Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
As we close out a year in which many incredible texts were published, this brief article notes a few examples of what’s to come in the New Year. Taken from a range of publishers, each listing is considered in terms of what new insights, understandings and inspirations these new contributions might bring to the left […]
Economic reform key in tackling child poverty post-pandemic It is an injustice that global child poverty levels soared to approximately 1.2 billion during the COVID-19 outbreak (UNICEF, 2020), while the wealth of the top 1% doubled (Oxfam, 2020). The other 99% of the population have people power: our togetherness can make a difference. By dismantling […]
The death of Queen Elizabeth II at 96 has dominated the news headlines since she passed away last week. But the more I sift through social media and the news coverage, the more I’ve been finding the online reaction to be totally out of touch with my day to day experience. I thought, for my […]
As a front line charity worker, never have I seen such destitution and poverty as I have just now; this is significantly impacting on Scotland’s future: our children. Poverty has run through generations of Scottish families and has now reached tipping point. At a time of global crisis, both politically and economically, I can look closer to home and see the effects of the situation on my own doorstep. TV ad’s from charities encouraging support to the third world have always […]
In her weekly National column last week, Mhairi Black gave her view as to why both votes SNP was the way to go. Within the article, she used, in her own words an overly simplistic example if 100,000 voters voted for SNP compared to 70,000 in the list voting after the SNP had won the […]
“Each decade we declare that we buried class- each decade the coffin stays empty.” Richard Hoggart, 1989 introduction to George Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier. Lately, rather than sitting down to BBC Breakfast or Sky, I’ve been watching the previous nights American chat shows; Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Myers, or news from CNN or […]
Back in 2005, politically, I, like many lefties in Scotland, felt our time was now. Scottish Socialism was the new Rock ‘n Roll. We had filled halls, built a huge reaction to the rumours and actuality of the Bush/Blair wars, and helped facilitate unprecedented street level dissent at the G8 conference, drawing the international media […]
Rest in peace, as your life was for, and gifted us peace, John Hume. Ungagged are reproducing this extraordinary speech by John Hume as a lesson in how to appeal to politics, and to how to adhere to the principle of non-violence in the face of hate and vicious division. Hume made this speech after […]
We were somewhere around Watford on the edge of up North when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I need a shit… the bowels are at last engaging… maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of lorry tractors […]
Available FREE on iTunes and Podbean The UK Christmas Election is highlighting how awful the binary sloganeering of the right really is – and how much the power of the Billionaire owned press and media still is killing democracy. Let this be your antidote. Help us continue to podcast, publish and campaign… a few quid keeps […]