I read a lot of old books. One thing I can't help noticing is how often Scots soldiers refer to themselves in their memoirs as "English". Sadly, these men are all long long dead or I could perhaps go to them and ask why they chose to self-identify as English rather than Scots. Were they realists and knew in whose interests they were really fighting? To argue that they were fighting only for English interests is a dubious proposition when so many members of the Scots middle and upper classes benefited from the British Empire. Or where they currying favour with the Englishmen in Westminister who controlled the levers of power? After the 1707 Treaty of Union there was a strong move to destroy Scottish identity and replace it with something called North British. From 1708 until 1877 the Royal Scots Greys were officially known as the Royal North British Dragoons. And for much of the same period the Royal Scots Fusiliers were on the books as the Royal North British Fusiliers. Or did the old soldiers perhaps really feel they were Little Englanders. Certainly a large number of their parents turned their backs on Scotland and had their children educated at private schools in the heart of England. A case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", perhaps. One has wonder what would have happened if the benefits of Empire and being part of the United Kingdom had been spread a little wider in the past to include more of what my English colleagues still delight in dubbing "The Oatmeal Savages" and/or "The Sweaty Socks". The fall-out from treating Scotland as Britain's own rice-bowl economy for so long with wages well below the UK average may be about to, if the opinion polls are to be believed, have some interesting consequences at the General Election.