I know several Labour colleagues who have felt the full force of nationalism - right in their face. And I have heard SNP supporters describe what they would like to do to English people in terms that would make a neo-Nazi cringe. Of course, not all Nationalists are woman-beaters or bullies. But you just have to scratch the surface of smarmy Alex and his small band of MPs and his barmy army is exposed as an assortment of oddballs, extremists and out and out racists. We need look no further than the buthery of Omagh to see for ourselves what happens when nationalism gets out of control.
Innocent children die.
Of course Alex Salmond is not an evil terrorist. And the ordinary members of his separatist party are not murdering thugs hell-bent on bombing their way to a free Scotland. But nationalism corrupts and as the blood-drenched history of Ireland proves, it can lead, all too easily, to the death of a nation and its people. Readers might find my gut reaction to the SNP overdramatic, but I love Scotland too much to stand by and watch it succumb to the intolerant, adolescent demands of bigots. It is time we saw our beautiful country through clear eyes and not through the mists of Brigadoon.