Letters: It is vital that we now get a finance secretary who is fit for the job

IN the wake of Derek Mackay's disgraceful demise ("Political high-flyer now facing career in ruins", The Herald, February 7), I hope the First Minister appoints someone who has both financial and life experience.

The last incumbent was a purely political appointment with zero attributes in his CV. A lifelong politician is not the right skills for this particular position.

If we are to create an economy that funds our ambitions in the NHS, social care, police, infrastructure and climate change we need someone who has experience of managing the economy, not another political apparatchik.

Ian McNair, Glasgow G12.

THE Scottish Government claims that its reason for demanding details from the Sun was to establish veracity and substance. A reality is that it had a readily accessible source of verification and substantiation in the shape of Derek Mackay.

I might be a bit naïve but, regardless of the name and address of a 16-year-old, the question is whether a minister behaved inappropriately. Prior to the Scottish Government making the demand, Mr Mackay was in a position to verify and substantiate whether such messages had been sent.

The above aside, we don't know yet whether the First Minister asked two obvious questions before it approached the newspaper. The first of those questions is "Did you do it?"

If Mr Mackay denied it and this was why the Scottish Government sought evidence we now know that his denial would have been a lie. If he didn't lie then the FM was obliged to ask the next question, which would have been along the lines of "Is this the only one?"

Yesterday, the FM denied knowledge of any other instance. As a result, one of two things must be true. The first might be that the FM lied at Holyrood. The second is that she didn't ask

Test,