AS the party manifestos are launched – and in light of the fact that all the parties are trying to “sell” their vision of the future to the electors – why can’t we have a scrutiny of the manifestos by an independent body such as Trading Standards or the Advertising Standards Agency – or a combination of both?
Charged with examining the manifestos and reporting on their veracity, they could list how many times similar policy proposals had been on offer and not followed through.
House building, hospital waiting times, immigration targets, education and classroom sizes come to mind as initial reference points for examination and reporting to the public.
The Advertising Standards Agency and Trading Standards have the responsibility for safeguarding the public from inaccuracies and serious attempts to mislead. We need something like this, sooner rather than later
Patrick McNally,
Kennoch House, St Quivox, Ayr.
WE are indebted to Jim McSheffrey for documenting the return of the Lesser Spotted Tory Cabinet Minister as a sign that spring has arrived (Letters, May 19).
The return of this endangered group is welcomed by an increasing number of admirers and their attractive blue colouring make them easily identifiable from our indigenous chirpy wee ScotNats.
The latter are distinguished by their yellow and black presentation, a repetitive "Indy Indy" call, and the fact that they never seem to go away.
R Russell Smith,
96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.
It was interesting to note the range of criticism arraigned on the nine "errant" Labour councillors currently in local government spotlight (Letters, May 18). Considering the single transferable vote (STV) system currently operating it was inevitable that coalition administrations would arise. Much posturing of political principles has been made following declaration of the election results. Pity the candidates (Independents included) had not declared their "second or third preferences" (using the STV analogy) when conducting their pre-election campaigns on many trusting but naive electors.
So how will the apparent political impasse be resolved in our respective local council chambers? The mention and offer of an attractive SRA (Special Responsibility Allowance) will surely concentrate the minds of most swithering councillors. Thereby, problem resolved. The respective coalition Councillors will be happy in their work addressing local (not national) problems.
Allan C Steele,
22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here