Separate tables

Thomas R Burgess (Letters, 22 May) has very kindly illustrated exactly how misleading separatists’ statements are. Let me clarify his confused thinking.

He refers to Dr Roger Cartwright as my “fellow countryman”. I should hope so, too, as he is also Mr Burgess’s. That is because we are all British (assuming that Mr Burgess is).

He says that a paragraph in the Act/Treaty of Union of 1707 “makes it quite clear that the currency is owned by all the present UK”. In fact, the Act/Treaty states that “from and after the Union, the coin shall be of the same standard and value throughout the United Kingdom, as now in England”, meaning that English coinage became the common currency in Scotland, replacing Scots coinage thereafter. It states nothing about shared ownership.

It is such untrue assertions that my original letter alluded to. Unrest would surely follow their exposure after any Yes vote as there have been so many of them.

Mr Burgess suggests that I am English, and that I “flee across the Border”, which sounds like a threat to me. As I am Scots on both sides back to the earliest written records, can he explain why I should flee? Nationalists always say how warm and welcoming Scots are. Mr Burgess is clearly a supporter of the separatist cause. Maybe, however, his threats show that he is not really Scots at all. Burgess is a very common English name, after all.

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh