SNP’S business forays that led to £135m write-down were more to do with PR
The latest Scottish Government accounts reveal that the SNP’S ill-judged forays into the world of business at Prestwick airport, the Ferguson shipyard and others have so far led to a write-down of £135m, but the eventual total losses could be much higher.
There is precious little evidence that the public funds advanced to the various companies concerned were based on properly thought-through business plans. Instead, it appears they were primarily about political PR.
With the SNP’S inclination to never admit it has got anything wrong, the bill is likely to escalate much further before any real commercial judgment is applied.
All want jobs to be saved if it can be done on an economically sustainable basis, but these write-downs suggest that the money has likely already been lost. In each of these situations a proper case could have been made for public investment, but that would have required an eventual financial return rather than mere political spin.
KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire
If only the First Minister would show the alacrity, focus and determination that she does in trying to have the hapless and pliant to her obsession Jeremy Corbyn installed in Downing Street as she does towards the very real and perilous state of the economy, the NHS and education in Scotland.
It seems that there are few photo-opportunities entailed in those troublesome bread-and-butter, devolved Scottish matters, so she virtually ignores them.
Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned; in a similar way it seems Nicola Sturgeon will be getting another makeover or be on a photoshoot as Scotland goes down the tubes.
ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh
I watched Glenn Campbell interviewing Boris Johnson on BBC Scotland’s The Nine programme on Thursday, 26 June.
I witnessed Mr Campbell harassing, heckling, interrupting and finger-pointing aggressively throughout the interview and thought how enlightening it would be if he and his colleagues were to adopt the same style when interviewing the First Minister and fellow ministers on matters relating to their failures and shortcomings in the administration of Scotland. Then again, pigs might fly. DONALD LEWIS Beech Hill, Gifford