Letters I: Brown has only contempt for the people of Scotland

She assured voters that voting No would not kill off the constitutional question and she would come up with “something better”. That a No vote would cost Scotland 250,000 manufacturing jobs, £40 billion in North Sea oil revenues and, early exposure to the poll-tax.

Gordon Brown is now channelling the spirit of Mrs Thatcher when he talks about a “more federal relationship” for the UK to kill off indyref2 (Gordon Brown claims a new home rule settlement for Scotland could kill off indyref2, The National, Aug 30). Mr Brown is like an old abused circus bear wheeled out to do the same old trick because the unionists have ran out of ideas.

Mr Brown assured us that “federalism” would be enacted on the day after the No vote in the referendum. What we got was David Cameron’s version of the movie the Hunger Games but without the games.

Gordon Brown should not be trusted by anyone. It was his adoption of the Tory PFI scam which now sees Scottish taxpayers giving £1 billion to corporations who avoid tax. His raid on private pensions in 1997 cost them £100bn. Of course his last act of economic incompetence was to loot the UK Treasury in order to bail-out the banks that he failed to regulate in the first place.

Gordon Brown is a man who holds the Scottish public in contempt. He only ever gives speeches to hand-picked audiences of loyal Labour hacks where his lies won’t be challenged.

He had 10 years as chancellor and three as prime minster to come up with a “new constitutional settlement”. He didn’t because the thoroughly corrupt Westminster first-past-the-post system and the House of Lords ensured that Labour would govern without sharing power.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

WHEN I saw mention of Gordon Brown’s plan for a more federal UK popping up on my timeline on Facebook I thought it was people simply posting up old stories again! Apparently not. It seems Mr Vow is at it again, with yet more promises of more power to stave off the threat of independence for Scotland. Quite why anyone believes a single word that comes from his mouth is beyond me. Time after time, broken promise after broken vow, Gordon Brown has proven he cannot be trusted no matter how often he tries to rehash the same lines. We’re still waiting for the Vow you promised Mr Brown - until that is delivered I don’t think a single person in Scotland will pay any attention to you.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley

GORDON Brown claims a new home rule settlement for Scotland could kill off indyref2. Gordon Brown’s prediction that within a year or two we would be as close to a federal state as you can be in a country where one nation is 85 per cent of the population has been fulfilled. I am sure that many Scots would like to know if his proposal for a “more federal” relationship with the UK takes the current status as a starting point or the limit?

John Jamieson
South Queensferry

I NOTICE that Alyn Smith MEP is also picking up on the reorganisation of the SNP and recalls the work undertaken by his predecessor, Dr Allan Macartney (Alyn Smith: We have the team, the people, the cause, but what is badly needed is better training, The National, Aug 30). I find this really interesting as Alyn, in his article about organisation, mentions the issue of the “Candidate’s Handbook”.

I was Director of Organisation at that time and pursued and developed, in 1987, the Election Agent’s Campaign Handbook which were issued only to organisers who attended the weekend training sessions. At the time I also had the authority to appoint area organisers and, as can be imagined, these were people who had demonstrated both the ability to organise and had good interpersonal skills to enable them encourage all activists – across an area incorporating a number of parliamentary constituencies and all starting from different organisational bases – to embark upon a programme of organisational improvement and development. It is perhaps timeous to point out to Mr Sheppard MP, that all of these area organisers were dedicated volunteers but, like the candidates, they devoted their time and effort to the cause and, unfortunately, never received the appreciation their efforts merited. I for one would be delighted to attend some ‘national’ event at which the organisational objectives and priorities of the party could be discussed and identified and have indicated this to Mr Sheppard (23rd August) and await a reply.

Understandably, once a candidate is elected, the time they can devote to organisation, if they consider it at all, is very limited indeed and they depend, if they realise it, on having a good organiser ‘staying at home’ improving that organisation between elections whilst they pursue the work for which they were elected. In other words – it is like a marriage – they are equals.

Sadly Alyn’s experience of branch meetings is quite likely to be replicated today and good organisational practice could and should address this.

All too often candidates and those elected pay ‘lip service’ to the issue of organisation and then ‘park’ the concept until election time comes around once again. Continuous refining of campaigning techniques and addressing weaknesses is necessary between elections.

Alan McKinney
Edinburgh

Sutherland may need golf project to survive

REGARDING plans for a golf course in Sutherland (Conservationists object to plans for golf course, The National, Aug 30). While it’s true the local petition in favour has about 280 signatures, 84 per cent are from local residents. The anti-petition has world-wide signatures.Whilst this may mean that our dunes are precious to the world, those of us who aren’t NIMBYS still want to see our heritage conserved. To my mind there is a difference between conservation and preservation.

Conservation is active and conservationists understand a wild environment isn’t static. Preservation is trying to keep the land as it is but nature always works against that. Lack of management has meant that in time a precious place will be lost.

Given Mike Keiser’s reputation of working with nature we’re looking forward to hearing his plans. There are consultation meetings in both Dornoch and Embo where we will get more information. There may well be economic benefits which could come from the development and goodness knows Sutherland needs those if it is to survive as an active community. However, the planning department aren’t rolling over to have their tummies tickled.

Catriona Grigg
Embo

Letters II: If the media told the truth Scotland would be independent