Hearts war memorial must go back to Haymarket

I CANNOT imagine contending with the horrors of war. The noise, the fear, the stench of death. It is too far removed from my life as a politician at Westminster and Holyrood to think how it must have been to wade waist-high through quagmires of mud in the sulphur-filled air.

It is impossible to consider watching friends cut down in a hail of machine gun fire or dispatched by a bloody blade, far less the prospect of staring into the whites of the eyes of a young stranger and pulling a trigger, knowing that if it isn't their end, it could very well become your own.

I know that I am blessed never having to face such nightmares. For my freedom, my right to live this life of democracy, was saved for me by strangers I'll never know. As it was for us all.

It was our forefathers who bore arms in first the Great War, followed by the Second and all that have followed. Because of them our children are free, our lives comfortable and relatively safe.

Their sacrifices won our tomorrows, but it is the here and now I fear is in danger of whitewashing the memory of what went before and risks, by accident or design, dishonouring the memory of Edinburgh's war dead.

I served many years working as a councillor for our Capital but I cannot sit by and watch as the City Fathers prepare to bulldoze the history associated with the War Memorial at Haymarket.

Since hundreds of thousands gathered there for its unveiling back in 1922, the famous clock has reminded locals and travellers alike of the sacrifices made by McCrae's Battalion and those like them. It was sited at the heart of the district because it was in offices nearby that the first Hearts players signed up for the 16th Royal Scots, to be followed by team-mates, supporters and other volunteers.

By war's end, Privates Henry Wattie, James Speedie, Ernest Ellis, Corporal Tom Gracie, Lance Corporal James Boyd, Sergeant John Allan and Sergeant Duncan Currie – each a first team player with Hearts FC – had died. But they were not alone.

So a clock, marking the passing of time, not least when it strikes 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, will always be an appropriate gathering place for the young and the old to remember.

For Edinburgh, no place is more appropriate than the busy junction that meets in its shadow. You see, the inconvenience that such a crowd brings in disrupting traffic or, in the future, trams, is very deliberate. It makes our ordinary lives halt for a minute, just a minute, to cast our minds back to the horrors I spoke of before.

I accept times change, progress makes that inevitable and few would argue with the development of the tram now the decision has been made. But it must not be at the expense of a memorial that means so much to so many for the memory of so few.

I have no truck with the need to relocate this fine monument temporarily in order to allow the planned building works to go ahead. Indeed, it is wise, if only to protect the memorial itself from damage.

However I feel strongly that in as short a time as is practicable, it returns to its rightful home as was first decreed by wiser heads in a time when such things still seemed to matter to bureaucrats.

A new site to the fore of Haymarket station cannot possibly be beyond the ability of architects and planners, just as distance was overcome by those who raised the Cairn at Contalmaison.

We may be entering the twilight years for those few servicemen who fought in the Great War, but when there is no longer a last one alive, we cannot dare say their sacrifice no longer matters.

I should probably apologise for using what is supposed to be a football column to raise this issue, yet it is football fans who are spearheading the campaign against the move. They have my full support and, I am convinced, that sentiment will be shared across the political divide by the likes of David McLetchie, Mike Pringle, Alex Salmond and other Hearts fans at Holyrood.

I urge City of Edinburgh Council to see sense and bow to the wishes of those for whom the memorial matters so dear when it meets to consider the memorial's future later this month.

They must announce a resolution befitting of those who defended our nation.

By comparison, altering plans for the tram landscape by a few feet must surely be the smallest of sacrifices the council could make.

Results like that won't be tolerated for long

SIX matches without a win against Kilmarnock makes grim reading for Hearts fans who have had to endure any of the games.

Saturday appears to have been one of those days when too many players in maroon simply didn't perform.

For the supporters paying good money at the turnstiles, braving filthy weather, it was not good enough. Not even close.

The only consolation is the fact we have no game this weekend because of international duty. And I wonder what bearing the Scotland game had on Saturday's result.

Michael Stewart had his worst game this season, coinciding with being left out of George Burley's squad and Christophe Berra was at least in part to blame for Killie's winner.

Our only hope is that the team uses the break to re-group, tend to injuries and take a good look at themselves.

Because results like Saturday won't be tolerated much longer by a support quickly losing patience.