Labour have now morphed into the Tories – they can't save Scotland

The problem is simple. Scotland is a de facto colony of Westminster. The devolved Scottish Government does Westminster’s bidding because it’s a creature of the Union. England, not Scotland, controls the key areas of governance.

Westminster controls economic policy, where ruinous interest rates and austerity are crushing people; it controls energy policy, where Scots pay more than rUK despite producing most of the energy; it dictates foreign policy, where Scotland’s vote to remain in the EU is ignored; it decides defence policy, where weapons of mass destruction are sited in Scotland against the wishes of its people.

It’s hard to imagine a more incompetent and callous government. Unfortunately, Labour subscribe to the same lie that “taxes fund spending”. The reality is that the UK Government can spend all the money needed to fund decent public services including paying people enough to live on.

It created plenty of new money to provide Covid support, tax breaks for corporations, bank bailouts, Ukraine, more nuclear weapons.

No-one asked “who is going to pay?” But when it comes to helping people, the answer is invariably “we don’t have the money”.

Labour have morphed into the Tories, making the UK a US mini-me, where the choice for voters is between two right-wing corporate lobbying groups.

The Scottish people have suffered long enough under UK hegemony. The path to restoring Scotland’s sovereignty, just as it was for England’s former colonies, is not through Westminster but through the UN and International Court of Justice. We need a national liberation movement and we need it now.

Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh

“PROSPECTIVE Labour MPs will no longer be able to stimulate leftist politics”, writes Alastair McLeish on Mar 30.

The same can be said of MSPs and the Labour Party in general.

Is it not time that the party members broke away from their blue masters in Westminster and Holyrood, to form the Scottish Labour Independence Party?

That is the only way they will ever make their mark on Scottish politics again.

Sandy Coghill
Isle of Skye

IN my rail travels across the expanse of the nation of Caledonia, I have embarked on a new competition. As a beholder of my much-valued subscription coupons for my newspaper of choice, The National, I scour the retail outlets for the prize of my daily read. Unfortunately, it feels like playing put the tail of the donkey on a pig farm. Across this land, the said newspaper is as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth.

The same situation does not apply to the Unionists’ Mail, Express, Sun or even Telegraph which proliferate in Scotia. Even in Dundee, a supposed SNP stronghold, a search of five newsagents proved fruitless and I had to admit defeat and retire to the bar with an “i”, which is also ubiquitous. In the capital at Waverley Station, I secured my first success, securing the last copy at midday on the bottom shelf under a cliff face of “precious Union” Tory propaganda. Even in my home town, “the only paper that supports an independent Scotland” is dispensed as if it’s a dirty book from the 1970s.

I enjoy The National very much but as I approach my 70th year, my hiking abilities are in decline and I would just love to see a day I enter any paper shop and it’s there. I write this after travelling from Kirkcaldy to Aberdeen and in my satchel is a Guardian, a Herald and a “i”, but alas, my token is in my hipper.

Kenny Burnett
Aberdeen

DAN Wood’s Long Letter of March 30 (The future of my party – and my support of it – is now in doubt) is understandable but misses a few salient points.

As I understand it, Kate Forbes was offered the post of Rural Affairs Secretary and took a day to consider it. Talk of this as a “demotion” falls into the propaganda trap put out by Unionists. It has been amply pointed out that this is not a “demotion” but in the “new” Scotland it will be a very important post. Although the majority of Scots live in the central belt, Scotland as a whole is a rural country. Are we to discount Scots who live in the rural parts? I hope not.

Also, the post holds the land portfolio within its remit, which could be a stepping stone to the introduction of annual ground rent, something which is within the devolution bill and can be acted upon by the SNP government.

It would only affect those least likely to vote for independence. So it lies within the grasp of the MSP appointed to make something of it.

But probably the most relevant missed point in his letter is that Kate Forbes has only recently had a new baby, and it is understandable that the thought of missing the early years of the child led to Kate Forbes turning down the post.

For someone of her talents, another day will come. Of that, I and Dan Wood can be sure.

Paul Gillon
Leven