I AM indebted to Tom Gordon for bringing attention to the contempt with which Kenneth Gibson MSP treated the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life and the Parliamentary Standards Committee (“MSP under fire for his failure to speak out on landlord status”, The Herald, March 25).

An MSP who had only escaped potential prosecution because the complaint “was time barred from criminal proceedings” might have demonstrated an element of contrition but, instead, he appeared to blame everyone bar himself.

Rather than dismissing anyone who expects standards from their elected members, surely Mr Gibson should display some degree of personal responsibility for his behaviour?

If Mr Gibson is correct and other MSPs are “flouting the rules on declarations daily”, as he claimed, then surely it is time the complaints system itself was revisited?

Ian Gemmell,

56 Bank Street,

Kilbirnie.