Orcadian column, 13 November 2025

Over the course of a weekend of remembrance, I heard so many stories about the personal contributions and sacrifices of Orcadians during the First and Second World Wars as well as more recent conflicts. These stories speak to the way in which our community has stood up and played its part during the darkest times of our past.

On Friday evening, the Remembrance Dinner at the Royal British Legion in Kirkwall was another enjoyable occasion, albeit one with a serious purpose at its heart. A good turnout of veterans, partners and other guests heard this year from Eday’s Moira Byers, a veteran of the Women’s RAF, who recently picked up the War Memorial Champion of Champions Award on behalf of her community at a Legion Scotland ceremony in Lady Haig House. Eday is rightly proud of its memorial and the 22 island residents it honours who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Moira spoke with real passion about a 23rd Eday man who lost his life but whose name does not appear on the memorial. Edgar Tulloch was in his early-20s when he was called up. On the journey into Kirkwall, however, he threw himself overboard, leaving his family grief-stricken. Indeed, so traumatised was Edgar’s young fiancé, Moira explained, that she refused to say goodbye to anyone again for the rest of her life. It was just one more example of the lasting horror of war, why it’s so important to remember but also why we best honour that memory by committing to learn the lessons of history.

From Eday to Evie and happier times earlier on Friday as I paid a visit to Evie Primary School to meet P5-7 pupils. I confess I was more than a little excited at the prospect. On my previous visits, I found that the pupils, as part of their research into politics and elections, had created first a Potato Parliament and then a Pasta Parliament. There was joy unconfined when I discovered I had been successfully elected to both!

This time there was no food-based legislature, although an animated debate took place about the potential for a future Banana Parliament. I remain hopeful of retaining my seat, even if I have my doubts about the advisability of making MSPs out of foodstuffs with a relatively short shelf life. It could get messy!

Meantime, for an hour the discussion rattled along as pupils fizzed with questions, policy suggestions and helpful campaigning advice. It was all very opportune with the forthcoming Holyrood election in May next year. More worryingly for me perhaps, a fair number of the pupils seemed very keen on a career as Orkney’s MSP. Rest assured I’m taking this ‘threat’ seriously.

Having recently held class elections, the pupils talked me through their manifesto ideas. Not surprisingly, perhaps, agriculture featured prominently and I was pressed on what I had been doing lately to help farming in the

islands. As it happens, this allowed me to talk about my exchange with the Agriculture Minister, Jim Fairlie in parliament earlier in the week. When the Scottish Government announced plans for a Future Farming Investment Scheme, Ministers insisted that island businesses, new entrants, young and tenant farmers would be prioritised for funding.

Unfortunately, this was not borne out by the time emails dropped into farmers’ inboxes late last month. Many who believed they ticked most if not all of the boxes found their applications rejected with no explanation given. As I pointed out to Mr Fairlie, this has left farmers in Orkney and across the country astonished, confused and angry. Mr Fairlie insists almost half of applications were ‘ineligible’ which simply reinforces the sense that this whole process has been rushed, leading to failures in implementation and communication. For clarity, I thought it best to spare the Evie pupils this level of detail.

The other issue that featured in all the different manifestos prepared by the class was defence. A sobering reminder that even amongst ten and eleven year olds there is an awareness of the precarious times in which we live. Another compelling reason why we must continue to commit not just to remember but to learn the lessons of the past