Letter: Conflicting aims

I read with interest Michael Kelly's ill-informed tirade against the SNP government in the column entitled "Unjust condemnation from the mean-spirited SNP" (31 August).c

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Mr Kelly, as a former Labour Lord Provost of Glasgow, is critical of this administration. However, he misrepresented the SNP's position regarding reports that the former Labour Defence Secretary Des Browne supports the creation of a centre for international conflict resolution in Scotland.

Far from opposing the idea, the SNP's leader at Westminster and defence spokesperson, Angus Robertson, has for years espoused the policy of establishing a Scottish Centre for Reconciliation and Conflict Resolution in a bid to promote peaceful alternatives to armed conflict.

Our criticism is levelled at the unashamedly hypocritical stance of a former Labour defence minister - who consistently supported the war in Iraq - purportedly supporting the concept of a conflict resolution centre.

Mr Kelly and Mr Browne seem to think that the people of Scotland will forget that a Labour Government at Westminster lied to them and the House of Commons about the reasons for going to war in Iraq.

Des Brown's Labour government at Westminster illegally and immorally invaded Iraq in 2003, and that conflict cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, woman and children and hundreds of UK service personnel.

Bruce Crawford MSP

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Holyrood, Edinburgh