Dear All
Sometimes organisations change their name, in the case of
the Glasgow Herald, it was changed to Herald Scotland in order to boost its
sales.
In the case of the Police due to the restructuring, it was
changed to Police Scotland. In general, some organisations benefit from a name
change, the Herald did it to boost sales as I pointed out; the Police did it
because of the mergers of 8 forces into a single body.
You can see the argument for this; that said, there is no
argument which stands up regarding Legion Scotland being changed from what it
was previously known as The Royal British Legion Scotland.
The Royal British Legion Scotland has undergone an
extraordinary ill judged change; this new name change doesn’t reflect and
shouldn’t reflect the new political situation of post 18th
September. I was formerly a member of the British Armed Forces; I have fond
memories of that time, the people I met and things which were taught to me.
Whoever it was who had the idea for Legion Scotland has no
understanding of the anger that has been caused, and the name change should be reversed
as quickly as possible!
Social media sites have been rather savage and right full of
criticism of the move. This has led to the newly branded body suspended or
"disabled, all comments and reviews on its website.
Unsurprisingly, it is said that Legion Scotland had comments
banned on its website, "during this period of remembrance, out of respect
for those people who have given their lives for our country, due to their
negative and abusive nature".
I thought it was to do with silencing free speech.
You would think that an organisation such as the Royal
British Legion Scotland would cherish their links with both the Royal family
and Britain
given the tremendous amount of work that the Royals do on supporting service
charities.
The “official reason” for the change is explained as being
an attempt to differentiate the Scottish veterans' organisation from The Royal
British Legion group of charities, which are completely separate from the
charity that is active in Scotland .
I would like to venture an opinion regarding that
statement….utter rubbish.
I would also note that despite the new political situation
in Scotland
at present, we should remember a few details. Firstly Scotland is still part of
the UK, secondly, the Nationalists lost the referendum; thirdly their support
for the British Armed Forces is at best lukewarm.
If you care to do the research, you can discovery some other
interesting things about the Nationalist cause, for example, some prominent
Nationalists supported the Nazis during World War 2. Fast forward to the
present day and you would find people in the Nationalist ranks which I
previously dubbed the ‘Sein Fein lite’ brigade who aren’t Nationalists at all but
use the SNP to spread their brand of anti British hatred which stems from Irish
republicanism.
This begs the question, are Legion Scotland pandering to
these people?
Also, if they are this is the equivalent of spitting in the
faces of Scottish servicemen and women who did military service and put their
lives on the line in the defence of democracy, some people paid the ultimate
price for the freedoms we enjoy today.
Legion Scotland
has soiled their memory.
I would personally remove the individual or individuals who
did this name change, some things change, but others aren’t open to change at
all; they are a statement of our values, our history and our beliefs.
I found this quote which sums what I believe many people who
look at this know:
“Who we are, is who we were”.
As I understand it, Scotland ’s ‘jolly fat man’
currently the soon to be ex First Minister of Scotland is said to be wearing a
poppy in conjunction with a Saltire. This reminds me of the ‘Scolympians’
nonsense, when Salmond and the entire SNP Cabinet sent good wishes only to the
Scots who were in Team Great Britain during the Olympics. That episode was a PR
shambles because Salmond couldn’t bring himself to wish the entire Team GB good
luck.
My view on Alex Salmond is that he is a petty little stupid man
in every sense of the word, and someone really should have a go at him with
gloves off politically to show him up for what he is on TV.
My suggestion to those responsible for Legion Scotland to go
setup a Nationalist Scottish version and remove themselves from The Royal
British Legion Scotland as soon as possible.
In what must be the weakest defence of their extraordinary
ill judged move, they said:
"Royal British Legion Scotland is still our legal name,
and one of which we are very proud and we do all that we can to help all
Scottish ex-service personnel and those with a Scottish connection."
So proud, that their name change completely writes out
‘Royal’ and ‘British’, it rather gives the impression of crawling to the
Nationalists whose supporters don’t support them anyway.
Finally, it said that the staff at "Legion
Scotland" are fed up explaining themselves, they said:
"We have answered the query surrounding the name 'Legion
Scotland' on our website. However if anyone has any further questions we
suggest that you get in touch using the contact form on our website or by
letter. Unfortunately due to this being a very busy time for the charity it may
take a week or so to respond to your query."
Perhaps it is time to talk about the removal of those
responsible as soon as possible so that they can find more suitable employment
working in a less historic place such as Poundland or Tesco.
That way they can play at rebranding exercises to their
hearts content!
It’s a disgrace, but not a word from the Nationalist
leadership because they really don’t give a hoot about British servicemen and
women unless it is about troop displacement supporting the local economy in
Scotland.
That is the extent of their patriotism.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
3 comments:
A bit of accountability is needed George, those responsible should come out and acknowedge their severe error in judgement. After which they should quietly resign I have no doubt that those responsible were probably campaigning to seperate this country in September, the lack of publicity about it was also disturbing.
As an injured ex serviceman who has had brilliant help from the Royal British Legion Scotland, I think it's a piece of nonsense changing it's name. Wether you are English, Welsh, Northern Irish or Scottish we all fought together for the freedom of all of the UK. We also all took the Queens oath on the bible. I would urge whoever is in charge of the legion here to reverse there decision.
"My view on Alex Salmond is that he is a petty little stupid man in every sense of the word, and someone really should have a go at him with gloves off politically to show him up for what he is on TV."
Absolutely, George. He's as thick as two short planks, and the fact that he has managed to con voters and a slavish media for so long into believing that he isn't must go down as one of the greatest illusions ever pulled off.
So, fair play to him for that, I guess. But he's still as thick as pigsh*t.
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