AS a native Langtonian I was not overly surprised at the Tesco closure ("Every little helps as shoppers plan rally to save Tesco store", The Herald, February 9).

I have written in The Herald a long time ago pointing out the holistic decline of the once- substantial retail centre that was the very long Kirkcaldy High Street.

I also apportioned blame on the long-sitting MP, Gordon Brown, who while "saving the global economy" let the very heart of the "toon" atrophy into a commercial ghetto.

There is a sad serendipity in this tale of failed commercial and political planning. Almost across the street from the departing Tesco in the very centre of the once proud street sits the site of Adam Smith's Kirkcaldy home in which it is alleged he wrote his substantial work An Inquiry into Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nation.. Though an advocate of the "invisible hand" he would have railed at Mr Brown's failure to use the substantial market-shaping powers he once possessed.

Mr Brown stood by while near-monopoly giants like Tesco were killing off the plural retail market that had produced the very commercial environment that made the High Street attractive to Tesco in the first place.

He watched year in year out for more than 25 years the steady decline of the High Street, where even the many of the 14 (I counted them) charity shops are closing.

His Prime Minister status and his global charity roles were predicated on the support he received from the good people of Kirkcaldy (and Cowdenbeath) who elected him as their MP. His last-minute attempts to retain Tesco and so save the High Street is another "saviour" political intervention that he has deployed (with some success) in his post- state-power personal messianic mission period.

TM Cross,

18 Needle Green, Carluke.