An Edinburgh Notebook
Sia,—I am grateful to Lord Dalkeith for putting me right about Scottish Unionists. As l understand it, they were as much against Irish Home Rule eighty years ago as they are against Scottish Home Rule now.
In accusing me of 'parochial isolationism' Lord Dalkeith shows a misunderstanding of the meaning of federalism. Does he think that the states of America and the Lander of Germany are parochially isolated becausc they have legislatures to order their own affairs? And would he not agree that the people of Scotland, who have kept their identity for two thousand years. have as much if not a greater right to the same?
I welcome Lord Dalkeith as a convert to European Union, but I would remind him that as recently as six years ago, he and his party bitterly opposed the
Liberals on this very issue. Nationalism and inter- nationalism are not, as he seems to think, contra- dictory but complementary; and until you have satisfied the aspirations of the one, you cannot expect to make much headway with the other. The national aspirations of the Scottish people are not fully satis- fied; and until we have our own Parliament again in Edinburgh, they will not be.
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