Press-ganged

Isn’t it odd the “balanced panel” announced by Alex Salmond yesterday to put a kilt on the Leveson report contains no ­single representative of the publishers of the papers most people buy and read in Scotland or of the agencies that produce most of the content?

It’s also grim, I think, for a government that aims to lead its people to independence to be so quick to impose state controls of the press. It’ll hardly make us “a beacon”, Mr Salmond, if speech remains free in England but is state-controlled in Scotland.

Tim Bugler

Central Scotland News Agency

Stirling