Shared identity

Emigration and immigration have been the way of the world since people could walk. The Scots at home are made up of Britons, Picts, Scots, Norse, Jutes, Angles, Flemings, Normans and Irish and many others, and in more recent years folk from all around the world.

The biggest group of immigrants into Scotland at the moment are the 460,000 folk from England who have chosen to live among us. We are indeed a mongrel nation but what makes us a nation is shared experience, shared values and shared identity in our communities. You are Scottish because that is what you choose to be.

I watch with anger as unscrupulous forces in the UK use immigration as a political weapon. We are moving onto very dangerous ground if this is allowed to get hold in Scotland.

And you never hear of the other side of the story. Millions of people from Britain are spread right across the world in other peoples’ countries. There are hundreds of thousands of Scots all over this globe, many thousands in other European countries, and where would Australia, Canada and New Zealand be without them. Are they all to come home?

David McEwan Hill

Dalinlongart

Sandbank, Argyll