ALEX Neil, MSP, states that he has never discriminated against CBI Scotland on the issue of public bodies paying money to business representative organisations (December 27). I am content to have that reassurance, notwithstanding his statement being at variance with past evidence. I look forward to Mr Neil referring to every business representative organisation that receives money from public bodies at any future time he decides to attack Scottish Enterprise and the CBI on these grounds.
Now Mr Neil accuses me of mounting a personalised attack on him. This is after he refers to "Mr McMillan's agenda" (December 21) when, in fact, the policies that I advance in the public domain are those of my 50-strong council of business leaders. He also refers to me as a "flea" (December 27) and states: "When I'm bitten by a gnat it hurts, but when I'm bitten by a f lea like Mr McMillan it really doesn't!"
That is not just personal, it is also behaviour that is rude and infantile in the extreme. I have never attempted deliberately to hurt Mr Neil personally and I have always adhered to the issue under discussion. But it does appear on this occasion that, while thankfully my inadvertent fleabite has not hurt Mr Neil, it may have caused him a rather nasty itch.
Iain M McMillan, Director, CBI Scotland, 16 Robertson Street, Glasgow.
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