Letter: Vision of Sir Fred on the Edinburgh tram

Irrespective of the direction in which the Edinburgh tram project now goes (your report, 23 June), Scotland's population will have borne the brunt of two quite horrific examples of financial and contractual mismanagement (the parliament building being the other) in a relatively short space of years.

Aside from the monetary disaster, however, the thought occurs to me that Scottish voters may well now wonder whether sufficiently qualified individuals exist in Scotland a) to provide the essential qualities needed to build a government for a potentially independent Scotland, and b) to convince the electorate that even greater financial catastrophes will not recur in the "big picture" which may be in the making.

It is hard to believe we have many who are remotely capable of satisfying an electorate on either of these two fundamentals. To be fair, the same questions could be asked of the London government but, in the current atmosphere in Scotland, the importance of both is crucial to voters' thinking on the best way forward.

Donald Ford

Tayside Street

Carnoustie, Angus

The cost of funding the tram project is escalating and the elected members at Holyrood are lining up to distance themselves from the whole sorry mess. How easily they have chosen to forget that the building they occupy was to be constructed for 40 million and was eventually completed at more than ten times the estimate. Glasshouses and stones spring to mind.

Doris M H Duff

Belmont Gardens

Edinburgh

Much as my heart tends towards Scottish independence, I keep getting this mental image whenever I think about it: Sir Fred Goodwin on an Edinburgh tram.

Peter Snow

South Gillsland Road

Edinburgh

Now that the tram project is to be re-evaluated, might we consider setting up a Scottish company to manufacture and install these?

As someone who has in the past started up a number of businesses I would have given my right arm to have an order like this to get it off the ground. Similarly Cal-Mac orders a ship for Scottish services … from Poland - why not from a Scottish yard? Why a parliament building by a Catalan architect and built by an English contractor?

Charity begins at home, but so does common sense.

Ron Morrison

Colquhoun Street

Helensburgh