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Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians that they weren't needed any more?

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Published Date: 23 June 2009
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





The full article contains 416 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 22 June 2009 10:15 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Barney Thomson,

Reading 23/06/2009 00:39:25
It is impossible to add anything to this eloquent and accurate article.

Well said, Mr Wallace.
2

Jim A,

23/06/2009 05:04:08
"Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians they weren't needed any more?"

I don't think there is any comparison. The Royal Marines Musicians also act as medics and stretcher bearers in war time, their primary role is that of Soldier first. It's the other way about with the pipers in this story, pipers first police second. I wonder if they still draw a full Police Officers wage.
3

Graeme,

Guangzhou 23/06/2009 07:17:05
#2. Eejit
4

Joe Plaice,

the Nutmeg of Consolation 23/06/2009 07:55:29
Correct Graeme, he is a moron. These officers do still operate as policemen. It would be interesting to see how much taxpayer's money the force has spent on Common Purpose training for its senior pen-pushing, jelly-bellies. Anyone in Strathclyde care to fill out a FOI request to find out? I'm in Japan at the moment or I'd do it myself. I'm pretty sure they've spent double what it costs them for the pipe band and it's one of the reasons that the police forces don't function any more and anything too popular and close to the public is getting hammered.
Stop Common Purpose!
5

Donald, Edinburgh,

23/06/2009 08:15:15
hear hear Mr. Wallace. It's a disgrace.
6

Andrew Morton,

Berkshire 23/06/2009 08:25:56
The Royal Marines equal The Strathclyde Police?

Shall we deploy the Glesga Bobbies to Afghanistan then?
7

Kenny A,

23/06/2009 08:36:40
I never noticed this article before I posted my earlier outburst, totaly agree.

2 Jim, I believe they are police first.

6 Andrew, The marines would bugle in your ear, shoot yo, then march of to wherever. Strathclybe police will kick you in the Gorbals, fill in the paperwork and then not have a tune to listen to. No I would not deploy them to Afganistan, got to give the Afgans some chance, the paperwork would kill them.
8

Andrew Morton,

Berkshire 23/06/2009 08:42:20
7 KennyA

haha! Glad you saw what I was meaning! Yeah, I suppose the war would end prematurely if you were to send in the Strathclyde polis!
9

James (1),

23/06/2009 09:12:28
Good to get an unbiased view from the principle of the college of piping? (Ok that was sarcasm)
The sad fact is the police officers who make up the pipe band whilst performing are denying the public police officers. (Ok that was fact)
We seem to forget that that is what they are paid for, not for playing gigs.
They want to keep this wee jolly going and the powers that be see it for what it is, which is a non productive self indulgence.
Sorry but it is time to get them back on the street doing police work.
I am sure their colleagues will have heard the " I can't take this for enquiry because the band is playing in xyz"
So whilst they are playing their colleagues are doing real police work that they should be sharing.
10

brianmca3,

auld reekie 23/06/2009 09:28:22
or is this another clearance starting,first the bagpipes then whats next?
11

Lang Spoon,

Somewhere in Leith 23/06/2009 10:11:48
Sorry lads, I'm on the side of the Force here, and I say that as a piper myself.
To compete at this level requires many, many hours a week of practice, let alone travel time to competitions etc.
I can't believe that the men can combine this with a full police workload, therefore they must be getting lots of time off normal duties.
So, sorry to sound negative, but they are policemen, and should be policemen full-time!
12

Kenny A,

23/06/2009 11:06:31
8 Andrew The howl of the pipes would scare the turbans of them, not doubt. The paperwork would scare them to the bottom of their tonsils, can you imagine the paperwork required before you went on your morning martyrdom mission. The 72 promised virgins would have died of old age and been grandmothers.

11 Lang spoon. I cant argue with your points but feel that there is more to life than work. I know a policeman who is both an officer and a piper. The practice should be done in your own time, same as sports or any other form of recreation. I still maintain that that this band should be kept, they bring more in, in many ways than they cost.

This issue seems to have evenly split opinion.

Pipers were tradionaly regarded as from the uniformed services, while no where near 100% correct I would be sorry for this band to be disbanded.
13

James (1),

23/06/2009 11:26:46
#4 If a police officer is on duty 40 hours a week (as a figure)then they are working (hopefully) 40 hours as a police officer.
If however they are away playing for just one day during the working week that is 8 hours x 15 the public are denied their service.
That is too much to expect in todays society. What was ok in the past is not ok now.
14

Thomas the Tank,

Edinburgh 23/06/2009 11:43:26
Police officers who play in the pipe band are Police Officers, first and foremost. They are granted 'facilities' for practice and events but will give at least as much of their own time, unpaid. Talk of sending them to Afghanistan is ridiculous - that would require them to be horrid to muslims, contrary to StrathPlod's diversity and equality policies. Would Mr House care to make public the costs and abstraction rate for officers sent on 'Hate Crime' awareness training, to identify motives of race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, national origins, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability?
And the costs certainly didn't bother cooncillor Eric Milligan, Police Board Convenor, when he demanded the L&B Pipe Band in Paris as part of his entourage, to tootle his overblown ego and even had them perform at the Moulin Rouge nightclub.
15

Iain Mac,

23/06/2009 12:45:24
Wanting money spent on policing and not pipe bands does not mean you are 'anti music'. What a ridiculous article. Piping has a long history in Scots' army and warfare tratitions - not in the police though.

Maybe teachers and nurses should get paid to play music outside of their jobs too?
16

JCA REID,

Annan 23/06/2009 13:34:48
I can recall being informed about the Lothians & Borders Police Pipe Band: they'd go out on duty in the morning & stick a few fixed penalty notices on some cars & then back inside for music practice!!
That's all they done Monday to Friday.
17

David Ban,

04620 Vera 23/06/2009 13:58:53
Well said Robert!
18

Andy MacT,

Drumnadrochit 23/06/2009 14:59:27
15 Iain Mac - does establishment in the 19th century not qualify as a "long tradition"?

Four of the eleven Scottish Grade 1 bands listed on Wikipedia are police bands, as are two of the Canadians. There are several other police pipe bands around the world outside grade one. The Strathclyde Police have won the World Championships 20 times... this all sounds like quite a tradition to me.

It is easier for management types to measure the costs of the pipe band than it is to assess its value - much of the value is in soft factors rather than hard currency - but that is not a reason to shut it down.
19

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 23/06/2009 20:55:52
Remember watching the New Zealand police pipe band practicing for the World Championships at Tulliallan when the 3rd phase of the building works was going on. Brilliant. Different level. Think they came 3rd.

Always made me wonder about whether or not the competition was Open or purely amateur.

Anyway, it seemed like police bands could be subsidised in travel and accommodation. Same would also apply to military bands.

Not that I am trying to negate 22 World Championships by comparing Strathclyde Police Pipe Band to any kind of Soviet Olympic amateur level playing field.

If there only 15 police in the band, is the name not a bit of a misnomer? How many non marines are there in their band? Would it not be better to either rename the band as the Strathclyde Pipe band or separate the finances and make it 100% police staffed and self-sufficient?

This would involve paying the wages of the band members from what the band earns. A professional band.

 

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