Sensible snub?

What should we make of a situation where Labour seems set to run Fife Council as a minority administration when it won much fewer than a third of the seats (your report, 20 May)? This was its worst performance in the region since the first Fife Council elections 27 years ago. It begs a number of questions. A logical arrangement after the recent poll would have been for the SNP and the Liberal Democrats to join forces with a workable majority of 47 seats out of 75, leaving a divided Labour/conservative opposition. Why was this not possible? If it is difficult to know what goes on behind the scenes in central government, then be assured it can be equally baffling in local councils.

Did the SNP leaders in Fife fail to convince the Lib Dems that it would give priority to local issues rather than using its large number of seats to help make the case for an independence referendum? Perhaps the more worldly, politically astute Labour intake was able to show that it would take the question of roads, potholes, care homes, libraries, housing, the local environment much more seriously than the SNP could show. There may also have been memories of a previous SNP/ Liberal Democrat coalition in the area from 2007 to 2012 that was hardly a total success.

It is not enough for the SNP to dismiss this new set-up as “political chicanery on an embarrassing scale”. They need to ask if their negotiation skills were up to scratch. Laughing up their sleeves will be the Scottish Conservatives, who will now wield a fair degree of power in the administration despite losing half their seats in the recent contest. It means a lot of political intrigue over the next few years but is hardly a recipe for good local governance.

BOB TAYLOR Glenrothes, Fife