Bitter Time.

The fine heritage of Scotland, sold for a cheap photo op.

King's Own Scottish Borderers veterans will continue to fight in court against the regiment's merger with the Royal Scots and combine them with the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Highlanders in a new Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Their court case collapsed but they will continue with the idea that the Borderers could not be merged or disbanded as it was raised by an independent Scottish Parliament.
They said that if a law was required to create a regiment, one was also needed to scrap it, lets hope the English law makers play fairly for once.

Margaret Thatcher has made a call to save Scotland's six historic regiments.
She has condemned Labour's plans to amalgamate the regiments into a single super-regiment using the logic that everytime old rock has-beens make up a super-group its always shite.

She said that with the current threat of "evil", the nation's defences should be "strengthened not weakened the campaign to stop Labour's disastrous decision is a vital one,"

Conservatives claim that Tony Blair is guilty of "stabbing soldiers in the back" and whether or not you support the Conservatives or even like Thatcher they are standing by the armed forces and if you don't like them then you're just a civvie cunt, or an oppressed Irish person.

Think of the pride and the history that will be lost if the regiments are melted into some sterile new regiment. I think the world places too little value in heritage and those who have given their lives in the past, yep just forget them and their sacrifice.

The English have already started their mash up they will merge the Royal green Jackets,the 1st Battalion The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment Light Infantry, the 1st Battalion The Royal Gloucestershire Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment Light Infantry into The 4th battalion The Rifles.

Lt Col Patrick Sanders, of the former Royal Green Jackets, described the merger as a "very happy marriage", which had not been forced.

C'mon, Colonel Sanders? I shit you not. I doubt the troops are happy, they joined some other regiment not The Rifles. Now all the other merged regiments can call their soldiers riflemen instead of private, something only the Green Jackets did before. Who gives a shit what the English do? they don't have souls you know, just like dogs and cats.

One time me and my boys were interviewed and photographed for soldier magazine, we were warned before hand by our superiors not to say anything derogatory so when you follow orders you have to be happy, I wanted to complain about the muskets we were issued but no it would be the Stockade for me if I did.

The logic to all of this is that if you make it 'generic' it will be cheaper and easier, you can have 10 generic rifle bases rather than 4 different expensive bases with different uniforms and traditions etc.

Back to the Jocks

A row has broken out over a £1.4m contract to supply 5,000 sporrans to the new Royal Regiment of Scotland, the Scottish feel it should be a Scottish firm that gets the contract, an English firm got it but sub-contracts to a Scottish one, scraps from the Sassenach table as usual, an Edinburgh firm of Sporran makers hadn't even heard of the contract, its a rigged game alright.

Don't worry a knitwear firm has made a special Shrek tartan for the ogre with a Scottish accent.
Its thought that there is over 50 million people across the world who can claim Scottish ancestry and at least one Ogre too.

So you fuck with the history of Scotland by getting rid of regiments that were hundreds of years old and who had taken the Eagle at Waterloo, been called "the ladies from Hell" by the Germans when they wore their kilts into battle and now you celebrate Scottishness by making an animated monster a kilt, next they'll do a movie tie in and make Shrek the mascot of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. I like the way they put 'Royal' in the title just to remind us whose bitch we are.

Scottish history has mostly been made by the English through brute force the 8,000 villagers of Berwick on Tweed put to the sword in 1296 for example and the actual regiments that are to be merged themselves were of English device, the Jacobites had to go somewhere after their defeat.

Having been a soldier I understand regimental pride and also the feeling that part or yer own history has been taken away when yer regiment has been dis-banded and re-packaged as what happened to one of the ones I was in. Go click on ROAR in my news and stuff links if you want to read more about the group who is fighting to save the regiments.

Look how upset Grandpa is, go on just step into his killing zone and he'll knock ya into next week.

On the ROAR you can read how a Cavalry kit for the Queen's hoose hold guards cost £6,000 and their combat trousers cost £2,000 just for trotting about on horse back with swords for the tourists, never mind equipment for those in Afghanistan and Iraq.