Shotgun wedding

Joyce McMillan (Perspective, 28 March) discusses the 1707 Union as a “marriage” and the ending of it as a “divorce”.

Given that there was a threat of force if Scotland did not come to the “right” decision, and that promises to Scotland in the treaty were so consistently broken or ignored that one may doubt whether it was intended that they should be kept, it might be more appropriate to refer to the termination of the Union as an annulment of what was never really a marriage.

Thinking of the future relationship with a near neighbour, a group of Swedish and Norwegian writers and artists has recently expressed the hope that Scotland will vote Yes to independence, giving the example of improved relationships between their two nations, which share a land border and have closely related languages, since Norwegian independence in 1905.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh