• 5 Steve Murdoch (ed.), Scotland and the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, Leiden: Brill, 2001.
• 6 Alexander Murdoch, Making the Union Work, Scotland 1651-1763, London: Routledge, 2020, 8.
• 7 Michel Francisque, Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse, London: Trübner & Cie, 1862, 229 (...)
• 8 Stephen Conway, “The Scots Brigade in the Eighteenth Century,” Northern Scotland, n°1, 2010, 30-41.

1The Highland dress is intrinsically linked to Scottish identity, especially because of its military overtones. Although the Lowlands provided some of the oldest regiments in the British Army, they have never been able to compete in the popular imagination with kilted units. Films and TV series have focused on stories happening in the mountainous regions of the north-west of Scotland and their plots have little to no regard for historical accuracy, as proven by the Highlander franchise, Braveheart or, more recently, the TV series Outlander. Such narratives perpetuate the image of a country with a violent and glorified past. Scotland successfully fought two wars of independence against England in the Middle Ages but equally suffered catastrophic defeats because of the English military supremacy. Nevertheless, the Scots fought alongside France during the Hundred Years War, when the “Auld alliance” reinforced their martial reputation. During the Thirty Years War, 20,000 Scottish mercenaries served in the Swedish army.5 England under Cromwell proved once again too formidable a force to be resisted,6 yet other European powers were still willing to recruit Scotsmen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. French kings had a personal Garde Ecossaise until the Revolution,7 while the Dutch recruited a Scottish Brigade of their own.8

• 9 Edward M. Spiers, Jeremy A. Crang, Matthew J. Strickland (eds.), Military History of Scotland, Edin (...)
• 10 Ibid., 795.
• 11 <https://archives.parliament.uk/online-resources/parliamentary-debates-hansard/, accessed on June 2 (...)

2During the Restoration period, Scottish regiments were integrated within an English army, and the Scots Guards remain a potent symbol of Scottish military valour to this day. After 1688, that very regiment compiled an impressive war record in the wars against Louis XIV,9 but these Lowlander units dressed and fought much like their English counterparts. On the contrary, Highlanders acquired a flattering reputation as outstanding fighters who could be recognised by their uniform. From a strictly military point of view, these units did not differ in any way from other troops in the British Isles.10 But their physical difference remains. Even British politicians during debates in the two Houses of Parliament have not been immune to the fears and charms generated by the lore surrounding Highlanders when discussing Scotland’s military capabilities. A journey through the transcripts of debates held among MPs and Lords about Scottish regiments from the 1700s up until the early twenty-first century clearly shows that, far from being a mere martial anecdote, Highlander soldiers have been discussed in Parliament as a compelling symbol of two nations, Scotland and Britain after 1707.11This will illustrate the military potency as well as the symbolic clout of Highland regiments will be the focus of this work.

• 12 Dan Knox, “The Sacralised Landscapes of Glencoe: from Massacre to Mass Tourism, and back again”, In (...)
• 13 House of Commons, Journal, volume 12, 31 March 1698, in Journal of the House of Commons, Volume 12, (...)
• 14 House of Lords, Journal, volume 17, 20 March 1704, in Journal of the House of Lords, volume 17, 170 (...)

3The Glorious Revolution provoked deep tensions within the Highlands where divided loyalties brought about tragedies.12 Jacobite troops raised in Scotland scared the new regime, yet failed to build on their success for lack of leadership and resources. Still, parliamentary discussions reflected the fears provoked by these insurrections. By 1689 and afterwards, Ireland became the weakest point from which an invasion was possible, yet Parliament was reminded that Highlanders could very easily join the fray should the Irish Jacobites successfully cross the North Channel. A petition sent to the House of Commons made it clear in 1698.13 Similarly, Parliament in the early eighteenth century was well informed of the many Stuartist plots to overthrow the Protestant regime. The Parisian intrigues of Scottish nobles such as Lord Lovat were closely followed. During debates and committee discussions, Scotland’s military proficiencies were at the forefront of parliamentarian concerns.14 These fears were not altogether exaggerated. By 1716, a year after the third Jacobite attempt on the British throne from Scotland, Parliament passed an Act to disarm the Highlands, renewing it in the 1720s. Tory MPs considered this Act as a discretionary measure against Highlanders:

• 16 Donald Anderson, “The Earliest Appearance of the Black Watch”, Journal of the Society for Army Hist (...)
• 17 See https://www.saor-alba.fr/la-highland-dress-au-temps-jacobite/ , accessed on 24 May 2023.

