Labour pains

Published on 11/06/2012 00:00

As usual, Joyce McMillan gets to the fundamentals of politics. She is right to point out (Perspective, 8 June) that Ed Miliband and the Labour Party are “still weighed down with Blair baggage” which included cosying up to the rich with neoliberal economics, foreign intervention and Trident first-strike nuclear capability.

This might get more votes in the English marginals but such a policy fails in Scotland and is far to the right of the SNP, hence the existence of fewer Labour MSPs.

Its only way forward as a political party is to become independent from UK Labour and, like the Scottish Green Party, help the people of Scotland to decide their own future.

After a successful Yes vote it can then join the complex negotiations with the imperialist Westminster Government for Scotland as a self-governing state in 2016.

The resulting increase in political participation will release the energy and imagination that will make Scotland an influential global leader among the many small countries in the United Nations to a more secure world.

Ray Newton

Buckstone Way

Edinburgh