In the dark

I read your report "New socialist party to fight general election" (14 January) with some interest. My interest quickly turned to indignation, however, as I realised that neither Bob Crow nor anyone else had been in touch with the Scottish Socialist Party about this London-based initiative to unite socialist groups in Scotland – no letter, no e-mail, no text message, no phone call, let alone the courtesy of an invitation to meetings held "last week in London" or "in G

Such an attitude hardly bodes well for the comradely and mutually respectful relationship required. Readers will be forced to question the seriousness of such a proposal when the biggest and fastest-growing socialist party in Scotland is excluded in this way.

I'm surely not the only person who thinks we need another socialist party like we need a hole in the head.

Your reporter, who made no attempt to speak to the SSP before writing his piece, is also wrong to suggest we are "warring" with anyone on the left. We are entirely focused on offering working people in Scotland a desperately needed alternative to the four neo-liberal, warmongering parties that misrepresent us at Westminster.

COLIN FOX

Scottish Socialist Party

Alloway Loan

Edinburgh