Stroking greens

Scotland’s former Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Anne Glover, feels that given the unanimity among the world scientific community on the safety and benefits of GM crops, the SNP may be persuaded to reconsider their ban (your report, 22 March) The SNP’S behaviour in the matter of the Pentland Film Studios planning application holds out little hope for this.

Pentland Studios is every government’s dream of the ideal incoming investment. It brings many millions into the economy. It requires no government subsidies. It will provide highly paid and skilled jobs. It will bring in export earnings and widen scotland’ s tax base. But the SNP is blocking it. They claim that the delay is due to the complexity of the application. It is in fact a relatively simple application which would take a competent senior reporter a couple of days to come to a decision about in principle. Even were it not, they could dust off the old Scottish Office fast track procedure for incoming

investment. The Hewlett Packard project at South Queensferry was effectively cleared through planning in 14 days.

The reality is that the SNP, though it tries hard to pretend otherwise, is a minority administration and needs the two Green votes in Holyrood to continue playing its political games. The Greens don’t like GM crops or the Pentland Studios application. For the SNP party, keeping the Greens happy seems to come miles ahead of their duty as a government to further the prosperity and welfare of Scotland.

DAVID HOGG

Glanville Place, Edinburgh