SEAN Pigott (Letters, August 11), like many of us who have moved to Scotland from England, has a lot to learn. A year or so after the independence referendum I went along to a Jeremy Corbyn campaign meeting in the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow; it was euphoric. Labour, at last, had something to be joyful about, with a left-wing candidate for leadership and people clamouring to join the party. Look, though, at what has happened since. Labour has absolutely no position on Brexit and, in Scotland, where 62 per cent of us voted Remain, that is a disgrace. In fact, the current position in Scotland shows the Scottish party under Richard Leonard as merely, to quote ex-leader Johann Lamont, a branch office of London. The Labour Party supports the retention of Trident, despite the previous views of Mr Corbyn and, of course, we hear nothing different from Mr Leonard, despite Trident being so close to us. Very close to us, for those of us who live in Glasgow, are the revelations that for just about all its 30 years controlling Glasgow City Council, the Labour Party did nothing to give equal pay to their staff and, in fact, actively worked against it.

The recent furore about anti-Semitism, which the Labour Party has spectacularly failed to manage, shows that it couldn't organise a good swally in a brewery, let alone run a country, and the news that Jim Murphy is dusting off his soapbox to attack Mr Corbyn on this topic, and to boost whatever credibility he thinks he has, just about put the hat on it ("Murphy: The Labour Party has turned its back on Jews", The Herald, August 11).

This is a disaster for Mr Pigott and all those decent people who have spent their lives supporting what they thought of as a left-wing party that could improve the lives of all of us. No hope now.

Patricia Fort,

15 Lanark Street, Glasgow.

IN the context of the "anti-Semitism" storm, I recall a conversation I had with my father in the 1970s (original name Kurt Deutsch) who was a Kindertransport escapee from Prague in 1939 and a member of the Labour Party.

He always had a soft spot for Israel but deplored its refusal to readmit Palestinian refugees. He saw the position of Zionists as "the oppressed learning from and taking the role of oppressor".

In those days Israel had a more moderate government and there wasn't yet the unfettered racist brutality we have seen recently from Israeli soldiers and settlers in their treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's NEC are right to reserve their right to criticise the Israeli Government in the strongest terms (including drawing parallels with murderous mistreatment of Jews in the past).

Jim Murphy, an unprincipled Blairite, has leapt on to the bandwagon started by right-wing Labour MPs and stoked by the tabloid press and some reporting in the mass media in the hope of using allegations of anti-Semitism (in reality support for Palestinians) as a weapon in their efforts to make a Corbyn-led Labour Party unelectable.

Hopefully all reasonable people of Jewish origin will soon see through this false indignation stoked by Blairite MPs and recognise that Mr Corbyn and others have the right (and are right) to assert that Palestinian people have been unjustly treated by the Israeli state for the last 70 years.

John Dennis,

31 Glencaple Avenue, Dumfries.

WHAT is this about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party? It seems that nothing will do but for Jeremy Corbyn to step down and be replaced by somebody that will declare that any criticism of the actions of the state of Israel is anti-Semitic. Is it that only then will those behind the unrest be satisfied and the party can move on?

I have no love for either the Labour Party nor Mr Corbyn, but these actions really are a step too far. Mr Corbyn has embraced the authorised definition of anti-Semitism but excluded some given examples that provide blanket absolution for any actions of the state of Israel in the past, present and future. It is my belief that he is right to do so.

I do not count myself as an anti-Semite as I have nothing against the Jewish people, their religion or the continuation of the state of Israel. It is manifestly obvious however that the present government of Israel does not conform to the norms of toleration and respect for the human rights of those Arab and Palestinian people that live within and around its borders. It has frequently used heavy-handed military power to kill and mutilate in response to protests about ill treatment of those incarcerated within enclaves like Gaza. There are many examples of discrimination, deprivation, exclusion and segregation but the most recent action of passing Jewish "nation state" law goes much further and beyond any normally acceptable limits. It can be readily compared with the Apartheid laws from South Africa in that it allows for designation of areas like the “group areas act” for only Jews to reside.

DS Blackwood,

1 Douglas Drive East, Helensburgh.

LET'S be clear about this: Jim Murphy is indulging in the sort of cynical opportunism George Galloway would have been proud of, using legitimate concerns in the desperate hope he can relaunch his dead, disgraced political career (taking Scottish Labour from more than 50 per cent of Parliamentary and council seats to near wipeout in a few short years, unprecedented in British electoral history), to some English Labour branch in a winnable seat with a large Jewish population. This isn't solidarity with Jews – this is chicken soup for the chicken run.

British Jewry is well advised to give this klutz all he deserves – a door in the face.

Mark Boyle,

15 Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone.

I WONDER if people are getting confused between anti-Semitism and disagreement with Israel's policy on Palestinians?

In March 2017 a UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia report stated that Israel meets the definition of an Apartheid state.

Ken Livingstone was forced out of the Labour Party because he said Hitler was a Zionist. Hitler certainly sent Jews to Palestine, but it was simply to get them out of Germany, not because he was concerned for their welfare.

Margaret Forbes,

Corlic Way, Kilmacolm.