Iain Macwhirter:Berwick-Upon-Tweed, The Next Kosovo?

Writing in The Guardian (UK), Ian Macwhirter says Scottish nationalists may be getting ideas from the continuing breakup of the former Yugoslavia:

Well, to Scottish nationalists this is sacred turf. Berwick is the site of the Scotland's greatest national humiliation and one of the worst atrocities of the wars of independence. It was here in 1296 that Edward I, after massacring 8,000 of Berwick's inhabitants, forced the Scottish nobles to swear allegiance to England - the infamous "Ragman's Roll". The Northumberland town changed hands again half a dozen times before being recaptured, for the 13th and last time, by the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), in 1482.

Five hundred years is a long time for a grievance to fester, but it does. Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, says he has "no territorial ambitions for any part of England", but his MSPs do. One of them, Christine Grahame, has tabled a parliamentary motion calling for Berwick to "return to the fold".

The SNP MP, Pete Wishart, tabled a motion in Westminster calling for "negotiations to begin between the Scottish and English governments" to decide Berwick's fate.

Are they serious? Well, having spoken to nationalists about this, I am not entirely sure. Some of them regard it all as a bit of a joke - a silly season story. Perhaps a good way of getting publicity for the nationalist government, since the UK media generally shows more interest in quirky stories like Free Berwick than in serious stuff like the Scottish budget.

Others seem genuinely to believe that Berwick - whose football team plays in the Scottish league - should have the right to secede and become part of Scotland if its people wish it. The Liberal Democrat MP for the area, Alan Beith, says it is all about Berwick people wanting free elderly care and free tuition fees, and nothing to do with nationality. And he's probably right. But as we know from other parts of the world, extinct communal grievances have a nasty habit of becoming active again.

Take Kosovo, which declared independence this week. The Serbs regard Kosovo a little like some Scots nationalists regard Berwick - a place of semi-sacred historical significance. Slobodan Milosevic famously rallied a crowd of one million Serbs on the anniversary in 1989 of the battle of Kosovo when the Serbs were defeated by the Turks, and the Serbian nation faced extinction.

Moreover, there is no doubt that Serbia has a legal claim to Kosovo under UN Resolution 1244 passed in 1999. Those who have eagerly supported the rights of Kosovan Albanians to go their own way might not be so keen if Berwick went the same way. Just think how Westminster Tories would react if the EU sent a special envoy to assist Berwick's secession from England.