Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Swingergate Day 46: the Last Day




Welcome to my wee photoblog on Glasgow, where we feature the joys and unjoys of walking and cycling through a fascinating, beautiful and often badly run city. For the blog's origin and an alphabetical list of posts see the 'Introduction' post -
It is 23 December and we are awaiting the jury''s decision. The six earlier blogs on the Sheridan trial are
Swingergate Day 2: Tommy and Gail Sheridan on Trial
Swingergate Day 11: 'How's He No' Gettin' Drapped Aff?'
Swingergate Day 28: A Large Pinch of Salt
Swingergate Day 37: Andy Coulson Doesn't Slip Up
Swingergate Day 44: Sherry Pleads His Case
Swingergate Day 45: Waiting for the Verdict
















For a new variation we are walking parallel to the delights of Howard St (over there by the RC Cathedral) and beside the St Enoch Centre. . .

. . .on the right


Let's pop in for a moment








Ice and snow outside but in here it looks like reindeer. For more great St Enoch decorations see








A long bed store


Back in Howard St. Fishmarkets have been a minor theme in this series of seven posts - nothing fishy about that, my first proper job was in the early 60s, unloading boxes of fish packed in ice just round the corner in what is now the Bridgegate









Now crossing Stockwell St: Spirit Aid over there is a charity to help children around the world, founded by the actor David Hayman. See


Goosedubbs: Great name. This derivation is from the estimable Glasgow Digital Library
'. . .originally extended from Stockwell Street to the Old Wynd, but railway extension has curtailed it. The name originated from the geese belonging to Provost Aird, who resided in Aird's Lane, which adjoins, disporting in the dubbs or puddles in the street'


Heading down Goosedubbs to the Bridgegate. This is what it looked like in the 19th century:

Sham Gate


The media teams are planning tactics


It'll be hours before the verdict and I think I've had enough really - heading home

'Tommy' is still there from last night. . .

. . .as is the flanking impenetrable message

A demonic trinity: Blair. Castro? and who - Bush?






I called this series of seven posts 'Swingergate' out of pure laziness - Sham Gate would perhaps have done as well. One of the pithiest expressions of a common view on the affair came from Tom Paxton performing in Glasgow during the trial: 'Big news in Scotland. Politician tells lies'. For a summary of the outcome of the trial see
My opinion? Sheridan is above all a performer in a drama of his own construction: see

Watching him entering the court is like watching a man with a movie in his head starring James Stewart or Henry Fonda as himself: Twelve Angry Socialists or Mr Sheridan Goes to Court.
The much-admired journalist Joan McAlpine co-authored Sheridan's book A Time To Rage in 1993. The cover shows Sheridan perched on the shoulders of the man who was later totape him and sell the tape to the News of the World - George McNeilage. And this McAlpine article from 2006 seems to me to be one of the most perceptive pieces ever written on Sheridan -
But let's not forget what has run parallel to the Sheridan case: while the council complained about the poor denizens of Paddy's Market, (madly) describing it as being the criminal centre of the city -
the city's political leader was off scoring his cocaine in the Boundary Bar

As so often in Scottish history, some things come to trial, some don't. As 2010 comes to an end, the post I remember most is the one on the march in memory of the family of asylum seekers who committed group suicide -


Though there were only a few hundred people present, a couple of the asylum speakers I spoke to were deeply touched by the support; I have earlier heard others praise Strathclyde Police - to live in a society in which men in uniform could be trusted to help rather than punish is no small matter. As we passed the City Chambers in March 2010, no one was there to greet us - shame on them. At least our cops and our clergy and our human rights workers and volunteers gave us Glaswegians reason for civic pride this year.

Happy New Year to all.
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Sunday, 26 December 2010

Swingergate Day 45: Waiting for the Verdict

Welcome to my wee photoblog on Glasgow, where we feature the joys and unjoys of walking and cycling through a fascinating, beautiful and often badly run city. For the blog's origin and an alphabetical list of posts see the 'Introduction' post
It is 22 December and Tommy Sheridan has concluded his speech for the defence. The five earlier blogs on the Sheridan trial are
Swingergate Day 2: Tommy and Gail Sheridan on Trial
Swingergate Day 11: 'How's He No' Gettin' Drapped Aff?'
Swingergate Day 28: A Large Pinch of Salt
Swingergate Day 37: Andy Coulson Doesn't Slip Up
Swingergate Day 44: Sherry Pleads His Case

