Sirs,

Let’s get down to basics, “What makes us Scots?” and don’t say, “I was born here”. That’s an English concept; “Serf, whose property are you?”. Education, upbringing, residence, accent, skin colour, religion, language? None of these define a Scot, so what does? The internal is, of course, wanting to be Scots, but that is as difficult to shew as the intention to change gender. So, what externality is there? From 30 years of living in England, for me, the main differentiator is that Scots are much more communitarian. However, that is just one person’s differentiator. How about supporting Scottish sporting teams? Is the Tartan Army Scottish? What about No voters who sing for the Scotland rugby team at Murrayfield? Is somebody who invests in Scottish businesses Scottish? There will be as many definitions of Scots as there are Scots. This makes it difficult for any one person to define Scots; it will have to be done by a consensus of Scots. So I won’t try, but you should and see if you can do better than Gordon Brown trying to define Britishness!