Ethnic makeup

It is a pity that Andrew HN Gray (Letters, 12 April) construes parts of my letter as being "sarcastic" and then goes on to tacitly agree with my point that "the ethnic construction" of Scotland will have little bearing on its future.

I welcome incomers of all ethnic groups to Scotland and have no wish to "reinvent Scotland and the Scots".

Mr Gray, now and in previous correspondence, attempts to miss the "crucial importance" that all parts of these island were ethnically and linguistically varied – this does not prevent the people describing themselves as "Welsh", "English", "Irish" or "Scots". If Mr Gray feels that Michael Russell, Education Secretary, is allowing "untruths to be taught to Scottish schoolchildren" how did he feel about them being taught British history with its attendant hypocrisy, propaganda and dishonesty?

BILL McLEAN

Rosemill Court

Newmills, Dunfermline

The fallacy in David McPhillip's letter (Letters, 12 April) is the misleading use of the word "English". The inhabitants of Lothian did not become citizens of a country which did not exist at that time. They did become Anglian speaking.

The country we now know as England was still fragmentary; was yet to be completely divided by the Danes and conquered by the Normans; and was not within its present boundaries until 1086 when Scotland still extended well into present-day Cumbria.

Even in 1399 in areas such as the Palatinates of Durham and Lancaster the English King's writ did not run.

IAIN WD FORDE

Main St

Scotlandwell, Kinross-shire