THE Shropshire by-election result was a huge gift to us.
And a huge blow to what is left of Labour in Scotland. I think much of our media is stunned. While they were all discussing for weeks the likelihood of Labour and Sir Keir Starmer overturning the huge majority of a struggling Tory administration, the voters merely gave the Tories a slap by voting for the Tories’ wee pals. They’ve been a bit naughty (as usual) but should be a bit more careful.
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But I can never remember an election at which the Labour vote plummeted from over 17,000 to just under 4,000 and I would imagine Labour in Scotland has also been stunned into silence. The call we were beginning to hear – vote Labour in Scotland to put in a Labour government in Westminster – is sounding very shallow now. Labour voters in Scotland voting SNP and helping to remove the surviving Tories is likelier to be more effective, though I suspect a change of leadership in the Tory party will be fashioned and the ineffectual Labour Party will soon retreat in the ratings again.
David McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll
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