Calm over Chilcot

It was inevitable that political vultures would begin circling potential prey with an election on the horizon and have cynically chosen the delayed Chilcot Report as a potential feast.

The report is late and reasons have been given for the delay. How valid they are needs to be judged but the unseemly squabble to get it published before an election is nothing more than political opportunism.

All the major politicians who were involved in the decision process to invade Iraq in 2003 have either left Westminster or will leave at election time.

If the report were to be issued before the election it would only be used as a political weapon to gain electoral advantage with the real purpose of the report lost in the resultant melee.

Those calling for publication would have more integrity if they instead looked at the whole inquiry process to find a more efficient and punctual method.

The report is too important to have it absorbed into any party’s election campaign. It deserves a calmer and more considered climate which a general election campaign would not allow.

Paul Lewis

Guardwell Crescent

Edinburgh

I see Nicola Sturgeon is angry ­because the Chilcot Inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war will not be published until after the general election, with the clear inference that the major parties at Westminster would come out badly stained and she lily white.

On the other hand, it is ­noticeable that her Holyrood ­government decided to write off poll tax debts before the general ­election. God forbid Ms Sturgeon and her cronies would offend the sensibilities of crooks who refuse to pay legitimate taxes.

Stan Hogarth

Palmerston Place

Edinburgh