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The Annual National Trust for Scotland / 1745 Association Culloden Lecture

 

Held at the Culloden Visitor Centre on 14 April

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You can view the Culloden Lecture online at any time!!

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Details received from Michael Nevin:

This year's NTS / 1745 Association Annual Culloden Lecture, delivered as part of the annual commemoration marking the 277th anniversary of the last battle fought on British soil, can now be seen on YouTube.

Following a short introduction by the 1745 Association's President, the Very Rev’d Dr Emsley Nimmo, and a tribute to the Association's previous Chairman, the eminent military historian Dr Christopher Duffy who passed away in November, the current Chair Michael Nevin applies Prospect Theory developed by Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman and his colleague Amos Tversky to assess seven strategic decisions that led to Culloden, as follows:
 
  1. July 1745: Confirmation Bias and the decision to instigate the Rising
  2. August 1745: Loss Aversion, the Sunk Cost fallacy and the decision to continue the Rising after the loss of the ‘Elisabeth’
  3. October 30th 1745: Decision Framing, the Allais Paradox and the decision to advance into England
  4. December 5th 1745: Ambiguity Aversion, the Ellsberg Paradox and the decision to retreat from Derby
  5. December 19th 1745: The Endowment Effect and the decision to leave a garrison in Carlisle
  6. February 1746: The Affect Heuristic and the decision to retreat into the Highlands
  7. April 15th and 16th 1746: Optimism Bias, the Night March on Nairn and the decision to stand at Culloden
Conclusion: Bonnie Prince Charlie Syndrome
 
 
The 33 minute presentation is now available on YouTube with sub-titles if required at:

                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqc-IxbREkU

N.B.: the YouTube video is of the presentation only, not the subsequent discussion and Q&A, as under the 1745 Association’s conventions these are conducted under Chatham House rules.
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'Flowers Of The Forest'

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In tribute to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 

 

Played by Stuart Matheson Latto

The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee
'Dui Regnare' - Stuart Liddell's new tune for the Queen
Pipers around the British Commonwealth will be marking the Queen’s platinum jubilee by playing a tune composed for the occasion by Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, ideally as the sun sets on June 2, 2022. The Queen ascended to the throne on June 2, 1953.
Luckily for those not close to a piper on or around that time, Clan Matheson UK & Europe Piper Stuart Matheson Latto has recorded this rendition of Dui Regnare - "Long to reign" - which we can enjoy, perhaps whilst raising a glass and wishing Her Majesty "Slàinte Mhath"!
Reminiscences of a Jacobite
An impression
The 2020 launch webinar which author Michael Nevin hosted was extremely stimulating, and I rapidly became aware that many participants were very knowledgeable about the Jacobite era and particularly the minutiae of Bonny Prince Charlie's movements and actions.
My only prior exposure to the story behind the conventional story of the audacious uprising and subsequent rout at Culloden had been that of a tourist up to 2017, when our annual visit to The Black Isle was followed later in the summer by joining in the Clan visit to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Before the Tattoo itself, daughter Lydia and I went to the Jacobite Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, which was well done in general and provided a sound background - as Michael Nevin himself  agreed in the webinar.
See this account on the web:
https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/things-to-see-and-do/past-exhibitions/bonnie-prince-charlie-and-the-jacobites/
However, it was totally devoid of any reference to any possibility that the Jacobite cause was to a large extent a justifiable, plausible exercise which might have succeeded but for a number of adverse events - and that might have benefited the British people in many ways, some of them highly topical today, for example religious inclusiveness.

I bought the book, determined to read it on our 2021 Black Isle Visit, when I was pleasantly surprised to find that I couldn't put it down - what a grippingly couched account from Michael Nevin's chosen perspective, and a powerful primer of facts and timelines. I would recommend an immersive reading!


 
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