Off the ball

I enjoyed reading Bill Jamieson’s largely tongue in cheek piece on whether a VAR equivalent could be brought into play in political exchanges (‘Should VAR be restricted to sport?’, 28 June).

Yet there are other troubling parallels between the antics we have seen on the World Cup football pitch and some of what passes off as serious debate in Westminster and Holyrood.

Many will have been a little taken aback at some of the blatant theatrics of some players in the World Cup trying to win a penalty, as well as some of the outrageous examples of tackling that would not be out of place on a rugby field as forwards have been manhandled to the ground during set pieces.

The VAR slow motion replay highlights how outrageous some of this behavior has been, although fortunately we have still been treated to some examples of brilliance from players who do know how the game should be played.

The exaggerated overreaction is a tactic well known to many of our politicians, of course. Indeed, in Scotland we have a party in government that has developed an approach to doing business that variously plays with mock anger and manufacturing of grievance, whilst arrogantly claiming the moral high ground.

Playing to the gallery of public opinion has long been a tactic used by politicians on all sides, but this current SNP government has turned it into a fundamental plank of its political strategy.

Football analogies aside, the problem is the government of Scotland should not be approached like a game, no matter that some of its leading players act that way.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire