YOU reported that the Scottish Government has been forced to pay out £512,250 in legal costs to Alex Salmond, following a botched misconduct probe. ("Government stumps up £500k for Salmond’s legal costs", The Herald, August 14). It is surely unacceptable that no one who was responsible for this gross waste of public funds has been held properly to account.
It was earlier reported that Leslie Evans, the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary, was much involved in devising the revised procedures on handling harassment complaints involving current or former ministers. Also, that Ms Evans has admitted that certain data concerning the Salmond case may have been deleted. Now, we learn that Ms Evans’ failure to follow her own procedures has cost the public purse more than a cool half million pounds.
By way of comparison, when I worked for a government department in Edinburgh, I had a conscientious colleague who was dismissed immediately for having claimed a bus fare, when another employee had seen him being given a lift to the office. Yet, as regards Ms Evans, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, instead of censuring Ms. Evans for landing the public with a bill for half-a-million pounds, has “expressed every confidence” in her Permanent Secretary. This is a complete travesty of justice, which certainly does not reflect well on Ms. Sturgeon’s judgment.
Robert D Campbell, Paisley.
Double-take
THERE has been much coverage about a proposed ban on hands-free mobile phone usage in cars ("Scots worst in the UK for using mobiles while driving", The Herald, August 14, and Letters, August 15).
The TV producers seem to see no irony when they switch to a reporter interviewing a driver with a camera in the cabin while driving, an action that has to be considerably more distracting than answering a hand- free mobile.
Bring on the HSE.
Ian McNair, Glasgow G12.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel