Skwerr Go...

George Square in Glasgow has been in the news quite a lot recently, particularly with the news of the #Occupy movement taking up tented residence, the subsequent rape of a young woman and the campaign rather meekly assenting to Glasgow City Council's request that they move to Kelvingrove, so as not to interfere with the impending rampant consumerist madness, called Christmas that they're supposed to be opposed to in the first place...

  

I've always had a soft spot for the square. As kids we were dragged in to 'ooh' and 'aaah' at the Christmas lights after shopping in John Lewis's, whilst the parentals lubricated themselves for the drive home via the Horseshoe bar. My wife and I would meet there as teenagers, indulging in post cinema Kia-ora and chips, joined by street philosophers from the nearby soup kitchen, who were willing to share their life experiences for the price of a cup of tea or a bus fare to a forever lost home. Later on we'd play dead as part of campaigns against nuclear weapons, (nein danke) or as students against the move from grants to 'loans'. Other times found us sitting/sleeping on the benches cooling down after a night of musical frenzy up the hill at Strathclyde Uni. Hogmanay was always special, long before TV discovered that filming a few washed up bands and comedians saved them the cost of producing an October Hogmanay. A pre-midnight stroll into town from whichever southside or westend bedsit we were living in, would find a similarly disparate group of folk out for an impromptu ceilidh as the bells rang out. Magical times, Asian tourists, African students and Clydeside Eldorado soaked mendicants all belting out Auld Lang Syne, arms linked. There was always an air of safety and bonhomie about the square, long before the arrival of CCTV.

I only really began to notice the built environment of the square in the late eighties, when for a short time half price cocktails in the Copthorne Hotel became part of Friday evening life. Looking out to the City Chambers, I could mock a distant relative who had became mired in Labour's brown envelope politics. In return for a massive contract to sandblast the municipal buildings he offered to gold leaf the spire atop the city chamber dome. He came unstuck when a trainee surveyor miscalculated the height, and cost him tens of thousands in brown envelope liquidity. Sitting in the Copthorne Hotel half way through a Tequilla Sunrise, we had a great view of the life in the square, as its inhabitants, waited, checked watches, preened themselves for a night of raucousness or as happened too often, young men with bad perms and catalogue jackets looked around forlornly, sighed, shrugged shoulders and jumped on a bus home. It took me a while and a few drinks, but gradually I began to notice that the overall look of the square with its statue of Queen Victoria astride a horse, her German consort Albert on his gee gee and the cenotaph to the dead of world war one was really no more than a pantheon dedicated to commercial Glasgow and its willing expression of the ideas of war and conquest of imperial dynasty.

I was aware of the modern history of the square, accounts of the 1919 Battle of George Square, when Bolshevism was roaring through Europe, that Scottish troops were confined to barracks, whilst troops were brought up by train from the north of England to suppress the protests for fear that Glaswegian troops might join the dissent, the stories of tanks and Churchill were still relevant in the dying days of Thatcherism amid poll tax protests. My  abiding memory of the square is of an impromptu party in George Square, with, amongst others, a future leader of SLAB, on the day Thatcher demitted office. I suspect there'll be a few folk in the square on the day she shuffles off her demementor cloak.

The genesis of the square is interesting, the city fathers inspired/envious of Edinburgh's new town, purchased the land which was part of a croft called Rameshorn. The Square was marked out in 1781. By 1801 it was described as  a “hove” or “hollow, filled with green-water, and a favourite resort for drowning puppies and cats and dogs, while the banks of this suburban pool were the slaughtering place of horses.”

General Sir John Moore. Not so popular with the weans.

As the merchant classes grew wealthier through the trade in slavery, tobacco and cotton, so mansion houses began to spring up around the square and a veneer of opulent respectability was slathered on. Glasgow,firmly embracing the mantle of being the second city of Empire and  the fourth most populous city in Europe after London, Paris and Berlin was struck with monarchist patriotic fever, hence the plethora of royally named streets George Street, Duke Street (after the Duke of York), Frederick Street, Hanover Street, and Regent Street culminating in George Square after the mad King George III.

A look at the 12 statues that adorn the square, shows that they are mostly devoid of artistic value, particularly the 88 foot high memorial to Walter Scott.

Then again they are subject to the fashions of their time. The Scott monument was erected in 1837 and prompted Edinburgh to try and outdo Glasgow by building a gothic spaceship in 1840 to honour the novelist and poet.

