Salmond inquiry reduced to a pantomime

The stumbling investigation into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of complaints against Alex Salmond which cost the taxpayer £500,000 has been a revelation, but not perhaps in the way Parliament intended.

As Salmond’s much postponed appearance before the inquiry yesterday is delayed yet again, what we are seeing is nothing short of a farce. Elements of our political class and civil service, blind to their vapid, self-serving instincts, have reduced the investigation to a pantomime. Public figures and faceless bureaucrats, anonymous “special advisers” and legal teams, on all sides, have confirmed what the public always suspected. With their disingenuous language, obfuscation and filibustering, they remind us of Machiavelli’s saying “politics have no relation to morals ” DAVID GRAY

Sidegate Haddington, East Lothian

Fearful future?

Enoch Powell once warned the SNP that "power devolved is power retained".

He was not anti-devolution per se – and I quote, "I say to devolution, if it means an improvement in the control and supervision and execution of administration, yes; if they can be improved, let us do it". He baulked, however, at the genesis of tiers of regional government merely to sautée parochial career politicians and absolve Westminster of decades of wilful negligence in direct proportion to their distance from London, citing the tragedy of 19th-century Ireland as the end result.

Powell's warnings much haunt all Scottish nationalists now, at the outrageous attempted public show trial by innuendo orchestrated against our former First Minister.

Scottishdevolutionisdevolving into the arbitrary rule of a tinpot dictator surrounded by incompetent sycophants fixated on imposing pet dogmas on the population to the detriment of all else: more akin to a Third World banana republic than a First World oil kingdom. As a portend of Scotland upon independence, it is terrifying.

MARK BOYLE Linn Park Gardens Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Intolerable

Murdo Fraser makes some excellent points (Perspective, February 24). Clearly there is an urgent need for the structural reform of our legal system. As long as the Crown Office remains subservient to politicians through a Justice ministry controlled by a First Minister we will not have the independent legal system we clearly need. The present structure ensures the administration of justice in Scotland will continue to be seen to be at risk of Putin-esque perversion unless it is radically changed.

The question is, how quickly can the re structuring of our legal system be delivered to ensure its independence of political interference? For surely the present situation is intolerable, with bias and malicious prosecutions coming at great cost, not only to the public purse, but to the very structure of our society. ELIZABETH MARSHALL Western Harbour Midway

Edinburgh

Unfairtosturgeon

Murdo Fraser’s article on the Salmond affair (Sotsman, 25 February) just proves that the Parliamentary Committee has become political rather than looking at matters objectively. The important element he forgets to mention is that the Scotland Act needs to be amended to extend the Scottish Parliament's privilege to include contempt proceedings and this has led to the problems over Alex Salmond’s submission. Some on the Parliament's Corporate body also ignored this legal advice.

The independent MSP Andy Wightman condemned the ongoing leaks from MSPS on the Committee on Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints of legally privileged information, the apparent regular breaches of the Code of Conduct of MSPS and the failure to observe the duty of confidentiality.

This confirms that some MSPS are more interested in getting Nicola Sturgeon’s head on a plate rather than concentrating on the core issue of how a flawed Civil Service process failed several women who felt they had been sexually harassed, and ended up costing taxpayers £500,000.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh

What freedom?

Scotland can now officially be recognised as a tinpot dictatorship, with Nicola Sturgeon controlling party, government, civil service and judiciary.

No opposition is allowed and any dissent will be blocked by sham trials and enquiries where documents will be redacted or altered by judicial order to an obliging parliament to obstruct any investigation into wrongdoing by the government. The final step will be the police, who will probably be sent to arrest anyone who doubts the wisdom of our dear leader. A fledgling democracy has within two decades been transformed into a dictatorship

IAIN H BEATTIE Palmerston Road, Edinburgh

Abuse of power

I am appalled at the conduct of the First Minister at yesterday’s Scottish Government's daily coronavirus briefing. Instead of politely declining to answer questions regarding the Salmond inquiry, on several occasions she abused her position to respond at some length.

Those who take time to view the briefing wish to hear the latest news regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the expansion of the vaccination programme, proposals for the eventual easing of restrictions, measures being taken to assist the economy, a return to the classroom for children and the opening up of social activity – but not discussion of a matter which has nothing to do with the intended subject matter of the broadcast. This was a blatant exploitation of the First Minister's position to engage in matters outwith the remit of the briefing.

PETER GRAHAM East Comiston, Edinburgh

Delayelection

So, the Scottish lockdown is intended to end in the last week of April, just a week before the May elections. Whether this is irresponsible or not depends on your voting intention. But for sure, there will be many older voters who will not be happy to visit a local polling station and who will not have a postal vote.

At the same time there will be many students and older school pupils who will be happy to be out and about.

This demographic is straight out of the nationalist playbook – older voters are (maybe) majority unionist and younger voters are (maybe) majority separatist. Holding an election so soon after a long lockdown is not democratic. Nationalists, being inclined towards a republican state, should remind themselves that such tactics are not "in the common good".

CHRIS BOSTON Clark Road, Edinburgh

Wilddreams

Dr Dave Parish asks “what rewilding means to me” (Friends of the Scotsman, February 23). The site behind our property was once a landfill site. This was capped and over the years the land was reclaimed by nature. Sitting close to the Glasgow City boundary, this area of East Renfrewshire became the recreational lung of those living on the southside of the city, promoting health and well being for local residents and others from further afield. This is what “rewilding” means to me, Mr Parish.

