A FEDERAL solution to the current iniquities of the UK’s current constitutional arrangements, as espoused by Gordon Brown, Henry McLeish and others, is never going to happen.

The sooner Mr Brown and other thoughtful socialist politicians who have not joined the SNP realise this, the sooner they can truly commit to helping to build a fairer and more egalitarian country, independent of London Rule.

The final irony for Scottish Labour would be for the Conservative Party in Scotland to split (possibly foreshadowed in the sudden resignation from the party by Michelle Ballantyne) and form an Independent Scottish Conservative Party supporting home rule.

All the more so if this happened before the Labour Party in Scotland got its act together and rose above ‘SNP-Bad’ (rejecting the anti-independence agenda of Richard Leonard and ‘political dinosaurs’ such as James Kelly, Jackie Baillie and Iain Gray) to form an Independent Scottish Labour Party genuinely reflecting the enlightened ambitions of Keir Hardie.

The tide is not turning. It has already turned.

And if the Labour Party in Scotland does not wake up to the new political reality that the majority of the population in Scotland now reject London rule, as epitomised by Boris Johnson and his woefully incompetent cabinet of Brexit disciples, then another party will emerge to grasp the socialist mantle of representing those with left-of-centre views, beyond those represented by the perhaps more centrist SNP of an independent Scotland.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry,

East Lothian.

ONE thing that has become clear over the last few days of Herald letters is that the last resort of a losing argument is personal abuse.

As noted by many of your recent correspondents, Unionists Struan Stevenson, James Cleverly, Fraser Nelson, Andrew Neil, and Ian Murray have all resorted to the last desperate tactic.

The more I hear it, the more I am convinced that Scotland will be independent quite soon.

John Jamieson, Ayr.

WE’RE in the midst of a national crisis over Covid, with loss of lives, jobs, and social and financial hardship.

Added to this there will be inevitable Brexit disruption in the new year, yet the palaver and obfuscation over one-time Big Chief Alex Salmond inquiry continues (“Swinney facing confidence vote over secret Salmond legal advice”, November 26).

Sort it.

R Russell Smith,

Largs.

AS an ordinary Scot I am concerned that the SNP continue to drag its feet over the release of the Alex Salmond papers that have been asked for. What was it that someone once said about the ‘arrogance of power’?

D Harvey,

Glasgow.