Business insterests embedded in 'leading' independence fight

Take for example his contention that "the business wing of the pro-independence movement" is "minsicule anyway."

This is a conclusion that can only be reached by ignoring the SNP, which has a majority in the Scottish Parliament and form the Scottish government, which will both legislate for and negotiate independence.

It has welcomed the corporation tax cuts in both of George Osborne's budgets and is adamant that it will cut further once it has the power to do so.

The chair of Alex Salmond's council of economic advisers is a former chairman of RBS who runs a Cayman Islands-based hedge fund.

Another economic adviser and prominent advocate of independence is Jim McColl, a business mogul and Monaco-based tax dodger, who describes independence as "a management buyout."

Not so much miniscule then as "leading."

On a separate, or perhaps separatist, note Morning Star readers outside of Scotland will be delighted to learn from Mr Venton that they are helpless in the face of the Con-Dems.

"Westminster rule can mean nothing other than the horrific certainties of cuts, privatisation, growing poverty and inequality, job losses and ruthless attacks on workers' rights," he writes.

Such pessimism about the English intellect and optimism about the Scottish will is remarkable.

Most socialists will, I'm sure, find his writing-off of the potential of the overwhelming majority of the working class in Britain as misplaced as it is patronising.

Stephen Low

Glasgow