I am sure that this is a mere coincidence and there are a thousand other good reasons to give it to the council to enhance their strip of the Royal Mile.

It should have been placed instead low on the Canongate, where he already lies among his people, and where one of his old houses will soon be rededicated to him ... but I suppose that the citizens of the Canongate have been restive about Caltongate of late, so they must be put in their places.

Cancel their street party at short notice for a start – an Orange march is much more important – and then steal their famous son. To his canons of taxation perhaps Adam Smith should have added: "If there is anything good, valuable or enjoyable on the go, a council will grab its share first."

If we were going to put up anything sensible in front of the City Chambers it should have been the guillotine from the Chambers Street Museum, to remind the unco guid what can happen when the citizen gets fed up with inefficient rulers. We must find a way to empty out the whole of the current City Chambers, and start again.

David Fiddimore, Nether Craigwell, Calton Road, Edinburgh