4By the 1720s, Parliament had regular debates about disbanding land forces as Britain and France had entered a period of peace. Meanwhile, the first Highland companies were raised in 1729 to police the Northern provinces, which ultimately led to the creation of the Black Watch (Am Freiceadan Dubh in Scottish Gaelic), the oldest Highlander regiment in the British army.16 Little information is available regarding the type of uniform donned by these units, which usually consisted of a belted plaid, a short jacket, red and white diced tartan hose and a bonnet.17 By 1732, renewed rumours of a Jacobite rebellion urged the House of Lords to propose a Bill prohibiting the wearing of “the Highland garb”’ as it was deemed a rebellious symbol, a decision that was once again resisted in the House of Commons, which considered the outfit in a more matter-of-fact way:

• 20 I. H. Mackay Scobie, “Highland Military Dress. A Short Historical Review”, in Journal of the Societ (...)
• 21 Pattern.

6In the 1740s, the Black Watch took the 42^nd place in the British army, its uniform including some details that could have referred to the Stuart coat of arms, though no official source can prove it.20 The tartan sett,21 also called the government tartan, was subsequently used and adapted to provide the tartans of other Scottish units. By the end of the eighteenth century, the feilidh beag, a shorter version of the cumbersome highland kilt, was officially adopted. The threat of a Jacobite rebellion fuelled the need to keep several companies of Scottish soldiers recruited to pacify their own countrymen. Yet, such decisions were contested in Parliament, this time by William Pulteney, the leader of the Patriot Whigs, hinting at the mystique surrounding Highlanders:

• 23 House of Lords, Journal, volume 26, August 1746, in Journal of the House of Lords, volume 26, 1741- (...)

7Another Act disarming the Scots was passed in the wake of the last Jacobite defeat at Culloden Moor in 1746, which also underlined the link between the wearing of tartan and rebellious ideas.23 The Highlands themselves became a demilitarised zone patrolled by British units, though its inhabitants were about to enter an era profoundly affected by military matters. Paradoxically, this situation inspired the Romantics who made use of the tartan as a powerful embodiment of Scottish military and national identity.

• 24 The Annals of Europe for the year 1743, printed for T. Astley, Fleet Street, London, 1743, 177-185

8Mutinies marked the very beginning of the military history of Highland units serving in the British army. In 1743, the Black Watch marched south to be reviewed by the king himself, but refused to obey orders when the men discovered they were about to be embarked for the West Indies.24 Their contract specified that they were to serve only in Scotland. But Britain’s direct intervention in the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) meant that more regiments had to be sent abroad to either guard the Empire or fight the French on the Continent. This war provoked an upsurge in newspaper articles, pamphlets and debates in Parliament on the appropriateness of Britain’s involvement. The weaknesses of the Hanoverian alliance were often highlighted, alongside the lack of trust towards Highland troops. However, Caledonian reputations drastically changed in the eyes of the public after the British defeat at Fontenoy in May 1745. The resolve shown by Highlanders when faced with withering fire from the French transformed them into valuable soldiers for the Hanoverian regime leading to the creation of other Highlander regiments. The Highland garb was soon associated with the newly formed British state and its standing army around the globe.

• 25 “Report relating to the Land Forces and Marines”, Number XIII, The Reports of the Committee of the (...)
• 26 Percy Summer, “Army Inspection Returns - 1753 to 1804”, Journal of the Society for Army Historical (...)
• 27 The 42^nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot.

9In the second half of the eighteenth century, the newly raised Highlander regiments were in stark contrast with other British units. Their silhouette soon became associated with British military might across the globe. Dressing these troops was costly, the hat alone being more expensive than the usual one worn by foot soldiers.25 Even their weapons, the basket-hilted sword, the dirk—a type of long knife—became famed, though Scottish soldiers fighting for either the Jacobites or the Hanoverian regime actually favoured muskets and bayonets.26 After the defeat at Culloden Moor on 16 April 1746, Highlanders agreed to join the ranks of the British army since it allowed them to perpetuate Celtic traditions by then prohibited among civilians because of their Stuartist overtones. Besides, the prospect of seasonal migration to the Lowlands to work in farms and job opportunities in the imperial services, both civil and military, helped pacify Scotland. The Seven Years War in North America and India reinforced that positive image, with the Black Watch earning the adjective ‘royal’ attached to its name in 1758.27 But this new conflict also illustrated how Scottish soldiers could be used in counter guerrilla tactics by imposing their own brand of savagery on the enemy. The colonial context did transform the Highlander into a white settler pertaining to a military elite, but the Highland garb maintained whoever wore it into the position of an exotic curiosity.

