Welcome to Recommends: David Lee

A FEW weeks ago, I stood in as our Reader Ombudsman and pontificated on weighty issues such as whether or not a picture on the front of the Festival supplement had shown female genitalia.

This week, I reprise the role and become the Recommends Readers' Representative – to respond to two critical letters.

The first, from Carron Smith of Fife, says: "I was appalled and shocked to see you are recommending kids go and play on escalators. I heard of someone who has gone through a horrendous year with her son who had an accident on an escalator in a high street store. He is still enduring operations of corrective surgery. I am a mother of two young children and would never consider suggesting we go and play on escalators. It is totally irresponsible for The Scotsman to encourage this sort of activity – what would the Society of Prevention of Accidents would think?"

The offending paragraph said this: "The basement, lifts and escalators of Princes Square in Glasgow make a magical maze – with parental supervision!" Is this a call to send all children to play on escalators? I think not. I have four kids and I know they enjoy going up and down escalators – and with me alongside them, being a hands-on, responsible dad, I really don't see it as a problem.

Letter two is from an English person in Edinburgh and berates us thus: "Shame on you for including Maradona in 'Best Scottish cult football heroes' on the grounds he scored goals against England. This fits ill with The Scotsman's apparent stance against bigotry, sectarianism and racism." I'm English, I've lived here for 12 years and have encountered anti-English abuse on a tiny number of occasions. This was a bit of fun. Take the Maradona jibes in your stride. 1986 was a long time ago.