Why I fully support a ban on 'distasteful' Tattoo fly pasts

A few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I was sitting in a roof garden in central Edinburgh, conducting an interview with a woman who had fled the war.

When the One o’Clock Gun went off from Edinburgh Castle, she visibly jumped, even though I had warned her it would happen. She told me how she had had to run out of an exhibition explaining the Blitz to school children, complete with realistic air raid sirens and noises of bombs - as it sparked an episode of PTSD.

It is not surprising she felt that way. War has edged closer in recent years - for all of us, not only for those from Ukraine who have seen their lives turned upside down by more than two years of missile attacks and bombing raids. The period of almost unprecedented peace that most of us in Scotland have so far experienced throughout our lifetimes is undoubtedly on a shoogly peg.

This is why it shocks me every year that we still celebrate a fly past of bombers as part of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. If my Ukrainian interviewee - or any of the other 20-odd thousand like her who left their war-torn home country for Scotland over the past two years - happened to be walking down Princes Street when one of the Tattoo military jets powered overhead, she would undoubtedly run for cover. To do so is now in-built in those who have personally lived through war.

A proposal for the flypast to be scrapped, for both environmental and emotional reasons, is being put before Edinburgh Council this week. The move will undoubtedly starkly divide opinion from those who view the Tattoo and its traditional flypast as a vital commemoration of our brave soldiers and the necessary work they do - and those who regard it as a jingoistic celebration of war.

Conflict is, sadly, part of the fabric of our world and our country’s participation, in some shape or form, is unavoidable. While we would surely all love there to be no need for the Army, or the Navy or the RAF, it is difficult to envisage a peaceful geopolitical situation where this could be possible.

And while there is no doubt those working in our armed forces should be lauded for their extreme bravery through commemoration services and through the support of military charities, the Tattoo does not fall into this category. It is not equivalent to Remembrance Day; it dos not aim to solemnly remember soldiers who have given up their lives to protect civilians and human rights around the world. Instead, it is pure entertainment - and lucrative entertainment at that.

Every summer, more than 200,000 paying customers, many of them tourists, cram into the Castle Esplanade to watch military bands perform. Their experience is punctuated by a firework display and a flypast of planes which, when not performing for American tourists in plastic cagouls who pat their palms together as they whoop in appreciation of these war machines, are sent into active combat in conflict zones.

Last year, the Eurofighter Typhoon featured prominently in the flypasts. This is, in case anyone has forgotten, the state of the art war plane which Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been calling for Western countries to supply to him to protect his nation, which is subject to nightly bombing raids.

On the RAF’s website, it states that the Typhoon is a key part of “all of the RAF’s current operations” and is “compatible” with a range of bombs including “the GPS/laser-guided Enhanced Paveway II and Paveway IV bombs, and Brimstone guided missile”.

In short, it is not a toy. As such, it should not be regarded as the same form of entertainment as a fireworks display or a hot air balloon show.

It is time to end this inappropriate celebration of unavoidable war and instead focus on quietly remembering those all around the world who have given their lives in the name of peace.