IT is surely not possible that Keir Starmer believes that the reason he has been showered with gifts is because he is a nice guy, a popular fellow, a deserving cause? Is he actually asking us to believe that the generous largesse of others was completely unrelated to the fact that he was odds on to be the next PM? Really?!
Sorry, I am not buying it, but according to recent breaking news, the English Premier League must surely have believed they were buying something with their generous MP freebie blitz just as unwelcome watchdog changes for their organisation were being discussed.
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As most of us instinctively know, if you accept gifts while in a position to influence an outcome it leaves you open to the appearance of corruption. It suggests your vote is for sale. It’s not rocket science, and yet still Starmer doesn’t seem able to grasp it. Perhaps it’s because he isn’t a nice guy, almost uniquely unpopular this early in his term and completely undeserving of forgiveness for his greedy, grasping habit while delivering hardship on some of the most vulnerable in our society.
As those of us who have been watching Starmer for sometime would testify – Starmer, no change. This is exactly who he was and is.
I Easton
Glasgow
KEIR Starmer just does not get it! He’s drawing up principles about how donations are accepted. Can he not read the room (the whole country)? You should not be taking freebies in any way, shape or form and the practice of accepting cash or anything else for that matter for access to politicians needs to be made illegal and prosecutable!
READ MORE: Sue Gray quits as Keir Starmer's chief of staff after war for supremacy in government
Until he gets this, he’s doomed to make the same mistakes as the previous incumbents of Westminster and will suffer the same fate at the next General Election. On that point, surely it’s long past the time for an “anyone but the Tories or Labour” national campaign!
Steve Cunningham
Aberdeen
THE article on the by-election results in Dundee got me thinking and concerned (SNP take seat from Labour in double by-election success, Oct 5).
Percentages and percentage swings are all very well, but the actual numbers voting however weren’t published. Lochee ward had a 21% turnout. Any talk of victory or winning is completely meaningless and demonstrates the meaningless of the pretence of local government democracy.
Better then just to appoint a competent set of policy area specialists – literate, numerate, priority-setting – under an elected “city state” mayor.
READ MORE: Who is Sue Gray – and why has she just quit as Keir Starmer's chief of staff?
The SNP arguing for Scottish autonomy and yet their government being completely incompetent at establishing a properly devolved, empowered and local-taxation-funded local government is speaking with a complete forked tongue. It’s all about empowering Holyrood, ie itself, the party, but not the rest of Scotland!
I am a democrat, a supporter of Scottish autonomy for Scotland, but only of there is a major reform and empowerment of Scottish local government, which is in chronic need of reform.
James J Paton
Moderator, Shetland Autonomy Action Team
BEFORE the SNP’s leadership, MPs, MSPs and activists pop any more champagne corks at the results from the two recent council by-elections in Dundee, they should perhaps pause to compare the results with those from May 2022.
The fact of the matter is that that despite Labour’s recent removal of our pensioners’ heating allowance and the scandal of Keir Starmer’s acceptance of gifts and donations, the percentage SNP vote was reduced from May 2022 in one seat by 6% and by 10% in the other.
Lochee (Dundee) council by-election, first preferences:
SNP: 37.3% (-5.9)
LAB: 35.6% (-0.2)
CON: 6.8% (-1.6)
ALB: 5.5% (+3.3)
GRN: 5.5% (+1.3)
(+/- from May 2022)
In the Strathmartine seat the Labour vote actually went up by 4%.
Strathmartine (Dundee) council by-election, first preferences:
SNP: 35.0% (-10.7)
LDEM: 26.9% (+8.0)
LAB: 26.9% (+3.9)
CON: 4.2% (-1.7)
GRN: 3.6% (+0.2)
(+/- from May 2022)
The SNP need to view the overall results of the almost 20 current and pending by-elections in the cold light of day and not simply cover their ears and eyes and concentrate their PR machine on two close wins.
Only two weeks ago the SNP candidate in Strathallan (Perth and Kinross) received 568 first-preference votes and the Tory candidate 1045.
There will be few SNP champagne corks popping in May 2026 if they simply continue to rely on Labour’s policy and personal blunders. We need a positive campaign with positive reasons for us to vote SNP yet again.
Iain Wilson
Stirling
“WE will be judged on our failure to stop genocide” was the heading of Patrick Harvie’s article in Friday’s issue. Our SNP representatives in Westminster were denied the opportunity by Starmer of having a vote of such in parliament. I feel sure the majority of Scots are desperate to end the expanding Israeli slaughter, which has now gone on for one year.
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I suggest that our very depleted number of SNP MPs walk out of the UK political playground, pack their bags and spend the next six months at home in Scotland working as an independence team, preparing for a Scottish election which should take place on April 1 2025.
By this time, the Labour Party will be in tatters, and then we can ascertain how many fools will not vote for an independent Scotland.
Sandy Coghill
Isle of Skye
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