This has been quite a circuitous route I've taken to get to the point I really want to make. George Square is symbolic of an Imperial past that modern Scotland is finally moving away from, the easy bucks route from partnering up with a bigger bullying neighbour no longer work, they no longer appeal and are finally realised as damaging to those you wish to exploit, as they are to yourself. Yet George Square remains chock full of these symbols of Empire, there are 12 statues in the square. I can see that Burns and Scott have to be there as their work is immortal. James Watt, absolutely. Thomas Graham, how many of us know about him and his work that led to the dialysis machine? However, we have to ask of what relevance in contemporary Scotland are the equine statues of Queen Victoria and her husband looking down on the people of Glasgow? Do we still celebrate Field Marshall Lord Clyde for his sterling work in suppressing the Indian mutiny? Or General Sir John Moore and his brave work in the Peninsular wars? What about the Liberal and Conservative Prime Ministers Gladstone and Peel do we still praise them or their contemporaries Clegg and Cameron today? Or Glasgow MP James Oswald, who's been standing in the square for 135 years? Is poet Thomas Campbell more worthy of his place than an Edwin Morgan, Hugh McDiarmid Muriel Stark or Joanna Baillie?

Where are the statues to celebrate the Scottish men and women who lived, died and achieved in this century and the last one?

Not that statues and sculptural work are all about people and past glories...Look at the shoddy way sculptor George Wyllie's work has been treated. Revered by curators in Europe and America, George now living in a care home, is mostly ignored by Scotland's art establishment, too long a whimsical thorn in the side of their small 'c' conservatism. His exclusion from the Sculpture Show, a survey of the history of modern sculpture from 1900 is to be held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh next month, has no place for a Wyllie. As a fan and a friend of the man, I'm dismayed that the Scottish art establishment is too outward looking, and incapable of looking around it's own wee patch just once in a while...

There are council elections in May 2012. The SNP have set their sights on taking control of the City Chambers. Prior to May's Holyrood elections, you would have been accused of living on cloud cuckoo land if you had said the SNP could take the city. Yet, we hear tales of panic, of Labour culling the old  guard in a desperate attempt to shore up the last bastion of Unionism in Scotland. Glasgow has become a city in state in paralysis, led by leaders wary of adopting positive change that has emanated from the Scottish Government, lest they show them in a good light.  The Evening Times,'Ripped Off Glasgow' campaign, driven by Labour politicians came to naught. Everything is up for grabs. Perhaps one of the first things that a new SNP city council might look at is a slight rearrangement of their front door garden, George Square. Remove a few of the old Empire adoring statues and replace them with work that best represents Scotland's place in the contemporary world. 

Taça Independência 1972

July 5th 2012 sees the fortieth anniversary of only the second ever game of football between Scotland and Brazil. The result on this occasion was 1-0 victory for Brazil in front of 130,000 samba strutting supporters at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janerio and stopped Scotland from qualifying for the first semi final of an International tournament. Scotland were so well regarded at the time, they went straight into Group A, possibly the only time we've ever made it to the latter stages of a tournament without actually having to play first...

Truth be told I have no recollection of this tournament, as I was a mere stripling of a 10 year old lad and I doubt it was covered on any of the three council telly channels available to us at the time. The tournament took place in the summer, so the reality is that I was probably up in Ardnamurchan guddling brownies and shooting hoodie craws with my deadly Milbro catapult. The tournament was an invitation from the Brazilian football authorities to 18 countries and two continents, Africa and CONCACAF to help Brazil celebrate the 150th anniversary of its Independence from Portugal. Scotland drew 2-2 with Yugoslavia, Luigi Macari scoring both goals, then a 0-0 draw with Czechoslovakia left us needing a victory against Brazil, the then world champions.

The following video, has the only images I've seen of the game. What struck me was how relaxed the likes of Bremner, Buchan, Hartford, Graham, Law and Macari were on the ball. Contrast this with the displays of sheer terror we witness from the current Scotland team where the object seems to give the ball back to the opposition as soon as we win it.

     

I'm left wondering, that when Scotland finally regains her Independence if we'll have the confidence to host our own mini-copa and invite the world to celebrate with us, and whether we might finally get that elusive victory over the boys from Brazil... 

The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no established principles

There have been many exits in politics; many dignified, many reluctantly, some explosively, others indignantly, even petulantly. Few however, have been as undignified as the spectacle witnessed by members of the Labour party in Scotland at the weekend by Iain Gray, the man whom history will probably judge as being unique amongst Holyrood Labour leaders, for not having had one positive thing to say about his party, political philosophy or opponents during his three year tenure.

