Scottish Government spin needs closer scrutiny by investigative journalists

Sir, –In his letter of May 28 (Wheels turn slowly in SNP Scotland), your correspondent Allan Sutherland speculates about how a partygate-type scandal might have been handled in Scotland.

This never happened here, and we should not speculate that it did, but we have some snippets of evidence to enforce his wider point about the pursuit of political scandals here.

With partygate, the initial inclination of the Metropolitan Police was not to get involved, and they only did so after sustained political and media pressure, with the latter digging in to the issue and not letting go of it until it was very much properly exposed.

If we compare this to the first minister and the barber shop incident, the line spun was that Ms Sturgeon was only in there for a few seconds.

All sorts of commentators, who almost certainly were not there to witness it, all explained to us how she was only there for a few seconds and it was no big deal, but this was simply the line given to them by government to protect the FM.

Any mildly curious person would work out that it takes more than a few seconds to go in to a shop, introduce yourself, and proceed to taking selfies.

That will be minutes, not seconds. In terms of the risk assessment, Covid infections were at their very highest at that time, Ms Sturgeon entered an enclosed space with people she did not know, and the fact that she was taking selfies meant that she was right in people’s personal space.

This was not work for the FM, it was a campaigning opportunity, and was not what we pay her for.

It was not essential for her to do this. She should have stayed outside, given the Covid context at the time.

No one here questioned the explanation given, and therein lies the important point of detail.

In Scotland in 2022, we do not have a politicaljournalistic ethos of pursuing the Scottish Government, and this is why things do not get investigated in the way that you might think that they should.

The powerful distraction of partygate covers up all manner of ills, particularly those happening right in front of our eyes here, namely poor government, poor outcomes, and poor prospects for Scotland in the future.

Add to this the zero transparency that we currently enjoy, and the lack of interest in exposing this, you can see how things will only get worse unless people waken up.

Victor Clements. Mamie’s Cottage, Aberfeldy.