August 1.

Brian Meek would appear to have let his blue-tinted spectacles slip

enough to allow a note of reality into his column (August 1).

He finishes ominously with the words ''. . . just wait till we get

Team Labour''. No ifs, no perhapses, no maybes, just that little word of

promise.

Do I detect a note of pessimistic inevitability here? Is it a

misprint, or does John Major's principal apologist in Scotland really,

if reluctantly, accept now that a good gubbing awaits at the next

election? Has the emergence of Mr Blair at the head of ''Team Labour''

anything to do with Brian Meek's change of ''if'' for ''till''?

David R. Yule,

27 McCallum Gardens,

Bellshill.