• 28 The Scots Magazine, volume 41, 1779, 271 and 308.
• 29 The Scots Magazine, volume 41, 1779, 573.

10Discipline remained a problem for these units, but not necessarily out of a lack of respect for military authorities. In 1778, a mutiny occurred among Highland soldiers from the 42^nd and 71^st (Fraser) regiments when told they would join the 83^rd (Glasgow) regiment and would have to abandon their kilts. The 83^rd regiment was dressed in the usual British uniform and had just been established to be sent overseas to fight against the American insurgency. As part of this unit, the Highlanders would also have had to obey orders in a language they did not understand since they only spoke Earse, or Scots Gaelic. Despite acts of violence against soldiers and officers from the local militia dispatched to quell the rebellion, the king, on the grounds of the reputation of the 42^nd regiment, pardoned the main three leaders. The lack of available Highlanders able to fill up the ranks of units universally praised for their bravery was probably also taken into account.28 Fencible regiments, local forces raised in Scotland to counter any French attempt on the northern coasts of the realm, were also proud of their particular uniform and resented wearing items of clothing or equipment they deemed as not pertaining to the “Highland garb”. They were soon brought to obedience by English units, and their leaders were flogged, exiled or pardoned.29

• 31 Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates, London: Bagshaw, 1814, vol.23, debate in the Commons on the affai (...)
• 32 House of Lords, Journal, volume 36, July 1782, in Journal of the House of Lords, Volume 36, 1779-17 (...)
• 33 The Parliamentary History of England, Volume 24 debate in the Lords on the forfeited Estates Bill, (...)

12Ever since the Union of 1707, Scottish troops, including militias, could no longer be raised in Scotland without parliamentary assent. The question of the Highlanders’ loyalty was broached in the 1780s when the creation of a Scottish militia was discussed in the House of Commons. Opposition to the raising of such a force was met with disbelief by Lord James Maitland, a leading figure among the Whigs, since there “did not exist a doubt of the attachment of the Scotch to the Crown”.31 By 1782, the Highlands’ way of life was slowly readmitted into British life, with the passing of an Act repealing the restraints on the wearing of the “highland dress”.32 Another Bill prepared in the House of Lords in 1784 to restore forfeited estates confiscated after the ‘45 was met with apprehension from William Pitt the younger, the then Lord Chancellor of the Exchequer. Though Pitt was aware of the assertion “that many of the […] inhabitants [of the Highlands] of all ranks and descriptions have performed signal services to their country in the late wars between Great Britain and its enemies”, as he quoted the Act itself, he himself showed little enthusiasm in pardoning treason.33 The rebuttal came from Alexander Lindsay, Earl of Balcarras, himself a former officer in the Black Watch, who described how valuable Scottish men were to the Hanoverian crown:

• 35 The Parliamentary History of England, Volume 24 debate in the Lords on the forfeited Estates Bill, (...)

13Pitt had to concede that military service was indeed enough to prove the valour of those asking for the return of forfeited estates.35 Meanwhile, emigration of Scottish men to America had become a problem for recruiting parties. Scotsmen were still overly represented within the British armed forces of the time and kilted regiments of the British army struggled to keep their geographic identity intact in the second half of the long eighteenth century.

• 36 A type of small, round shield favoured by the Highlanders since the Middle Ages.
• 37 Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England: The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest (...)

14The French Revolutionary Wars revived suspicions about the Highlanders’ loyalty. Cobbett’s parliamentary archives give an interesting insight into the Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons which, in 1794, reported that the “Friends of the People”, an organisation inspired by French radicalism, wanted to raise a subscription to “defray the expense of small patriotic publications to be distributed in the Highlands. Every publication [would] bear the figure of a Highland man in full dress, with target36 and broad sword to attract the attention of highlandmen (sic)”.37 It was heavily implied that this form of patriotism was not devoted to Britain but to Scotland itself.