Emerging from St Enoch Subway

Heading down Dixon St
We cross the road to the Clyde. .
. . .to have a look at this statue, erected 1977 in memory of the Communist heroine Dolores Ibarruru (1895-1989) - La Pasionara ('The Passion Flower'). What would she make of the Sheridan trial? She wouldn't have had any time for Sheridan for sure. This (quote from Wiki) is what she wrote during the Spanish Civil War -
'The Trotskyists have long been transformed into the agents of Fascism, into the agents of the German Gestapo. We saw this on the ground during the May putsch in Catalonia; we saw this clearly in the disturbances that occurred in various other places. And everybody will realize this when the trial opens against the P.O.U.M. leaders who were caught spying. And we realize that the hand of Fascism is behind every attempt to demoralize our home front, to undermine the authority of the Republic. Therefore it is essential that we wipe out Trotskyism with a firm hand, for Trotskyism is no longer a political option for the working class but an instrument of the counter-revolution. Trotskyism must be rooted out of the proletarian ranks of our Party as one roots out poisonous weeds. The Trotskyists must be rooted out and disposed of like wild beasts, for otherwise every time our men wish to go on the offensive we will not be able to do so due to lawlessness caused by the Trotskyists in the rear. An end must be put to these traitors once and for all so that our men on the front lines can fight without fear of being stabbed in the back'
The authentic voice of 1930s Stalinism. To paraphrase Tertullian on Christian infighting - see how these socialists love one another
Note fine Custom House Quay building in background. This whole area is up for development. See http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/custom_house_quay.htm
Beside Dolly Passion is this old public toilet.
Bit of camera shake sorry - was bloody cold
Dolly is catching the light
Seagull on right also in raised wing mode
The buildings Dolly faces hosted the STUC and the Star Club - a stronghold of the Communist Party of Great Britain and its 'Broad Left' in the 70s when the statue was erected. I remember both Jimmy Reid and John Reid there speaking about the inevitability of the USSR's victory in the war against capitalism. (Say what you like about Sheridan, he is unlikely to end up as Defence Secretary.) For more sunny pics of this scene (and more reflections on Reid), see http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/03/clydeside.html
A Warning to the Curious
For proper pics of the Cathedral see previous post
Let's cut across to Howard St up there and take a pic or two of this Rangers pub on the way
Now in the Bridgegate
The poster has an inscription saying 'Cathy fae the scrappy before the kids'. As Stephen Maturin would say, we may assume the gentleman who wrote this had satiric intent.
Heading again to the High Court
There are more media folk about and an air of excitement. Sheridan finished his defence in the morning, and the jury are being addressed by the judge
Too cold to stand about so we are taking a wee walk to the Saltmarket
Looking up to Glasgow Cross. . .
. . . and down Crown St into the Gorbals; for a sunlit tour from here, see http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/11/gorbals-3-saltmarket-to-tradeston.html
A sightseeing bus emerges from Greendyke St beside the Green
Probably a young man and his parents; could be Japanese but there now many Chinese students in Glasgow
An open-top bus in Glasgow's coldest December for many years; think the three we have seen are all who are braving the journey
Back with the media
it's getting dark quite quick. A cyclist appears. . .
. . .a dog
There is some street theatre going on; a tall young woman hovered about shouting 'If I drop ma trousers will ye take a picture of that?' Then a wee guy appeared shouting 'He's found innocent! He goat aff!' - before strolling off
The photographers are beginning to group. The jury is to be sent home we have heard - no verdict today
I take up position behind them.
The barrier of North Face jackets swings open to let people out; much cheery banter at this point
Waiting. . .
soon. . .
Here he comes
It becomes a bit of a melee. . .
. . .but the photographers have a knack for not banging into each other
Some climb on the wall shouting 'Tommy! Tommy!'
I help one guy off the wall, hold his camera for him - I am part of the pack for a pleasing moment
Sherry and his team head into the car park - the photographers leave them alone at this point. There are rules to this game
And what about 'Tommy'?
Hm - can't make anything of that. 

You can imagine the Sheridan story passing into some post-apocalypse legend - he may yet become a prince of olden times, his life a parable of lost chances. loss and betrayal stalked by shadowy demons -





Of an old King in a story
From the grey sea-folk I have heard
Whose heart was no more broken
Than the wings of a bird.
As soon as the moon was silver
And the thin stars began,
He took his pipe and his tankard,
Like an old peasant man.
And three tall shadows were with him
And came at his command;
And played before him for ever
The fiddles of fairyland.
And he died in the young summer
Of the world’s desire;
Before our hearts were broken
Like sticks in a fire.
(Chesterton, playing with Celtic myth in the style of Yeats)
One more post to go in this series
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