Lots more to talk about

I was delighted to read that you intend to have a series of national debates about the issues and values we face in modern Scotland and that you asked 50 people who were a "cross-section" of Scottish society to comment (your report, 10 May).

So, it was all the more disappointing to read that the debates miss out Fife, Tayside and the Highlands, and that the representative cross-section of Scottish society did not include a single non-white or a single religious person. It is even more extraordinary that a series of debates that are supposed to be about values, issues and beliefs contain nothing about education, sport or religion.

I hope the list we were given was only partial, otherwise the debates will be seen as the preserve of only a small section of the chattering classes – and of little relevance to much of Scotland.

DAVID ROBERTSON

St Peter's Free Church

St Peter Street, Dundee