AT a time when the internecine feuding in SNP ranks can be frustrating and depressing in equal measure, it was encouraging to read Stephen Paton’s column to accurately put our political choices into perspective (Why the argument to stay in the Union and work to elect Labour is now truly dead, March 1).

At a time when the most right-wing Conservative government in a generation has presided over the twin nightmare scenarios of a global pandemic and Brexit, the Labour party has been ineffectual and peripheral to the course of events. Having languished in the political wilderness for more than a decade, the present party and its leadership appear irrelevant and apologetic for any resemblance it once bore to expounding the policies of social equality and egalitarianism.

Though the effects of the coronavirus and Brexit may last for a long time to come, it is evident even at this early stage, as Stephen Paton observes, that the obscenely wealthy may well become considerably richer and that the poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK will become poorer still. We are witness to a proliferation of food banks and a creeping assault on the post-Brexit rights of workers, who are now at the mercy of the neo-liberal Johnson administration.

READ MORE: Stephen Paton: The argument to stay in the Union and work to elect Labour is now dead

The supine Keir Starmer, a man who sits on the fence so much that he must have splinters on his bahookie, seems to regard social justice as a lost cause that his party must sacrifice in the vain hope that it will make them electable. He presently advocated, as Stephen Paton notes, no increase to corporation tax but is apparently content to support government plans to discontinue the £20 weekly increase for those on Universal Credit at a time of genuine privation for many individuals

and families. In holding the Westminster government to account over issues like the ongoing corruption involved in the granting of pandemic-related contracts and high-profile ministers refusing to accept accountability, Mr Starmer has been as effective as a catflap in an elephant house.

He has increasingly adopted Tory-lite policies to try and win back the “red wall”, but this is at the expense of the historic values and moral base of the traditional Labour party. And, as Stephen Paton points out, the election of Anas Sarwar as the new Scottish Labour leader will condemn the party to more years of London control, centre-right “Brownism” and political and ethical torpor.

The dominant UK political groups both now identify themselves with insular and jingoistic dogma. They cannot, or are completely unwilling to, deliver inclusive and socially fair policies for the people they purportedly represent. Scottish independence is the the only route available to its people to ensure we become an outward-looking, modern and progressive European nation. Yes, it’s that simple.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

I WATCHED Mr Aseem Malhotra, one of the UK’s top cardiologists, being interviewed about Prince Phillip being transferred from London’s King Edward VII’s Hospital to St Bartholemew’s Hospital. Almost the first thing he said was that he was not surprised that the prince had been transferred from a private hospital to an NHS hospital.

His point was that private hospitals are fine for less serious conditions but for serious cases NHS hospitals are much better.

Whilst the Conservative party is busy selling off parts of the NHS to American health insurance providers it worth listening to the likes of Mr Malhotra. I for one have more confidence in his opinion than that of Boris Johnson or any member of his party when it comes to the NHS.

Harry Key
Largoward, Fife