Your leader did not do justice to the issues raised by Leveson (We must keep the press free – in the UK and in Scotland, Editorial, December 2).

While acknowledging the phone-hacking antics, it states that the Scottish press were not involved in hacking. However, much of the British tabloid press have Scottish editions.

Your leader also ignores the damage done by papers publishing untruthful or exaggerated stories. The nature of sensationalist press articles on such fine people as the McCanns has raised serious questions about whether people can believe anything they read in the tabloid press.

However, I applaud your cover story, raising awareness of what a Conservative-dominated UK is really like. The more people respond with moral indignation to what is happening to the disadvantaged unemployed, the more likely it is that politicians will wake up and smell the coffee. A serious press, focusing on evils of the day, is necessary, even if it needs to be legislated for.

Andrew Ross

Edinburgh