Juries are out

According to The Scotsman (your report, “Scotland must get power to alleviate poverty”, 18 October) the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Council of ­Voluntary Organisations is calling for a citizens’ jury to assess the final shape of current proposals for additional powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland has 59 MPs, 129 MSPs and hundreds of councillors all elected by the population. Each citizen has one MP, one constituency MSP, seven regional MSPs, and three or four elected local councillors.

There are, thus, numerous channels – made available by democratic election processes – for citizens and organisations to make their views known on the issues involved to their elected representatives and for the latter to reach a conclusion based on relevant debates and ­information.

Let us make effective use of the numerous existing forms of democratic representation rather than invent additional ones.

(Prof) Norman Bonney

Palmerston Place

Edinburgh