Today the area has been taken over by wind farms to the point where this small local authority area consists of little else and any space remaining is being targeted with single turbine applications which enjoy less scrutiny and more likelihood of gaining planning permission. One by one, another wind farm by stealth is being created. A current application has blades so long there is only a ground clearance of 9m. Whilst RSPB and Naturescot agree that “this is potentially of concern in that it may bring more birds into the rotor-swept area” limited resources means that they can now only focus on priority sites or species.

There is little chance of rewilding Scotland when our land is being desecrated with an ever-increasing number of wind turbines of greater dimensions, turning vast areas into industrial wastelands and killing more of our birds while statutory consultees are effectively gagged.

AILEEN JACKSON Knockglass, Uplawmoor

Healthyheads

Steve Hayes’s letter “Dying for a trip?” yesterday promotes a survival-of-the-fittest situation where those not strong enough to take another eight weeks of lockdown – at best – are shamed and shunned.

This is not a case of lazy, impatient people waiting to go on a holiday versus the good pupils who proudly endure everlasting lockdown. Just look at the suicidal ideation rates, which the Scottish Government indicates at 13.3 per cent of respondents in the Wave 2 Report of their Covid-19 Mental Health Tracker Study (and these are only the suicidal thoughts, willingly self-reported). Think about higher rates of people with severe anxiety disorders, PTSD, depression – the list goes on. People who have been bereaved during the pandemic and are left to cope locked up at home. People with cancer and other illnesses not being able to be treated in time by the NHS. Homeless people living even more precariously.

Think about the split families, including people with ill relatives and divorced parents with children living far apart. For all these people, being able to take an annual trip to visit family, or simply to take a break from their daily grind, may well be what keeps them in balance. For many people, eight weeks will be too much, and the lifting of restrictions will come too late. The ultimate cost of our sacrifice on freedom may be greater than the less-thanone per cent of people saved from a Covid death, allegedly thanks to lockdown. Meaning well, we are likely creating a generation of citizens widely prone to mental health issues.

So, yes, some people may be dying from strict lockdown, rather than “dying for a trip.”

MANON H LEMAIRE Castle Terrace, Edinburgh

Open debate

We asked, should First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set dates for the easing of lockdown? I think dates should be set with the understanding that these might be changed slightly, it gives light at the end of the tunnel.

Elaine Jackson Almost certainly. To quote Ruth Davidson, [Wednesday] wasn't so much a roadmap as a holding exercise. We cannot remain in a cycle of restrictions, lockdown, restrictions, lockdown.

Steven Oliver No, how is she suppose to predict the future of the pandemic when the numbers are not yet in a stable established trend? There are too many variables for clear accuracy.

Lea M Dickson No, rather not have dates that would keep moving.

Neil John Gibson

I don't think she can give us definite dates – but give us dates that give us hope and help lift people's spirits. Even Boris gave people hope but did say that these were subject to all guidelines being met.

Keith Robertson

Unfortunately people only listen to what they want to hear, and have started booking holidays from 22nd June, without paying attention to the bit about guidelines being met.

Jo-an Wilson

I don’t agree with tier systems now. We have been locked down for a year now bar a few months. We will all be vaccinated by July with at least one dose. At this point I think we should be out of lock down without a tier system in place otherwise what was the point to it all?

Catherine Mackenzie

Yes. The dates Boris suggested sounded good, with time between each level and if conditions allowed. This would have given businesses time to prepare and if any level was postponed because of rising numbers, business people would have accepted the decision. Scotland has been given a neverending lockdown – except to arrange an election. None of it makes sense.

May Jarvie Absolutely not. This virus does not follow a timetable – no illness or infection does. Set the conditions, not the dates.

David Abbott She should have been more clear... I need to get back to my work as her grants are as difficult to obtain as winning lottery numbers. She even makes getting our own money difficult.

David Oliver

No. Nothing has changed, numbers are still high and many have not been offered a vaccine yet. It would be daft to put a date on things. Need to have evidence that community transmission is low, then localised outbreaks can be managed. Giving dates is false hope.

Marney Keiller

It's better to set out the conditions, and let the dates define themselves.

Peter Milne In an ideal world yes, but realistically it’s not possible as she can’t predict what is

going to happen next in this horrendous saga.

Michelle Donohoe She loves to be the voice of Doom! Most depressing female.

Lillian Wells

Yes. We would all understand they were indicative, but instead we got something that told us that shops will open by end of April but after that you still can’t go for a pint or a meal. Some hope would have been good, at least something to aim for. Now all you’ll get is certain folk going back to house parties etc because they’ll be thinking ‘well sod it, looks like this isn’t ending any time soon’.

Mark Mitchell

Nope shes doing an amazing job of looking after all of us and not bowing down to bully boy tactics.

Linda Munro

No, things change, no point getting people’s hopes up for set dates.

Xjoanne Xsteinberger

We all understand the difficulties in putting dates in a plan but there is no plan. On this understanding about probability depending on statistics, what people need is hope and positivity, not gloom and doom.

Helen Greig

No, why would you set dates on something that you don’t know when it will happen? There have been peaks and troughs and many u-turns and plans been put in the bin throughout all this.

Craig Buster Brown

Watch numbers go through the roof in England about mid-may because not all young people will have been vaccinated.

David Dolby No, what's the point, the dates will change.

Colin Martin Probably open up in time for election make her look good.

Iain Kemp Think she should set dates for her resignation.

Derek Rowan