Scotland needs a more constructive opposition party

Sir, – To mislead is to tell a falsehood, or transmit a misleading opinion, with the intention to deceive.

It cannot be applied in a blameworthy sense to the communication of something false or misleading by mistake.

In my opinion, the information we now possess about Nicola Sturgeon’s meetings on August 29 and September 3 gives no ground for attributing to her any intention to deceive. Therefore she cannot be said to have misled parliament.

Nor can she yet be accused of having broken the Ministerial Code. For that we must await the report of James Hamilton QC, the independent assessor.

What Nicola Sturgeon said in response to questions in the parliamentary committee makes it, I think, most unlikely he will decide against her.

On both these issues Ruth Davidson and Murdo Fraser, who call for her immediate resignation, fail to grasp these simple but fundamental distinctions. Scotland really needs the government to be confronted by a constructive and serious opposition.

It is sad the Scottish Conservative Party seems incapable of anything better than confused and uselessly hostile scatter-gun polemics. Basil O’neill.

35 Bay Road, Wormit, Fife.

1. Ben Creuch, standing at 2,365 feet, is the highest mountain in which range in central Scotland?

2. The Perthshire village of Luncarty annually hosts which off-beat festival?

3. In the years preceding the First World War, the city of Dundee pioneered which form of public transport in Scotland?

4. Prior to joining Dundee FC, which club player and Scottish international was previously a teammate of the legendary Alfredo de Stefano in South American football?

5. In the post-war years, fictional detectives Dandy Mclean and Dixon Hawke were popular features in which two weekly DC Thomson newspapers?