By Robert Wallace It is with sincere regret that I report the passing of Tommy Johnston, one of the great characters of pipe band drumming and piping, much loved father of Finlay and joint proprietor of world famous reedmaking company Pipe Dreams. Tommy passed away in hospital last night after a short illness aged only 65. His loss will be felt by all who knew him and his hundreds of…

By Robert Wallace There were a few points I missed in my ‘nightmare scenario’ comments last week. The first is the plight of our bagpipe making/ Highland supplies industry. Orders are slowing. Without pipe band competition, and to a lesser extent solo contests, the future does not look good. The blow to these companies is being offset at the moment by the UK government’s furlough scheme which guarantees 80% of…

UK Government scientists this week predicted a ‘reasonable worst case scenario’ of 119,000 deaths in January and February next year during a second wave of Covid-19. As we all recoil in horror, it is worth bearing in mind that there are opposing views in the scientific community about all this, the lack of unanimity among boffins a feature of the pandemic. But if this unlikely and disastrous circumstance were to…