When I heard that former Labour MSP Neil Findlay had resigned from the party over welfare reform ("Party stalwart Findlay quits Scottish Labour over disability benefit reforms", The Herald, March 20), I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh because Neil Findlay's only claim to fame was to support Jeremy Corbyn and now he has followed Mr Corbyn out of the door, or cry because Neil Findlay used the Labour Party to promote himself as some sort of political martyr for the left.

The truth is Anas Sarwar brings a breath of fresh air to politics, because he is not stuck in the past, he knows that if he is to lead a progressive Labour government in Scotland a new direction is required. If we are being honest Scotland cannot afford to ignore change, we cannot ignore what is staring us in the face: that the welfare bill is too big and that citizens would be better off financially and mentally by working rather than receiving welfare payments. That of course does not mean that those who are in most need will be abandoned by Labour, far from it: they will be supported as they always have been.

I believe it is too early to determine a winner in the Scottish elections but I do know that after 19 years of the SNP, Scotland has gone backwards with our NHS in a mess, education in disarray and the SNP’s only solution being to tax, tax then tax again.

Neil Findlay would be better off supporting Anas Sarwar and the Labour Party rather than decrying them because like Mr Corbyn, Neil Findlay only had a voice through the Labour Party. He is sought after by the media because he was part of the Labour Party not because people are queuing up to hear his words of wisdom. People like Messrs Findlay and Corbyn come and go and their views diminish over time because unlike the Labour Party they become forgotten very, very quickly.

Willie Young, Aberdeen.

Labour is the rich people's party

When former Labour MSP Neil Findlay tendered his resignation from the party in response to the proposed £5 billion cuts to welfare benefits he said he could "no longer remain a member of a party that lied to the British people at the last election and with regularity betrays the people who voted for it". South of the Border, the leader of Dudley's Labour group, councillor Pete Lowe, announced his departure from the party he had been a member of for 41 years. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer he said the Labour Party has "lost its soul" and "chooses to prioritise the few over the many".

It is difficult to disagree with the sentiments voiced by these former party stalwarts. In a report last year Oxfam revealed that in the four years to January 2024 the world's five richest people more than doubled their wealth to £869 billion, while the world's poorest 60% (almost five billion people) became worse off. The total worth of the world's dollar billionaires was $3.3 trillion. Despite this massive income gulf between the haves and the have-nots the Prime Minister steadfastly refuses to contemplate any form of wealth tax as a means of boosting public sector finances. This despite all the evidence indicating that the latest round of cuts will cause massive hardship to disabled people.

It would appear the people's party has been transformed into the rich people's party.

Alan Woodcock, Dundee.

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Sturgeon's credibility

Ruth Marr (Letters, March 22) relates her relief that Nicola Sturgeon, cleared of all charges, is now free to get on with her life. All Ms Sturgeon needs now is for the SNP Government to conform to the Freedom of Information requests on the Hamilton Inquiry – which it us using valuable resources and taxpayer's money to fight in the courts – to be released and her credibility can be well and truly re-established.

This is from the Scottish Information Commissioner's website dated March 18, 2025: "[The]Scottish Information Commissioner has this week issued Decision 065/2025 which requires the Scottish Government to disclose all communications relating to an earlier decision of the Commissioner (Decision 004/2023) and to conduct further searches for information that it holds.

"In that earlier decision, the Commissioner ruled that information relating to James Hamilton’s investigation into former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon under the Ministerial Code was held by the Scottish Government and should therefore be considered by it when responding to freedom of information (FoI) requests. This decision was appealed to the Court of Session in March 2023, with the court swiftly finding in favour of the Commissioner in December 2023."

This needs to be complied with by May 2, 2025, so she will not have too long to wait as she polishes her tarnished halo in anticipation.

Peter Wright, West Kilbride.

• Guy Stenhouse ("Cheerio Nicola, you will not be missed") constantly uses the first person plurals "we" and "us", presumably to try to add some weight to his usual vitriolic rant. This might have worked were it not for the fact that Nicola Sturgeon has put herself forward for election as an MSP since 1999, a record of acceptance and success that denies his claims.

It is easy to snipe from his column in The Herald and a pity that there has never been some sort of measure of Guy Stenhouse's popularity. Were he to go, I suspect that he would be far less missed than Nicola.

David Hay, Minard.

• What a nasty piece of writing from Guy Stenhouse regarding Nicola Sturgeon. Perhaps he should read and reflect on the column from his fellow Herald contributor, Neil Mackay ("not an ally" ) who has been able to temper his criticisms of Ms Sturgeon in his recognition of her humanity ("For some she’ll always be guilty simply of being Nicola Sturgeon", The Herald, March 22).

Eileen Michael, Paisley.

Won't someone rid us of MUP?

You report John Swinney defending Scotland's income tax rates ("Swinney defends tax regime after attack by CBI on handbrake for growth", The Herald, March 21) ”. Interestingly we don’t hear opposition parties condemning the Scottish Government for the other burden that the Scottish taxpayer has to bear, namely the minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol which has no credible evidence to support its effectiveness.

I’m quite sure that promises from the opposition to repeal these financial penalties and put Scotland on an equal footing with the rest of the United Kingdom would win support (and votes) from the Scottish public. History shows that when new parties come to power they invariably leave any new taxes in place although they may well have attacked them when they were in opposition. Does the silence mean that, if we get a new government in 2026, we can expect to continue to pay more than the rest of the UK?

Alan McGibbon, Paisley.

John SwinneyJohn Swinney (Image: PA)

Glasgow University must stop siding with genocide

I read your article "Glasgow University students on hunger strike over Gaza" (heraldscotland, March 20) with considerable concern.

The top tier of leadership at the University of Glasgow has an opportunity to lead by example. This university has a dark history of supporting genocidal clearance and did so against the Scots on June 27, 1746 when its Regius Professor of Law (William Cross) was sent to London to present Butcher Cumberland with an honorary degree.

It is a fact that for 16 months post Culloden, Cumberland sent his troops to burn and pillage, rape and murder thousands of Scots and attempted to transport whole clans to the West Indies to be enslaved in plantations – his efforts at clearance, while partly successful, were tempered by economics. I have personally asked the Principal and the Vice-Principal at the university to rescind Cumberland’s honorary degree and the only response I got was a very narrow one: we are not changing the rules for dead recipients. Yet, other universities have allowed for exceptional circumstances, for example Leeds University revoked Jimmy Saville’s honorary degree.

In terms of the university’s stance on investing in defence firms that conduct genocide in Palestine, it is worth saying that most staff and students do not support it. Indeed, the university leadership flat ignored a vote whereby over 80% of staff and over 80% of students voted to divest away from the arms trade. Why?

Whereas no-one agrees with the actions of Hamas on that dreadful October morning, anyone with two brain cells can deduct that the far-right Israeli government has used this tragedy to fulfil its imperialist policy of annihilating the Palestinians and clearing them off the land. If the top tier at the University of Glasgow is willing to blatantly ignore the ethos and democratic will of its members in favour of neo-imperialist policies that allow for the bombing of largely innocent populations, then it is surely time to call for resignations.

R McCallum, Dalry.