A vital player

Dear me, if even Bill Jamieson, who has always been a positive voice and scribe of sanity and good common sense, is now reduced to questioning his lifelong beliefs, what hope is left? (Perspective 29 June)

But maybe all is not yet lost. The Scotsman reported on 9 June that in these times of “austerity” at least our esteemed Scottish Government has its priorities right and our interests at heart in its stewardship of our hardearned taxes – by creating an “innovative new function, Head of Strategy and Insight, as part of its marketing team”.

Conversely, one might wonder what precisely that entails, how we have survived so far without such a clearly vital role or who has fulfilled it parttime along with their other equally important “marketing team” jobs, and why on earth our government needs to market itself at our expense in this manner rather than by straightforward, transparent and efficient administration of our public services? JOHN BIRKETT Horseleys Park St Andrews, Fife