Careless with cash

So former justice secretary Kenny Macaskill suggests police chief Phil Gormley should be allowed to leave with dignity and that we should also buy out his remaining contract (11 January)? This, before we even find out whether he is or isn’t guilty of any of the allegations against him. Mr Gormley, as we know, has been sitting on his hands on full pay for the last four months.

Mr Macaskill, of course, has form in this area, having signed off on the £2,000,000 pension pot for a previous police chief, Stephen House, when he was “retired” under something of a cloud. This is what happens when you operate in the political bubble where accountability for taxpayer’s funds is rarely a consideration. It may have been econmist Milton Friedman who said that if you spend someone else’s money on someone else you are not the least bit concerned about how much it is. Mr Macaskill would most certainly fall into that category.

DAVID F DONALDSON Lawers Crescent, Polmont

The merger of Scotland’s eight Police Authorities into one Police Scotland in 2013 when Kenny Mcaskill was justice secretary was hailed as improving efficiency.

It can hardly fill citizens with confidence when a Chief Constable has been on leave from his post since last September while under investigation for whatever he is said to have

done or not done. What prospect for crimes and offences affecting the ordinary public being speedily solved when so much time is taken and delay operates as the top?

One shudders at the prospect for travellers crossing the River Tweed when British Transport Police is integrated and comes under the same regime.

JIM CRAIGEN

Downie Grove, Edinburgh