Unfair criticism
to fill the shoes of their illustrious predecessor, a recent example being David Moyes at Manchester United.
There’s a familiar pattern; a raft of new signings (100,000), early success (56 MPS elected) then an inexplicable run of bad results (scandals, Forth Bridge, two defeats in five months by the GERS, a score draw in the Holyrood elections, shocking education, health, housing and police stats, extra time required for fracking and named person, and a shock exit from the Europa League).
The old guard (Salmond, Sillars, Wilson, Kerevan, Bell, Macaskill) start sniping from the touchline and telling tales out of school. Pretty soon the dressing room is turning against the new manager. The board start sounding out replacements but for the time being none can be found. They are either past it, untried or just not good enough.
How’s it all going to end? The AGM is in October and the supporters’ branches vote in May. Nicola Sturgeon needs some quick results or the men in grey kilts will be paying a visit. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven One could be forgiven for thinking, after reading the letters on these pages day after day, that in spite of their relative popularity with the Scottish electorate, the First Minister, the SNP and the Scottish Government were all fundamentally incompetent.
The fact that the criticism apparently comes from rather patronising supporters of the Union who favour direct rule from Westminster in portraying a resource-rich Scotland as uniquely incapable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder economically with other successful countries around the world of similar populations does, however, beg questions about their objectivity, if not their sincerity. More perplexing still is that those same individuals who seem to champion Westminster as a bastion of democracy and superior decision-making rarely present rigorous analyses of performance by the health, education or policing services, yet rely on the far from transparent GERS figures emanating from the subjective estimates of the UK Treasury.
Is it too much to hope that the “dire” assessment of the June referendum by the Electoral Reform Society in comparison with the “vibrant, wellinformed” debate during the Scottish referendum will finally project some light into the deeper recesses of the minds of those who perhaps have struggled to accept that Scotland will overcome the challenges of emerging from Westminster’s colonial rule.
STAN GRODYNSKI Longniddry, East Lothian