Once upon a time “poppy day” was an annual event most of us slept through, marked by an irrelevant old woman putting down a wreath at a pointless monument to violence in London. A box of cheap red paper poppies would appear in our classrooms at the start of the month and the teacher would tell us some patriotic lies about brave soldiers and we could “remember them” at the cost of just 5p a poppy. It’s all different now.
Sugar Coated Memories
It is an important image. This is a social history that must be remembered and taught. These “beaming boys” and what they evoke and represent are integral to our national story. My gripe, if that is what it is, is not with David Peat and his photographic journalism of this Glasgow in the late 1960s.
Shettleston’s Tory Renaissance
Shettleston in Glasgow has a 20 year old Tory councillor. It seems almost appropriate to leave this statement hanging here without further comment or analysis like in the late night ‘No Comment’ segment on Euro News.
“Dear Govanhill:” Addressing Tory Hypocrisy
Since when has Labour or the Conservatives in Scotland cared about impoverished communities and the people trapped by them? Yet the moment they find a connection between the poverty that has been a reality of Scottish life since long before devolution and the SNP they are on a crusade.
We Can’t Out Left George
Labour in Scotland doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of parking a bum on that seat anytime soon. Bernard Madoff has more of a chance of winning Glasgow East than anyone associated with Scotland’s Blairite and unionist party.
Back to Scotland in Search of Some Gàidhlig
Follow @UrFhasaidh Learning Gàidhlig (Scots Gaelic) was never going to be easy, and sooner or later I knew that I would have to escape the books and the YouTube videos and return to Scotland in search of somewhere where I might experience it as a spoken language. Instead of heading straight for one of the … Continue reading Back to Scotland in Search of Some Gàidhlig
People Make Glasgow
Follow @UrFhasaidh Glasgow remains one of my favourite cities in the whole world. It lacks the romance of Paris and the antiquity of Rome, but Glasgow is home. I didn’t grow up in Glasgow, and as a child in Ayrshire I didn’t really experience much of the city or its people, they remained just over … Continue reading People Make Glasgow
Unionism Fighting another Dirty War in Scotland
Follow @UrFhasaidh It is just too easy to label the National Party Fascist or Nazi, and this is precisely the route that the Unionists in Scotland and over the whole of Britain are taking. The moment that the referendum was defeated back in September last year the Unionist mobs descended on Freedom Square in Glasgow … Continue reading Unionism Fighting another Dirty War in Scotland
Random Public Journal 