Picture of the day

and the EU subsidies for lagging regions and projects including some affecting mid Fife.

What created this disastrous disruption and utter loss of national credibility was a toxic cocktail of privileged, influential but utterly delusional right wing Tory ideologues and their dishonest media amplifiers, the utter neglect of the English regions in favour of the centre exacerbated by unnecessary and prolonged austerity alongside the quaint, mildly xenophobic nostalgia of many older voters.

The dubiously funded and dishonest Leave campaign merely threw extra petrol on to the mix.

Whether reality and common sense now dawns is questionable since every effort will be made to pass on blame by those who created this unnecessary mess to any convenient scapegoat.

Scotland will bear a heavy cost for an outcome it clearly overwhelmingly rejected.

But there are also lessons for what any Scottish Government can do to mitigate its impact and rebalance our increasingly unequal society.

As a recent BBC report shows, Scottish cities – especially Edinburgh – are becoming more dynamic and affluent.

Scotland as a whole cannot afford to continue to allow large areas and communities to lag behind.

Mid Fife, and especially Levenmouth, like a number of former coalfield areas, needs attention and investment of which it has been conspicuously starved over the past few decades.

Whatever the future of Scotland emerging from the current chaos, deliberate affirmative action is essential to give disadvantaged communities a greater stake and share in the country’s economy and body politic.

That is simply not happening at present. James Robertson. Casan,

Leven. of Butterstone School was over sensational and misleading (“School head suspended before closure decision”, Courier, November 21).

I know Butterstone school to be a caring institution.

The head involved was doing his very best to keep the school open and clearly has a lot of support as already several thousand people have signed a petition to keep the school open.

From your headline I expected to find he had been involved in some serious impropriety whereas the full article reveals that it was a “minor matter” and the Care Inspectorate were “satisfied that immediate concerns had been dealt with”.

One wonders what has really been going on? David Trudgill. Newmill, Blairgowrie. (“Worries over length of time prisoners held at town’s sheriff court”, Courier, November 22).

Is there a similar organisation for the well-being of victims?

A A Bullions. 6 Glencairn Crescent, Leven.

Numerous business owners and private citizens put forward multiple reasons to their elected representatives, personally and by email, explaining why the charges should not be implemented

Getty. A camel relaxes in front of the Al-Khazneh Temple in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.