Tom Peterkin: Scottish soldiers in Afghanistan shame our politicians with the sort of spirit sadly lacking in public life

A couple of weeks ago I watched soldiers in Helmand Province demolish the wall of a disused compound that had been commandeered by them. As a journalist embedded with the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Afghanistan I saw the men of the Royal Highland Fusiliers lay waste to that structure with a ferocity that was truly impressive.

Pickaxes and sledge hammers were wielded by a the soldiers with an awe-inspiring aggression. They had been told that the wall must come down. So, within a matter of minutes, it was no more. Its demise had been ordered to make life more comfortable in their camp, from where they were training the Afghan police – a job, which every day, put them at risk from Taleban gunmen and bombs.

The way these soldiers destroyed that structure would have given health and safety officers a fit. A sergeant, a fine example of that breed of Scottish NCOs for whom no task is too difficult, bounded along the top of the teetering wall barking instructions at his men underneath. In turn, his Jocks attacked the wall with an enthusiasm that the Berliners of 1989 would have struggled to match. The NCO seemed entirely unconcerned that the 15ft wall, upon which he was perched, was about to be toppled by his own men, swinging weapons that were far more rudimentary than the SA80 light machine guns that they usually handled. Fijian rugby players serving with the regiment, put the boot into the wall with a vigour sadly absent from any of the penalty kicks taken during this Six Nations campaign.

Other men shoulder-charged this imposing structure with an abandon that made a Jim Telfer rucking session look like a teddy bears' picnic. The wall could not withstand such an onslaught for long and it duly tumbled. Yet another example of the "can do" attitude that is ingrained in the Scottish soldier. What a refreshing change from the "can't do" attitude that seems to prevail in Scottish political and public life at home. Destroying a wall may not be the most constructive task ever imagined, but it was completed ahead of schedule, with minimum fuss and within budget.

And let's not forget, the men of the Royal Regiment of Scotland did not confine their skills and positive attitudes to destroying walls. At the behest of their political masters, they were uncomplainingly braving a deadly terrorist threat. And nothing, no matter how trivial, was too much trouble. A rucksack left by a frightened journalist on a Chinock helicopter was retrieved by these fine men.

Compare that with the Edinburgh tram fiasco, the torpor of a parliament that cannot do anything because no-one will agree on anything and an election campaign that sees the two main parties competing against each other to make the same promises that neither of them can keep. If only the RHF's sledgehammers and pickaxes could be used to bash some "can do" into the heads of our "can't do" public figures at home.