Grade deflation

Fraser Grant (Letters, February 25) evidently trawled through the pages of a recent analysis on Scottish education to winkle out statistics showing modest improvements in SCQF level 5 and 6 awards and used this as part of his declaration claiming Scotland’s public services in general are in fine fettle. His timing was somewhat unfortunate I fear.

I wonder what his response is to yesterday’s headline: “Government ‘failing pupils’ as number achieving at least one exam pass drops.” Presumably it will be the same as the Education Secretary’s stock response when greeted with damaging figures on his performance. As he did when pressurised into sneaking out the statistics showing the significant decline in Higher performance, John Swinney described the most recent failure as a “fluctuation”!

Similarly the headlines on the previous page of the same issue are not best timed to lend credence to Mr Fraser’s claims on the health service. We are informed that “Health board suspends out of hours services” and “Waiting times [are] longer despite £150m cash boost”.

The Health Secretary follows the party line in welcoming damning statistics – describing the latter of the above as “a foundation for further improvement”!

I have ceased to be amazed by the brazen outpouring from the stone-walling SNP spin machine. What still amazes is the credulity of those who swallow it.

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh