I AM no fan of Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie but the way in which they were sacked from their respective positions on Labour’s Front Bench tells us everything we need to know about Richard Leonard’s leadership; heartless and incompetent (“Scottish Labour reshuffle backfires amid claims of chaos and spite”, The Herald, October 5).
Mr Sarwar learned his fate through Twitter while he was leading a health debate for Labour and Ms Baillie was sacked in a phone call only minutes before it was publicly confirmed. It was malicious spiteful. Both have criticised Jeremy Corbyn while Ms Baillie supported Mr Sarwar in last year’s Scottish Labour leadership contest.
It speaks volumes that Charlie Mann, Scottish Labour’s communications chief, has quit his post after only five months in the job, as he has “decided the role is not for me”. Given the shocking example of Mr Leonard’s leadership and firing techniques, I would suggest that the role is not for anyone.
Ruth Marr,
99 Grampian Road, Stirling.
ONCE read, the fate of most newspapers is the recycling bin or the loft or cellar. Thus I retrieved the Herald of October 25, 2014. The headlines revealed Joanne Lamont was stepping down as leader of the Labour Party in Scotland whilst Anas Sarwar was reported as a likely contender to replace her.
Four years on, the not so merry-go-round of eager politicians continues.
It does seem politicians of all parties become scunnered with the job and the back biting of their colleagues appears to be the prime cause of this disillusionment.
Allan C Steele,
22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.
THANKS to The Herald for drawing our attention to the eloquence of Scottish Conservative MP Ross Thomson (“Scots MP swears by Boris as he launches attack on party colleagues”, The Herald, October 4). The language he is using to describe his colleagues is probably not that which he used in making his selection speech to represent Aberdeen South in the General Election, but first-past-the post means that you can say what you like once elected and claim that you are representing your constituents.
In fact, the majority of voters in Aberdeen South constituency voted for someone else or, in the case of the EU Referendum, more than 60 per cent of those who voted in Aberdeen, voted to remain. Describing such a system as democratic defies logic.
Thomas G F Gray,
4A Auchinloch Road, Lenzie.
ON the day Dutch, UK and US law enforcement agencies revealed the most detailed and shocking evidence of Russia’s GRU agents’ continued attempts to destabilise Western democracies, Alex Salmond, former First Minister and leader of the independence movement, used his TV show on the Russian-sponsored RT channel to promote an early second independence referendum.
In response to allegations about his time in office, Mr Salmond is not a member of the SNP but that did not stop other leading figures in the party appearing on his show to respond positively to his prompting and urge a second referendum as soon as possible.
As she prepares for the SNP conference, Nicola Sturgeon knows there are some amongst her activists who are impatient for a second referendum but she will be all too aware of how, for the wider public, it is the worst possible imagery to have pressure being applied for the break-up of the UK from such sources.
Keith Howell,
White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.
I READ with interest the Agenda piece by Martin Armstrong (“A reform of welfare that remains cruel and unfair”, The Herald, October 4).
With the Conservatives in self congratulating mode at the close of conference, the article gives us a timely reminder of the party’s attitude towards the less fortunate in our society.
Looking back, not all that long ago,there was concerted propaganda to demonise the poor with slogans such as “Think about all these benefit scroungers lying is their beds when you are going to work.”
Remember the first of the food banks - and their rapid growth in popularity.
Also, zero-hour contracts and rising child poverty, all occurring under a Conservative government.
It is so easy to lose sight of these assaults on our society and standards of decency, with no immediate prospect of any improvement.
The Conservative party is still toxic in my book.
J Robertson,
Ash Terrace,
Stirling.
I AM pleased to respond to Liberal Democrat Councillor Jane Ann Liston’s letter (October 2).
In the May 2007 Scottish elections the seats were SNP 47, Labour 46, Tories 17, Liberals 16, Greens two and Margo MacDonald, Independent. A minority Government had to obtain enough votes to pass the Budget so a lot of wheeling and dealing was required.
The SNP had promised 10,000 extra police officers in its manifesto and I was incensed to see we only 5,000 in the Budget; in any event along came the Tories who said they would support the SNP but they must get something out of it: 5,000 officers. There was much toing and froing and, within the week, the Budget was passed.
The voting system for the Scottish Parliament was designed to make it impossible for the SNP to ever have a majority and the political parties went into the 2011 election expecting to go back to the Labour /LibDem coalition of before. The result in that election was SNP 69, Labour 37, Tories 15, LibDems five, Greens two and Margo MacDonald one. The SNP stewardship had been awarded with an overall majority and the LibDem coalition with the Tories at Westminster took effect. Voters remembered how tuition fees, “carved in stone”, melted away at the prospect of a deputy premiership for Nick Clegg.
The SNP did not retain its absolute majority in 2016, the result being SNP 63, Tories 31, Labour 24, Greens six and LibDems five. Since then there is panic in the Unionist ranks and they are all against a second independence referendum but, with the prospect of Scotland leaving the mess created by the Tories at Westminster, Labour and the Liberals don’t have any positive ideas to change things.
Jim Lynch,
42 Corstorphine Hill Crescent, Edinburgh .
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