Published: Monday, 16th June, 2008 12:30pm

Warning had been rung out

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I HAD to read Duncan McNeil"s comments twice in the Telegraph on 11 June regarding last year"s elections ballot paper fiasco.

How could Duncan be serious about his "take" regarding the failures as to why there were so many spoiled ballot papers in Inverclyde and other parts of Scotland?

Much debate, and a commissioned inquiry, has taken place over the past year regarding what went wrong at last year"s elections.

Quite simply, the Scotland Office, headed by then Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander MP and assisted by his deputy and local MP David Cairns, got it so awfully wrong!

They were warned about a number of potential pitfalls before they happened.

Things such as having two ballot papers instead of one and the need to split the parliamentary and council elections - something advocated by the SNP for years, as very often the national elections overshadow the local ones, yet both have their own separate importance.

Despite the warning bells being rung by various organisations and individuals well in advance of the poll on 3 May 2007, Douglas and David decided to press ahead, and as we all now know, more than 140,000 ballots were spoiled to everyone"s annoyance and frustrations.

Hence the reason I simply do not know why Duncan McNeil MSP, in his role as convener of the parliamentary local government committee, is looking to delve into this again.

We are well aware of the facts regarding who was to blame and surely the local government committee has far many more pressing issues that need to be looked into?

But, then again, perhaps I am wrong. And possibly this is yet another attempt at a deflection exercise by Duncan McNeil and Labour to use as an excuse for their losses at last year"s elections.

JIM MACLEOD

SNP councillor for ward 1 (Port Glasgow and Kilmacolm)

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