AS a lifelong trade union activist, who campaigned for a Yes vote during the referendum, I can fully understand the frustration of David Stevenson expressed in his letter of April 28. I am also a member of Unite and, like David, support the concept of the political levy to give our movement a voice in parliament (a novel concept: maybe we need to form a party).

However, the policy of Unite will not be changed by members opting out of the political levy – this will only increase the influence of those who would have our unions tied to the neo-liberal policies of the Labour Party. The party founded by our great movement has deserted us and will pay the price. Trade unionists should be the driving force to make this happen.

In this time of austerity, low pay, zero-hours contracts, foodbanks and the worst labour laws in the western world, there has never been such a need for a strong and fighting trade union movement.

I would urge David and all trade unionists not to allow our movement to go the same way as the Labour Party. Stay in and take our unions back.

Derek Durkin

Port Seton


IT was good to hear a breakout of common sense in Len McCluskey’s comments about expecting Ed Miliband to work with the SNP. If the Labour Party find themselves likely to be a minority government then they should work with another progressive party who have some policies in common. The hyperbole that we’ve heard about the SNP from all the Westminster parties does no one any credit. It also underestimates the impact on voters who get annoyed at the constant mention of the SNP as though they had no right to participate in elections.

It does strike me that some people continue to hang onto the idea that the only progressive party in Scotland is the Labour Party despite its rightward shift on some policies. P art of the many political changes that have taken place in Scotland is the movement among the SNP and smaller parties to positive, people-centred politics with an emphasis on public services, renewable energy and the removal of Trident.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the referendum campaign was the work of Women for Independence who were successful in mobilising women of all ages and class backgrounds.

Unlike David Cameron, who seems to view the SNP campaigning as some kind of sinister plot, I believe the opposite to be true.

Maggie Chetty

Glasgow

WE entered the First World War using the tactics learned in the Boer War; then in the Second World War we began using the tactics of the First World War. Trident is the weapon and tactics of the cold war. Was its use even threatened during the Iraq wars? Do we really wish to threaten the existence of the world as we know it?

If a fraction of the funds required for Trident were spent on conventional forces, we would not have had the shame of sending ill-equipped soldiers into battle in Iraq and there would be funds enough to save us from imposing cuts on the poor and benefit-dependent sections of the population.

It was said of the First World War that we had an army of lions led by donkeys. It looks to me that things have not changed when we read that former heads of defence are championing the renewal of Trident. However, their expertise was acquired in the cold war and the enemy now is the terrorist.

Should we wake them up to smell the coffee or leave them to dream in peace?

Brian Rattray

Edinburgh

LAST year, Academics for Yes drew attention to the disproportionate share of public sector investment in higher education going to the south east of England.

Despite that, the Research Excellence Framework has confirmed that Scottish universities outperform their peers globally and indeed have improved further within the UK.

It is interesting, therefore, that all of the recently-announced £24 million for new and continuing centres funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) – are in and around London (apart from the one partnership with Lancaster and Sheffield), thus further centralising and concentrating macroeconomic and policy research in the south east.

This impacts across the rest of the UK, outside of the “golden triangle” (Oxford-Cambridge-London), working against any suggestion of building a “northern powerhouse” for England and continuing to represent an under-investment of UK research facilities in Scotland.

With government, corporations, banks, the media and other major players all focused on London, there is an ongoing problem with these forces and people only reflecting the voice, issues, concerns and potential of the capital. This is to the long term disadvantage of the rest of the country.

Confounding this metropolitan bias and failure to recognise the issues facing the whole country, each of these centres supported by the ESRC is overwhelmingly reliant on public funds for their activities, so their dependency must be of concern also.

The “independent” IFS is having to scale back or drop its proposed work on the top income distribution, earnings and tax shelters, tax competition, credit and insurance markets and early years interventions. All these are areas requiring their particular micro-economic skills and analyses to be applied to inform the public and policymakers better.

How inconvenient for those interested in analysing and addressing this most unequal of countries.

Professor Mike Danson

Heriot-Watt University

THIS election campaign has seen a great deal of misinformation published, which has mostly been intended to encourage voting against the SNP. So here’s an alternative voters’ guide and sound reasons union supporters should vote for the SNP in this election.

The flow of public opinion in Scotland towards another referendum and independence cannot be stopped by voting anti-SNP. Indeed, there is a strong argument that voting anti-SNP will only speed up another referendum.

In the last referendum, a great many people voted No because of the fear-mongering spread by the Better Together campaign about the SNP fiscal policies.The same this is happening again.

If Westminster parties are simply fear-mongering again and succeed in getting you to vote anti-SNP, you may never know what might have happened. So vote SNP and find out.

There has been some speculation that the SNP may form a coalition with Labour and take ministerial positions, and stranger things have happened. Of course, that could be a mistake of the same gigantic proportions that the Liberal Democrats made five years ago. It also may have the same catastrophic effect on the SNP’s future electoral chances as it has had on the Lib Dems. Is it worth a gamble?

Vote SNP.

Bob Heinemeier

Huntly, Aberdeenshire

THE hysteria and paranoia in the Unionist parties anent Scotland at finally having a prospect of real representation at Westminster is a wonder to behold.

The economies of truth, the predictions of things which will be done by these SNP MPs, all stated as fact, are actually funny.

The better the polls become for the SNP, the wilder and more panicked are the Unionists. The facts are that this is a UK election and the SNP people will take their stance on this basis while at the same time representing the interests of their voters in Scotland. The fact is also that there will be no referendum until it is clearly apparent that the Scottish public wish to have one. There is nothing undemocratic in listening to what the public wants. Though I realise that is is not usual Westminster practice, perhaps it should be?

R Mill

Irving

CAN I suggest that all purchasers and readers of The National recycle their copy via their local coffee shop, community centre, local colleges, universities etc.

This is the only paper which is giving a factual analysis of the election headlines and we can all play our part in making this information available to the widest possible readership.

Elizabeth Pow

Dunfermline

THIS is an open letter to Nicola Sturgeon. I`ve followed your political performance over the years and in all your TV debates, and see you as the Angela Merkel of Scottish and UK politics.

Why? Because you are sophisticated, intelligent, caring, charismatic, honest, determined, persevering, perceptive democratic, the leader of a wealthy country. You rise head and shoulders above any other politician in the UK.

Like Merkel, you are poised on the edge of greatness. You rank among some of the top European women such as Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde. You have the metal of Merkel and the incisiveness of Lagarde. I know you won’t let Scotland down, and Scotland will not let you down.

William C McLaughlin

Thankerton, Biggar

AS someone who has attended many of the Ayrshire Friends of Refugees protests at Dungavel, I would be delighted if it was shut down.

I therefore welcome the increased publicity given to the presence of this detention centre here in Scotland, and the concerns expressed about those held inside it.

However, I’m not sure that a mass demonstration at Dungavel will benefit those detainees. When there was a large protest in 2005 it was reported that all the inmates were moved out before the protest.

There is already considerable disquiet about the health of the current inmates. If they were all to be moved out again, this would just be adding to their discomfort and distress.

Should we not show our abhorrence of Dungavel in a way that would affect the perpetrators of this disgrace rather than those who are caught up in this inhumane system?

Paul Rimmer

Stirling

ANTI-ENGLISH hatred in Scotland? Nigel Farage seems to have mixed up the general and the particular. No, it’s not the English that Scots hate, it’s him.

Derek Ball

Glasgow