alternative was military invasion and the imposition of Union on worse terms.

Whether and to whom the 1707 Union was beneficial is a matter of dispute. It certainly facilitated the creation of the British Empire. That brought cash profits to the wealthy here, but questionable benefit to the poor in these islands or to those subjected to imperial rule elsewhere.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh