Sir, Now that Gordon Brown has taken his leave from politics how will he be remembered? I wonder, will it be the “big beast” or the “big fearty”?
His lack of supervision of the financial sector when chancellor has left us with an out-of-control system where greed is the order of the day. His interference in the pension industry has left many in financial difficulty and ruined their retirements.
His silence before, during and after the Iraq war says much about his morality.
Finally, his last hurrah was to completely let down the people of Scotland by putting the interests of his party before the people.
This last act of betrayal may have consigned the Labour Party to its most humiliating defeat.
Labour has abandoned its socialist principles, in which Mr Brown and Tony Blair played a very significant part and, I fear, may have consigned itself to a very humiliating and tough time in which it will have re-examine who and what it stands for.
Bryan Auchterlonie. Ardargie, Perth.
Moments that will haunt him forever . . .
Sir, The Great Clunking Fist clunks off, haunted by the three moments when his nerve failed him ducking leadership elections against John Smith and Tony Blair and a snap 2007 election.
At Edinburgh University, when I knew him, he was even then a thin-skinned brooder, a holder of grievances, a grinder rather than brilliant, but possessed of the most manic ambition.
He became Prime Minister but he had no idea what to do with such power and his spectacular failures as a chancellor cancelled out whatever good he may have done in that long decade. His two most revealing moments were when he misspoke, “I have saved the world” and when he went ballistic in the car after his encounter with the “bigoted” woman.
He emerged from his self-imposed purdah to save a referendum which really did not need to be saved and typically his “vow” may in fact be the thing that does break-up the UK.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
More questions than answers
Sir, I am grateful to Luke Rendell for owning up to what he describes as an administrative lapse in failing to re-register the Hermiston Securities “New Madras at Pipeland” website in the name of Parent Voice.
Readers may remember that Hermiston, a branch of Muir and owner of the Pipeland site is anticipating a ten times “uplift”in the value of its investment in Pipeland Farm to £1.7 million if the school is actually built there.
However, as other contributors to readers’ letters have pointed out, Mr Rendell’s explanation raises more questions than it answers.
It would be helpful if Mr Rendell would explain the exact relationship between leading Parent Voice members and Muir/Hermiston and why the Parent Voice website they operate has identical text to the Hermiston version extolling the virtues of Pipeland for the replacement Madras College?
Curiously the Muir/Hermiston site has a link to the Parent Voice Facebook page which this firm describes as “our Facebook page”.
Mr Rendell might further explain why an artist’s impression commissioned by Hermiston for their site, now features on the Parent Voice website? This is the same illustration which featured in Councillor Brian Thomson’s colour circular extolling the excellence of the Pipeland site.
His promotional circular was endorsed by Councillor Bryan Poole, the Fife Council political chief taking forward his Labour administration’s scheme for Pipeland.
A statement by these individuals explaining their relationship with Muir/Hermiston is the least the public should expect in the interests of transparency and accountability.
Bill Sangster. 24 Main Street, Strathkinness.
Mr Hosie’s view is alarming
Sir, As a Yes campaigner, a socialist and one of Stewart Hosie’s constituents, I am alarmed to find that Mr Hosie sees no issue in sharing a platform with disgraced politician Tommy Sheridan (Stewart Hosie brushes off criticism for Yes Dundee event appearance with Tommy Sheridan).
The inclusive and unified nature of Scotland’s independence movement will be forever compromised if we offer a platform to divisive figures like Mr Sheridan, who became notorious on the left long before his perjury conviction for the way in which he attacked and smeared many principled socialists.
He is shunned by progressive organisations in Scotland, including the Radical Independence Campaign (RIC), so what does Mr Hosie think he can gain by granting him legitimacy in our local Yes movement?
Connor Beaton. 45 Lilybank Terrace, Dundee.
Where would we be now?
Sir, Given the continuing decline in oil prices and the catastrophic economic impact on Russia, the second biggest producer in the world, where the rouble has slipped from 30 = 1 USD one year ago, to 52 = 1 USD today, one wonders where Scotland would have been as an independent nation relying on oil and gas revenues had we all swallowed the silly SNP line on independence.
Perhaps those nationalists who are still hell-bent on promoting independence may pause to reflect on the equation between reality and impossible dreams.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.