APPARENTLY First Minister John Swinney encouraged activists at the closed session of the SNP conference on Friday to go out to win back middle-class voters.

Mr Swinney should understand that the middle class is a myth created by the upper class to have the working class believe there is a ladder to the top. The truth is that unless you have surplus wealth so that you are not obliged to sell your labour or the product of your labour, you are nothing other than working class. The only difference if there is more money in your pay packet than most folk have is that it may be a matter of months rather than weeks or days without employment before you start to run into debt. Having more cash does not make you middle-class as it does not release you from the necessity of selling your labour.

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What is really needed, Mr Swinney, is work to convince affluent workers that they are still working-class and to encourage solidarity between all workers. Only then can we fully address the greed of wealthy libertarians that is choking our country and hindering the social justice that must be at the heart of an independent Scotland.

Ni Holmes
St Andrews