• 38 The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Present Day, Volume 36, col. (...)
• 39 Cobbett’s Political Register, London: Cox and Baylis, 1802, vol. 2, col. 803-823.

15At the beginning of the war, victories gained against the French were discussed in Parliament as the result of “British arms”38, prompting the Highland Society—an association created in London by Scotsmen in 1778 to help their fellow countrymen—to promote for example the actions of the 42^nd regiment at the battle of Alexandria in Egypt (21 March 1801). On that day, British forces including this Scottish unit seized a French standard. The Society offered to commemorate the event with a medal on which a Highlander brandished the French flag, though a controversy surrounding who had actually captured the prize soon emerged, led by the radical journalist William Cobbett himself who denied the Scots were the ones that deserved praise.39

• 40 Jeffrey Banks, Tartan: Romancing the Plaid, New York: Rizzoli, 2015, 88-89.
• 41 Major General David Stewart, Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlande (...)

16The Napoleonic Wars helped establish Scottish regiments as popular representatives of the British army, to the point of turning them into caricatures when depicted by French cartoonists,40 but it was the royal visit to Scotland of William IV in 1822 that actually transformed them into a true British symbol. Walter Scott and Major General David Stewart41 combined the rebellious nature of the lost cause warriors with the loyalty of ideal crown servants to build the romantic image of the Highlander. By the mid-nineteenth century, apprehensions regarding Highlanders might have abated, but their ‘otherness’ still caused anxieties in British society, even if MPs did not take those anecdotes too seriously. Joseph Hume, a radical Scottish MP, presented a petition concerning Highland soldiers:

• 43 See Tanja Bueltmann, “Scottish Ethnic Associationalism, Military Identity and Diaspora Connections (...)

17Another turning point occurred a few years later. The Crimean war (1853-1856), with the famed “thin red line” episode against Russian cavalry at the battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, Queen Victoria’s own fondness for the Highlands and most importantly the Indian mutiny of 1857 all contributed to transform kilted regiment into heroes, with popular culture fully adopting Highlanders as fine products of the British Empire. The Scottish diaspora also fuelled the military culture and identity of Scotland through the creation of units raised in far-flung settlements. Canada and South Africa saw a rise in the formation of volunteer units directly inspired by regular Scottish regiments of the British army and were intimately linked with Scottish communities established overseas.43

• 45 Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser—“Recruiting in the Highlands, from an English point of view” (...)
• 46 Ibid.

19By the end of the nineteenth century, fewer young men from the Highlands joined these regiments though kilted units had multiplied, as military authorities recruited men elsewhere. Marching tours of recruiting parties took place in Scotland to acquaint the local population of the possibility of joining up in order to maintain “the national character of the Scottish regiments”.45 Faced with the unpopularity of a military career, the commander-in-chief in Scotland, General Chapman, decided to propose lessons in Scottish Gaelic in the barracks under his jurisdiction. Simultaneously, public debates were held in Glasgow openly wondering whether “Highlanders should join the army”, with a majority voting negatively.46

• 47 Hansard, The Cost of Uniforms of Highland Regiments, House of Commons, Debate 28 March 1892, vol. (...)
• 48 A choice supposedly inspired by the troops sent to fight Bonaparte’s forces in Egypt and who would (...)
• 49 Hansard, Army—Dress of The Army—The Ostrich Feather Head-Dress of the Highland Regiments. House of (...)

20The Boer War (1899­­­-1902) soon questioned the usefulness of flamboyant uniforms in modern warfare, and the Highlander outfit came directly under fire in Parliament as being an expensive and useless attribute, especially its by-then traditional headgear. The cost of dressing a Highlander regiment was still estimated at being £15,000 higher than for any other unit.47 The Highlander bonnets had, over the course of nearly a century, reached a cumbersome size with huge ostrich feathers.48 In 1881, a first attempt at replacing it with a simpler helmet based on the one worn by other British units was opposed by “the recommendation of a committee composed of distinguished officers”.49 By 1900, abandoning it altogether was resisted, not only because the Scottish troops were heavily involved in the South African campaign, but also because a strong military tradition had already been established:

• 51 Mark Lloyd, The London Scottish regiment in the Great War, Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2001.

