Labour’s future lies as a party of the left after independence

YOU report that former Labour MP Tom Harris thinks the Labour Party is “at the edge of irrelevance” in Scotland. If only; in fact Labour has fallen over the edge and is now mired in the depths of irrelevance. Its complacency, cronyism and institutional contempt for those who trudged into the polling booths to support it have at last caught up with it.

It’s now learning the hard lesson that trust, once lost, isn’t easy to recover.

Scottish Labour’s best bet is to declare for independence, as Roddy MacDonald suggested (Letters, December 30).

With great swathes of powers being devolved to Scotland over the next few years, and English Votes for English Laws still on the agenda at Westminster, the campaign for independence is almost over, bar the shouting.

I take my hat off to all those who fought long and hard last year for a Yes vote; they lost that battle, but they’ll win the war. Independence is now all but inevitable, so let’s get on and make the best of it.

Scottish Labour has a future, but only as a party of the left in an independent Scotland. Doug Maughan, 3 Menteith View, Dunblane.

One of three 4m-high Striding Arches built by world-renowned sculpture Andy Goldsworthy on the hilltops surrounding the remote Cairnhead Valley, seven miles north of Moniaive, Dumfriesshire. Each arch is reputed to weigh 27 tons.