I AM astounded at the antics of Scottish Labour following John McDonnell's pronouncement that a La-bour Government would not use UK Government machinations to block a second independence ref-erendum ("Scottish Labour in meltdown over stance on Indyref2", The Herald, August 8). He is being attacked by Scottish Labour MPs and MSPs for not opposing such a referendum. He is doing no such thing. Labour remains free to campaign against and vehemently oppose such a referendum. He does seem to be saying, however, that if the Scottish people, through their parliament, decide on a second referendum, then a UK Labour Government would not stop it. This seems entirely democratic, as oth-erwise he would be using non-Scottish-elected MPs to do so. He has explicitly stated this issue.
Furthermore the Labour Group at Holyrood issued a statement insisting that "Labour's position on Scotland's future is a decision for Scottish Labour which the UK party must accept", which means that a (very) minority Scottish Labour group, in the context of a Labour Government, setting itself up as sov-ereign to a Scottish Parliament. Democratic and defenders of devolution? Maybe not. Scottish Labour is showing itself to be merely tribal and anti-democratic. Sad.
George Rhind, Clydebank.
THE current disconnect between the Labour Party leadership and the party in Scotland is all that the Scots need to confirm that Scottish Labour is a branch of the English party. Similarly, when Boris John-son disregards the views of Ruth Davidson and sacks a Scottish Secretary with whom she had enjoyed a harmonious relationship, it is easy to see where the real power lies, and it is not in Scotland.
David Mundell has now raised the possibility of an alliance of pro-Union parties fighting the SNP at the next Holyrood election should the nationalists decide on a pro-referendum manifesto ("Mundell: No 10 must listen if 2021 vote backs independence", The Herald, August 9). I don’t see either Labour or the LibDems agreeing to such a proposal as we all know what happened to Labour in Scotland for standing shoulder to shoulder with the Tories in the 2014 independence referendum. We also, all too well, remember the LibDems' reward for forming a coalition with the Conservatives – a loss of seats and overtaken as third largest party by SNP.
They just don’t get it.
Robert Stewart, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
I WAS hoping, when she was Scottish Labour leader, that Kezia Dugdale would move towards separa-tion from the wayward party in England and Wales, which had become so entranced with Jeremy Cor-byn.
But Richard Leonard came along and I assumed the Corbyn and Momentum mania had taken hold in Scotland too.
So, it's refreshing to see the Scottish Labour reaction to the incomprehensible stance of John McDon-nell on a second independence referendum. Incomprehensible, that is, unless he is adopting the revo-lutionary notion of destroying capitalism by causing universal chaos, and building the new world from the ruins.
Mr Corbyn is already fairly unelectable in England. Any hint of him gaining power with support from the SNP would be the final nail in his political coffin. If UK Labour cannot remove Mr Corbyn, Scottish Labour should break away and argue rationally for Scottish interests within the UK as a completely separate party, rather than support a Labour leadership at Westminster which is increasingly sinister and destructive.
John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire.
THERE is only disarray within the Scottish Labour Party because of a failure to understand the different roles of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood and the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster.
John McDonnell is a member of the UK Parliament and all that he is saying is that if the Scottish Parlia-ment wishes to hold a referendum on Scottish independence then Westminster (in so far as he is able to influence the decision) will not stand in the way of such a referendum. Meanwhile Richard Leonard, a member of the Scottish Parliament, has indicated that Scottish Labour will not, at present, support a second referendum on Scottish independence. If Scottish Labour secures sufficient seats in the Scot-tish Parliament to ensure that there is not a majority in favour of pursuing a second referendum then Westminster will not be asked to allow such a referendum to take place. If there is a majority in the Scottish Parliament for a second referendum then the Labour Party at Westminster will not stand in the way. The message is therefore quite clear – elect a member of Scottish Labour as your Member of the Scottish Parliament if you are not in favour of a second Scottish Independence Referendum at this time.
Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh, EH3.
WE’VE been here before. Older readers will remember how in the last century the Scottish Labour Party fought tooth and nail against devolution and had to be brought into line by the UK Labour Party. One explanation might be that Tony Blair saw the Scottish Parliament as a bit of harmless local gov-ernment (or as he put it “a parish council”), whereas the Scottish branch realised that if the devolved parliament was s success it might give the Scottish electorate the confidence to want more.
Mary McCabe, Glasgow G31.
CONSTITUTIONAL changes are fraught with peril; Labour is the latest casualty. This situation highlights just how difficult it is to get consensus over major emotive issues.
The SNP has been mixing this up so much that its position on Indyref2 is not that clear either. Some want it now, some tomorrow and some in the future. Some before and some after the dust of Brexit. Some with a long spell of clear poll leads, some with "one poll will do". All this with no obvious way to implement it successfully nor taking into account the scale of the damage leaving the Union will cause which will dwarf that of Brexit.
As can be seen by Brexit, a simple majority is not a comfortable position. The lesson is therefore that any future constitutional change demonstrably needs to be wanted by a substantial majority before it can succeed. Will the SNP take this on board? If it wants legitimacy for its claims to be "looking out for Scottish interests" it has to. If it continues to pretend a simple majority is enough, it will never see it through. Brexit has a chance of working simply due to the size of the UK economy, Scottish independ-ence is a much more dubious state of affairs.
Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow G77.
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