21When the First World War started, the reputation of Scottish regiments for ferocity in battle and loyalty to the crown was firmly established, even though this conflict saw more non-Scottish enlistees join the ranks of kilted Scottish units being raised far from Scotland, most notably in London.51 A unit like the Highland Light Infantry, which was created by the amalgamation of two Scottish regiments, actually abandoned trews to don kilts. Though the late nineteenth century witnessed a sharp decline in the number of recruits from rural Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh proportionally provided more troops to Kitchener in 1914 than any other British cities. This martial reputation had self-fulfilling results. 27% of the male population of Scotland fought during the First World War and more than 130,000 of them lost their lives. Once again, their uniforms came under parliamentarian scrutiny as the lack of tartan cloth forced the British army to supply its Scottish regiments with “drab-coloured kilts” which did not satisfy the wearers as Lord Moncreiff, a member of the House of Lords, explained in 1915:

• 53 Scottish Regiments (Kilts). Oral Answers to Questions — British Army.—in the House of Commons on 23(...)
• 54 Hansard, Mr Pierse Loftus, (Conservative MP for Lowestoft), Regimental Badges and Traditions. Hous (...)
• 55 See the official 51^st Highland Division website and online museum, <https://51hd.co.uk/history/mobi (...)

22During the Second World War, the Highland dress still stimulated debates in the House of Commons. In January 1940, Highlander regiments were denied the right to wear kilts because of the threat posed by poison gas. When faced with questions about the supply of kilts for the army, Oliver Stanley, the then Secretary of State for War, clearly stated that he was “not prepared to subordinate the demands for actual fighting dress to the making of kilts”.53 In 1943, the same regiments serving at home decided to keep their distinctive tartans rather than retain their regimental titles.54 One unit from the 51^st Highland division symbolically burned one kilt before burying it under a stone memorial marked “we hope not for long”.55 The rest of the war saw kilts reserved for bagpipers during ceremonies while combat troops adopted trousers.

• 58 Hansard, Major Guy Lloyd (Unionist MP for East Renfrewshire, south of Glasgow), CLAUSE 1. —(Liabil (...)

25To which another Unionist politician, Major Guy Lloyd, added that it was a “definite slur upon the traditions of Scottish regiments, and a more deliberate slur upon the people and soldiers of Scotland”.58

• 59 Colonel Alan Gomme-Duncan (Unionist MP for Perth), quoted in Mr. Shinwell’s Statement, Hansard, Hou (...)
• 60 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1968/jun/25/scottish-regiments-future.

26In the period 1745-1945, the Scottish soldier became the embodiment of Britishness. The contemporary demand for merging single-battalion regiments together has caused uproars in Scotland as it implies that the Scottish nation’s identity as part of a greater imperial power is proportionally weakened. By 1949, the actual number of Scotsmen enlisted in the Royal Scots Greys, which used to be considered as one of the most Scottish units of the armoured regiments of the British army, was only thirteen percent.59 After the Second World War, and most importantly in the late 1950s, drastic reforms of the British army spelled the end of some of the oldest Scottish regiments. Debates in the House of Commons of the late 1950s and early 1960s echoed the fierce resistance put in place to retain the regiments.60

• 61 House of Commons, Hansard, Mr Nigel Fisher (Conservative MP for Hitchin), Married Quarters, debate (...)

27Symbolically, these units fought to keep their kilts within the British forces. In the early 1950s, a simple battledress replaced the smart uniforms worn by soldiers when off duty. Such a decision was resented by the rank and file as well as the officers since the Royal Navy and the RAF still wore slightly more elegant uniforms, making the British army the “sartorial Cinderella of the forces”.61 By 1957, recruiting figures among Scottish regiments were extremely low, which seemed to justify the army’s decision to merge two regiments, the Royal Scottish Fusiliers and the Highland Light Infantry, in order to produce a more robust unit. Ignorance of the finer details about Highlander and Scottish uniforms on the part of non-Scottish MPs as well as the Government was obviously criticised by the Scottish Unionist Party, a natural ally of the Conservatives:

• 64 House of Lords, Hansard, 27 March 1958, vol. 208, col. 516.
• 65 House of Commons, Hansard, Royal Scots Fusiliers and Highland Light Infantry, debate 11 December 19 (...)

