Starmer has little to offer Scotland

Sir, – Keir Starmer insists that the UK Labour Party believes in a “democratic principle” which forbids another referendum on Brexit. If he ever gets round to defining this lonely “principle” for the rest of us it will surely be unique – UK Labour seems to have no others left.

On January 1, the Independent newspaper published a Savanta poll which showed that two-thirds of the British electorate want a referendum on rejoining the EU. On January 9, Statista Data Service published a report on a three-year survey of UK opinion on Brexit which stated: As of January 2023, 54% of people in Great Britain thought that it was wrong to leave the European Union, compared with 35% who thought it was the right decision.”

The evidence is clear: English voters, realising they were conned by Brexit lies in 2016, are demanding the democratic right to change their minds. The Labour Party’s “principled” response is apparently: You were conned; you fell for the lies. Now – as the Tory MP Alister Jack told a select committee member last year – suck it up.

As the awful consequences of Brexit pile up in terms of economic decline, bankruptcies, poverty, lethal staffing shortages in the NHS and care sectors, Westminster is dominated by a shamelessly incompetent, corrupt Tory government riding roughshod over this fushionless “opposition”.

The Labour Party is emasculated by the belief that they must stand for nothing that offends the remaining Brexit heartland of Red Wall seats in England; nothing that offends the City of London; and nothing that offends the right-wing voters of south-east England. While vital public service workers are being abused as commodities, Starmer stands back and refuses to back their leaders or the strikes of last resort.

On the insanity of nuclear weapons, Labour has also abandoned any principle. The awful consequences of 1950s and 60s nuclear tests, Chernobyl, Fukushima and other disasters have repeatedly demonstrated that just one crazed politician unleashing a single nuclear weapon will move our northern hemisphere closer towards ending “not with a bang but a whimper”.

Ownership of nuclear weapons is no protection

– it just adds the risk of blowing ourselves up accidentally. Frightened of losing right-wing votes, Labour offers Scotland no principle on this issue – nor safety. Glasgow, our largest city, is still regarded by such strait-jacketed politics as “remote and expendable enough” to host nuclear silos and wandering nuclear convoys.

Finally, on the same theme of “democratic principle” the Labour Party now supports the Tory decree that London rule must continue. Scotland – the oldest nation in Europe, the first and last targeted colony of the British state – will never again be allowed to vote for independence, because Westminster parties say “No”.

The Labour Party might still get away with standing for “nothing much” in England. I believe, however, that Scottish voters – with passionate understanding of “democratic principles” and profound contempt for the lies and liars of 2014 and 2016 – will not be conned again.

Frances McKie,

Ash Hill,

Evanton, Ross-shire.