ONLY in Scotland could musicians playing our national music to a world class level be so despised.
It beggars belief that the philistines who occupy police headquarters at Pitt Street in Glasgow could plot the demise of the iconic ensemble that is Strathclyde Police Pipe Band – and gloat about it in the name of force efficiency, as did Chief Super
intendent John Pollock last Friday.
His outburst stuck in the craw of every right-thinking Scot.
No one should be under any illusion as to what the future of the band is.
Morale is so low that I doubt they will exist next year and a 123-year tradition, a proud history of 22 World Pipe Band Championship titles and the affection of an entire community will be gone.
Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians they weren't needed any more? To say it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the band going is nonsense. They receive £29,500 per year from the force.
You could barely buy a fraction of the good PR the pipe band gives Strathclyde Police for that price, playing as they do at dozens of public events throughout the year.
The economic argument is further rent asunder when you consider that the World Pipe Band Championships generates around £4 million for the Strathclyde and Scottish economy every year.
Strathclyde Police Pipe Band are an integral and essential part of that endeavour. Can you envision the Scottish Premier League without any of the top teams? That is what we are talking about here.
This August the Championships are to be streamed live around the world over the internet, a decision announced yesterday by the BBC. It is almost unthinkable that in 2010 they will do so without this band filling our screens at some point in the day. Oh yes, say the police authorities, we are very supportive of them and proud of their traditions.
What they don't get is that their traditions are at the very top end of the musical scale.
Cut their practice time, cut their opportunities to play in public and they will very quickly become a second or third-rate outfit that no one wants to hear.
Will you be happy about that Mr House, when you and 40,000 others attend the closing ceremony at Glasgow Green in August?
• Robert Wallace, principal of the College of Piping
