I HAVE just received an election leaflet from Scottish Labour.

Inter alia it refers to matters that lie within Holyrood, not Westminster, control. One of its claims in that context is a commitment to "free tuition for every Scottish student who attends a Scottish university" . UK Labour policy is to reduce the £9,000 tuition fee to £6,000 in England. That raises some pertinent questions relevant to the election now under way, not least just how independently Scottish areScottish Labour?

Are Scottish Labour opposed to university tuition fees in principle? If so, how will they act in Westminster?

Will Labour MPs elected in Scotland take the UK Labour Whip?

If that Whip insists on £6,000 tuition fees for English students at English universities will Scottish Labour MPs rebel and vote to reduce that figure to zero?

If they does not take the UK Whip, what will Scottish Labour do about tuition fees in England?

When Jim Murphy told us that we would be better together, surely those words embraced not just us up here, but the English as well. So, how is it possible for Scottish Labour to extol the virtues of its commitment to free tuition in Scotland, and say nothing in a Westminster election about removing entirely the financial burden placed upon young people in England?

Jim Sillars,

96 Grange Loan, Edinburgh.

IN questioning the Scottish Government's policies on higher education Martin Axford (Letters, March 28) states that "only 26 per cent of Scottish university students are recruited from 'the lowest social classes, compared with 32.6 per cent in the UK as a whole.''

In quoting these figures are we really comparing apples with apples?

In the most recent figures available (2012-13) only 74.4 per cent of students at Scottish universities were Scottish-domiciled, compared with the 84.7 per cent of students at English universities who were English-domiciled. There were 15,400 English-domiciled students in Scotland making up 8.7 per cent of the total. There were 6,400 Scottish domicile students in England, making up 0.4 per cent of the total. And of course much smaller numbers and proportions from the rest of the UK and overseas, to make up the total UK student population.

It is unlikely that the ''lower social class'' proportion from the various non-domicile sectors across the UK is the same as for the domicile proportion so perhaps not too much confidence can be placed in Mr Axford's figures as giving an accurate reflection of the effect of the Scottish Government's policies on the social class breakdown at Scottish universities in purely Scottish terms.

Nick Dekker,

1 Nairn Way, Cumbernauld.