There is a word missing in Ian Bell's fine survey of Britain's social scene (Divided we fall, Review of the year, December 29).

That word is "America". There is hardly a sentence which couldn't have been taken from America's debate on social developments in their country, nor a phrase on the fate of the poor which couldn't be found from right-wing characterisations of the 47 million on food stamps in their homeland.

Has the US actively worked to Americanise Britain in this way? Not at all. The Americans couldn't care less what happens here, and it is pitiful to watch Westminster politicians pretend otherwise. No, the relentless effort to make this country resemble America in its methods of government, and in its attitudes to business, wealth creation, work, welfare, and the role of the individual in society has been a top-down project initiated by Margaret Thatcher, and pursued endlessly ever since. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were particularly enthralled by American ways of doing things, and it was they who started the potentially devastating marketisation of the NHS using American private-sector health firms. But not even they copied word-for-word US legislation on labour market reform, as Thatcher did. Wherever significant change has occurred in this country over the last 35 years, the chances are the inspiration came from America: schools, policing, justice, media, politics, government itself.

Whether the politicians are happy with the outcomes is not clear. Blair hated Freedom of Information, and David Cameron can't have been happy with the results of his project for elected police commissioners, both based on US precedents. But perhaps we should all be as grateful as Cait Reilly, the lady who challenged her slave-labour status in the new Supreme Court, an import adapted for us by Blair and Brown. Cameron, in contrast, has brought in the National Security Council. Let's hope it makes all the difference in the next crisis.

All this could happen because British political argument, with very few exceptions, has refused to look this reality in the face. "Just how like America do we want to be?" is the dog that doesn't bark in the British - and Scottish - identity debate. Ian Bell's article is a sharp reminder of just what is at stake.

David Ellwood

(Author, The Shock Of America)

Edinburgh

Thank you for Ian Bell's column on divided Britain. It should be compulsory reading for anyone contemplating voting No in the independence referendum.

Leslie Potter

Portpatrick