Battle to Save Highland Regiments Enters Final Phase

The Scotsman reports that more public figures have joined the protest against amalgamating the last of Scotland's famous highland regiments:

FIFTY leading members of the Scottish establishment have accused the government of risking a "manning crisis of nightmare proportions" if it presses on with plans to amalgamate all of Scotland’s infantry regiments into one super-regiment.

In an open letter to The Scotsman the signatories dismiss the Ministry of Defence plans as "flawed", "totally without logic" and likely to damage morale.

Names on the letter include Lieutenant General Sir Norman Arthur, former general officer commanding of the army in Scotland, Major the Earl Haig of Bemersyde, the Duke of Montrose, the Duke of Atholl, and the Earls of Elgin and Kincardine and Wemyss and March.

The government of Tony Blair seems to be oddly tone-deaf on this issue: they want to save money — a relatively modest sum — even at the cost of alienating huge swathes of Scottish voters. Under the circumstances, with Black Watch soldiers under enemy fire in Iraq, you would expect common sense and a certain electoral concern would stave off these unwelcome amalgamations.