Pipers to be banned in Edinburgh

**McClef** · 12th June 08, 03:42 PM

I had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April 1!

Too often the sight of a kilted piper is all that visitors to Edinburgh will get of a man in a kilt out in the streets.

One would think that the police would have better things to do than persecute people who are actually helping the tourist industry,buskers or not.

Its not like they are playing late at night keeping folk awake.

**Roan Carter** · 12th June 08, 04:33 PM

If you don't like pipes, gtho of Scotland.

But on the flipside, there are a number of styles of bagpipes that are very soft and pleasant. Some of them you can even sleep next to. There are many options here. But the police state of the old empire probably won't hear it.

**johnnym** · 12th June 08, 04:52 PM

Although I wear kilts, I do not play the pipes. I wish I could. My musical talent is about nil. Some have it, some don't. I admire those that can play any instrument, not just the pipes. My niece has played with the Chicago Symphony, but has a hard time putting gas in her car. I restore antique cars and listen to the pipes on the boom box.

**Nick the DSM** · 15th June 08, 03:59 PM

well, when i first saw the title i was shocked and thinking to myself - FUBAR! but then i thought about and it might be for the best.

**mbhandy** · 15th June 08, 05:10 PM

No Pipes in Edinburgh? That would be like banning Tea in England? What is the world coming to? Really Sad....

MrBill

**McClef** · 16th June 08, 03:24 AM

It was on the news this morning that someone in an English village had put in complaint about the church bell ringers practicing on a Sunday afternoon.

A tradition that has been going strong for 400 years...

And if the complainant gets their way it might lead to another tradition being banned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ay-locals.html

**jordanjm** · 16th June 08, 05:38 AM

A friend of mine suggested to me that Culloden+Banning of Tartan, Kilts, Gaelic, Public Gatherings, Weapons, & Bagpipes+Clearances left the Scottish diaspora with a desire to hold on to those things. If Scotland had been allowed to progress as an independent nation then these would not have been so important to the diaspora. So to those of us in the diaspora care more about these than a lot of modern Scots living in Scotland.

**highlander_Daz** · 16th June 08, 08:48 AM

Ive never seen any evidence that bagpipes were banned after culloden, and as ive said before i cant see this "ban" having any weight, i cant understand what legal basis the ban will have, perhaps a "mass pipe" on the royal mile with as many pipers as possible turning out on a specific time and date.

**JerseyLawyer** · 16th June 08, 09:52 AM

There was a spot about this on the BBC World Service the other day. Unfortunately, while the piper they featured as their backround music wasn't bad, he wasn't that great, either.

Anyway, I understand the need for people to sleep, but if pipers are playing during daytime and early evening hours, how is that different from the sort of noise that goes on in any busy city street? And given the amount of time that pipers have been busking on the mile, it seems to me that the people who moved in there came to the nuisance, so to speak.

I suppose street pipers could move to something quietier, like fireside or parlour pipes, or even shuttle pipes. But they don't have the same attraction as the GHB.