Letters: Public inquiry on Mortonhall would be knee-jerk reaction

A fast but thorough inquiry by Eilish Angiolini QC is an excellent idea and the Government at Holyrood should resist calls at present for a public inquiry until the Angiolini report is produced.

We can all understand something of the feelings of the parents involved, but this knee-jerk tendency to have public inquiries, usually very long-running and extremely expensive, is not always the most effective truth-seeking avenue .

Lawyers like me of course tend to shout for public inquiries very readily. Let us see what Ms Angiolini comes up with. I seem to remember that it is not too long ago that the lawyer now calling most prominently for a public inquiry in the Mortonhall cases was demanding one too in the PIP “implants” cases.

At the moment, we do not need more public or judicial inquiries. Let us see how the Eilish Angiolini report proceeds first.

Angus Logan, Coates Gardens, Edinburgh

SNP doesn’t offer real independence

One of the Dear Leader’s millionaire economic advisers tried to convince us at the weekend not to look on the process of independence as a divorce or separation, but as a “management buy-out” of Scotland.

At least that tells us the place in the adventure that the SNP administration expects ordinary folk to have, because management buy-outs, these days, are usually spoken of as solutions to the problems of bankrupt or uneconomic companies.

After the buy-outs the companies are owned by, and run for, the benefit of the new managers and their (often shadowy) financial backers, not the workers . . . who are usually expected to work for a lot less. We are not being offered real independence. We are being offered a change of masters, and no matter how benevolent the new ones promise to be, we will still have masters.

If Alex wants me to vote “Aye” in 2014, he must start with a vision of Scotland that has no Queen, no courtiers, where there is economic land use for the benefit of all, and where a person’s income and status is dictated by the value of their contribution, not by who they know or where they were schooled.

He must offer my grandchildren independence that means something, not merely a change of headmaster. Fat chance!

David Fiddimore, Calton Road, Edinburgh

Labour locked in benefits muddle

There would seem to be not inconsiderable confusion regarding Labour’s position on universal benefits.

Johann Lamont has stated she is against them, while Ed Miliband has indicated he is all in favour!

Are we to assume, as Labour and the Tories are in coalition in the Better Together campaign, that a directive to Ms Lamont, on this subject, came from David Cameron but remained unread by Ed  Miliband?

Not only are Labour bereft of any new policies, but they seem to have abandoned those of their founding fathers in favour of singing lustily from a Tory song sheet.

Joseph G Miller, Gardeners Street, Dunfermline

Water sign of the times at junction

Nice to see that Sir Chris Hoy can see some interesting signs on the overhead signs he passes (News, February 1).

The sign on the A1 at Old Craighall junction has been out of action since the beginning of November. I was informed the sign has been powered down due to water ingress and the problem is being investigated. I wonder how much water has got in since then.

Also nice to know that the site for requests on names for the new bridge has closed. I wonder if anybody submitted the name “the bridge that should have been a tunnel”.

Douglas Johnstone, Salters Road, Wallyford

Standard flagging at new college

I AM sorry to see that standards at the newly formed Edinburgh College are already on the decline.

At their campus in Milton Road, the Union Flag is currently being flown inverted – a signal of distress. And this at a former naval college!

John Eoin Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh