I sometimes wonder if we are losing the plot, when it comes to the kilt and the traditions behind it. Here I'm thinking of it as the dress of the clansman-the highlander: not the recently assumed national dress of Scotland, nor of dancers, or at lowland weddings. I could go on, but I've probably annoyed enough people already.

Now the clansman was not of necessity a nice chap, he lived in a world of feuds, cattle raiding, ambushes. Think here of say the North-West Frontier of India in the late 19th/early 20thC. Or maybe the American Plains Indians - not the John Wayne version as seen by us poor Brits: rather the endemic bloody intertribal warfare as portrayed in the many accounts/autobiographies of the 19thC.

So we are not thinking about people who we of the 21stC would of necessity see as nice chaps: rather we are thinking about some rather violent and oft unsavoury characters.

OK what has that got to do with the kilt and our today, and why am I waffling on?

Now think about some recent posts-the number of times such things as erudite arguments come up regarding such terms as 'costume v garb'. Or delicate references to wearing the kilt correctly. Do we really imagine that such things would be of great concern to the highlander?

I'd suggest that his main concerns would be having something to wear, food in his stomach, and watching his own back: and the backs of his fellow clansfolk. Whilst keeping an eye open for anything not nailed down that he could get away with.

And there would be something else, the self pride of the warrior: a pride in offering a bold and dashing appearance to the world. His tartan might be frayed and dirty, his arms worn: but he had his pride and his swagger-that spit in your eye look.

Akin to the soldier of today who coming off the line, off operations or whatever-marches those last few yards-however tired-filthy-maybe fewer in numbers: but comes in at attention. Pride.

Now at last to the point: we might argue about the provenance of this or that tartan, or that and this tradition, but they are really peripherals.

For when wearing the kilt we should be asking ourselves: am I wearing it with that pride, swagger and elan. For if we are not, then we are failing.

So when people see a chap in an unbifurcated garment-that is one thing: but when they see a man in the kilt-they should see a real man with all the dash and bravado that goes with being a man.

This all means that our concern should not of necessity be about the small print of sporrans-skean dhu-flashes even: but are we offering a spit in your eye warrior image, where we are wearing our kilt with panache.

So I will close by being really offensive: we are either eccentric men who have what are to us entirely valid reasons for wearing a skirt: or we are real men wearing the only garment that today reflects our pride in being real men. More we are the men to be copied by any man who wants to be seen as a real man in today's world.

James