ANDREW Neil, the BBC political presenter, no doubt will see himself as being well-educated being from Paisley and a former pupil of Paisley Grammar. Accordingly, he probably considers himself as well-qualified to express opinions on the subject of education in Scotland ("BBC faces probe into claim by presenter Scots pupils are ‘illiterate’", The Herald April 12).
It is reported that Ofcom is to launch a formal investigation into an interview he conducted with Alex Salmond in April 2017 when he posed a question which included an observation that one in 5 Scottish pupils leave school "functionally illiterate" . I would liken the remark in question as similar in weight and relevance to that made by another high-profile BBC presenter, Jeremy Paxman, when in 2008 he provocatively described Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, as "no more that a king of sentimental doggerel". The Burns lovers among us can draw some comfort from the fact that Robert Burns will be long remembered after no one can remember who Jeremy Paxman was.
The problem with many TV presenters is that they have a high capacity for self-adulation, often stoked with emoluments, which are not only difficult to justify but also unfortunately tend to inflate their sense of their own importance.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.
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