“Let me tell you that I love you, that I think about you all the time”

Dougie Maclean’s song Caledonia resonates with every Scot, especially those of the expatriate variety. I know, for I was for 35 years one of them. Not a day passed that I didn’t think of home. The visions that most often came to mind were the views from my Gourock childhood, looking across the Clyde to the majestic hills of Argyll. Often too the panorama afforded by the sunset over the Paps of Jura from the banks of the Crinan Canal; the fertile Howe o’ the Mearns, the dark and light of the Lairig Ghru, Loch Achray on a summer’s day or the long open moor between Duns and Chirnside.

The poet Norman MacCaig surely spoke for us all in his epic work, A man in Assynt.

“Who possesses this landscape?/The man who bought it or I who am possessed by it?/False questions, for this landscape is masterless/and intractable in any terms that are human.”

Do all Scots feel like me about our land and our landscapes? It is a natural thing to feel love for one’s native land, whether it be England, Argentina, Finland or Fiji. But we here in this plot called Scotland won the lottery of the ages when we were gifted a place so staggering in its beauty that time after time world travellers vote it the most beautiful land of all. Nice as is it is to have such endorsement, we knew anyway. We know in our hearts this is a special place.

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This special place is not just a balm to the soul of Scot and visitor alike. It has been celebrated by poets, painters, composers, writers and singers. And of course, by tourists from every land. If whisky is our national drink, Burns our national poet and William Wallace our national hero, then our landscapes and seascapes are our national treasure chest. So why would we want to harm a hair of their head?

Well, that’s just what we are doing with the building of mile upon mile of giant pylons. The tallest of these, at 70 meters, is close to twice the height of existing towers. The cost will be around £20 billion. We’ll see these giants from Caithness, Moray, Aberdeenshire to Angus. They’ll dominate the view for miles around, running like a scar across land that really should be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is vandalism and the guilty parties are the UK and Scottish governments and the energy generators and distributors.

Their excuse is the urgency of net zero. Net zero is urgent. We must get to a wholly renewables energy supply industry very quickly indeed. Why then waste vast sums of time, money, concrete, steel and wire despoiling the world’s most beautiful country when there are alternatives? We can put cables underground and we can move electricity through undersea cables. The energy transmission industry will tell you that’s all too expensive and has security implications. Ask them if they would put pylons across Windsor Great Park? How about an electricity sub-station in the courtyard of New College Oxford, or running the length of the White Cliffs of Dover, from Folkestone to Deal?

If you’re Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves or Secretary of State for Energy Ed Miliband you may not feel that burning sense of connection with Scotland’s beautiful places that we who feel this place in our hearts so strongly do. It would not be entirely surprising. After all, why should three born Londoners (and all alumni of Oxford University) know very much about what makes Scots’ hearts beat a little faster? What do they know of the economy of the Highlands? Never mind the hotelier, the boat trip hirer, the mountain guide, the gillie, the gift shop owners, the garage and the butcher. The pylons, like alien creatures from The War of the Worlds, must get through.

All rational, sensible, thoughtful people must hope that Labour’s fledgling GB Energy delivers on its promises to reduce energy costs, improve energy security and substantially grow the green energy economy to build new businesses, foster new technologies and deliver new and well-paid jobs. But all this must not be at the cost of Scotland’s greatest treasure. We are just the start of an energy revolution that might include hydrogen and nuclear alongside new hydro power, wave and solar. Now is the moment to call enough is enough.

Independence movements have historically grown strong on the back of disputes over territory, economy, resources, language and culture. Sometimes all of those. A Labour government that actively colludes in the Highlands and Islands becoming a vast industrial estate will not easily be forgiven. It is entirely possible to save the planet and save the masterclass that are Scotland’s landscapes.

Martin Roche had a career in international public relations and is a writer.