Letter: Role for unity

JOAN McAlpine's article (Perspective, 31 May) is at best confused and at worst displays breathtaking hypocrisy. She seems to be saying the West should have intervened sooner in the Bosnian war.

But her own leader Alex Salmond condemned Nato intervention to protect Kosovo Albanians from Serb ethnic cleansing. She stands for a party pressing for the break-up of the United Kingdom, against the wishes of at least half the Scottish population, as well as opinion elsewhere in the UK including of the Prime Minister and the Queen. This push for separation is precisely the lethal brand of nationalism which led to the Bosnian tragedy, as Serbs took up arms to resist Bosnian secession.

For centuries, the Ottoman Empire and, latterly, the Yugoslav Federation, had kept old enmities and ethnic divisions under control. Just as in Scotland, the Union of Crown and Parliament in 1603 and 1707 put an end to the Anglo-Scottish wars.

A major factor in the destruction of this unity in the Balkans was the rise of nationalism, a creed central to SNP policy.

OK, you say, the SNP stands for peaceful nationalism and such bitter division could never happen here. Really? What about Northern Ireland? What about Glasgow, with its flag-waving sectarian divisions at Old Firm matches - Catholic Irish Republican v Protestant unionist?

The massive win for the SNP has brought the frightening prospect of Balkanisation of the British Isles to the fore.

The arrest of Ratko Mladic has reminded us of the evils of extreme nationalism. It is time for the silent majority who support the union to stand against this insanity peddled by the SNP before it is too late.

Brian Carson

Belmont Gardens

Edinburgh