JIMMY REID'S column today raises a point of enormous importance to all people with a social conscience. He rightly highlights the fact that a New Labour Minister recently informed a CBI conference that no redistribution of wealth would take place under New Labour. This statement merely confirms the policy practice of New Labour, but deserves to be highlighted and commented on none the less.

Last week, social statistics provided by Glasgow City Council cast a shameful shadow upon New Labour in its first 21 months of office. Rather than poverty being tackled, poverty is instead becoming worse. The number of Glasgow school children qualifying for free school meals has increased by 5% in the last year. That means under New Labour the number of school pupils in Glasgow living in poor families has increased from 38% to 43%. This at a time when the number of millionaires has increased again by several thousand.

Surely the central question for the Scottish Parliament must be the redistribution of existing wealth and not the cruel and false allegiance to the trickle-down theory of economic growth which dictates that poverty can only be tackled by the creation of even more wealth. There is already more than enough wealth in our country to raise the quality and standard of life of every man, woman, and child. The problem is that wealth is owned and controlled by a tiny minority of society in an undemocratic and unaccountable fashion.

Our political party will continue to be unique in its call for the collective ownership and democratic control of the means of production throughout Scotland. An independent socialist Scotland would simply not allow 20% of children to be in families so poor that they qualified for free school meals throughout Scotland or have 43% of children in such a position in Glasgow.

May I humbly encourage your newspaper to continue to raise the issue of poverty in Scotland and make it the central and most important issue of the Scottish Parliament elections? Our collective tribute to a new millennium and a new Scottish Parliament should be expressed not in buildings or one-off celebrations, but in the abolition of the grotesque poverty and obscene inequality which currently haunt our country.

Councillor Tommy Sheridan,

Scottish Socialist Party Convener,

City Chambers, Glasgow. February 8.

ONE of the most insidious effects of unemployment is the destruction of the individual's self-confidence. Damage exacerbated by the fact that the unemployed, particularly long-term unemployed, tend to become increasingly socially isolated. One of the vital roles of the Possil Stepping Stones Centre in Glasgow is to bring parents into contact with each other to provide mutual support.

However, the effects of social isolation are not restricted to the parents. Social contact and mental stimulation are vitally important for the development of the under-three age group. This group is often neglected in the rush to provide nursery places for the older three-to-five age group. The Possil centre not only helps rebuild the confidence of the parents, but helps ensure the healthy development of the very young.

None the less, of the nine Stepping Stones centres, six have been closed, and only three (including the Possil centre) remain. These three are now also threatened with closure, due to a funding gap of merely #30,000. In these days of (regrettable) obsession with best value for money I challenge the Labour council to show better value. I congratulate The Herald on an excellent article (February 5), and call on the Labour council not only to find the #30,000, but also to put all three centres on a secure long-term financial footing.

Dr Bill Wilson,

115 Minard Road, Glasgow.

February 9.

I WAS extremely interested to note your article and subsequent leader drawing attention to the problems of the Stepping Stones family centre in Possilpark, Glasgow (Perspective February 4). It readily demonstrates the problems being caused for projects which are critical to raising community confidence and skill levels in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods due to ongoing Urban Programme restrictions.

Over the last year or so the Government has done much to ensure that tackling the issues surrounding social exclusion is given priority. But there remain concerns among a number of urban regeneration practitioners that the distribution of Urban Programme monies is not being prioritised enough so as to tackle the problems of those urban areas where there are disproportionately high levels of people living in deprivation.

Also, although the Urban Programme is often seen as the main source of funding for projects of this type it should be borne in mind that in many respects it is only a ''top-up'' in comparison to the levels of funding available through the mainstream budgets of the key players involved in regenerating these areas.

It is of further concern therefore that there can often be a lack of targeting in the distribution of these budgets. For example, there has been ample evidence of additional capital funding for new leisure and recreational facilities - frequently funded through the National Lottery - producing real improvements in the quality of facilities of many parts of urban Scotland, but outwith disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

The Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum is scheduled to meet with Ministers within the new few days to raise these issues where we aim to impress upon them the importance of ensuring that there is some priority given to projects within disadvantaged neighbourhoods through new spending programmes.

We also hope to ensure that in taking this forward the Government makes this approach a core element of its long-term commitment to alleviating poverty in Scotland - the soon-to-be-published Scottish Social Inclusion Strategy.

Craig McLaren,

Chief Executive,

Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum,

170 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow.

February 5.