IT is disappointing to note that an internal Scottish Liberal Democrat Party investigation into the historic actions of David Steel have completely exonerated him in advance of the findings of the public enquiry into child abuse. (“Lawyer attacks private party probe into Lord Steel,” The Herald, May 15). The party's decision certainly smacks of political expediency with little regard for the seven victims involved in the abuse enquiry. Lord Steel, by his own admission, knew that Cyril Smith had committed offences of a sexual nature against young people but in his words, “it had nothing to do with me”.
By restoring the party whip and advocating no action against the former leader of their party, the Scottish Liberal Democrats are guilty of dismissing his previous lack of principled leadership and become complicit in Lord Steel's abrogation of moral responsibility.
The Liberal Democrats did not reach their findings in a transparent and fair-minded fashion which would have inspired public confidence. Ultimately, Lord Steel may have been welcomed back into the Liberal fold but his reputation as a politician, and more importantly, as a human being with a conscience, will be forever tarnished.
Owen Kelly, Stirling.
Drift to religious extremism
I SEE Dr Robert Anderson is once again lecturing the Kirk on its many failings (Letters, May 16) as he did in 2009 when he claimed that one's God-given sexual orientation could disqualify one from the parish ministry if God had orientated one the "wrong" way.
His main thesis on this occasion is that the mainline Presbyterian membership is falling because the Kirk is a "God-centred" rather than a "Christ-centred" church. I'll pass over his other argument: that its organisation has a deleterious effect.
The fact that extreme Protestant sects attract Presbyterian youth isn't unique to Scotland. It's happening all over Northern Europe and even in the US some 40 per cent transferred from mainline to radical churches between 2000 and 2016.
A similar drift to radicalism is happening in Islam and one's views on this depend on one's view of recent events in the Levant – or whether one thinks the 27 stale, white, males in the Alabama state senate represent the best in Christianity (" Alabama passes ban on abortion", The Herald, May 16).
Rev Dr John Cameron, St Andrews.
Reading music is acceptable
REGARDING the recent RSNO/Sondergard performance at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Keith Bruce (Herald reviwew, May 13) criticises the soloist Ingrid Fliter for reading the piano concerto from a tablet computer: she should be able to play such a well-known piece from memory, he reckons.
Why shouldn’t soloists read the music? On a busy tour they will be playing many different concertos, so referring to the music of a work takes the strain off their memory.
Ingrid Fliter, who is a brilliant pianist, is in your reviewer's opinion “heavy handed”. The only thing that is “heavy handed” seems to be your review.
R B Shaw, Glasgow G73.
Young love
IT is perhaps relevant to the contribution from Max Cruickshank (Letters, May 13), in which he urges us to listen to the young, that recently I came across a 1926 observation from Herbert Hoover (1874- 1964), he 31st US President who served between 1929 and 1933: “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit our national debt.”
R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.
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