ON Thursday, Labour did not win the supposedly slam-dunk constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, apparently because of the ultra low emission zone.

Before Labour settled on this excuse, some were blaming the Greens. How dare 897 people not lend their vote to Labour, thus handing the constituency to the Tories? (The rest of those who also didn’t lend their vote to Labour were clearly irrelevant.)

But these Green voters, like those of us who believe in independence and/or the Green agenda, have overriding core beliefs. They, like many of us, are not going to vote for a party which does not support their core beliefs. Why should they?

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Branch office leader Sarwar and Dame Jackie can pontificate as much as they like about why Starmer and Reeves’s two-child policy is correct (these children did not ask to be born, but somehow it’s OK to keep them in poverty) and how, as arrogant Reeves’s instantaneous dismissal of the drug reform bill showed, any attempt by Scotland to try to improve the dreadful drug situation, using proven methods from elsewhere, is anathema – to her and the Labour party.

So, what do they offer? NO to indyref2, NO to re-joining Europe, NO to urgent climate-change solutions, NO to workers’ rights and standing with workers on picket lines, NO to even considering Scottish solutions to problems, NO, NO, NO.

I will never vote for any so-called “Scottish” branch office which so clearly has NO INTEREST in the needs and wishes of my country, and the country and constituents they ostensibly represent. Why would I?

Jean Dunlop
Glasgow

RESULTS of Thursday’s by-elections in England show, according to Professor Curtice of Strathclyde University, that the Conservatives could be in for a drubbing.

LibDems took the Somerset constituency and Labour took the Yorkshire “Blue Wall” constituency, setting a marker for all of those other constituencies that went from red to blue in 2019 when their “golden boy” plied his snake oil to a receptive but now disillusioned electorate.

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What was interesting was that Labour didn’t also win Johnson’s old seat, Uxbridge and Ruislip in West London, when they were expected to.

The extension to the ultra low emission zone proposed by Mayor Sadiq Khan of Labour persuasion was said to be the main reason, not the recently announced two-year delay to the HS2 station at Euston, taking the City folk quickly to and fro their sunlit uplands in South Yorks, where the house prices are distinctly lower that the superheated London prices that set and drive the house prices throughout the UK.

In each of these constituencies, on average only 47% of voters turned out to vote so 53% of voters didn’t bother. In a General Election where about 70% actually get out and vote that leaves about 20% unknown, who could be highly Tory.

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Hanging on till inflation rate drops to 5% or less seems to be the survival strategy to cling to power. If the economy improves and inflation rate drops, it is possible that the UK Tories could cling on. “It’s the economy, stupid” comes to mind.

Both Starmer and Dame Jackie Baillie repeat their mantra Labour can win anywhere now. Hmmm … hey may come to regret that.

Alistair Ballantyne
Angus

THE National reported earlier this week that Keir Starmer mocked those critics within the Labour Party who opposed his decision not to remove the two-child cap on benefits. Starmer said they shirked “tough decisions.”

Yet, when faced with the narrow defeat in the Uxbridge by-election, Starmer moans that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, should “reflect” on his decision to extend the ultra low emission zone. This eco-friendly policy looks to me like a “tough decision”, but enlightened. Stephen Flynn was correct when he described the Labour front bench, including Starmer, as lacking a spine.

Gavin Brown
Linlithgow

WHY do folk keep accusing Starmer and the Labour party of having no principles? It must be patently obvious that they do indeed have one overriding one, to which they are totally dedicated – to do and say whatever, whenever and on whatever topic will get them into power at Westminster, after which their total lack of other principles will see them adopt all the Tory ones.

L McGregor
Falkirk

CONGRATULATIONS to the Sunday National for last weekend’s front page cover. This is the most apt description of Keir Starmer I have seen and sums him up perfectly – a plastic AI version of a think-tank/focus group and good partner for Barbie.

Ruth Wishart sums up this description of Starmer with her reference to Nigel Lawson saying “to govern is to choose”. The Westminster Labour Party seem unable to do this, excusing it by saying they do not want to give the Tories ammunition at the next election – but what is the point of Labour if “it finally gains power and loses its soul”, to quote Ruth again. They are happy to renew Trident but willing to starve children and families.

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As far as I know, the majority of nuclear weapons are stored at Coulport – even though the MoD in Davenport says it cannot house submarines carrying nuclear weapons because of the proximity to Plymouth’s population of 11,000 – but it is OK in Scotland at Coulport with a 3.5 million population in the vicinity. Every Scot should be appalled at this sheer audacity, and for Scottish Labour to be OK with this is shocking.

Labour are getting more Tory by the day, not just a pale imitation.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley