Letter: Seriel denial

The acceptance of the result of the latest enquiry into the Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre has regenerated the debate about the technical issues involved. Most of us have no expertise in these matters beyond an uneasy feeling that the original verdict was an oversimplification.

What we do have, however, is an appeals system with increasingly authoritative examinations being undertaken, right up to the House of Lords. That should get us as close to understanding what happened as is possible.

Surely the most disquieting aspect of the whole affair has been the democratic deficit, as successive governments simply rejected the findings of their own enquiries - not for any reasons which they cared to risk making public but because they were just not minded to back down. A 17-year-long denial of basic fairness. To what end? In whose name?

Ian Taylor

Manse Road

Edinburgh