Watching Charlie Gordon MSP on the TV recently, reminded me of a young man, of the same name, I used to know. Two decades ago I was acquainted with a young, energetic and committed socialist who represented rail workers on the Glasgow Trades Council.

That young man was nobody's fall-guy: he was alert, intelligent and highly motivated, and I was pleased to count him among my socialist comrades. I recall how hard he worked to raise money for the miners' families during their bitter struggle. None of us then, including Charlie, could go to friends who could write out a cheque for £1000 (sorry, £950) for the miners' children. Indeed, if we could get friends who could donate £10 we were delighted.

I can just imagine what that young man would have thought about an MSP who could solicit hundreds of pounds from "friends" for "political" causes, while being ignorant of the laws governing such donations. Charlie would have torn that "explanation" apart with wit and sarcasm.

Also, the young Charlie I knew would have opposed bitterly the New Labour right-wing clique that has taken over the Labour Party; he would certainly not have been working to get its leader elected to front the party in Scotland.

I wonder where that Charlie has gone. Come to think of it, I wonder where the Labour Party has gone.

Andy Anderson, Eadar Dà Allt, 22 Earlish, Near Portree, Skye.

Why do politicians north and south of the border still think that "acting in good faith" is an acceptable excuse for illegal activity? Starting with Tony Blair and others, MSPs Tom McCabe and Charlie Gordon are just the latest to put up this weak defence for actions that were clearly in breach of the law introduced by their own party to control the source and amount of payments to political parties.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse; Scottish voters are not stupid and will not be fooled by their excuses. Unfortunately, as things stand it will be several years before we can make our views known through the ballot box. So here is a suggestion for First Minister Alex Salmond. He should announce an executive decision to cancel the Edinburgh trams project on the grounds that the miserly grant increase of 0.5% from the Treasury means the scheme can no longer be afforded. When the opposition parties rise up in united outrage, challenge them to table a vote of confidence motion on the issue.

If they do so and win the vote, the government will fall and there will be another Scottish election. This will give voters the chance to punish Labour for its underhand actions and its poor performance in opposition (and also, perhaps, the LibDems for causing the minority government situation by stubbornly refusing even to talk to the SNP about a possible coalition).

If the opposition lose the vote, the authority of the SNP government will be greatly strengthened and there will be another £500m to spend on more worthwhile causes.

The same outcome would arise if Labour refused to table a confidence motion and it would lose what little credibility it still has as a principled opposition.

Iain A D Mann, 7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

Douglas brought us the election shambles; Wendy has brought us the donations shambles. The Alexander siblings are, we are told, the huge brains of Scottish Labour. The frightening thing for Labour supporters is that that may be true.

Professor Ian Brown, New Balghoulan, 5 Fenton Terrace, Pitlochry.

Surely now is the time for your regular correspondent Alex Gallacher from Largs to come forward and take up the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party. If there was ever a time when the Labour Party in Scotland needed completely blind, unquestioning leadership, it must be now.

I, and tens of thousands of Scots across the land, are awaiting urgently his information on how the scandals that are currently besetting the Labour leadership are all the SNP's fault and yet another reason to forget independence and leave our trust and future in the hands of their equally dodgy colleagues at Westminster. The nation awaits.

Provost Celia Lawson, Renfrewshire Council, Cotton Street, Paisley.

Labour told us things could only get better. But nearly a decade after Communities Minister Wendy Alexander issued a document that promised us "a Scotland in which every person both contrabutes sic to and benefits from the community in which they live", she is caught issuing a thank-you letter to a Labour donor who prefers the fiscal autonomy enjoyed by Jersey to Britain under Gordon Brown. And she still can't spell for toffee. There is no "d" in "priviledged". Her "d" should have been in "declaration".

Neil Robertson, 4 Glamis Terrace, Dundee.

In his Saturday Essay, Ian Bell suggested that some people might consider Nye Bevan to have been "a vain, vindictive neurotic", albeit he gave us the NHS in 1948.

Although I had the pleasure of hearing Nye Bevan speak at a public meeting in Leith town hall many years ago, I didn't know him well enough over the years to come to a view about his personality or mental state. What I would say, however, is that, if the price of achieving such a transformation of society and the unparalleled improvement in the wellbeing of Britain's working class is to have to endure a vain and neurotic politician, then I would happily pay that price.

And when one looks at the political state of health of post-war Britain with the position we are in today, one would have to conclude we are (still) surrounded by vain politicians on all sides; the country is being led by someone who, it is alleged, is "psychologically flawed"; but there is no sign of any fundamental improvement for the people of Britain comparable to Nye Bevan's. I would settle for Nye any day of the week.

Bill Stewart, Earnville, Dunning, Perthshire.

Why is anyone surprised that the Labour Party is being questioned about its probity? The party, in central Scotland at least, has been corrupt for years. I do not mean by this that all its members are a bunch of crooks (although there are a small number of dishonest politicians in the mix).

The corruption that I mean is the corruption that is the automatic consequence of the single-party state that central Scottish politics has "enjoyed" in recent decades. The majority of councillors and MSPs would be horrified if they were accused individually of corruption.

That is the whole point of this letter. The processes within Labour governance have become corrupt over time in a slow drift - an inevitable drift, given the overwhelming dominance of the party. Humans are lazy and will take short-cuts. Short-cuts become the accepted norm and, slowly, corrupt practices grow without the participants being aware of it. This is the real message of the current stories.

There is much more to be revealed: how committee positions are appointed; how money is given or withheld to leverage political influence; secret deals of all sorts. It will be interesting to see whether the fourth estate finally is willing to develop its knowledge of these practices and do its job by publishing their stories.

Alan Arnott, 16 Newmilns Gardens, Blantyre.

Perhaps after they've dealt with the guilty prosecutions for the illegal donations, the authorities will get around to prosecuting the guilty for the illegal war. And there's no mystery about where the cheques came from for that campaign.

Ruth Marr, 99 Grampian Road, Stirling.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. When Labour introduced legislation banning donations from UK non-residents, it had a healthy membership and the open coffers of the unions, as well as some wealthy resident donors. Some folk thought the timing, before a Scottish election, was intended to scupper the SNP's hope of a sizeable donation from Sir Sean Connery. A touch of schadenfreude is perhaps excusable.

Charlotte Atherton, 5A India Street, Edinburgh.