Shame as Labour’s hypocrisy goes viral

In light of the revelations by Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor Damian McBride, I would have thought that latter charge would be best laid at the door of the Labour Party.

Those of us who have opposed Labour over many years are well acquainted with their electoral “dirty tricks”, but it seems that Labour’s opposition got off lightly, compared with the bile, filth and venom they hurled at each other.

How did decent people, of which there must have been a few, ever survive in that vipers’ nest?

When Lamont refers to nationalism as a “virus”, does she include the brave and wonderful nationalists who freed their respective countries from Hitler and Stalin?

Scottish Nationalism has never been expressed as imperialism, colonialism, chauvinism or racism, words frequently used by Lamont and her ilk as synonyms for nationalism, although they are charges of which the UK, Britain, Great Britain or whatever name British nationalists prefer, is undoubtedly guilty.

The hypocrisy of the Labour Party in Scotland knows no bounds, and no amount of spin can disguise the cesspool they created which they then called “government”.

Jim Fairlie

Crieff

For me one of the continuing mysteries of the referendum campaign has been the  apparent reluctance of so many Labour supporters to vote Yes. One can understand the attitude of the Scottish leadership as they have to toe the London line and remain incensed at being deprived of office by the upstart SNP.

However, I would have thought many of the rank and file would relish the chance to have a Labour administration at Holyrood armed with full governmental powers. As regards the pleas for “solidarity” with England, would not an effective government in Scotland applying Labour principles, if such there were, be a boost to the movement throughout the British Isles?

S Beck

Edinburgh

I read with sadness and concern Johann Lamont’s speech to the Labour Party conference in which she descended into the depths of the gutter in describing the desire of her fellow Scots for independence as a virus polluting the debate on the future of Scotland.

Such nastiness has no place in the mature debate that many proud Scots have entered into, and she should be ashamed of herself.

Bill McDonald

Edinburgh

After reading the revelations by the former Labour insiders Damian McBride and Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, about the poisonous relations at the top of the last Labour government, I find it hard to accept the advice of Gordon Brown, former chancellor Alistair Darling, and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander encapsulated in the slogan Better Together.

Jim Sillars

Edinburgh