REGULAR readers will know that I occasionally like to comment on current developments when I think there is a historical angle to these events. This week I find I must take up the cudgels on behalf of two of the most historic parts of Scotland, Angus and Moray.

I am referring to, namely the proposal by the Boundary Commission for Scotland to redraw the map of Scottish constituencies for the UK Parliament. Apart from losing two seats, Scotland will also see some of the daftest boundary changes anyone could imagine and more importantly, the demise or alteration of historical names.

It has always amazed me that Scotland has two Boundary Commissions. One is Boundaries Scotland, an independent body paid for by the Scottish Government responsible for determining Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions, the number of councillors and wards within local government areas and their geographical extent.

The other is the Boundary Commission for Scotland (BCS) which reviews UK Parliament constituencies for Scotland and which is a creature of the Westminster Parliament. Its chair is the Speaker of the House of Commons but in effect, the work is done by a Scottish judge and two other commissioners appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Both bodies have experts in everything from mapping to geography but as far as I can see, not one professional historian sits on either Commission.

That is perhaps one reason why the BCS has come out with plans which frankly defy the history of important communities in Scotland. Take the proposal to lump much of Musselburgh in with Edinburgh East. I can assure the BCS that their plan is going down like a bucket of sick with the guid folk of the Honest Toun, who have no wish to see half of their town going to Edinburgh and the other half to a new East Lothian constituency.

There used to be an Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency in the UK and Scottish Parliaments but that arrangement was resented, and as another example of how Musselburgh does not want to be parcelled up between East Lothian and Edinburgh East – it’s not that long ago that the town’s racecourse scrapped its official name of Edinburgh. Quite right too, as the people of the town own the course as part of the Common Good land.

I am well aware that two Scottish constituencies, namely Na h-Eileanan an lar, formerly the Western Isles, and Orkney and Shetland, are protected by law and cannot be changed, but the remaining 55 seats must have between 69,724 and 77,062 voters unless they are larger than 12,000 sq km, where a smaller number is allowed. The numbers game is the reason why the BCS is shoe-horning communities together.

I don’t have the space to go into all the daft proposals by the BCS, but two of them stick out as being anti-Scottish and very much anti-history.

Dismembering Angus with the name erased from Parliament is historically illiterate and a real insult to an ancient county of Scotland. Creating two seats – North Tayside and Dundee East and Arbroath – from Angus simply defies logic and would be a real blow to the valiant efforts of the people of Angus to promote tourism that recognises its place in Scottish history.

What a place that is. Named after an ancient king of the Picts, Angus was recognised as a province in its own right from at least the 10th century and had its own Mormaer – roughly equivalent to an earl – for centuries. William Shakespeare started off with Macbeth as Thane of Glamis in Angus before he became Thane of Cawdor and King of Scots. Angus proclaims itself as the birthplace of Scotland and while I wouldn’t go that far there is no doubt that Angus played a very important role in the rise of Scotland as an independent country.

Sunday National readers will need no reminding that Scotland’s Declaration of Independence was sent from Arbroath Abbey to Pope John XXII in 1320, while the towns of Forfar, Montrose and Carnoustie all have venerable histories as part of Angus. The area was long known as Forfarshire and is still the seat of local government. As far as I know, there is no plan to scrap Angus as a local authority area, so why carve it up and remove the link to history that the name Angus represents?

Dave Doogan, the current SNP MP for Angus put it succinctly in The National last week: “This suggestion of dismembering parts of Angus and stitching them together with Highland Perthshire in the west, and Dundee City in the south, shows an abject failure by the commission to abide by their own criteria of respecting established natural and community boundaries.”

The same fate of dissolution applies to Moray, where Douglas Ross is the MP. The BCS wants to carve up Moray, and though he is standing down as an MP at the next election to concentrate on one of his other jobs as an MSP, even he is making a fuss about Moray losing its Parliamentary identity – and I’m sure the people of Moray will also be disenchanted.

Again there’s no nod to history. Moray was once one of the great provinces of Scotland, though it lost its power when King David I marched north and quelled the local rebellious authorities. Moray played a huge role in the Wars of Independence when Sir Andrew de Moray, or Murray, led the uprising in the north that joined with Sir William Wallace to win the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, though Sir Andrew died later from his wounds.

Ancient towns like Elgin, Keith, and Forres have been around for centuries and have distinct histories of their own. Again there’s no suggestion that Moray as a local authority area will disappear, but you can never tell what will happen once a precedent is established.

So for sake of Scotland’s history, I say Angus and Moray should be retained in their present forms and with their ancient names.