If it ain’t broke, why tinker?

Sir, – We are fast becoming a nation of tinkerers, with chop and change for the sake of it pervading the very fabric of our society. Well proved, well functioning, and established elements are constantly under scrutiny and attack.

Our National Health Service, once the envy of the world with hospital wards run by the ever reliable matron and her staff, have disappeared, only to be replaced by an army of administrators often grossly overpaid.

Tinkerers have been in action in our education system and now our standing in league tables has drastically fallen with many children leaving school semi-illiterate and innumerate.

The tinkerers have introduced a Curriculum of Excellence with its system of chop and change, which in turn has spread confusion among teaching staff and pupils alike, leading to an educational demise. We are now beset by a new Education( Scotland) Act and on and on.

The police force which appeared to function perfectly adequately in the recent past has been amalgamated into a single force, which many now believe is counterproductive and we have witnessed negative consequences as a result, yet despite this the tinkerers seek to amalgamate the Force with the British Transport Police.

Not content with these failures the tinkerers have turned their attention towards family life and are now striving, against advice, to introduce a Named Person Scheme, wherein every child will have an overall supervisor, irrespective of need and cost.

Tinkerers pervade every quango and think tank in the country, for which the sole rationale seems directed towards seeking areas to effect change, often for change’s sake, ostensibly as a means of justifying their very existence.

Lessons should be learned from the past, and in the adage about always keeping faith in the winning horse. Tinkerers take heed.

David L Thomson. Laurence Park, Kinglassie.