Born in Glasgow in 1965 and brought up in Clydebank, in the shadow of the John Brown cranes, Derek Stewart Macpherson’s earliest memory is attending the launch of the QE2 at the age of two. Since then he has been a student activist, traveller, father of two, public servant, negotiator, political strategist, campaign manager and trade union official, having brought together a broad left faction within the CPSU (Australian public sector union).
He is a Scottish-Australian dual national, having taken out Australian citizenship in 1985, and insists on his right to comment and participate fully in the politics of both countries. Returning to Scotland in 2014 for the indyref, he joined the grassroots campaigners of Yes Clydebank, while completing his acclaimed five-part series of articles, ‘The Hitchhikers’ Guide To Scottish Independence.’
These days he is a musician, writer, pro-indy blogger and economic and political commentator. He is also the founder of The Babel Fish Project, which was conceived in May, 2000, as a way of drawing together the many artists from disparate backgrounds and disciplines he had met in three decades of playing music.
Derek plays guitar and other instruments, sings, arranges and produces the music of The Babel Fish Project but would also like to extend heartfelt gratitude to the many musicians and others who have contributed musically, technically and administratively to the project.
Amber Poppitt is an aspiring screenwriter and occasional blogger who often finds herself musing over the rise of the internet’s global influence, the execution of stories within popular culture, the differing forms of prejudice manifesting within contemporary society, one’s internal psychological landscape and living as a transgender woman in a world still trying to grasp […]
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 […]
Roy Moller was born in Edinburgh on 3rd July, 1963. Conceived in Toronto, adopted and raised in Leith, he attended Strathclyde University, where he won a poetry prize. He promptly put writing poems to one side for 25 years to concentrate on songwriting, singing and playing the guitar in singular dyspraxic style. A long, chequered […]