A question for Labour

PETER A Russell (Letters, October 14) could have a little regard for the definition of a “colony”. It is when one country is under the political control of another, which also exploits it economically. That is a reasonable description of Scotland, and Liz Truss gets far more exposure in Scotland’s media than Nicola Sturgeon.

Unitary state? Well, Scotland has always had control of its own legal and education systems, the building blocks of a country, and the British state has been delegating responsibilities to the national level (Scotland) for a century as a means of depressing discontent with Metropolitan rule.

As for the act of selfdetermination in the 2014 referendum: we were given a false prospectus on many issues (it would take a page to detail them all) and Mr Russell’s own letter claims that “Scotland chose to remain in that unitary state”; but

in 2014 we were being offered the exact opposite with Gordon Brown (a federal state within two years) and Alistair Darling (devo max) both working with No 10 Downing Street. The Labour Party is in agreement with Ireland (north and south) having the right to choose its own future, repeated every seven years as required, and Labour would be neutral in any plebiscite. Why won’t Labour commit to this with regard to Scotland?

GR Weir,

Ochiltree.

WHAT a sad, pathetic lament from Michael Clayton (Letters, October 13). He expects my granddaughter to accept the result of a referendum held when she

was 10 years old and the Scottish Government to ensure that any facilities previously utilised by Nicola Sturgeon’s parents are never withdrawn.

Willie Maclean,

Milngavie.