Kenneth Roy Nine days from now, Scotland may…

Gerry Hassan

The old story is
exhausted. What’s the
story of Scotland’s future?

The Cafe
Hector MacQueen on Andrew Marr

Christopher Harvie

London, land of the
feral megarich,
has the lot

Stock
A poem by Tessa Ransford

Alison Prince

Why are people so angry?
What are the roots of
our present fury?

The Cafe 2
John MacLeod on sectarianism

Islay McLeod

Conversations
in a
small town

Rear Window
6 May 1999

28.04.11
No. 396

Rear Window

5.30pm
John Millar, Brodick

I pour a drink. Deanna is not home yet, having gone to the Co-op. She arrives soon and I help her in with the shopping, then sit down with my drink.
I can feel the relaxation in my legs, having been standing all day. I pick up the Herald.
     The front page picture is of a baby with a bottle in its mouth and a St Andrew’s flag stuck in the pram. The caption reads: ‘A toast to the future: a child enjoys his milk, and the sun, at a nationalist rally in Edinburgh. The grown ups would have more serious thoughts in mind as Scotland’s new era beckons’.
     This turns me off. I have no quarrel with the caption writer but I am less keen on the sentiment. The ‘grown ups’ are not so grown up, I think. They are tribalist, they are smug, they are racist. Yet I appreciate the picture. And I could have written the caption myself. But I do believe we should try to include a bit more truth, even in a caption. That is playing to the gallery. And the gallery means the mob. And the history of the 20th century tells us what that means.

6.00pm
George Chalmers, Glasgow

Up to Vlad’s; beautiful redstone bay-windowed flat. Spotlessly clean; he’d been up all night. Looking alertly thin, he’s developing nose-hair dandruff, and never ever still.
     ‘Voted yet?’, I ask as he moves to the kitchen.
     ‘No. Don’t believe in it an’ I’ll tell you why…’ Fill in the rest for yourself. (Talk about paying for your pleasures). Still, it’s a nice night now. Embraced in Glasgow’s warm sodium glow.

Hamish Whyte, Glasgow

Eat with Kenny and Christina. C (18 last month), voting for the first time, asks about the voting system, what’s it all about. Try to explain, with last-minute lecture on importance of day, must vote, historic blah.

7.00pm
James Halliday, Broughty Ferry

Channel 4 News. ‘Nationalism’ gets a few criical glances. Does it not occur to those who purport to see Belfast in Scotland or Kosovo in Scotland that the catastrophes in these countries are caused less by the innate nastiness of the people than by the fact that they are armed to the teeth? Even in sectarian Glasgow nothing comparable could ever occur because the enabling means are not available.

Tam Dalyell, canvassing in Linlithgow

One couple I take from Justinhaugh Drive say they will only vote for named candidates, and will not on principle vote for a party list. Another confides that he had voted for Mary Mulligan [Labour candidate] and for Tommy Sheridan’s ‘outfit’ on the list.
     ‘I’m just Old Labour,’ he says.
     ‘Yes,’ I respond. ‘I’m Ancient Labour myself.’

More election day diaries next week

Conversations

in a

small town

Islay McLeod

The world is a violent, angry place. But what are they talking about in Linlithgow this spring afternoon? The air is full of conversation…

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