29In the end, brigade groupings were accepted, even the Highland Light Infantry eventually consented.64 Trews were also accepted, since the amalgamated units were mainly from the Lowlands and could not technically call on the Highlander tradition.65

• 67 House of Commons, Hansard, Lord Wavell in 1948 quoted by Mr Hector Monro (Scottish Unionist and Con (...)
• 68 Composed of the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
• 69 Composed of the Black Watch, the Queen’s Own Highlanders, the Gordon Highlanders and the Argyll and (...)
• 70 House of Commons, Hansard, Scottish Regiments (Future), debate 15 July 1968, vol. 768, col. 1048-11 (...)
• 71 House of Commons, Hansard, “Save the Argylls” Petition, debate 26 February 1969, vol. 778, col. 171 (...)

32After campaigns in Brunei, Borneo and Aden, Scottish regiments were slowly disbanded. By 14 May 1968, the Cameronians, one of the oldest Lowland regiments that had acquired some Highland symbols such as bagpipers and tartan forage cap, no longer existed as a separate unit after they refused to be merged with another Lowland regiment. The British Army was once again reduced in size, with Scotland losing yet more units to amalgamation. The Highland’s military tradition fought against a “soulless uniformity”.67At the time, there was a Lowland Brigade68 and a Highland Brigade.69 Two battalions of Scots Guards and the Royal Scots Greys within the armoured corps completed these Scottish units.70 As part of the Highland Brigade, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were threatened with disbandment since their services east of Suez were no longer required, which triggered a major response in Scotland with a campaign dubbed “Save the Argylls” with a million people signing a petition against their disbandment.71 Reduced to a single company, it was restored a few years later and was part of the British Army until 2012. It is now almost only retained as a “Public Duties Incremental Company”, in other words a small ceremonial unit.

• 72 House of Commons, Hansard, Major-General Jack d’Avigdor-Goldsmid (Conservative MP for Lichfield and (...)

33In the late 1960s, as the Troubles developed throughout Northern Ireland, the local population first saw the presence of Scottish troops as a positive move from London, with examples of fraternisation between the Catholic population and the “Jocks”, the nickname commonly given to Scotsmen in the British Isles.72 But such good will did not last. In the early years of the following decade, tensions rose steadily between communities with Scottish troopers by then viewed as objective allies of the Unionists. Though the Royal Scots Regiment was originally not wearing Highlander items of clothing, by the early 1970s it did have Scottish elements added to its usual battledress, such as a bonnet and tartan trews, all of which had a negative effect among the Catholic community:

• 76 House of Commons, Hansard, Mr. Tam Dalyell (Labour MP for West Lothian), The Army, debate 06 May 19 (...)

36Tam Dalyell, a Labour MP who opposed Devolution, replied by stating “If the Scottish National Party is to retain every historic Scottish regiment, it will find it a bit difficult”, since most Scottish regiments were recruited with men from England.76 In any case, Devolution was not meant to dismantle Britain’s national security and the logistical, political and cultural problems caused by an independent Scottish Army were then deemed insurmountable.

• 77 House of Commons, Hansard, Julian Brazier (Conservative MP for Canterbury), Services Discipline, de (...)

37By the 1980s, the Scottish regiments were used as an inspiration to create new ethnic units that could rely on men from particular communities living in the UK. One Conservative MP, Julian Brazier, suggested the creation of a Sikh regiment in London, based on the assumption that Highlander regiments could still rely on Scottish recruits.77 Interestingly, the tradition of the Scottish regiments as an ethnic unit also entailed forms of racism, especially according to Diane Abbott, one of the first female Black British MPs serving in the Labour party. She pointed out in 1991 that the Scottish regiments refused to enlist black recruits:

• 80 House of Commons, Hansard, Army Regiments, debate 14 October 1991, vol. 196, col. 121. The Poll tax (...)
• 81 House of Commons, Hansard, Army, debate 28 October 1998, vol. 318, col. 360-435.

39In 1991, 800,000 Scottish people signed a petition against the amalgamation of the Royal Scots and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers as well as the Queen’s Own Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders. They were also against the loss of the second battalion of the Scots Guards. According to John Home Robertson, a Labour MP for East Lothian, nothing had stirred such strong feelings among Scottish people except the poll tax.80 By 1994, the Queen’s Own Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders did merge into a single unit and, in many ways, the Scottish regiments were disappearing as fast as the last remnants of the British Empire were melting away. When Britain retroceded Hong Kong to China in 1997, Black Watch pipers were among the last troops to leave under heavy rain, creating a moving spectacle for the closing years of the twentieth century. Reorganisation of the British Army in 1998 meant that the Land Command Second Division had its headquarters transferred from Edinburgh to York, with 80 percent of its soldiers stationed in England and the remaining 20 per cent in Scotland.81 Soon, amalgamations were back and the debates in Parliament echoed the fears of MPs representing Scottish constituencies.

