Readers' letters: Ingliston music event was mishandled

I enjoyed reading Superintendent David Robertson's opinion column (News, 18 January).

He writes about event policing, which reminds me of an article in the News, 15 November 2022 quoting PC Greig Stephen presenting Police Scotland's opposition to a dance event at Royal Ingliston showground planned for 3 December.

In that same article SNP Cllr Cathy Fullerton expressed concern about the event and opposed it on the basis that there had been previous drug related incidents at that venue. That is just daft and uninformed reasoning indeed none at all.

Disappointingly the City of Edinburgh Council and Police Scotland have refused to inform the public of the nature of those concerns whereby we could all learn.

Surely there can be no argument that this is in the public interest if we are all to grasp the complexities and achieve evidence based understandings of Scotland's drugs crisis, four times more deaths than the rest of the UK, more than any country in Europe? Cllr Fullerton's party has been in power a long time.

In response to a freedom of information request CEC have agreed a public interest exists but weirdly one of the reasons for refusing disclosure is there is personal data involved.

Forgive me, but you can buy a redacting pen at any decent stationer for around a pound and computers have redacting facilities.

For the event the Labour, SNP, Green and Conservative members on the sub-licensing committee voted against the event going ahead.

Well, we know it didn't go ahead at Ingliston, but who knows what alternative underground, unregulated, unpoliced and lacking welfare provision took place?

I would suggest a more reasonable view would have been councillors and the police evaluating which was the greater risk and acting accordingly - they didn't.

Douglas McBean, Edinburgh

Are councillors and MSPs worth expense?

Both the Scottish Parlia-ment and Edinburgh Council have money problems but their budget priorities are given to the political outcomes rather than public amenities that they are meant to serve.

An MSP is paid 3-4 times as much as a qualified nurse and yet requires no academic qualifications or even abilities in their role. Perhaps we should cut back on MSP numbers or at least their salaries and expenses.

Looking at the MSP successes for 2022 it is hard to see any useful contributions to Scotland amid the fiascos. There are exceptions in all the parties but they are required to toe the party line.

Both MSP and council groups persist in ignoring public opinion and are satisfied that the electoral voting system will ensure that the public have a choice of only political nominees.

While the endless list of political missteps ensures any independence referendum will fail, that does not seem to encourage the SNP to listen to public opinion.

Neil Macpherson, Edinburgh

Same sex marriage rejected again

That Church of England bishops are once again refusing to allow their priests to marry same-sex couples redefines the ridiculous anachronism that is its established status with associated privileges.

The choice is simple: as a private religious group The Church of England is absolutely entitled to hold its own esoteric dogma and drive its own obsolescence but with unelected seats in government, control over a quarter of primary schools in England and the power to solemnise legal marriages it must recognise state equality legislation.

Neil Barber, Secular Society

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