Want to stop the rioting? Bring back this Catholic Regiment!

If you are below the age of fifty years or so, or live in a far flung place like the United States of America or Bangor in North Wales, you may not have  heard of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Sadly, this regiment is no longer  a separate  identity as it fell victim to the defence cuts of 2006 and was amalgamated into the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

It has, like all of the Highland Regiments a glorious history but, I recall how it managed a situation akin to the one that we have seen played out on the streets of London and other major cities over the past 6 or 7  days.



Leading from the front. Lt. Col Mitchell

and some of his hard men!



Let me take you to Aden back in 1967, then a British colony coming to the end of its civilised rule and about to fall under the flag of Marxist extremism.

Various British Regiments had tried to contain law and order in this inhospitable bit of wasteland that we now know as The Yemen, but all had suffered casualties in the bloody terrorist attacks from alleyways and rooftops and the thugs had often set premises ablaze in order to tempt out the military so that they, in turn could be picked off by snipers.

The town of Crater was a hotbed of violence and the terrorists had the run of the streets - sound familiar? Then the Argyll and Sutherlands moved in under the command of a great warrior, Lt Col. Colin Mitchell.

They did not prissy around waiting for riots to subside; they went in and went in very hard. The Marxist mob got a nasty surprise. Suddenly they were being confronted by rather tall Highland men with a capacity to shoot those who carried weapons or hammer very efficiently, those who did not. Now I am not advocating shooting the UK rioters...not yet at any rate, but I do like no nonsense solutions in a crisis. A vague sort of order returned and the British were able to withdraw from Aden with some haste admittedly, but at least their heads were held high.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were mainly recruited from those two Scottish shires and so, the Regiment was not only largely Catholic, it was also a family where the men of one village might find themselves together in one platoon. The Regimental motto perhaps describes their pedigree best - Sans Peur (Without Fear).

That is what we need in Manchester, Salford, Gloucester, London and the other areas.....a little bit of good Catholic discipline, handed out by young men reared on a diet of porridge, salt herrings and malt whisky -  at the business end of a bayonet!