Letter: Colours scandal

This singular colour being presented is made up of six battle honours from each of the original Scottish regiments and will be the only one available to each of the regiments.

It will have to be passed around the regiments when the occasion arises for the colour to be unfurled, unlike the old regiments which each possessed their own regimental colour. It also must be the last straw in the demise of the old Scottish regiments loved and revered the world over.

When the veterans march off their old colours after the Queen has presented the new ones to the RRS it must signal the end of a long marriage of the regiments with the people of Scotland; only the distinguished hackles remain and they are now in dispute.

It will now transpire that the soldiers in the RRS are marching behind a colour with battle honours that don't belong to them, with their regiment playing no part in that conflict and hardly worth rallying around it.

We veterans on parade, me included, are really not interested in a singular colour being presented to the new. We are simply on parade to take back into custody our cherished regimental colour, march it off parade with dignity and give it is final resting place.

It is a piece of history that we veterans did not want and never thought possible.

(Maj) Bob Ritchie MBE

Bloom Court

Livingston