IT is with not inconsiderable bewilderment that I read your report on David Davis ("Anger as Davis to earn £60,000 for 20 hours of work", The Herald, January 24)/
It seems that Mr Davis, the first of three – to date – Secretaries of State for Exiting the EU who was once described by Dominic Cummings, the former head of the Vote Leave campaign as being as “thick as mince,” and “as lazy as a toad,” is to carry out some nebulous brief on behalf of the UK-owned, Brexit-supporting earth-moving multinational JCB.
Not only do these similes make me feel somewhat queasy at the degradation of my favourite culinary dish, they also had me leafing through Sweet & Maxwell’s authoritative and scholarly reference book, Defamation, seeking a definitive ruling on whether such amphibians have the right of redress under the law.
Addressing JCB employees at their global HQ in the Midlands is a path well-trodden by Conservative Party big beasts with an axe to grind, hard hats, safety goggles and hi-vis jackets at the read – William Hague, Boris Johnson, George Osborne, Liam Fox, David Cameron, Theresa May and now Mr Davis himself.
Three thousand pounds per hour – nice work if you can get it. An ex-SAS Reservist, his personal motto might read: Never confuse activity with achievement.
As in government, politics and the earth-moving-business, how long before Mr Davis is caricatured as the man who epitomises the old adage, when you’re in a hole, stop digging?
Mike Wilson,
3 Lochhill Farm Cottages, Longniddry.
DAVID Davis to earn £3,000 an hour, billionaire Sir James Dyson to move his business HQ to Singapore for financial reasons, huge corporations and rich individuals not paying tax, thousands paid huge salaries and obscene bonuses. Welcome to the world of unbridled capitalism where the notion of the common good has no place in the world of unfettered greed.
B McKenna,
Overton Avenue, Dumbarton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here