Local talent

So it seems that yet again the Edinburgh International Festival has appointed a director from outside Scotland (your report, 22 April). I am sure Fergus Linehan is a talented individual but I note that he has no experience of living and working in Scotland.

He plans to move here in 2014 and no doubt find out something about Scotland.

Of course the Festival is an international one but it is also meant to present the best of Scottish culture to the world.

Isn’t it extraordinary that in the soon to be 70 years of the 
Edinburgh Festival there has never been a Scot (or a woman!) appointed?

Of course it’s not just the Festival; recently the National Theatre of Scotland passed over the most experienced and 
talented director in Scotland, David MacLennan, to appoint another English director to succeed the last English director.

Many other of our leading 
cultural organisations such as Scottish Opera and the National 
Galleries of Scotland are run by people from outside Scotland.

I can only conclude that the “cultural cringe” is alive and well and living in Scotland.

Hugh Kerr

Edinburgh