Alex Salmond??s rebuttal of the question raised by Colette Douglas Home concerning the display of our Makar??s political affiliation is downright offensive.
Alex Salmond??s rebuttal of the question raised by Colette Douglas Home concerning the display of our Makar??s political affiliation is downright offensive. Douglas Home didn??t say Liz Lochhead couldn??t, or even shouldn??t put her political loyalties on display. Lochhead has exercised her civil right to do what she did; that??s not in question. In a professional, discursive, journalistic piece Douglas Home legitimately and reasonably raised the question of Lochhead??s judiciousness, carefully adducing hard examples of other ways of holding the post in disputatious circumstances.
Quite separately from Douglas Home, I judged that Lochhead has compromised her standing and diminished the post of Makar. I would have come to this judgement regardless of which political party she had made such a show of supporting. Is Alex Salmond calling me ??illiberal??, ??out of touch?? and ??small-minded??? My guess is that Lochhead is open to intelligent discussion of her move, but I expect her to be embarrassed by this intemperate show of ??support?? for her.
Tim Bell,
11 Madeira Place,
EDINBURGH.
My attention has been drawn to a curious, almost madcap, letter (Letters, December 4th) from our former First Minister, Alex Salmond, castigating your columnist Colette Douglas Home for having the temerity to question the wisdom of our esteemed Makar, Liz Lochhead, openly flaunting her political prejudices while being paid from the public purse. This strikes me as a perfectly valid question and one which I suspect Alex Salmond would have asked had our Makar come out publicly in support of any of his political opponents.
In the current climate, when politics and politicians are held in such low regard, any hint of cronyism or jobs for the boys, or in this case girls, must be strenuously avoided. I am absolutely certain that Liz Lochhead acted from the most sincere of motives, but as someone remunerated by the taxpayer it is incumbent upon her to present herself as politically neutral and to distance herself from any one political party. In this respect she is in the same position as Caesar??s wife, where perception is as important as fact.
Jim Meikle,
41 Lampson Road,
Killearn.
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