I share the concerns expressed in your editorial and article by Magnus Gardham regarding the astonishing practice whereby MSPs can "correct" the official record of parliamentary proceedings without alerting the public ("Holyrood to probe report corrections", The Herald, December 1).
This is but the latest degeneration in our Scottish Parliament, which started with high expectations but has failed to live up to its promise of delivering openness and accountability.
In 2000 when I lodged a public petition calling for decision makers in the justice system to register membership of societies such as the freemasons, John McAllion, the convenor of the Public Petitions Committee, boasted that his committee never discussed any business in private.
Since then there has been an erosion of these high standards to the point now where matters of substance appear like TV chefs' dishes; prepared earlier by the bureaucrats in private and served before the MSPs for rubber stamping.
I have witnessed this erosion of openness and accountability with dismay. When my petition had been with the Scottish Parliament for almost three years it was dismissed without reason.
Furthermore the minutes of the past two meetings, at which the question of registering the judiciary's membership of the masons and the Speculative Society was discussed, were airbrushed from the official report.
This cavalier revisionism of the parliament's records and contemptuous treatment of the public that the parliament is supposed to serve is not good enough.
Last Monday I submitted a new petition in similar terms and this time I will demand that it be treated seriously.
Tom Minogue,
94 Victoria Terrace,
Dunfermline.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article