Sir,<\/p>\n
Upon your retirement in 2009, you perhaps looked forward to a well earned rest, maybe away from the glare of publicity, and a chance to spend some time with your family after a distinguished career in public service.<\/p>\n
It appears that you are to be denied this.<\/p>\n
In 2012 you undertook to chair an independent enquiry into whether or not Scottish Premier League rules were broken regarding the non disclosure of payments to players at Rangers football club between 2000 and 2011.<\/p>\n
Based on the evidence you were given, and the instructions you undertook, you gave your verdict in February 2013.<\/p>\n
I am in no way implying any sort of misdemaeanour, nor any kind of undue influence in reaching your conclusions, which I am certain you arrived at with enormous diligence and a genuine desire to deliver a verdict which was honest, transparent and final.<\/p>\n
However, I wonder, if in light of recent events, you may find it neccessary to make a public statement.<\/p>\n
What worries me is that, as with all reports of this kind, your good name and reputation, which you have spent a lifetime working for, will forever be tarnished due to association with the conclusions in your report.<\/p>\n
You see, the report will always be referred to as “The Lord Nimmo Smith Report “.<\/p>\n
By newspapers, on the radio, in television, and of course, by the general public.<\/p>\n
I am concerned that the conclusions you reached, based on the evidence you were presented with, have now invalidated the report you have put your name to, in perpetuity, and a lifetime of distinguished service will be erased as you will forever be remembered as the man who delivered the verdict that “no sporting advantage ” was gained by the extraordinary payments scheme, when it has now been established that there was.<\/p>\n
I feel it is only fair that you should uphold your right to reply, and publicly announce your own reasons for the conclusions you arrived at.<\/p>\n
It is your name that is on the report. It is your name that will always be on the report.<\/p>\n
Whatever else happens as this scandal develops, and when further questionable practices are revealed, I feel that you should move to explain the basis of your verdict, and \u00a0allow the public, and perhaps more importantly, yourself, \u00a0to at least be reassured that Lord Nimmo Smith should not be the first name that is recalled, and therefore forever associated, with what may yet prove to be the biggest sporting scandal, not only in British sporting history, but quite possibly in sporting history worldwide.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Yours, respectfully,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n RM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sir, Upon your retirement in 2009, you perhaps looked forward to a well earned rest, maybe away from the glare of publicity, and a chance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LNS.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-26X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8121,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119\/revisions\/8121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}