FIFE Council’s Education Committee met on Tuesday past and the major agenda item was the response to the SNP Government’s consultation on how Scottish schools should be run in future and the extent to which locally elected Councillors should be involved.

It is an important and contentious subject affecting parents and pupils the length and breadth of the county, and I have made it my business to consistently present the case that the SNP are executing a power grab, taking responsibility away from Councillors and towards Holyrood.

I am a known critic of the SNP in Fife Council. Under Standing orders, I was allowed to address Tuesday’s meeting but, instead of being allowed to speak at the agenda item, I was told by the SNP Convener, Cllr Fay Sinclair, to speak at the beginning of the meeting, more than two hours before the issue was actually discussed.

This was politically motivated to reduce the impact of my contribution. The job of the Chair/Convener is to facilitate democratic discussion, not to selectively stifle elected members’ contributions.

A complaint has been submitted, but I thought it important to tell your readers how small but significant manipulations of the democratic process can damage free speech and the effective governance of important issues.

And it tells you a lot about the nature of the SNP when they are not getting their way. Long may that continue.

COUNCILLOR TONY MIKLINSKI.