Independence

In the past three days three regular letter writers have disparaged Nationalists and nationalism. Indeed, you might think it is the root of all evil “wherever it has flourished”.

In 1969 I staggered back from a conference banquet in Warsaw with a Lithuanian scientist’s head on my shoulder.

He was decrying Moscow rule of his country in terms that would have graced the most ardent Scottish Nationalist. Twenty-one years later he got his wish and Lithuania became an independent country.

Last year President Obama sent warships into the Baltic to guarantee that independence, even at the cost of war.

This is the same President Obama who stood by David Cameron’s side and opposed Scotland’s independence, forgetting that 200 years earlier his own country had fought a bitter seven-year war for its own independence.

It seems that independence is good when it is independence from Moscow but bad when it is independence from London.

George Shering

West Acres Drive

Newport-on-Tay