I FIND the attacks on the Unite trade union following the mess in the Falkirk Labour Party to be the height of hypocrisy.

You have reported that members of this union, the second-largest in Scotland with 150,000 members, were active and held senior positions in the Scottish Labour Party, that they were keen to get the candidate they preferred selected, that they worked on recruitment to the Labour Party and even paid new members' subscriptions ("Scottish Labour chairman exposed in Falkirk scandal", The Herald, November 11). None of that is new.

It was the trade union movement that created the Labour Party. Trade unionism has been at the centre of political democracy in the UK ever since the vote was available to the mass of the people, and history tells us that it has been a generally beneficial influence on the democratic process. Dictators like Hitler and Stalin had to attack the trade union movement in order to undermine democracy.

That, of course, is not to say that the unions can do no wrong, but it is necessary to put things in perspective. Alistair Darling, who expresses concern, appears to be happy that one individual, oil trader Ian Taylor, can be the main financial support of the Better Together campaign which he chairs.

The Labour Party saw Bernie Ecclestone secure a change in the Blair Government's health policy after substantial financial contributions and we can all see that the large privately-owned international banks have been forcing elected UK governments to support them with taxpayer's money.

The problems of the Labour Party in Falkirk result directly from the failure of the Labour Party to retain the support of ordinary working people, and it has that problem everywhere in the UK, because it has ignored the interests of ordinary people.

This weakness of the Labour Party means that relatively small groups, even family groups, can encourage short-term recruitment just before selection meetings and get the selection result they require and Falkirk is not the first time this has happened in Scotland, nor will it be the last.

This is not a problem caused by trade unions; on the contrary it is only the unions which are keeping this defunct party alive both in terms of finance and local activists. When the GMB union announces that its 56,000 members are encouraging people to vote No at the Scottish referendum we all know that this is a decision by a small cabal of officials who have made this decision. Yet this undemocratic interference in our democratic process is accepted and even welcomed by some who are condemning Unite.

Andy Anderson,

17, Broomfield Drive,

Dunoon.

YOUR headline "Miliband must put his house in order" (Herald editorial, November 11) makes a naive assumption; namely that Ed Miliband as leader of the UK Labour Party has his own house to put in order. Len McCluskey as leader of Unite, the biggest union in the country and thus Labour's largest financier, has the political mortgage on Labour's house.

Mr Miliband was elected leader of his party on the strength of the union vote. Furthermore the Unite union under Mr McCluskey has as a key objective "to reclaim the Labour Party". He has openly campaigned to fight for a left-wing Labour Party. He makes no bones about how he seeks to urge more Unite members to join the Labour Party in order to have more Unite-supporting candidates elected in Westminster and Holyrood. Mr McCluskey's strategy combines the old union style of industrial activity with two additional strands of direct political branch activity (see Falkirk) as well as support for the People's Assembly. He has vigorously focused on community recruitment with Unite's support for the Uncut campaign and the creation of Unite Community; recruiting members from outside the workplace.

With such a well-funded organisation fighting from within the Labour Party, Ed Miliband has a house sorely divided. Yet it was his own leadership campaign against his brother David which sought to woo the same union support that he now must try to deal with.

The thought of an Ed Miliband/ Ed Balls Labour Government with Ian Davidson/Johann Lamont as a possible Scottish Secretary and Len McCluskey pulling the strings makes the Yes vote even more attractive.

Thom Cross,

18 Needle Green,

Carluke.

I SEE from your front page that efforts to recruit members to the Scottish Labour Party have been made by the chairman of the Scottish Labour Party.

Wouldn't any other course of action on his part be a bit odd?

Stephen Low,

59 Calder Street,

Govanhill, Glasgow.