WHILE the BBC ratchets up its campaign against the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the timing of its Panorama programme couldn’t have been more perfect.

The BBC is fearful that with the Tories tearing chunks out of each other, the socialist leader could be the next but one Prime Minister, but it could get worse for the BBC. The polls are suggesting the SNP could gain many more seats in a new parliament a double whammy nightmare scenario for our state broadcaster.

Whenever the Tory party are in trouble the BBC helps them out; we’ve seen it in Scotland. In England, time and time again the anti-Semitism cudgel is wielded and it is all aimed directly at one man: the Labour leader.

To try to make sense of it all perhaps one way is to examine who would benefit most should there be success in damaging Jeremy Corbyn, compelling him to stand down? The Blairite right of the Labour party of course, who have never agreed on anything he stands for; hedge fund managers and investment bankers with out-of-reach British Virgin Island accounts that bankroll Boris; the Tories, naturally; Donald Trump and Israel. That’s a very powerful opposition to one man.

Jeremy Corbyn was elected on a set of principles by the grass roots within the membership. They were hearing what they wanted to hear from a Labour leader. Since then he has compromised on those principles in order to hold his party together.

When Westminster goes into meltdown as we crash out of Europe, what next – martial law?

Mike Herd
Highland

I HAVE never seen such a one-sided, biased documentary as the BBC Panorama programme on antisemitism in the Labour party. This was backed up by biased coverage on news programmes on TV and radio. Those of us in Scotland have become used to BBC bias in the coverage of independence, which is why the BBC in Scotland has the highest number on people refusing to pay the licence fee.

Now people in England are experiencing this level of bias I predict the number of non-payers will rise significantly too. Of course we can protest, but the evidence is from Scotland that the BBC ignore the protests.

For the record, as a former Labour party member for many years and a councillor and an MEP I never encountered anti-semitism in the Labour party, indeed Jewish members were active in every section of the party without encountering any prejudice. The so-called problem has only begun when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader – not because he is anti-semitic.

I’ve known Jeremy Corbyn for more than 40 years and he is a committed anti-racist. He has been targeted because he is a supporter of Palestinian rights, and the people attacking him inside and outside the Labour party have close connections to the Israeli Government. Indeed Al Jazeera have a very good documentary of people from the Israeli embassy boasting they have a fund of a million pounds a year to bring down their enemies.

Of course if I was a member of the Labour party I could be expelled for stating the above, but fortunately in Scotland our First Minister is on record as supporting Palestinian rights. No doubt we can expect accusations of anti-semitism soon. It is not anti-semitic to criticise the state of Israel for its dreadful treatment of Palestinians and I hope we in Scotland can continue to uphold that right despite the BBC’s dreadful bias!

Hugh Kerr (former Labour MEP)
Edinburgh

WHY haven’t the Scottish Labour party abandoned the Bain Principle? As a socialist it’s mind-boggling they haven’t!

As many readers will already know, the Bain Principle is named after Willie Bain, Labour MP for Glasgow North East (lost his seat to SNP in 2015). In a nutshell it states that Labour will oppose whatever the SNP propose no matter the circumstances! And, as indicated in yesterday’s National, to maintain this convention will even go to bed with the Tories!

Whoever the Scottish Labour advisers are, they surely need to be relieved of duty!

Labour has certainly lost its way. With the advent of Holyrood we all had hoped there would have been more co-operation as opposed to confrontation between parties. Sadly this hasn’t happened! Although I’m a passionate SNP supporter, it still saddens me the demise of Labour as a strong advocate against poverty and injustice! When will they ever learn? So may I be bold enough to suggest Labour kick the Tories out of bed and get into bed with SNP? Let’s fight poverty and injustice together! If they don’t accept this advice, in the words of Dad’s Army’s Frazer: “You’re doomed, Scottish Labour, you’re doomed!”

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus

RICHARD Leonard is only repeating what he has been told by his party HQ in London. Whatever happens at the time of the next referendum will not be decided by him or his branch members.

The same applies to the Tory and LibDem Scottish branches. There are no Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Conservative Party or Scottish LibDem Party members as there are no such parties. All three are branches of their London-based parties; consequently, irrespective of what they may claim, they have no power to form and implement policies of their own in Scotland.

Few people ever check the Electoral Commission’s register of parties, if they did they might be surprised to find that these so called “Scottish” parties are nothing more than a logo and slogan used by their respective parties on ballot papers in Scotland. They have no office bearers and no addresses.

That is why the three parties are now permanently bonded together by their one and only truly Scottish policy – opposition to the SNP. This results in their totally negative approach to all business in Holyrood. That is why Unionist support is heading inexorably downwards every time the voters have a chance to express their opinion.

John Jamieson
South Queensferry