SCOTS must surely share Lesley Riddoch’s concerns about Tory-dominated Westminster replaying the scratched record of Thatcherite vindictiveness towards ordinary working people (Scotland needs a plan to escape the coming nightmare on Downing Street, July 28).

We’ve already had the nightmare of assault by Tory government for the last 12 years – and with no effective opposition to represent ordinary working citizens who have been abandoned by the Labour Party founded to represent them.

This contemporary Labour Party is an embarrassing disgrace led by a posh-boy Tory apologist who has been allowed to embark on the job of morphing the party into blatant red Tories in an attempt to displace the blue Tories in the centre-right ground of English politics – power at the expense of principles –while casting adrift those who have traditionally voted for them.

What Starmer and his followers fail to understand is that Scotland has wised up to Labour, substantially rejected them to the point that they now have here only one lingering MP who fails to acknowledge Scotland’s Claim of Right by denying Scots’ right to a referendum on their future, and there is no prospect of Scotland delivering the Labour MPs needed to form a meaningful government in Westminster with a workable majority.

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak praises Boris Johnson for power grab on Scotland

If there are any Labour supporters remaining in Scotland who remember and hark back to the working-class ordinary folks’ ethics of yesteryear, then can’t their aspirations only be met through rediscovering their political morality in the fresh arena of an independent Scotland? Isn’t failing to understand this simple truth tantamount to wallowing in the lingering demise of a once-proud, socially responsible political movement, while consigning to the social dustbin those who desperately need representation and protection against the ravages of Tory domination. Something that is determined to reset our social and capitalist system to favour the wealthy and restore the yawning wealth gap of the Victorians.

We already have the food banks; next may be the workhouses?

The recent and proposed countrywide strikes, over many employment sectors, reluctantly pursued by workers desperate to protect their Tory-eroded living standards, are only happening because the Tory government, represented by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, refuses to do the job it was elected to and engage in the negotiations that only they as holders of power can use to resolve the many serious issues involved.

With Labour support now posted missing, isn’t there now clearly a disconnect between Labour and the trade unions who fund them? So,why should union members bankroll a political party that is now working against their interests?

Don’t the unions now need to reconsider their affiliation to this red Tory Labour Party, to the point of creating a new political parliamentary force to reflect the interest of their members, and cast this failed Labour Party adrift to languish in the political doldrums they deserve?.

For me, the sad fact is that this is the same Labour Party that has eschewed democracy by refusing we Scots the right to at least discuss where we think our future lies, and fails to understand that their unwarranted and unjustified autocratic British establishment control over us is the very denial of its founding democratic principles, and no less fascist than that which led to the fiasco of the 1930s and 40s.

Captured as it is by British establishment, isn’t Labour now past its use-by date?

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

I REFER to Lesley Riddoch’s article regarding Scotland needing a plan to counter the impending disaster at Downing Street. I think the plan should be to achieve independence now by repealing the Act of Union 1707 as a second referendum will take far too long to achieve actual independence.

The danger from Downing Street lies in the fact that there will continue to be a warmongering Government in London, endangering us with nuclear annihilation, with Scotland being a prime target with Trident and Boris’s additional nuclear weapons being transported via Glasgow to Loch Long.

Colin Beattie

Via email

KEVIN McKenna’s excellent article on how Keir Starmer would be right at home in the debates for the Tory leadership contest (“Keir Starmer’s gone full Tory tonto – and would be right at home in debates”, Wednesday, July 27) is marred by having an unnecessary go at the SNP at the end.

The National: It was Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who wrote the Scotland Act, opposing further devolution for ScotlandIt was Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who wrote the Scotland Act, opposing further devolution for Scotland

Has he forgot that it was Labour who wrote the Scotland Act reserving employment law and industrial relations to Westminster, made few changes to the Thatcher-era anti-trade-union laws during the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments and opposed further devolution in the Smith Commission negotiations?

READ MORE: Keir Starmer 'sells out Labour's core principles' with latest decisions

Consequently, there is very little that can be done by the Scottish Government, now facing a Tory government that is determined to demolish what remains of the bulwark of workers rights that was built, often at great personal cost, by generations of workers.

John Jamieson

South Queensferry

CAN anyone tell me what Labour is for? They are now red Tory 100%. Could Starmer sack Sarwar and do Scotland a favour – after all, he was on the rail picket line in Glasgow.

There is nothing now between the Tories and Labour. Bring on indyref2 – it is the only hope Scotland has and it might even wake up the English voters who have been= lied to so often they can no longer tell the difference between truth and deception.

Winifred McCartney

Paisley