In his outpouring of bile at the weekend he devoted an exceptional paragraph shifting the blame of his and his parties failures to a few nameless individuals.

This afternoon we begin the process proper of electing a new Scottish leader for a new devolved Scottish Labour party.

I say to the candidates.  Don’t kid yourself.

You will be attacked.  You will be smeared.  You will be lied about.  You will be threatened. 

The cybernats and the bedsit bloggers will call you traitor, quisling, lapdog and worse.  They will question your appearance, your integrity and your sexuality.  They will drag your family and your faith into the lies and the vitriol.  If you are a woman it will be worse. 

It is no consolation to know that any journalist or commentator who gives you a fair hearing will suffer the same. 

This is the poison some have brought into our politics and it is vile. 

It is time we started talking openly about it and it is time the SNP did something about it. 

They know who some of these people are.

This is not how you build a better Scotland and Scotland deserves better.

But those who bring light suffer burning.  You will stand up to it and you should be proud to do so.    

As only one of a handful of bloggers to be pursued by the Scottish press and as far as I'm aware the only one to be hounded out of a job, I took fair exception to the utterly shambolic and pathetic attempt Iain Gray made to have one final kick at those he perceived to have brought about his downfall. Particularly his defence of 'any journalist or commentator who gives you a fair hearing.' Boo-fucking-hoohoo. 

For the record, I have never written or said anything "deeply unpleasant" about any Labour politician...or any other sort. I have never called a Unionist a traitor, quisling or lapdog...although I can't see why a fluffy lapdog would be considered offensive. I've never threatened Ian Gray, questioned his sexuality or dragged his family into lies and vitriol, although I confess to putting an SNP rosette on his wife's jacket as she and Mr Gray strolled along a beach on a winters day for the cameras... As to his integrity and appearance, these are the standards which politicians put upon themselves for election. I've found, as have the Scottish electorate, that Iain Gray is lacking in both.

The main reason the Labour Party has lost control of it's personal fiefdom, is not entirely down to the Tartan Overlords large shiny, smiley face. Rather, it is down to thousands of people in Scotland taking exception to the one sided, biased, blatant propaganda that has passed and still passes for impartial news in our newspapers and the state broadcaster. These people fed up with the lies and one sided nature of the Scottish media have discovered the internet, which has opened up the opportunity to search, research and respond.

 

As our newspapers shrink in actual paper sales, they have looked to an internet presence as the means to keep their shareholders happy and have created on-line forums to drive advertising revenue. Unfortunately, they have discovered that you can't have open access without the punters actually availing themselves of it. So, the past ten years have seen a Labour press release, with the obligatory kick at the SNP end up in the Scotsman straight from London Labour HQ, verbatim. Within moments of it appearing on-line, those of us with opinions on how Scotland will run better as an Independent country are ready to opine, and use actual facts to combat the press release. This is frowned upon in unionist Scotland. So what we mostly see are stories in the Scotsman coming on-line at obscure times of the night, always with sickening comments from Union supporters, invariably hours before Joe McPublic has had an opportunity to comment. These first posters do not engage in debate, instead they have brought, to paraphrase Iain Gray, 'vile poison into our politics'. Naturally, comments arise that these are people deep within Johnson press fighting to preserve the union at all costs. Much like Kevin McKenna confessed in his Independence 'epiphany' piece in last weeks Observer, that he and the Guardian man are both Unionists, so one must surmise are the majority of those scrivening behind the scenes at Johnson Towers. So for Gray to cry foul that those with the most power are victims, fair sticks in the craw. 

Gray will go down in Scottish political history as the man who lived up to his name, a cheap and obvious dig, but really what is our collective memory of him? Scuttling into a sandwich shop to escape natural Labour supporters concerned about the closure of a respite centre for the disabled, fag cupped in hand like a dodgy security guard gathering courage outside Holyrood on Thursday mornings before FMQ's or standing up in the chamber gesturing to Salmond to 'come ahead'.

He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat

Where Mr Gray's logic falls down, is in his belief that there is some secret cybernat army being marshalled by the upper echelons of the SNP, directing teams of Internet savvy operators to attack Labour at all costs. The cybernat is a Labour construct, there is no such thing. Instead there is a large, and growing number of people who are pissed off at the continual propaganda coming from the Unionist media which controls Scotland. That some professional members of the SNP buy into this construct is rather concerning. Perhaps it's easier for them to go down the knee jerk response road for fear of upsetting the horses and actually challenging those who control our daily news.