• 82 Scottish regiments (31^st May 2001), question by David McLetchie (Conservative MSP for Lothian)about (...)

40Committees belonging to either houses never officially broached the question of kilted regiments, but their survival was often mentioned during parliamentarian sessions, including those held in the newly reinstated Scottish Parliament after 1999. In May 2001, the Scottish Parliament held debates concerning the future of the Highland and Lowland brigades, despite the fact that Defence remains a reserved matter.82 Beyond the symbolic aspect of keeping kilted units, the MSPs focused on the question of jobs related to the UK military presence. The question was posed by a member of the Conservative party who blamed Labour for planning to disband yet another Scottish military institution. The SNP accused both parties of suffering from “selective amnesia” as Tory and Labour governments had both participated in drastic cuts within Scottish military capabilities. When the second Gulf War emphasised the need for experienced troops, management reforms and budget cuts affected the British Army and Highlander units:

• 84 House of Commons, Hansard, Miss Ann Begg (Labour MP for Aberdeen South), Defence White Paper/Operat (...)

41Other MPs from Scotland also voiced their concern to see Highlander kilted units “consigned to the museum of history”.84 In the end, the merging did take place:

• 87 https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/24607/maintaining-the-strength-of-the-british-army. Ear (...)
• 88 https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/29486/black-watch-red-hackle

43A motion tabled on 7 September 2004, signed by nine MPs from the Conservative, Democratic Unionist and Labour parties asked “That this House recognises the immense contribution that the Scottish regiments have made to the British Army over the last four centuries” and contested the planned reduction of Highland regiments in the land forces.87 From a more symbolic point of view, MPs from the Conservative side, as well as one member of the SNP, tabled a motion demanding that the Black Watch be allowed to continue to wear the red hackle, a decoration linked to the traditional Highland uniform “following the unwanted merger of all Scottish regiments”.88 The Highland regiments are constantly torn between their actual use and the symbolic value of their existence. The SNP counted on the resentment borne out of the disbandments to win seats in the 2005 general election, as shown in this extract from the Guardian:

• 90 Richard Norton-Taylor, “Queen steps into Black Watch row”, The Guardian, 7 December 2004, https://w (...)
• 91 National Army Museum, “The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)”, https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/black-wa (...)

44Elisabeth II personally intervened to maintain the Black Watch as a viable unit,90 yet it merged with other battalions to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The Black Watch is its third battalion.91

• 92 Scotland’s Future, your guide to an independent Scotland, <https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotla (...)
• 93 Hansard, House of Commons, Integrated Review, volume 684, debated on Thursday 19 November 2020.
• 94 Tweet from the Ministry of Defence Press Office, 9 November 2020.
• 95 https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?endDate=2022-09-19&memberId=4627&outputTyp (...)
• 96 Alexander Brown, “SNP warns dismantling Black Watch would be ‘serious betrayal’ amid reports it cou (...)

45Nearly a decade later, the Royal Regiment of Scotland replaced most of the old traditional units as fusions multiplied. During the independence referendum campaign of 2014, the SNP openly relied on Scottish military traditions with a promise that “the units of the Scottish Army [would] carry on the names, identities and traditions of Scotland’s regiments, including those lost in the defence reorganisation of 2006.”92 Rumours in 2020 of the disbandment of the Black Watch battalion fuelled discussions about the lack of concern and respect on the part of the London Government for Scottish military traditions. During a debate in November 2020, Boris Johnson guaranteed the future of the Black Watch to Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, “as long as [Blackford] doesn’t continue with his ambitions to break up the United Kingdom”.93 As if to reinforce the idea that “the Black Watch is going nowhere”94, Douglas Ross, the head of the Scottish Conservatives and de facto leader of the opposition, reminded the readers of The Scotsman of the tradition embodied by the Highlander regiment: “The Black Watch is more than just a symbol of our shared history and traditions, it’s a Scottish and British institution that continues to play a vital role in our armed services”, though Hansard shows that he never mentioned the regiment during debates held in the House of Commons.95 In the same article, the former Liberal Democrat leader, Lord Campbell, explained that disbanding the Black Watch would inevitably help the cause for independence.96