Leah Gunn Barrett

Alex Massie (Times December 31) says that Labour is a national party or it’s nothing. Labour will never be a national party. It’s an English party, headquartered in and concerned only about England. Scotland is an afterthought, and Scots know it. Massie shows his contempt for Scots when he claims a Labour win in England will make it respectable in Scotland, as though we can’t think for ourselves but must take our cues from our southern neighbour. 

Massie is right about one thing. Boring and ruthless Keir Starmer has rooted out what remained of Labour’s working-class principles. He’s a willing shill for the British establishment and the City of London, which is why he’s Labour leader. He’s broken all manifesto pledges to attract Tory votes and money from the wealthy oligarchs who really run the country. 

Anas Sarwar, Labour’s Scottish supervisor, will agree with whatever his English bosses say. When Wes Streeting puts a kilt on NHS reform, code for privatisation, Sarwar will nod along. 

Scots understand that the interests of the users and providers of public services aren’t divergent, but aligned. They know public services need to be well funded in order to function well, not sold off to private corporations who don’t care about the great unwashed public. 

The way to revive our public services is to restore Scottish sovereignty and use our wealth to invest in the only real resource we have – our people.