SO now we know! Scotland’s last Labour MP thinks that the future of our nation and government is on a par with one of many minor decisions a local council is empowered to make. That surely tells us all we need to know about his attitude to Scotland and those he is elected to represent.

For me, it was a pleasant surprise to hear Clive Lewis, an English MP, speak with such unbiased views – the result, I imagine, of taking the problem seriously and considering facts and arguments on both sides. Had the Westminster government, since the early nineties, studied the constitutional question with such an open mind, with a little forethought they would have protected the “precious Union” with a well-designed federal system rather than a minimal devolution, an idea that has been around for most of the last century in some form, which would have prevented the desire for independence from ever taking root.

READ MORE: Labour MP Ian Murray likens indy debate to discussing English high street

Even so, 2014 offered Westminster a second chance. Had the promises of the Vow been fulfilled – Holyrood and its powers enshrined in law, Sewell made law instead of a convention, our position in the EU protected by a special deal, such as Northern Ireland has, etc – it would have taken independence off the agenda for a very long time. But no, the last “colony” of a lost Empire must be retained at all costs.

I suggest that Clive Lewis deserves our respect for at least looking impartially at the question of independence and thereby respecting true democracy. MP Murray seems to see democracy as following whatever party stance Labour thinks will get them back to power. Now that they know the level of importance he gives to the constitutional problem, and to Scotland, I hope his constituents are still happy with the result of their votes.

P Davidson
Falkirk

“I’M the MP who survived a nationalist wave that wiped away all my Scottish colleagues – not once, but twice” – inverted deluded hubris from Labour’s only MP in Scotland. Ian Murray was waxing on in the online Politics Home, a voice piece where hopefuls and hopeless in the political arena in the UK present themselves and their ideas. We do not know much yet. He is the sole Labour MP from Scotland and was not appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland by his London party to replace the last one who lost her seat last December.

The key words in his piece, which he states without reflection, are the election "that wiped away all my Scottish colleagues". He sees himself as a survivor, yet does not dwell on the seismic change in Scotland, once a Labour hegemony, now a Labour wasteland with few constituency MSPs and no MEPs.

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He sees somehow that his survival is an omen that he can deliver success to Labour nationally, but in which nation? One could add “dream on, laddie”, but what can he really offer? He is really the last survivor of the recent trend in tactical voting north of the Tweed in attempts, unsuccessful, to hit the SNP. As Labour in Scotland is rudderless at Westminster and in Holyrood, in London it also has no options left to reclaim its lost heartlands in England from the jingoism of the right.

Labour in its Scottish wake is thrashing around unsure of where it lies on Scottish politics. Indyref yes or no? Independence yes or no? In fact, on all dimensions it is merely a hanger-on unsure how to catch up. Its Unionism and alliance with the Better Together Tories killed it stone dead here. That signal simply says that no matter what happens in Westminster, even rabid Toryism under a PM such as Boris Johnson, Scots must bow the knee and accept it, as a Labour government might return in 10 or 20 years to put things right. The underlying assumption is that Labour has an entitlement, Scots have to take second place in this Union no matter how it votes.

The culling of Unionist MPs across the board last December by the SNP is an indication that Scottish society has changed and the old blind allegiances to the Unionist "triopoly" are gone.

When the Tories at Westminster start to take back powers from the devolved legislatures, one can expect silence from the likes of Ian Murray, the last deluded and narcissistic Westminster-centrist of Labour in Scotland standing.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

I TOTALLY disagree with Ian Murray’s remarks about Clive Lewis. I thought Lewis’s article in The National last week was excellent; thoughtful, democratic and honest, thinking of the broad picture and what is happening to Scotland and its people. It is ridiculous to compare Scotland’s future with the pedestrianisation of Norwich’s shopping centre!

As an English person I know for a fact that the majority of people down there, including many MPs, have no interest whatsoever in Scotland or our future. Some people think that we are an extension of England and are not even a country, which shows the level of ignorance in some quarters. So it is to Clive Lewis’s credit that he has taken this stance, and in this instance Ian Murray is totally wrong to criticise him.

Susan Rowberry
Duns

SHAME on Ian Murray comparing Scotland to a Norfolk city town square. His objections to Clive Lewis’s comments concerning Scottish Labour and its approach (in his view) to Scotland’s independence was a very poor judgement, in my view. What Murray should have compared Lewis’s viewpoint with is Westminster’s Brexit catastrophe, which bears no comparison to the changing use of a town square but does have a lot to compare with concerning Scotland’s quest for independence. Ian Murray is displaying as much arrogance towards his own country as his Scottish Tory MP colleagues. If he thinks that Scotland is no better than a Norwich town square then he truly deserves to be alone from his former Labour MPs but secure with the Scottish Tory MPs.

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife

IAN Murray reveals his REAL view of where Scotland stands, in or out of UK. To make the equivalence comparison between the future of our country and pedestrian access in Norwich says it all, telling more about Ian than all the New Labour/Old Tory Better Together bullshit ever could.

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

BORIS Johnson spent Christmas on the private Caribbean island of Mustique and Jeremy Corbyn spent Christmas Day helping at his local food bank.

Whatever your affiliation, there is a well known rule of leading by example. To fly half way round the world to a famously decadent private island to party with the heads of offshore, tax-avoiding, corporate multinationals with a woman who is not your wife is the action of a Berlusconi or a Trump.

After centuries of leaders who believe in selfless public service, are we returning to an era of Caesars or absolute monarchs?

Jean Fraser
Edinburgh

IN the Sunday National Graeme Macpherson discusses the possibility of the two Old Firm teams joining the English Premier League and states that any title win in a league shorn of the Old Firm would be a hollow success. Surely the same can be said for the titles that Celtic won when Rangers were out of the SPFL?

Keith Mathieson
Kirriemuir