THE GOVERNMENT should have the courage to put regimental restructuring proposals before Parliament, a former Black Watch officer claimed yesterday.

Colin Campbell, 4th/5th Battalion Adjutant in Dundee in the 1960s, said it is despicable that the infantry review is being carried out by a “junta” in the parliamentary recess and while Scots are serving in Iraq.

The former officer, who was threatened with court martial for publicly denouncing a previous threat to the regiment, also attacked claims that the Scottish Division has a poor recruitment record and said the MoD itself is undermining regimental appeal because of a recent policy switch.

Mr Campbell, who has retired to Benbecula in the Western Isles, claimed a small number of generals are using the cover of economic necessity to force through proposals which they know are unpalatable to Scotland. Instead, said Mr Campbell, they are following their own “partisan motives”.

“The proposals are attributed to the Chancellor’s spending cuts announced only months ago,” said Mr Campbell. “They are not, therefore, the result of a comprehensive defence review which itself would be subject to scrutiny by the Commons Defence Select Committee.

“The proposals have deliberately been announced while parliament is on its long summer recess: although they have been in secret gestation since at least last autumn.

“All these factors suggest a furtiveness of approach which is deplorable in such a powerful military ‘junta’.”

Mr Campbell said proposals for large regiments would not lead to savings and claimed the generals’ reason for trimming the Scottish infantry—indifferent recruiting—is misleading.

“Enormous duplicity lies behind this charge since the MoD knows well that its comparatively new policy of sending Scottish recruits down to England for training, together with its dismantling of recruiting and TA infrastructures, could only have had a deleterious effect on regimental appeal to potential soldiers north of the border.”

He said the most “despicable” aspect of the review is that it is taking place while infantrymen are fighting in Iraq.

“Surely the very least the Government should now do is to order the reconsideration of any decision…until Parliament has been reconvened and can be confronted by the enormity of the betrayal that is being perpetrated in their name by scheming generals.”

Meanwhile, a former SAS deputy commander warned yesterday that infantry cuts may rebound on the Government.

Clive Fairweather, the former Scottish prisons inspector and commander of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, described reductions on the back of the Northern Ireland peace dividend as a “dubious argument.”

Colonel Fairweather said there is a better case for increasing the number of infantrymen.

“We need to retain at least the infantry strength we have at the moment to meet our global commitments,” said Sir Clive.

“Cutting manpower on the basis that peace has broken out in Northern Ireland is a dubious argument which might rebound on the Government. It also fails to address unforeseen emergencies like Sudan. There is a case for increasing numbers rather than reducing them.”

Informed speculation, based on a letter from Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Irwin, has suggested the creation of a three-battalion Highland regiment and two-battalion lowland regiment. The shedding of one of the six regiments has led critics to describe this as the Jackson Five—after General Sir Michael Jackson’s bid to cut the Scottish Division down to five regiments.