Letter: Scottish pride in England

Sir: I am entirely Scottish ("Let's say goodbye to Britain", 12 September). My father's family were Glaswegians of Highland descent. My mother's father came from the Kingdom of Fife. Her mother came from the Borders. That makes three different ethnic origins.

The family emigrated to England (by ship) when I was 10 and I grew up mainly in Cornwall and Devon. In neither did I meet any racial discrimination. I married an Englishman who though intensely pro-Yorkshire was otherwise racially tolerant.

My children, though proud of their Scottish ancestry, live in England. They also have a certain amount to be proud of on the English side (Shakespeare? Newton?). With any luck, we shall presently be part of a larger political grouping with a shared cultural history. Our sense of identity is not dependent on which "parish" we come from.

If the Scots want a separate parliament and greater recognition as a nation, good luck to them. But do they? Most of them are a bit of a mixture, like me.

ISOBEL HAWKING

Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire