Jenny Fyall: Mather's tactics seem to have backfired

His statement to the Scottish Parliament was initially met with claims it was incoherent and a "shambles".

Some members of the audience were not even clear whether he had approved the giant power line or not.

When it did become evident that he had given the green light to the line in its entirety, it was, unsurprisingly, met with outrage. The power-line plans have been hugely unpopular, attracting more than 18,000 objections.

To rub salt into the wound, it then came to light Mr Mather had not even followed the advice of the inquiry reporters.

Instead of refusing consent for two sections, he approved the entire line – and just called for mitigation measures for the two contentious areas. Rather than admit to MSPs that he had gone against the reporters' recommendations, he actually seemed to imply he had gone beyond their suggestions, and was taking even tougher action.

He told parliament that "in addition" to requiring mitigation for five areas recommended by the reporters, he was demanding "further measures" at three other sites. He did not reveal that the reporters had recommended he turn down consent for two of those three sites.

Now Mr Mather has been criticised further, as doubt has been cast on his insistence that some sections of the line could still be buried underground.

Throughout the sorry saga, the minister has left the public confused and unclear – even though the Beauly to Denny power line is an issue of such dramatic public concern that the SNP government surely should have taken extra pains to be as clear as possible. Why this has happened is difficult to gauge.

However, it must be difficult for any politician, dependent on public approval to retain his seat, to entirely dash the hopes of his voters.

So perhaps by leaving open the possibility of sections of the line being buried, and not making clear he was taking softer, rather than tougher, action than the reporters recommended, he was hoping he would somehow avoid alienating the Scottish public.

If public reaction is anything to go by, his tactics seem to have backfired.