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17-12-2004 Scotsman The death of our regiments By Gethin Chamberlain and James Kirkup THE Scottish regiments were yesterday consigned to history as the government wielded the axe in the most dramatic restructuring of the army in modern times. All six regiments will be rolled up into one Scottish super-regiment. The Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers will disappear, merged into an entirely new battalion; the others will lose their regimental status and will be downgraded to battalions of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, tried to put a gloss on the cuts. It meant an army fit for the challenges of the future, he said. General Sir Mike Jackson, the chief of the general staff, said there had never been a more exciting time to join the army. The army might cherish its traditions, but it could not rely on tradition alone, he insisted. Weasel words, their furious opponents said, a cynical attempt to deceive the Scottish public. They claimed yesterday that the government had set the regiments on a slow march to oblivion. The Ministry of Defence had tried to deflect some of the anger by offering a few small concessions. The surviving Scottish battalions will be known by their old names, followed by the name of the royal regiment and their battalion number in brackets, a deal not offered to the English regiments. But within hours of the announcement, even that was in doubt. In a letter to commanding officers, Gen Jackson said the names for the new Scottish units remained provisional. The army itself will ignore the names, referring to the units as 1 SCOT, 2 SCOT or whichever number they have been assigned. All but one of the regimental tartans will also go - the new regiment will wear the Black Watch, or government tartan - and there will be a new cap badge. The announcement was delivered by Mr Hoon in a 16-minute lunchtime speech to a noisy House of Commons. There were few surprises. The number of infantry battalions would be reduced from 40 to 36, he said, through a number of mergers, including those in the Scottish Division. Some armoured units would be reorganised to take on lighter duties. But Mr Hoon also announced a new rangers unit, similar to the Americans' force, to support Britain's special forces, an extra weapon in the war on terror. A tri-service unit based on the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, campaigners claimed it was nothing but a ploy to draw attention away from the cuts. "The over-riding requirement is to make significant enhancements to the key specialist capabilities," Mr Hoon told the Commons. "These are new capabilities - not cuts." Even Jack McConnell, the First Minister, felt moved to express disappointment at the plans, after previously stating that the identities of all six Scots infantry regiments should be retained and that the KOSB and Royal Scots should not be merged. Yesterday he said: "While I recognise that the Secretary of State for Defence has to listen to views of the army chiefs and I am pleased that the names and elements of the identities of Scottish regiments have been retained, I am disappointed that these proposals have not gone as far as I would have liked." Last night, Labour was defeated at Holyrood in a vote on the fate of the regiments. MSPs voted by 61 votes to 59, with seven abstentions, to back a Tory resolution condemning "any cuts and mergers" and calling for the existing six regiments to be retained. In the Commons, the SNP could not contain its fury. Annabelle Ewing, the MP for the Black Watch heartland of Perth, triggered a walkout by calling Mr Hoon "nothing but a back-stabbing coward". Sir Alan Haselhurst, the deputy speaker, ordered Ms Ewing to withdraw the remark, but she repeatedly refused, telling him: "I have the utmost respect for you, but I have no respect for the Defence Secretary and I'm afraid I cannot withdraw." Paul Keetch, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said Mr Hoon was cutting the army to its smallest since the First Afghan War in 1839. For the Conservatives, Michael Ancram described the announcement as "a dark day for our armed forces". "The Secretary of State says that this is all about reorganisation. But this statement is not driven by a need to reorganise. It is driven by the Chancellor's demand for financial cuts," Mr Ancram said. "Our armed forces deserve better than to be betrayed in this appalling manner by their government." Scotland's sole Tory MP, Peter Duncan, accused Mr Hoon of letting the army take the flak for what was a "political decision". General Alistair Irwin, the adjutant general of the army and colonel of the Black Watch, said it was a "painful business". He said the new super-regiment would almost certainly be known as the Royal Regiment of Scotland, with a single basic uniform centred on the kilt in government tartan, a decision certain to prove unpopular with the lowland regiments. And he said there would be some concessions to tradition, such as allowing the Black Watch to retain its famous red hackle. The Save the Scottish Regiments campaign said Mr Hoon had stabbed soldiers in the back, and dismissed the concessions as sops. "It is only a matter of time before all five regiments are wearing the same uniform and the bracketed names are dropped," said organiser Jeff Duncan. "This is a meaningless gesture in the greater picture of almost 400 years of proud service to the country. "The appalling decision to merge the Royal Scots with the King's Own Scottish Borderers will be remembered by all patriotic men and women of Scotland as the ultimate act of betrayal by this Labour government and those cowardly, so-called Scottish MPs and MSPs - mainly Labour - who deserted the men of those regiments in their hour of need." The Keep our Scottish Battalions campaign also voiced its anger, describing attempts to say that the regiments had been saved as a "a cynical attempt to deceive the Scottish public". But Gen Jackson said that while he accepted that his plans would cause pain north of the Border, the pain was justified. "By getting the army right for the future, we had to cause upset," he said. He was adamant that there could be no room for sentiment when considering the future structure of the army, although Mr Hoon revealed that the Brigade of Guards' ceremonial duties at Buckingham Palace and around London at official events had saved them from the same restructuring as the Scots.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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