YOUR VIEWS: Armed Forces Week in Inverness 'very poor' compared to elsewhere
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Let’s do more to mark Armed Forces Week
Armed Forces week has passed for another year. Having signed up to the Military Covenant, it is being noted that as the years have passed since the signing less and less has been seen to be happening as regards our serving military.
These observations are noted by the local armed services and fed back to the Branch on a regular basis. This is not nice to hear.
From its establishment in 2008, the Armed Forces Day was organised by the RBLS Inverness Branch with monetary assistance from Highland Council. By 2015, this was getting to be too much for the branch alone to handle.
We arranged a meeting with the Provost to discuss if it was possible for the council to take up the reigns with the RBLS helping with the military contacts. This was agreed, and in 2016, this was the council’s one and only attempt (combined with the Highland Games) at running an Armed Forces Day event in Inverness.
For this year, Armed Forces Week started with a flag raising ceremony at Inverness Town House. This is a national event, but Inverness held theirs inside (in case it rained!) the Town House. This was well laid out but would have been nice if the citizens of Inverness were able to witness the ceremony.
When you looked at what other cities up and down the country managed to arrange, Inverness was a very poor and low-key affair.
The Get Set For Summer/Armed Forces Day 2023 in the Northern Meeting Park was very well attended. However, the lead up time to the day gave us (the RBLS) just a little over two weeks. Not enough time to arrange anything but a small tent with a few leaflets. We would however like thank the members of the public who stopped for a chat and donated to the charity, helping raise the sum of £50 on the day.
We would also like to thank the council for granting the charity permission to have a street collection. And once again, a big thank you to all the cadets who turned up on the day to rattle a can. This raised the magnificent sum of £850 which goes directly to supporting our local veterans when in need.
We are hoping that after a long conversation with the CEO of High Life Highland things will be more attractive to all age groups in 2025.
Joseph Davidson, Royal British Legion Scotland, Inverness
Reliable public transport links are required
I couldn’t agree more with Nicky Marr’s column last week.
I’m just having an expenses claim issue with Loganair over a cancelled flight down to Manchester in June. They say as I booked my own hotel and flight I have to suck it up.
Well the sooner Loganair get a decent buyer and reinstate a proper flight schedule they may well realise how to make money and get frequent flyers again.
Andrew Benson, Thurso
Independence supporters stop playing around!
Why do supporters of independence continue to play the Westminster game by fielding candidates and MPs. Supporting independence is to get away from that privileged, archaic and corrupt system.
Scotland already has an overwhelming majority of independence supporting Scottish MPs – to what effect? 2024 isn’t going to change that. Scottish MPs are scorned and patronised at Westminster, have little impact and must manage the tensions and frustrations arising from their impotence – both internal to Westminster and within the SNP as a whole.
They are becoming institutionalised and incorporated into the Westminster system on a never-ending “play” for independence – stereotyped as those “whinging Scots”.
Independence supporters should stop putting up candidates for election to Westminster on principle – why participate in a system in which you have no confidence or belief in?
Independence supporters should also, on principle, not vote in Westminster elections. If enough people took this stance, then the unionist MPs elected would likely be from a minority of Scottish voters – with turnouts of less than 50 per cent demonstrating the “democratic deficit” of Westminster.
This would also increase the pool of talent and experience available to the Scottish Parliament and raise the quality of debate and effort to make Holyrood work – it is still a relatively young and inexperienced institution. A unionist Westminster would have to demonstrate the benefits of the union to Scotland and engage constructively with Holyrood. Failure to do so would demonstrate even more clearly the contempt and lack of priority that Scotland has within the Westminster polity. Any detrimental change to Scottish finances or powers would simply reinforce the failures of the union.
An alternative approach would see independence-supporting candidates standing for Westminster but if elected not attending or participating. They could meet in Scotland as a Scottish second chamber debating the Scottish issues that are reserved matters (while taking MSP-level salaries?). This would raise the profile of independence – and political talents – within Scotland. It would also provide a platform within Scotland to deal with reserved-’union’ issues, including debating how these would be met in an independent Scotland.
The demonstration of popular vote would still be necessary to trigger a referendum for constitutional change. This can be measured by showing a significant and sustained majority in opinion polls over a period.
Political parties, including independence supporters, should make explicit what their threshold measures would be for a referendum – to be held and to succeed. A singular 55 per cent majority vote was deemed sufficient in 2014 for no.
To get there we need to have arrangements that are more mature on the part of both governments that move us on from the current sterile and damaging debate. Things aren’t going to get better unless we take a radical, principled stance!
Let’s get off the bus, it’s passed our stop!
Bob MacKinnon, Inverness
