Balkanisation
Sir : Reading Mr West's article on devolution (14 August) I find it difficult to believe that all those involved in the devolution controversy, whether Nationalists of one sort or another or the multitude of commentators upon their activities, can be unaware of the existence of the Treaty of Rome.
In the context of the EEC an independent Scotland as discussed is a nonsense. There can be no such thing as independence for any part of the United Kingdom unless what is meant is departure from the EEC. So far as has been stated there is no such intention.
If what the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists really intend is to depart from the Community they should say so and then perhaps we shall hear a similar cry from English Nationalists. Otherwise they are lending themselves to a process of balkanisation in the British Isles which can only weaken its constituent parts.
Similarly it English and Scots fall out about who owns North Sea oil their dispute will serve only to obscure the fact that in the long run it will belong to neither but must become a Community resource located under what will have become a community pond.
There are those who seek to destroy the United Kingdom and not all of them are external enemies. Armed assault has given way to more subtle attacks upon the very being of the nation including all the arts cf propaganda—the introduction of alien populations, isolation from support by their own kind, step-by-step incorporation into a larger unit into which they could be absorbed.
Those who seek the success of this process do not have in mind the wellbeing of Scots, Irish, Welsh or English, whose principal strength through the ages has been their homogeneity and sense of nationhood.
At this point in their history the British should be standing together not falling apart. What they need above all is a leader who believes in the United Kingdom who can give voice to their aspirations and express their essential oneness.
For those who have eyes to see there is one such in our midst, stemming from the Celtic part of our nation, endowed with the power of compelling speech and the gift of forward vision—a passionate believer in the unity of the British people. Indeed he is the only one who can now serve the British people and save the Union. K. L. Bailey 9, Sundridge Parade, Bromley, Kent
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