ONE wonders exactly what Alastair Darling thinks he is doing giving advice that Scottish Labour under the leadership of Kezia Dugdale should not follow the UK party to the left (“Scots party must not lurch to left, says Darling”, The Herald, September 15), given first of all that Scottish Labour's problem has been that it has lately become seen as the more right-wing party and secondly Mr Darling is himself perhaps the person most responsible of all for that happened to Labour in May. It was Mr Darling who led the campaign against independence and in doing so brought Scottish Labour into the death embrace of the Conservatives. He is not the sort of person one would normally go to for advice on winning elections.

I suspect Mr Darling does not want Labour to win. The right of the Labour Party do not really have anything to gain from an election win in May but they have plenty to gain from another loss. Jeremy Corbyn's opponents would do well for Scottish Labour to lose in May so that they can blame the defeat on him and use that as an excuse to remove him. Given Labour are virtually certain to win again in Wales they cannot use the Welsh election against Mr Corbyn and there is every possibility that Labour will win back the mayorship of London, so that is a risky standard to which to hold Mr Corbyn. A defeat in Scotland seems like the surest bet and so that is what they are going for and the best means of ensuring this will be to keep the party to the right of the SNP.

Quite why defying their new leader's policies and losing as a result will be his fault is something that will defy logic, but logic and honesty has not meant much to the right wing of Labour before, so that is unlikely to trouble them.

My intention come May has for some time been to give my constituency vote to the SNP again as I am reasonably happy with their performance and with their continuing to be a party of the left even after eight and a half years in Government. My regional vote would likely be wasted on the SNP vote so I intend to give it to another more left-wing party. Previously that was most likely to be the Greens, but now, against all the odds given Mr Corbyn's victory it could be Labour; something I certainly did not foresee in the aftermath of the general election. If Scottish Labour choose to go their own way and stay on the right, however, I certainly won't be voting for them and that will not be the fault of Mr Corbyn.

Iain Paterson,

2F Killermont View, Glasgow.

THE Conservatives won the 2015 General Election with 36.8 per cent of the votes cast in a turn-out of 66 per cent of those eligible to vote; they won with the support of approximately 25 per cent of the potential electorate. Despite this indisputable fact Alastair Darling continues to peddle the myth that power cannot be achieved “unless you take the majority of the people with you”.

What the statistics prove conclusively is that in the multi-party UK system all you need to do is to bribe 20 per cent of potential voters with a set of policies that ensures self-interest will force them to put the cross in the right box. That is what the Conservative Party has done for years; “vote for us and we will cut the 45 per cent tax band” and so. All Jeremy Corbyn has to do is to follow the SNP example and persuade the disenfranchised public by saying what they want to hear and then carry through with his promises. No “majority of the people” is required, all he needs to do is to demonstrate to a few percent of current non-voters that it is in their interest to vote as he will guarantee change. Then do it.

David J Crawford

Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.

AH, Jeremy Corbyn – for British politics he's such a welcome breath of stale air.

Mark Boyle,

15 Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone.