SIR, According to Mark Twain, politicians and nappies must be changed often, and for the same reason.

Councillor Stuart Bell SNP - in administration in Scottish Borders Council - has the role responsible for “economic development” and tells us things we already know e.g. wage rates in the Borders are below the average for Scotland and there is a net migration of our young people out of the area.

Then he informs us that “getting more jobs into the Borders is a tough call; your council only has an indirect influence on this”. Who is kidding who?

Have we not been reading about a decision of the council to give away skilled jobs to a private firm based in Edinburgh? These types of jobs are at the more skilled end of the market, likely to attract young people and thereby helping the local economy. And where are our Parliamentary candidates in all this? Is it not a part of their role to press on local matters? Not a peep from any of them so far.

When Sir David Steel was our local MP I constantly led campaigns against his politics as a Liberal politician but I could never take away from him his work on local matters. He would have been pressing the council on these job threats, he would have been trying to get the council to help create better paid, better skilled work in order to retain our young people’s chances of staying in the Borders and having a long term future here.

The SNP appear to be satisfied with our young people’s future of selling postcards of a tapestry outside a railway terminal and telling us that this makes good economic sense.

In any economy where the only work available is semi or unskilled work then those jobs can be closed and moved elsewhere at the drop of a hat, there is no skills base or training to consider.

In conclusion, my position in this “stay of execution” on the skilled jobs give away is the same as the employee who says it will be difficult to turn this around in six months, without the tools to do the job.

The council have no intention whatsoever of doing anything meaningful about reversing this decision. They have a puppet administration that have either forgotten or chosen to disregard their primary function, to represent the best interests of those constituents who elected them.

I am, etc.

Rab Stewart Roberts Avenue Selkirk