Unloved Labour

What Kenny Macaskill says about the decline of Scottish Labour (Perspective, 20 September) may or may not be true, it depends on who or what you believe.

They certainly are out campaigning week in and week out, and hold regular lively discussions.

But what Kenny Macaskill says about a lack of ideas is also true for the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP Scottish Government. Both have effectively been sidelined.

It was not much more than one year ago that an additional dozen Scottish Tory MPS were elected, but no-one ever hears from them now, they are westminster cattle fodder.

Nicola Sturgeon’s Brexit plan has been roundly ignored, there are meetings with Tory ministers but nothing ever happens, Mike Russell is allowed to bluster on.

The problem is not with Scottish Labour, it is with politics in Scotland. The English-centric Conservative Brexit policy is the only show in town.

In Scotland, unfortunately everything is seen through the prism of independence. The last two general elections in Scotland were largely fought on the independence issue, the whole of the Scottish

campaign was thus. Until the SNP take independence off the table, and we have a Scottish Government who wish to concern themselves with issues that matter to electors – such as whether they have jobs and get paid, and whether their children will be educated – the Scottish Government will continue to live in its own little world, and important decisions will be made elsewhere, with no Scottish input.

PHIL TATE

Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh