Is John Swinney’s plan for “public control” of Scotland’s buses real progress, or just a state-subsidized bailout for private profiteers? Listen now to find out what’s really happening behind the headlines!
Economy & Finance
The Fiction of Modernity
By Sam Hamad People are rioting in Paris because no one can afford anything. It’s a generation of people locked out of functional life (relatively speaking). And it’s getting worse and worse and worse. The entire point about liberal democracy and late modernity is that it had to adapt in many ways they could not […]
Richie Venton: Was Burnham’s Speech ACTUALLY Socialist?
Richie Venton, National Trade Union Organizer for the Scottish Socialist Party, analyzes Andy Burnham’s Labour government and incoming Chancellor John Healey’s fiscal plans. For quick access to new podcasts, search for Ungagged! on your podcast provider. All Ungagged Podcasts are available HERE. You can also find our podcasts on Podbean, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
The Bad and The Ugly by Val Waldron
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 […]
Glasgow Union Street Fire: “Being Less Bad Than England” Not Enough….
By Ungagged’s Political Correspondent. Standing on the corner of Union Street in Glasgow today, you are greeted by the acrid, lingering scent of scorched timber and the sight of a hollowed-out, once beautiful Victorian landmark. The fire that tore through that building on Sunday, 8 March 2026, just a stone’s throw from the teeming platforms […]
GRAY’S GRAND ERROR: The Prophet Who Backed Thatcher’s Wrecking Ball.
By Jock Mulligan John Gray. The man with the brain the size of a planet and the outlook of a particularly thoughtful grave-digger. He’s the anti-utopian prophet, the constant Cassandra who shouts about the failure of progress while we’re busy texting on our new smart devices. He’s brilliant at diagnosis, but when he touches prescription, […]
Notes 2: New York heralds the New Realism
Kathy O’Connor on Mamdani’s victory. It is an occupational hazard for anyone interested in American politics to become overwhelmed by rhetoric. The national conversation is so often conducted in italics and capital letters—TREASON, LOW-IQ, DEEP STATE—that the essential banality of governance, the stuff that determines whether your rent goes up or your subway runs on […]
Scottish Political Biographies: Ailsa McKay
Professor Ailsa McKay was a leading Scottish feminist economist, renowned for her dedication to challenging and evidencing the impact of economic policies on women. Born on May 25, 1963 (or June 7, 1963 in a separate source), she died on March 5, 2014, at the age of 50. Academic and Professional Career Ailsa McKay graduated […]
Golf: Socialism enclosed and privatised
By Jock Mulligan. The editor wanted to know why I hit a wee ball around a municiple gort. I said, “You want both barrels at once, do you? The socialist soul of the golf ball smashed against the exclusivity of the grand clubhouse, and all of it born on the windswept links of Scotland. That’s […]
Why Work isn’t Working for many of us…
Offices, meetings, working lunches, walk and talk, hot desking and managers who think drinks after work, quizzes, away days and the like DO MY FUCKING HEAD IN. They make me ill. They make me hate my days at work. They make me dread work when I’m off, and this all in turn makes me fucking […]