Sir, I understand Johann Lamont has to toe the UK line, but she must be embarrassed to say on the platform with Gordon Brown on Monday that she cannot see how independence could achieve more social justice in Scotland.
How about winning a general election post-independence and just doing it?
The truth is that Scottish Labour are so bitter at their loss of power they would make a pact with the Devil to stop their fellow Scots trying new, London-free policies.
The fact is that UK Labour has failed and will never again have the opportunities they had in the 20th century to radically improve the lives of the disadvantaged. Even if the hapless Ed Miliband staggers over the line as the “winner” next time, he will be so compromised by coalition and the baying right flank of Middle England that nothing will change, certainly not in Scotland.
Move over Labour. To see once-firebrand socialists (even proto-Nationalists, some of them) like Gordon Brown, Brian Wilson and Johann Lamont betray their youthful idealism out of spite and try to block the idealism of this generation of their own people, is shameful indeed.
David Roche. 1 Alder Grove, Scone.
The real reasonfor urging a “yes” vote
Sir, Anwar Sarwar revealed Labour’s true reason for urging people to vote against independence: self preservation.
The “double blow” he describes is that a “yes” vote would reduce Scotland’s control over a right-wing Tory government.
In other words, the Labour Party at Westminster would no longer be able to rely on their poodles in Scotland to vote the way that they are instructed to by their masters in London.
Nothing else matters to them.
Lovina Roe. Glasgow Road, Perth.
Who says the UK is “our place”?
Sir, In response to Mona Clark’s letter of May 14, where she asks: “If Scotland votes “yes” to independence and it all goes wrong, could we re-negotiate back “our place” in the United Kingdom?
If we vote “yes” to independence then the majority of Scots would not have thought “our place” was in the United Kingdom.
My question to Miss Clark would be this: who said, “please take us back under British rule”?
Answer: nobody ever.
T Tolland. East Park Cottage, Braidestone, Meigle.
We are already a successful nation
Sir, Throughout all the various comments in your paper and other parts of the media I have noticed a distinct lack of comment on which way the politics of an independent Scotland would lean.
Presumably the SNP would have no cause for existence since they would have achieved their goal.
Would the independent Scotland of the SNP’s dreams be a stronghold for the Labour Party, the Liberals or God forbid these bad Tories from Westminster?
If Alex & Co wish to have a successful referendum then I would suggest that there are more policy decisions made public, apart from the only policy the SNP bleats on about we will be better away from England.
Scotland, along with the other parts of the UK, has been a successful nation for a long time, there is no need to change that.
Willie Robertson. Grianan, Lynton, Stanley, Perthshire.
Cyclists’ version of the Highway Code?
Sir, Does the Highway Code not apply to cyclists, or do they have their own version?
Recently, on three separate occasions, cyclists have passed me on the inside while I have been stopped at red traffic lights and continued merrily on their way through the red lights.
I am sure if a motor vehicle did that then the vehicle registration number would be taken and reported to the police and rightly so.
However, bikes do not have such distinguishing marks and so cannot be identified as easily. A pity!
Tom McDonald. 57 Durham Street, Monifieth.
Better stick to writing about nature, Jim
Sir, In his one-sided rant favouring the EU and against recent senior Tory advocates for our leaving it, Jim Crumley discounts its anti-democratic and bossy character, very high costs to us and, in calling Nigel Lawson and Norman Tebbit “dinosaurs,” overlooks that one day, he too will be older, but will hope to be well-preserved like them and not, unjustifiably, to be called rude names.
Maybe he should write less about politics and more about his favoured birds of prey, sea eagles, etc, but always remember that there’s more than one side to these predators as many Scottish sheep and poultry farmers would agree.
(Dr) Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.