MAURICE VASSIE (Letters, August 19) condemns nationalism evoking an independent Scotland and elsewhere criticising political boundaries.

Yet empires crush difference and dissent through cruelty, slavery and oppression by ruthless control on high, from the centre often influenced by religious doctrine.

After the First World War, the spoils of war saw Iraq cobbled together by Britain in an unholy alliance, with Syria and Libya mandated to France.

Scotland has been pushed around by London for too long and the same goes for northern regions of England. Remember the devastation inflicted by centralist rule by Thatcher, who decimated industry in the regions.

Yet Julian Sturdy in his column of August 16 attempts to take credit for Tory job creation and a northern-led recovery. But most new jobs are low paid, zero hours, work for dole, part-time including record self-employment out of necessity even among older workers.

Julian spins Tory electrification of the railways that were previously privatised under them yet still receive huge public subsidies. The East Coast mainline, however, is publicly owned and making excellent profits which the Tories wish to privatise.

Both sides of the flipped political coin offers little in the way of favourable working-class policies. Which is why Scotland should carve their own future free from London.

Tom Scaife, Manor Drive, York.