If you ask members of the Armed Forces to risk their lives for their country, which is implicit when they join up, it follows that any Government has a special duty of care towards them.

In the army, that concern is obvious in the family atmosphere which prevails among the various regiments, most of them around 600 men.

The commanding officer, usually a Lieutenant-Colonel, knows most of his soldiers personally and is responsible for their welfare. He ensures they are properly trained and equipped and get adequate rest between the increasing number of duties they are being asked to undertake.

To disband the Scottish regiments and to amalgamate them into a much larger force risks weakening this sense of belonging for individual soldiers and could affect their esprit de corps and effectiveness as a fighting force.

I have the highest regard for the Black Watch but why are they operating under the Scottish flag near Fallujah? Surely they are not ashamed to fly the Union Jack? Or is this another straw in the wind of the gradual break-up of the United Kingdom under this Labour Government.

Alan Nunn

-Pipers Close, Hove