Salmond's new Scots Army

With the real costs of maintaining independent armed forces being made clear, Alex Salmond’s dreams of a Scots army are looking increasingly unrealistic. Instead of an army equivalent to that of Norway or Sweden, it’s looking more like Scotland can only afford one to rival Luxembourg. Still, Luxembourg uses it’s contribution of an infantry company to claim a place at the table of both NATO and the Eurocorps command, and though having no air force, offers ‘Amazon’ registration to NATO’s 18 AWACS aircraft. 

The new battalion-sized Scots army could include an artillery company with two or three old field guns for firing ceremonial salutes as well as preserving the identity of the historic Scots regiments at platoon or section level; The Cameronians could be reconstituted as ten men under the command of a corporal from Perth, wearing the distinctive Douglas tartan and so forth. A parade of the full battalion would therefore be a festive occasion, a multiplicity of colourful tartans, and even the guns could be painted in a clan-neutral Burberry check. 

The Royal Company of Archers, a subscription club that currently forms the sovereign’s bodyguard in Scotland, could be placed on an operational footing to add to military capacity. In return for membership fees, every officer in the corps currently ranks as a general, and every private as a colonel. This may cause some minor problems with NATO integration, but modern military commanders will no doubt come to value a sturdy body of middle-aged accountants with stout yew bows and arrows on their flank when facing a schwerpunkt of Russian armour. The suggestion that the historic uniform of the Royal Company (illustrated) could be adopted as the No 1 full dress of the new Scots army also has much to commend it. All in all, I think Salmond’s onto a winner here.