Lacking a leader

Fresh from high-profile visits to the United States, Wimbledon, the Open golf, and London’s Mansion House, is it too much to hope that Nicola Sturgeon will get behind her desk in Edinburgh and deal with the many serious devolved issues requiring her urgent attention?

People being left to die at the side of the road is only the latest example of how her government’s rush to create a centralised Scottish police force has left us with an outfit that is, in parts, unfit for purpose and demoralised.

The fact that cancer patients had to be rushed out of the Southern General in Glasgow, and heart operations on ­babies suspended, is testimony to botched management that the government cannot escape ­responsibility for.

In education, her government’s policies have led to the obtainment gap between rich and poor widening and opportunity for school leavers to obtain skills training at further education colleges diminishing.

All of these problems have been made in Scotland by her administration and cannot be blamed on Westminster. These are not problems created by a lack of resources, but lack of coherent policies and management.

Time for fewer selfies Nicola, and more self-awareness of your administration’s failings.

David Martin, MEP

Brussels