Letter: Major mixed up about history

Major mixed up about history

Sir: If the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom really thinks that resurrecting the Scottish Parliament will "destroy a thousand years of British history" ("Major launches crusade to save constitution", 15 February), should not his Scottish Secretary remind him that there has been a British Parliament only since 1707, and that 290 years is a significantly shorter period than the 410 or more years for which the separate Scottish Parliament had previously existed?

And as far as England is concerned, our last thousand years started with this country about to become successively part of a Scandinavian empire and of Norman and Angevin empires - and more recently we shared Henry VI with France, William III with the Netherlands, and George I, II, III, and IV with Hanover.

ERIC THOMPSON

London, NW2