Letters: Corbyn as well as May should be fearful of a party split

The Gang of Four, as they were known, were chastised widely on both the Right and the Left of the Labour Party for splitting the vote and extending the reign of the Tories. Denis Healey stated in his memoirs that the SDP’s “most important effect was to delay the Labour Party’s recovery for nearly 10 years, and to guarantee Mrs Thatcher two more terms in office”.

Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership Labour must fear a split, especially when it is said that the Labour hierarchy is not engaging with its critics. The Parliamentary party is unhappy with Mr Corbyn’s bullying and intolerance.

Who would be so bold as to form a New Labour centrist party ? Hillary Benn, Wes Streeting, Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna, Owen Smith and Ian Murray to name a few. All are also in favour of remaining in the EU, and most have had frontbench experience in opposition.

Mr Corbyn, a leader embroiled in rows over Hezbollah, the IRA and anti-Semitism, does not have his problems to seek. But, with the Government split over Brexit, he should be doing better. And one must ask: what has Mr Corbyn done for the Labour party? As he approaches the party’s conference will he be preaching to the converted ? And will the delegates be singing “Ooh, Jeremy Corbyn” this year?

Robert McCaw,

6 Hamilton Crescent,

Renfrew.

WILLIE Rennie has fired the starting gun for a new type of politics in Scotland. His threat to vote against the SNP Budget unless it formally ditches a second referendum on independence may be empty while six Green MSPs have their sandals on Holyrood’s throat.

And his other proposal, to raise school entry age to seved, would cause major social, educational and funding chaos, including panic in families with two working parents.

But the prize could be enormous, as could radical overhauls of health, social care and funding, and housing.

I’m not convinced Scotland’s political class has the horsepower or ability to do it but, when the biggest party’s priority is keeping the flickering flame of independence alive, this country has no chance of pulling together and moving forward.

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row,

Stonehaven.

TERRY Raeside makes some excellent points, especially about aspiring leaders elsewhere (Letters, September 8). Nicola Sturgeon is a smart operator and has ruled over Scotland for four years and been involved for seven before that.

In that time, she and the SNP Government have failed in many areas: policing, the NHS, education and the economy. Ms Sturgeon has, however, managed to talk up independence almost at every opportunity, something the Scottish people have by some margin rejected.

Ms Sturgeon has therefore not displayed the political leadership or conviction that is also so badly missing elsewhere and I believe most Scots would very much like her and her party to get on with the day job.

Lindsay Keir,

Inchgarvie,

Alma Road, Brodick,

Isle of Arran.

IN the 2015 UK General Election the SNP won a disproportionate 56 out of 59 of the Scottish seats with only 50 per cent of the votes cast in Scotland. This proved the idiosyncratic nature of the UK’s first-past-the-post system, which has often delivered power to a party against which most votes have been cast.

For example, the present Tory-DUP alliance had 43.3% of the vote in 2016.

To have declared independence on the basis of a flawed system would have caused an outcry, possibly led by DH Telford and his ilk (Letters, September 8). Thus, referenda are the choice for important national decisions.

DH Telford does not understand that SNP policies are not in the gift of any one individual, but are honed in debate at national councils or at the National Conference.

Your correspondent scorns the “new-age traveller” policies of the SNP, which are designed to avoid the creation of nuclear waste, minimalise pollution and slow climate change. These policies will continue post-independence, despite D H Telford’s environmental conservatism

Colin Campbell,

Braeside, Shuttle Street,

Kilbarchan.

So merely 500 SNP faithful turn up in Edinburgh to discuss the party’s Growth Commission report and quelle surprise, Nicola Sturgeon wasn’t amongst their number.

Before she distanced herself entirely from the commission she set up, the she told us that the report offered an alternative to Westminster “austerity”. She was right: her vision of independence would, as per the report, give us a decade or more of austerity in the form of higher taxation and public services cuts. Little wonder Ms Sturgeon was in absentia.

Martin Redfern,

Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh.

AMANDA Baker is right to castigate the Government for naming the Treasury plan to deal with Brexit No-deal chaos after our fondly regarded little Yellowhammer (Letters, September 8). A better choice would have been the treacherous and deceitful cuckoo.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

A SPECIAL relationship, without doubt: US President Donald Trump has indicated that Boris Johnson would make a fine prime minister.

Is this because each tries to outdo the other’s latest provocative announcement with something even more obscene and thoughtless “Johnson under fire for ‘suicide vest’ claim on Brexit strategy”, The Herald, September 10)?

If, as is rumoured, Mr Johnson seeks to oust Theresa May as Prime Minister and wins, any credibility the UK has with our European partners will have gone.

Mrs May is merely incompetent. Mr Johnson will simply deliberately antagonise everyone and lead those who voted Leave down a garden path that will hurt them, not him.

This swaying voter will seriously vote for independence next time round; I won’t be alone.

Willie Towers,

Victoria Road,

Alford, Aberdeenshire.