Readers' letters: Keir Starmer's on a hiding to nothing in Scotland

So Keir Starmer is visiting to “rebuild support” in Scotland with his intention to “oust” the Conservatives. Is he aware that several councils are now run by Labour/Conservative coalitions?

“Keir wants to be Prime Minister of the entire United Kingdom,” according to one Labour source. Really? Don't they know how out of touch that sounds?

He has successfully purged his party of dissent, thus gaining media approval from the Murdoch, Rothermere and Barclay brothers, and embraced Brexit to woo “Red Wall” voters but there is no indication that he knows or cares anything about what the Scottish electorate’s concerns are.

That ship has sailed – we are not here to help him get a super majority just so he, an English leader for what is for all intents and purposes an English party, can govern England from the centre right! Alex Salmond was right years ago when he said “the Scottish people have freed themselves from the yoke of Labour mediocrity forever” and that was when the Labour Party still vaguely resembled a party representing the concerns of ordinary people.

Keir Starmer is due in Scotland later this week

What it has become now is utterly unappealing to Scots, who still believe in community and like FDR, that the true strength of a nation can be measured by how it treats the most vulnerable.

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh

It’s time to exert some Peer pressure

I suspect there may not be enough seats in the Lords if the rate of prospective peerages to be handed out happens.

It beggars belief that dismal failures can be given settlement pay (ministers) then given a job for life in the Lords.

That said, replacing the old fuddy duddies may not be a bad thing.

I wonder if our new King might decline to “formailse” some of those put forward by the prime ministers considering the farce of the last few months?

Derek Sharp, Edinburgh

Too many Ministers

Let’s begin at the top table! Our latest Prime Minister has been criticised for bringing back into the Cabinet twice-sacked Sir Gavin Williamson as Minister of State without Portfolio – so much for economies and reducing public expenditure!

Do we really need a roving Minister without Portfolio when essential jobs are being axed? This past year or so many Cabinet Ministers have resigned or were sacked and it becomes difficult to know who does what, never mind the extra costs involved in moving the chairs round the Cabinet table.

Indeed, do we really require quite so many Ministers at that table?

Jim Craigen, Edinburgh

EU versus UK

Alex Orr (Letters, 31 October) has tried to defend the self-contradictory position of the SNP on the EU (yes) and the euro (no). Mr Orr quoted JC Juncker, former President of the EU Commission, who said: “I have no intention of forcing countries to join the euro if they are not willing or not able to do so.”

Mr Orr seems not to notice the arrogance of Juncker’s statement. It sounds as if he has all the authority of a monarch. Which is a reminder of the powerless state of the EU Parliament. The poor citizens of the EU can vote for their MEPs to sit in their pretend Parliament, but the real power lies with the Commission.

Mr Orr needs to address the question of why Scotland should prefer a pretend parliament in the EU over a fully democratic parliament in the UK.

Les Reid, Edinburgh

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