Last updated 21:48, Wednesday, 30 April 2008

HAS bureaucracy gone mad? Will EU legislation dumb down the skirl of our Scottish bagpipes?

Conservative Euro MP Struan Stevenson has spoken out against “daft” new EU laws that could silence bagpipes in Scotland for the first time since Culloden.

Speaking in Strasbourg, he said: “Although we have very tough noise regulations in the UK, the European Commission has now brought in even tougher laws, reducing the maximum noise exposure limits from 90 decibels to 87.

“Because decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, this difference of three decibels means a reduction of 50%. A set of bagpipes can reach 130 decibels when played.

“The directive, which is aimed at protecting employees, will mean that anyone playing in a pipe band would have to wear earplugs to comply with this daft directive. We in Scotland have a proud tradition of bagpipe playing. Imagine how Flower of Scotland would sound at Murrayfield on a muted tape rather than by Queen Victoria’s school from Dunblane on their bagpipes.”

If this iniquitous ruling becomes law, the “100 pipers an’ a’ an’ a’” will be “ower the border awa’ awa’” and marching on into Europe to drown the voices of the European bureaucrats.

Langholm certainly seems to be receiving its share of media coverage at the moment.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the new project on the Langholm moor and on Sunday during the Landward programme I pricked up my ears when I heard Nick Nairn introducing a topi with the words “heather moorland is one of Scotland’s defining landscapes but one moor in Dumfriesshire became a battleground between country sports and conservationists. Now peace has broken out on the moor and there are plans for a new beginning”.

Next, reporter Ken Rundle said “the fires are being lit again at Langholm” and there were shots of muirburning, a rare sight in recent years and now a welcome one as burning the old heather makes way for new growth.

“For 10 years this desolate moor has lain virtually abandoned,” were Rundle’s words. “In 1992 there began a five-year experiment.

“It was supposed to show how birds of prey and shooting interests could live together but instead of solving anything, it sparked a row that rumbled on for years”.

One side blamed the other, the shortage of grouse being put down to birds of prey, while conservationists blamed overgrazing. With no income from grouse shooting, keepers lost their jobs, leaving grouse, heather and wildlife unmanaged.

For some these old arguments are still smouldering but now this £3m project is said by Professor Colin Galbraith of SNH to be a “unique project to solve a unique problem”.

The report ended with a shot of a curlew gliding over the moor behind Whita. The iconic moorland bird was chosen as the logo for the Langholm moor and what more fitting symbol? I heard their plaintive call on Timpen on Sunday.