Pipers to be banned in Edinburgh

[highlander_Daz]

perhaps it should be limited to pipers who have the college of pipeing performers certificate

[JerseyLawyer]

perhaps it should be limited to pipers who have the college of pipeing performers certificate

As I recall, the requirements for that are pretty onerous. I know I wouldn't pass, since I don't play for dancing (I'm sure I could learn how, but that's neither here nor there). But then again, maybe we should be doing more to protect the listening public from pipers who take their money and deliver substantially sub-par performance.

There are pipers I know who play a lot of gigs, and I find myself asking (So I says to myself, says I, self...) "they took /money/ for this?"

That's not to disparage the many fine people who play gigs. It's just a shame that some people think anyone who can learn "Amazing Grace" and "The Minstrel Boy" can be a paid piper.

[Nick the DSM]

perhaps it should be limited to pipers who have the college of pipeing performers certificate

genius!! thats a great idea! get all the bad pipers out and tell em to practice!

[JS Sanders]

Substandard pipers seem to've brought this draconian ruling upon themselves, and regrettably the few capable pipers.

To paraphrase myself from another recent thread though, "I ain't got a dog in this fight".

Too much else in life is more important for me. The powerbrokers in Edinburgh can decide things for themselves.

Slainte yall,
steve

[jordanjm]

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]

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]

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.