NAW, naw! Jim Butchart, Burns didna get it wrang – ye did! Ae Burns Concordance tells us he uised the wird “freedom” abuin twa dizzen times – an scansin owre thaim – wi monie shades o meanin. Awthin pynts in this piece o satire he meant: licence. Haein a keek at Chambers Ingllis Dictionar, we’r gien twa shades: “excess or abuse of freedom” and “tolerated freedom”. Stertin the verse in quaisten our Bardie addresses his native land as his “auld respected mither”, concedes she whyles weets hir thrapple an wi aichteen-century abandom/freedom she pishes amang the heather. Shairlie the kennin/tolerant ee.

But Mr Butchart jidges “abuse” an we aw ken the day the’r lots o that. But tae cowp loss o freedom’s appeal and the sair abuse o Gaelic an Scots on whisky’s stout shouthers is faur aff the stot. Ay! Whisky can be mind-alterin but sae can the sicht o the Cuillin dresst in sunlicht or first readin Hugh MacDiarmid or seein in Amsterdam Rembrandt’s Night Watch the lenth o the gallery.

It’s aw doun tae whit an wha is the receiver. Lyke awthing, gin ye hae the kennin, meetin, say an aichteen-year-auld saicont fill sherry butt o Lagavulin, Longmorn or thair equal is a cultural experience and the lyke can be pairt o Scotland’s gift tae the warld nae faur ahint Piob Mhor or C R Mackintosh.

Reid Moffat

Fawkirk

Alexander Potts’s letter (Letters, Oct 31) contains many inaccuracies, starting with the howler of suggesting that the Germanic word “gross” was ever part of a Latin phrase; but a key point does emerge, namely that the meaning of the term “Britain” has varied and been subject to political loading throughout its history.

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In the Middle Ages, English kings such as Edward Longshanks claimed suzerainty over Scotland on the grounds that they were the heirs of a mythical Trojan prince called Brutus, who had given his name to an island which he had reached and made into his own kingdom, after the sacking of Troy. The Scots trumped this claim with an equally mythical story that their kings were the descendants and heirs of a Hebrew war-leader and right-hand man of Moses, named Gathelus (hence “Gael”), who with his bride Scota, the pharaoh’s daughter, had founded a kingdom senior to that of Brutus. That is, the English did indeed attempt to hijack the name “Britain”, but with the recognition that their kingdom of England did not – though according to them it should – incorporate the entire island.

It was James VI who, after inheriting the English throne, assumed the title “King of Great Britain”, specifically implying that the two former kingdoms of Scotland and England had now become one. Neither he nor anybody since, however, made this a reality; and though the term “Great Britain” (Grande Bretagne, as opposed to Bretagne which is Brittany) has a legitimate geographical application, the island so named still incorporates distinctly different countries.

Derrick McClure

Aberdeen

I am grateful to Alexander Potts for contesting my claim that there is no country called Britain (Letters, Oct 31).

However, despite his assertion about what may have been considered to exist in the past, it certainly does not exist in today’s context of the British Isles. Britain does not exist.

In fact, Scotland – as a country – doesn’t exist either. Sure, there is a border from the North Sea to the Solway. And the Romans built a wall to demarcate it.

And the territory north of that has been accorded a “parliament” to bring the illusion of power and self-determination.

But the reality is a colony given an annual stipend to spend, pocket money to disburse to the children, an illusion to satiate the bewildered, to keep them bewildered and not ask the obvious serious question of the riches independence would deliver. And great propaganda to be harvested by the draconian Westminster control freaks when the futility of their impossible restricted funding fails to meet expectations.

The UK is the only reality. Scotland is a dependent of that reality. We’re told we lack the talent and will to be independent in the hope we will believe the nonsense. There is no Britain/England. Just a Scotland treated as a child by exploiting Westminster. Scotland needs to mature to adulthood. Tell the parents they’re wrong and no longer relevant. Who is up for it?

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

I wish some economist could tell us what effect raising interest rates has on inflation. Increased interest rates are contributing to business debt. Those businesses in debt have to raise prices thus increasing inflation. Increasing interest rates will do little to halt the inevitable rise in food and energy costs which are currently a major factor in inflation. Increases of hundreds of pounds a month in average mortgages also fuel inflation.

Has the time not arrived to stop using higher interest rates as a method of reducing inflation?

Brian Lawson

Paisley