Salmond must 'stand behind' The Gathering

I was pleasantly surprised by the decision of Edinburgh City Council (your report, 28 January) not to fork out £300,000 for the name of The Gathering 2009 Ltd and the so called intellectual assets of that company.

The cost to the council of employing consultants, who valued the "brand" at 100,000, is however a complete waste of public money. Any competent, business-minded, Scot would have come to the conclusion that the value of the "brand" and the company is a big, fat zero.

A repeat of the two-day event, intended for Bannockburn in 2014 would still require a massive injection of public funds. I suggest that is very unlikely to happen.

In any case, my perusal of Companies House and the domain names register shows that "The Gathering 2014" titles are still available. I'm tempted to register with both organisations and sell them on.

The consequences for the 50 or so creditors are less amusing. I believe that the Scottish Government should step up to the plate and assume the debts.

Along with thousands of other Scots, here and abroad, I was bombarded for months on end with marketing material from EventScotland, a quango which gave the very strong impression that The Gathering was a government event.

Suppliers of goods and services to the event might be forgiven for the assumption that the government "stood behind" The Gathering.

The First Minister and others were not shy in hosting elements of the event, taking the credit for it and proclaiming the – alleged – multimillion pound benefits.

Come on Alex, get the chequebook out and pay these people.

DICK MUNGIN

Clearwater House

Roshven, Inverness-shire