Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
The political entity currently known as Reform UK presents itself as a radical departure from the established order, yet a closer inspection reveals it to be a rebranding of the most regressive elements of British political history. It is the ideological heir to the hard-right Thatcherism of the 1980s and the exclusionary nationalism of Enoch […]
Voice 1: Richie Venton, representing the Scottish Socialist Party, delivers a passionate call to action for the upcoming elections. He urges voters to choose the SSP on the list vote (the peach-colored form) to elect a team of “socialist fighters” dedicated to representing the millions, not the millionaires. Voice 2: Maggie Chapman emphasizes that […]
By Indybag The career of Tommy Sheridan is a study in how to torch your own legacy. We’ve seen him rise from a cell during the anti-poll tax riots to the heights of the Scottish Parliament, only to end up as a perennial figure of controversy. Once known for his oratorical fire and an apparently […]
It wasn’t quite the reaction I expected to my comment; So, Thatcher’s deid at last. The polite response that evening of 8th April 2013 could be summed up by a gently dismissive nod and patronising grimace. It told me what I already knew, that the death of this elderly person in the advanced […]
By Damien Donnelly Tory/Reform No-Show… Almost exactly ten years ago (March 2016), I attended the first ever ‘LGBTI+ hustings’ for Scottish Parliament elections in Edinburgh. It was at this event that Nicola Sturgeon stated the SNP’s intention to reform gender recognition in Scotland, including recognition of non-binary identities. The legalisation of same-sex marriage was just […]
By Damien Donnelly A great deal of political discourse involves calling out hypocrisy and there’s no doubt that this is important, as long as it’s rooted in fact. It would be ludicrous for us not to point out that Nigel Farage’s wife is an immigrant and two of his children hold dual citizenship, with German […]
Since the high point of 2014, the political landscape in Scotland has taken a fucking battering. We started as a grassroots, left-leaning movement for a better country, but a decade later we’re looking at a fragmented mess where some folk are more interested in reactionary “culture wars” than actually fixing the politucally created poverty our […]
By Gael. History is often presented to us as a series of neat dates and decisions made by powerful figures in drawing rooms. Occasionally, however, something happens that defies easy categorisation: an explosion of collective energy from below that shakes the foundations of society. The 1859 Christian Revival in Ulster was one such moment… Tommy […]
I’ve sat in draughty community halls from Easterhouse to Maryhill for thirty years, and I’ve seen some shit in my time. I’ve seen the “vanguard” cults try to hijack local strikes and the middle-class “missionaries” come into our schemes to lecture us on solidarity before jumping into a taxi back to their Bearsden bungalows and […]
By Jock Mulligan I see the prolific Gael and others have recently been banging on this drum too. But I can’t fughing well stress hard enough how much my friends and comrades need to get to grips to understand the massive attack we are under from the device in our pockets. The device we pull […]