SIR Keir Starmer has spoken bravely in the face of the Conservative government in London planning further legislation to curtail the right of working people to withhold their labour. However his threat to repeal this legislation in the event that his party comes to power does not impress me much. If he really expects Scots to place our hopes for a future based on social justice, perhaps he or his Scottish stooge Anas Sarwar could tell us any single clause of Thatcher’s anti-union legislation that was repealed by the Labour governments of 1997-2010.

Based on the failure of Labour to restore workers’ rights last time they were in power, I cannot trust them to have the interests of working-class Scots anywhere near the top of their agenda. My hope for a better future for Scotland lies with our independence, not the Westminster roundabout that will sooner or later put Scotland back under control of the Conservatives, even if in the short-term the English electorate chooses to deliver us a Labour government led by a man whose first name is Sir.

Ni Holmes

St Andrews