THE Wee Ginger Dug puts his paw on a really big issue when he writes “For most people around the world, Great Britain or the United Kingdom are the same as England” (As part of the UK, Scotland will be invisible to the world, July 18). This is not a mistake on their part, it is the political reality. Even English people know that Britain and England are the same. Just look at the way the words England and Britain are used interchangeably in the media, sometimes even in the same sentence. Scotland is the only country in the world where people think that you can be both Scottish and British.

We mustn’t let the Unionists keep on deceiving people (including themselves). Once you realise that British is English, then it becomes clear that so-called British nationalism is really English nationalism in disguise, and that the Brexiteers are in fact Little Englanders.

David Simpson
Dunbar

ROBERT Mitchell (Letters, July 19) asks why the British establishment is antagonistic to Scottish independence. Apart from their love of coming to their estates to hunt and fish in August and their dependence on our oil and green energy, there is one thing we have that is irreplaceable to these imperially delusional people. We have Coulport and Faslane.

All the nations which have gained independence from Westminster have achieved it, whether peacefully or by arms, after they have ceased to have value to the Empire. We still have the value of being the only nation which can provide a nuclear arsenal and secure the UK a place at top international tables rather than be relegated to the fifth division, which is where it otherwise will be after Brexit.

The obscenity on the Clyde will make the Brexit negotiations look simple when it comes to negotiating Scottish independence because Westminster is absolutely dependent on our small, thriving nation so it serves them well to treat our aspirations with the monumental contempt which they are currently exhibiting. Their lackeys among Scottish politicians would do well to consider the regard in which they will be held by future generations.

KM Campbell
Doune

AMIDST the government chaos currently at Westminster, an opposition urgent question revealed even more chaos – this time regarding the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the underpayment of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) to claimants between 2011 and 2014, affecting in excess of 70,000 claimants – yet was only afforded 25 minutes in the house.

This error has occurred as a result of claimants being transferred from Incapacity Benefit to contribution-based ESA. To date £40 million in compensation has been paid, but much more is to follow. The DWP was made aware of this error in 2013 yet took no action, which begs the question: how many had to turn to the Scottish Government’s Welfare Fund established to mitigate the effects of welfare reform and austerity cuts? It has paid out in excess of £390m since 2015.

Time after time Sarah Newton MP (Minister of State at the DWP) assured the house that claimants will get monies owed paid in full with no affect to current benefit claims, and any assistance claimants require on this matter can be obtained if they visit their local jobcentres.

Ms Newton, one in ten jobcentres has been closed by your government, 13 of those in Scotland, five of those in Glasgow.

The Conservative’s welfare reforms including the roll-out of Universal Credits are having devastating effects on those they are meant to assist, and this latest error by the DWP merely highlights once again the case for full welfare powers to be devolved to Scotland.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk