RACHEL Reeves’s pronouncement that Labour won’t advance a wealth tax or raise the 45% rate for top earners are the final nails in its coffin. What little remained of the working-class Labour Party is dead.

Starmer and Reeves clearly aren’t bothered by the staggering levels of inequality, but they should be. Income and wealth are indicators of social and political power and the more unequal the distribution, the more unstable society becomes. We’re seeing this now.

In 2020/21, one child in four was existing in poverty and since then living standards have deteriorated further. Poverty is a psychological and physical stressor that does enormous damage to all people, but especially children, whose mental and physical development are permanently damaged, making it difficult for them to ever escape the cycle of suffering.

Extreme wealth and income inequalities are mirrored in the political sphere. The wealthy control the political agenda and the poor increasingly disengage because they know their voices don’t matter.

Taxing the rich to reduce inequality is just part of the solution. We need policies to prevent a tiny elite from taking the lion’s share of society’s wealth. Unions must be strengthened and workers’ wages and benefits driven up.

The Government needs to invest in public services and rein in corporate monopoly powers. And we need electoral reform so that all voices are heard. None of this is likely within the Union, which is why Scotland needs to make a quick exit.

Leah Gunn Barrett

Edinburgh

IT is time for the Scottish Trade Unions Congress (STUC) to represent its members and put its money where its mouth should be. Or, should we simply deduce that, like the Labour Party in Scotland, it is merely a “branch office” acting on behalf of London masters?

Now Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have backed away from nearly every socialist policy commitment Anas Sarwar and his colleagues in Scotland have uttered in recent years, surely it is time for Scottish trade unions to stop backing Labour and support the SNP.

At least half of the population supports independence and probably closer to 75% of Scottish trade union members support the principle of self-determination in echoing the laudable aspirations of the founders of the Independent Labour Party (1893) under the chairmanship of trade union organiser Keir Hardie.

Those aspirations are more likely to be achieved with a strong SNP representing the interests of the people of Scotland rather than more Labour MPs following the short-sighted instructions of Starmer.

Furthermore, with the prospect of another referendum or preferably a vote for immediate independence at the next General Election the workers of Scotland could finally achieve socialist governance free of interference from the right-wing interests prominent in influencing government from London (irrespective of whether Labour or the Tories are in power at Westminster).

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

ALEX Salmond, our first SNP first minister with the first Holyrood parliamentary majority, was no shrinking violet. With polls showing support for independence at only about 28%, he took the incredibly bold decision to negotiate a referendum with the Cameron government. Alex and those patriotic Scots who defied the odds and took Scotland to the brink of freedom, gave the English/British establishment an almighty fright.

With an integrity rare these days, Alex resigned but not without a legacy of political bravery.

Alex was followed by his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, who quickly established her competence and showed real leadership during the Covid pandemic.

Her governments introduced some progressive life-enhancing policies, especially for poor and vulnerable people. But after nine years of intelligent governance, support for independence is virtually where it was in September 2014, disappointing many activists. Is Nicola’s legacy to be merely one of capable managerialism?

In spite of an unenviable hand, Humza Yousaf has handled a difficult situation with confidence. But is he going to continue Nicola’s cautious approach to the party’s primary goal or will he show some of Alex’s bravado? Will he settle and promote the currency question?

Will he destroy Project Fear’s pension myth to OAPs’ satisfaction? And will he show the Border barrier to our English relatives is another dishonest Unionist chimera?

Richard Walthew

Duns

ON Thursday, the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) will discuss and hopefully end the anachronism of unelected religious representatives voting on its Education Committee.

This will not be an attack on religious freedom. Churches might well have opinions on education and are free to express them, just not from a privileged position in local government granted to no other social minorities. Education committees gain insight from parent and teacher representatives but they have no voting power on account of not having been voted in. Why is it only religious representatives who are granted this unaccountable influence over all schools?

We urge CEC to champion democracy in its decision. In doing so it will join in a domino effect that already includes Perth and Kinross, Fife, Moray, Scottish Borders, Orkney and Highland councils.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

JUST a small correction to your report on the provisional agenda for the SNP conference (Senior SNP figures set out alternate routemap to indy, Aug 27). Resolution No 8 mentioned was proposed by Almond and Earn SNP branch and supported by Perthshire South and Kinrossshire CA as well as many others mentioned.

J McKenzie

via email