Terms of Union
Robert M Dunn (Letters, 20 September) suggests the Union of 1707 has come to be seen as the absorption of Scotland by England. That certainly seems to be how much of the world sees it.
Whether it should ever have been seen as voluntary is open to dispute. While it used to be presented as such, modern research has increasingly indicated that the Scottish Parliament of the time knew that either it accepted the terms offered or England would invade with the intention of imposing u nion on worse terms.
While many of us may join Robert Burns in deploring the acceptance of the terms then offered, it is possible to have some sympathy for those who felt at that time that acceptance was better than war.
David Stevenson
Blacket Place