This is an unhappy situation in which there can be no winners

SOME might think I am always quick to criticise the SNP and (in particular) what it has done or failed to do. Perhaps that’s true, but in keeping the investigations of complaint against the former First Minister private it seems to have behaved impeccably (“Salmond in legal fight over allegations of sex assault”, The Herald, August 24). Those who would suggest that this is because it was in its interest to keep the matter quiet should maybe give it the benefit of doubt. It appears that the people who made the allegations have also kept their own counsel.

No Stormy Daniels types seem to be involved ... but we’ve still got ego, unsustainable promises, Russian factors, a mantra of grievance, claims of witch hunting, lack of dignity, tweeting things which would have most lawyers shaking their heads with downcast eyes and (now) allegations of sexual misconduct untested in any court of law. At the time of writing facts about what the allegations might be are hard to find. Reporting suggests that Alex Salmond has claimed that the allegations are “patently ridiculous”. If he did nothing which can be construed as unwelcome advances or sexual assault he must be vindicated. And if that is the case, then it must surely have been a mistake to offer to engage in mediation, arbitration and conciliation, as he says he has. I cannot speak for anyone else, but the only conciliation I could ever muster in those circumstances would be to offer forgiveness to anyone who had lied.

Like Donald Trump, Alex Salmond claims that the process (so far) is unfair. Like Mr Trump, Mr Salmond claims those working in the process are biased against him. Denial of access to information has featured in his stated position on this bourach. Previously, it was he who denied the public access to information over the question of legal advice to the Scottish Government about EU membership for independent Scotland. However, it would take a particular sort of circumstance in which his former political bedmates were out to get him. In reality, he is a spent force in politics. He suffered the ultimate ignominy of losing his seat to a Tory.

If the Scottish Government is indeed conspiring to kick a man when he’s down that says a lot about the Scottish Government that even I would find hard to swallow. It has stated that it will defend its position vigorously. A reality is that this not a position that it would have taken without the utmost regret. There is no schadenfreude or hope that those who live by the sword will die by it. Instead all I see is sadness for Scotland. I will be sad if there’s a conspiracy of lies against Mr Salmond and I will be sad if the allegations are found to be true.

There are no winners.

Kenny Wilson,

21 Union Street, Greenock.

NO ONE is above the law. Everyone has the right to a defence. Whatever allegations are levelled against anyone, the accused has the right to challenge them.

Alex Salmond has been put into an embarrassing and invidious position as a result of the so-far anonymous allegations of sexual harassment against him. Who would not want to challenge the procedures which have publicly left him out to dry? It is the lingering aftermath of such procedures which will taint and tarnish his everyday life thereafter.

We must have some sympathy with the First Minister, who worked so closely with Mr Salmond and was obviously visibly shocked at having to hear of these allegations against a once-close colleague and erstwhile confidant. She has had to steel herself to allow this investigation to go ahead, the temptation being to sweep it under the carpet, which would eventually have created a smell in which she would have been enveloped.

Transparency is important in matters of this kind and it would have been very remiss of the Government to have eschewed looking into the allegations. However, what does seem unfair, as so often happens in such cases, is that the accused’s name is released and the alleged victims retain their anonymity. Also, if Mr Salmond is to be believed, he has as yet had no opportunity to challenge the allegations nor has he been given the specifics of the accusations, which sets up a Kafkaesque scenario.

Sadly for the reputation of all parties, this matter is going to court and from such trials few can emerge with any credit. Indeed all parties will be diminished by the political fallout.

Denis Bruce,

5 Rannoch Gardens, Bishopbriggs.

AS a media feeding frenzy begins over Alex Salmond’s refutation of allegations of sexual assault, let’s not forget the news this week that’s more directly relevant to all of us. Scotland’s public sector 7.9 per cent deficit is somewhat worse than Zimbabwe’s – and crucially massively worse than the three per cent level required by the EU for new entrant countries (“Deficit four times bigger for Scotland than the UK, says report”, The Herald, August 23). It would be impossible for an independent Scotland to join the EU, without, as the SNP’S own Growth Commission report admits, at least a decade of austerity in the form of higher taxation and public services cuts.

Martin Redfern,

Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh.

SO, the new GERS figures show a rise in oil income form £266 million in 2016/7 to £1.3 billion in 2017/8. This is great news, but can anyone answer the following questions?

1. Does the latest figure of £1.3bn include income from the seven oilfields “stolen” by RUK, on the eve of the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, by Messrs Blair and Dewar?

2. What will an independent Scotland do about getting them back?

Dennis White,

4 Vere Road, Blackwood, Lanark.

THERE has been extensive commentary on the publication of the latest GERS report. However, can I recommend to any interested party that they obtain and peruse Talking to My Daughter About the Economy by Yanis Varoufakis? In this extraordinary book this revolutionary and brilliant economist explains economics in the simplest of terms and as if he were talking to an adolescent teenager. In his prologue, Professor Varoufakis states that his reason for writing the book is his conviction that “the economy is too important to be left to the economists”. He goes on to explain that it is critically important for his readers to realise that “to understand the economy they also have to understand why the the self-appointed experts on the economy, the economists, are almost always wrong”.

Need one really say more?

DH Telford,

11 Highfield Terrace, Fairlie.