COUNCILLOR Fraser McAllister makes my point exactly in his Long Letter (Many English people in Scotland are deaf to arguments for Yes, The National, January 3).

A majority of the English people who have chosen to live in Scotland are pensioners. They voted in a majority for No at the referendum.

But a majority of Scottish pensioners also voted No. So it is wrong and inaccurate to blame English people in Scotland for the No vote. The fact is, lots of people living in Scotland voted No and most of them were Scots. Let’s put the blame where it belongs and avoid incendiary and unhelpful scapegoating.

Dave McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll

AS a member of English Scots For Yes, I completely agree with Alan Magnus-Bennett that being English, or having lived in England, does not necessarily make someone a Unionist (Letters, The National, December 30).

There has been much analysis and some excellent publications on the lessons we can learn from 2014. Knowing what we failed to do last time will help us win next time.

Sadly, the only people who have suggested that English natives in Scotland cost us the Yes vote are refusing to learn these lessons, even though they have been well-documented by political analysts, journalists and the likes of Robin McAlpine of Common Weal, Jim Sillars and Gordon Guthrie.

As a member of the SNP, I am still awaiting something beyond the obvious “it will be different next time” from the party and for acceptance of the specific lessons we must learn to win the confidence of those sections that did not feel confident enough to vote Yes last time, pensioners and many middle-class Scots being two.

Meanwhile, three of us English Scots for Yes pensioners are giving a lead by launching local Pensioners for Yes campaigns with badges and leaflets in time for the Scottish Independence Convention in Glasgow on January 14. To this, they will bring their excitement, passion and understanding of why independence will be good not just for Scotland but the rest of Britain and far beyond.

We are determined, excited and impatient despite, as well as because of, our age. But essentially, we have a vision of a better Scotland made by its own wonderful people, wherever they were born.

Tony Martin
Gullane

LORNA Campbell laments that English people living here don’t show “allegiance” to Scotland. Fraser McAllister says English-born Scots are subconscious British nationalists, and I suspect he’s right. A lot of this comes down to identity. For many (Scots-born as well as English-born) their country is the United Kingdom, a country older than the United States, one that defeated Hitler, and brought many good things (ignoring the bad for now) to many parts of the world.

They were born in houses that had the Union Jack flying from a flag pole. They feel this just as strongly as many of the readers of this paper feel about Scotland – a historic country that gave the world whisky, engineering and the telephone, and a country, or region, that many people feel should be referred to as North Britain.

Alexander Drummond
Haddington

PETER Craigie is bang-on about English being synonymous with British in the eyes of English people and most of the world (Letters, January 3). There are not a few Scots who think Scots are recognised and respected in other countries. I live in France and am often asked if I am English. When I say I am Scots, the distinction is considered a rather quaint foible.

I have lived in other European countries and it is the same. Even in the English-speaking world, Scots are not immediately recognised.

In the US, my accent has been mistaken for English, Irish and Australian. A citizen of an independent Scotland might find some acknowledgement of their nationality.

Tom O’Hagan Felletin, France ANENT Lynn Faulds Wood’s refusal of an MBE and the fact the empire no longer exists – should the honour not be re-named Member of the English Secessionist State, abbreviated to MESS?

P Davidson
Falkirk