THE screeching U-turn by the Tories over the scrapping of the parliamentary standards procedure in a bid to save one of their corrupt MPs is too little, too late. It was only when the Tories realised that other political parties weren’t going to go along with setting up a new standards procedure and the inevitable bad press started to hit home that they decided to cancel their original plans.

This whole episode once again highlights the corruption at the heart of the UK Tory Government. In any other workplace an employee who acted like Owen Paterson would face not only the sack but also a police investigation into their corruption.

READ MORE: 'Scandal after scandal' as PM refuses to rule out peerage for Owen Paterson

Westminster – and especially the Tory government – is beyond any redemption, corruption is rife and there is no chance of any reform from within. The only way to escape this corruption is to increase the pressure to gain our independence.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley

WEDNESDAY, November 3, 2021, may well be remembered as the day the UK lost its last vestiges of democracy and was revealed as a fully functional kleptocracy. MPs voting to scrap the standards committee and its work, in order to shield Owen Paterson, was an act worthy of all the “Banana Republics” which we have always felt ourselves superior to. “Remember, remember, the third of November, self-interest stands to the fore...” How Guido Fawkes would have laughed.

Jon Southerington
Deerness, Orkney

ROBIN MacLean’s letter (Nov 2) regarding trade union donations to the Labour Party “fair took me back” as they say, to around 1967 in fact, when I was a young, recently time-served tradesman and union member.

At that time, my union membership fee included a sum – “the political levy” – which went to the Labour Party. Being a SNP member, I decided to cancel the levy and duly attended the union rooms and informed the local “committee” accordingly.

A discussion followed, during which I said I was willing to pay the levy if it went to the SNP. At this point, a stranger sitting waiting to be attended to interrupted, saying to the committee: “I agree, you should gie the money to the SNP.”

That evening my political levy was cancelled, and fast forwarding to the present, if I was that young tradesman now, I doubt if I would even be a member of a trade union.

I say this not because I am anti-trade union, but due to their conduct in 2014 and their devotion to Scotland’s ludicrous Red Tories.

Malcolm Cordell
Dundee

I THANK Dave Coull (Letters, Nov 4) for adding to the dialogue regarding trade unions and their support of the Labour party. I respect his view regarding not to donate money to Labour or any party. His view is maybe working as after googling Unite, I discovered that they have reduced their funding for Labour. With the money saved, they have been quoted to say they want to nurture other voices in their “movement”.

READ MORE: Do unions now reflect their members' preferences and donate to the SNP?

Between January and March 2021 £131,000 was donated. In the same period in 2020, £500,000. I also concur the priority of any union is to promote and safeguard members’ wages and conditions to support local issues, fight against poverty, promote the NHS and help the marginalised in our society.

I myself was a shop steward in Unison and support the work they do. But nevertheless, many trade unions solely financially support Labour, despite many of their members’ abhorrence of Labour adopting Tory policies. It is understood that around £500,000 a year still goes to Labour in affiliate fees from Unite. In the first quarter this year Unison donated £549,000 and Usdaw £506, 215.

If the likes of Unite truly want to nurture other voices in their movements, they should try and reflect their grassroot members’ views, and that in Scotland is maybe pro-independence. Others may prefer to continue financially support Labour but want to change the Labour party from within. After all, the union is the members and all don’t support New Labour. Times have changed and so too should the way unions support political parties! All I’m saying is either stop donating, as Dave Coull suggests, or dish out the money more equitably and in a way that reflects the grassroots members’ wishes.

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus

I WAS pleased to see PM Boris Johnson apologise to Karine Elharrar, the energy minister for energy for Israel, for not providing wheelchair access to COP26, and Pam Duncan-Glancy’s follow-up on the general difficulties of wheelchair users.

I thought about the wider scale of vulnerable people and how our UK is faring in dealing with this situation. Not just on the climate crisis where, although the UK tells us how well it is doing, there are still a lot of anomalies like importing meat from the furthest away countries and then telling people to shop locally, and to eat less meat. Then to encourage flights within the UK by reducing the passenger duty (most UK flights go to Heathrow). I could go on.

But the most vulnerable people in the UK are suffering by taking away some of their meagre benefits, putting up fuel payments, and ignoring the elderly with the lowest pensions in Europe while they live in relative luxury. It is an unequal country, the UK.

So bringing me back to the question of how well the UK is doing, I recall an old person telling me that a country is only as good as how it treats its vulnerable citizens: the sick, the aged, the young, the disabled. On that score I would not give the UK a high rating. Let us hope and pray that Scotland will do better when it is independent of Boris and co...

Marjorie Forrest
West Kilbride