BBC Scotland, for once, contained a surprisingly fair and balanced item on their Sunday Show. It was about the committee investigation into the Scottish Government’s poor handling of harassment allegations by a number of their employees.

The remit of this committee was to gather evidence that would expose what the weaknesses and flaws in the “harassment and grievance” procedures of the Scottish Government as an employer were, and identify the actions and decisions of those responsible. It is assumed that on completion, the committee would make recommendations to ensure that correct and robust procedures and regulations were put in place so that such mistakes never happen again.

I do hope that I have got their “terms of reference” correct because based on what I have witnessed over the past two years of the actions of this parliamentary committee they seemed to have, to put it mildly, strayed into all sorts of investigations which are way beyond their terms of reference.

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To be blunt, many have seen this rightly or wrongly as the Alex Salmond investigation. At last the BBC Sunday Show provided the opportunity for one of those who pursued her case for harassment to have her say and rightly did so anonymously. In my opinion her brave presentation, brief though it was, spoke volumes and cut through all the fog of conspiracy theories, political point-scoring and egos and concentrated on highlighting that the committee was there to ensure that any Scottish Government employee invoking “harassment and grievance” procedures in the future would have not only have a fair hearing but would have total confidence in the robustness of the processes and procedures in place.

Sadly the interviewee indicated that having watched the work of this committee over a long period, such confidence just simply would not exist. She indicated that giving evidence to the committee was far more trying than appearing in court! The chair of the committee Linda Fabiani MSP looked particularly stunned on hearing the words of the interviewee and in my opinion, rightly so.

I do hope the chair and members of this committee take on board the comments and reactions expressed in this BBC interview, reassess its remit and stop immediately all the rather pointless politicking and conspiracies and attacks it clearly seems to be pursuing. Remember what your job is!

Dan Wood
Kirriemuir

I HAVE often made excuses for BBC Scotland on the basis that there are decent journalist there and the job is not easy.

But having previously shown a grossly biased and widely criticised documentary on the Salmond trial and having completely failed to report the substantial and well-documented investigative journalism that has produced solid evidence of serious malpractice, the supposed “flagship” programme decides to follow the same pattern of both biased and incompetent journalism.

We get an anonymous interview set up with a woman complainer who is not asked a single challenging question such as “Why did a jury with all the evidence before it and with a majority of women jurors decide that you were not telling the truth?’ or “Why do you think it is fair, having been judged not to be telling the truth, to be allowed to continue to make the same allegations publicly but with the protection of anonymity?”

This was so obviously a crude attempt fed to the BBC to distract attention from the serious material which has come out and will come out. The Sunday Show were happy to be the soft mark in the hope it would get them a few headlines. Critical quality journalism is what will get you respect, BBC. On this showing, I think we can write you off.

Isobel Lindsay
Biggar

AN interesting article from Shona Craven on Friday regarding surveys, pollsters et al, including those who never take part in polls (Poll position for Yes must not breed complacency, February 12). That happens to be myself as one who has never, ever been asked for a point of view on anything, apart from online shopping surveys.

I do see young people with their clipboards stopping people and asking them questions. But they tend to try not to catch my eye. I have never taken part in a survey or poll about Scotland’s independence, either by someone with a clipboard or on the other end of a telephone ... ehm, mobile! Sooo, does that confine me to the category Shona refers to?

As a consequence, I am now in a wee stooshie with ma sel’ as I am definitely a Yes voter when it comes to Scotland’s independence. Are there many more like me who, when it comes to the May electoral vote, will be responsible for helping to push the 52% up well beyond 60%, thereby helping to confirm an overall SNP government majority?

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife

OUR response to the proposed “love bombing” campaign designed to make recalcitrant Scotland snuggle up to the Union should be a simple one. As the old adage has it, “Fool us once – shame on you. Fool us twice – shame on us.”

Richard H Allison
Edinburgh