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"Given this can-do record it’s no mystery that Ian is Labour’s sole Scottish MP”

“We can’t let our precious green spaces be spoiled" - Ian Murray

No mystery why Ian is sole Labour MP

Ian Murray says Scotland needs Labour’s can-do attitude (News, April 15).

Here’s what Labour has shown it can do, apart from printing campaign leaflets in Kettering.

They can ignore Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in the EU and back Boris’ hard Brexit that has decimated Scottish exports with worse to come.

They can support keeping nuclear weapons less than an hour from our largest city that Boris is spending £16 billion to expand.

They can oppose a national care service in favour retaining for profit corporate care homes with their reliance on low wage, minimal agency staff that helped fuel Covid outbreaks, causing excess deaths.

They can back a corrupt, incompetent and distant Westminster regime that denies the Scottish people’s right to choose their own government, which is why even Douglas Ross is urging voters to back Labour in some seats this May.

Given this can-do record, it’s no mystery that Ian is Labour’s sole Scottish MP. The mystery is why he thinks the Labour Party in Scotland can be revived from its moribund state.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh.

Dismal record

The Tory record in govern-ment is a story of constant U turns and botched policies.

A-levels, school meals, foreign health workers and more. Go to work. Don’t go to work. Paying citizens to “eat out to help out” in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

Stitch up the NHS in the morning and then clap for them at night. A government opening schools for a single day, threatening to sue schools, shutting schools.

We saw a country locking down too late, opening up too early, sending its elderly to die in care homes, not feeding its own hungry children.

And on top of this, a government wasting £37bn on track and trace that didn’t work, and then claiming it can’t afford to give nurses decent pay rise.

Billions more wasted on useless PPE equipment that left hospital staff defenceless.

The run-up to Christmas was a catastrophe of mismanagement that left 30,000 people dead in January. Are we supposed to just forget this? The not-so-amiable ‘amiable buffoon’ is misdirecting our attention, with a second-rate magician’s sleight of hand, so contracts worth billions can go to friends and associates.

Anne Wimberley, Belmont Road, Edinburgh.

Wot no indyref?

My SNP local candidate makes barely any mention of independence, far less an indyref 2 in his election leaflets. I wonder why not.

Mandate for an indep-endence referendum? I don't think there will be a mandate given this strange lacuna.

Gus Logan, North Berwick.

Vegan summer

This June Animal Aid will again be hosting our summer vegan pledge.

The production of animal products is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water pollution, land use and fresh water use around the world.

A plant-based, vegan diet requires less land, fewer resources, produces vastly fewer greenhouse gas emissions and the world's major dietetic organisations all agree that a well-planned vegan diet is healthy and can provide health benefits.

Most animal products come from animals raised on factory farms, where animals are confined to sheds and cages, and suffer mutilations and disease.

No animal deserves to suffer a brutal death at the slaughterhouse. Sign up at: animalaid.org.uk/SVP21

Tod Bradbury, Animal Aid, Tonbridge.