Paddy's Market

The proposed plans by Glasgow City Council to re-develop the site of Paddy's Market should be a source of some sadness for the people of Glasgow, even if it has become a run-down area. I presume it is going to become another gentrified city centre development for the middle classes to occupy while they consider where they really want to live when city centre lifestyle becomes too fraught (when they have kids).

Paddy's market has a long history. It was where the immigrant Irish of the East end of Glasgow went to buy second hand clothes for themselves and their children after they had been evicted from their lands and suffered from the potato famine. They were welcomed in Glasgow but found the same sort of poverty for working people there as they had left. Paddy's market was a necessary evil. The real sadness is that it still exists today for nearly the same purpose. Among the rip-off DVDs and CDs there are still stalls selling second hand clothes for the really poor. On a recent visit my son remarked that it was terrible that people had to sell this kind of stuff to live, but it is worse that people have to buy this kind of stuff to live.

Re-develop Paddy's Market by all means, but re-develop it as a memorial to the plight of working people. It is a piece of working class history, you might even call it an International Working Class Heritage Site, but there was never a member of the aristocracy living there so it won't count, will it?

The Heilan-man's umbrella (under the bridge at Central Station, for my foriegn readers) also served as a dossing down place for Highlanders dispossed in the Highland clearances, hence the name, and it is still in use by the homeless whenever Strathclyde's finest don't move them along.

Just more working class heritage messing up the post-modern image that Glasgow tries to promote by completely invented heritage like the 'Merchant City'. Real heritage is far too 'gritty' for them.

Outstanding Queries: Can Anyone Update Us

I saw an incident on Saturday night which reminded me of why I started to Blog in the first place (see my first post) so I decided to go through the blog and look for the unanswered questions that I will have to chase up via freedom of information since we have lost our MSPs.
So can anyone update us on the following (dates as per my blog) :

8th March Did West Yorkshire Police ever discipline the officers who beat up the young girl

15th March Did Strathclyde Police or Jamieson ever explain or apologise for the police actions

4th April Did anyone from the airlines ever explain how flights could take off with the baggage reconciliation not correct

9th April With the Nats being the biggest party has Sir Sean Connery announced when he is returning to Scotland to take up residence (pay his tax)

24th April Has anyone accepted responsibility for the sewage spillage into the Forth and resigned

25th April Has Tesco made any announcment in respect of its proposals for the Love Street site. I'm getting anxious to know if we were screwed in the election by a lie (but I suppose to say that the people of the area are looking forward to their new supermarket isn't really a lie even if it never arrives), and finally

4th May Has Duggie offered his resignation for the voting system fiasco


Feel free to comment if you can add any enlightenment

Justice Minister and Strathclyde police

In an earlier post I asked where Cathie Jamieson, the Justice Minister was hiding..well I've found her on BBC Radio Scotland with another two comics this lunchtime shamelessly talking football while Justice is a thing of the past. Still, there is an election due so I suppose she has to talk to people about something to remind us that she is still here. It is a sad state of affairs when a comedian's parody of a political figure is better known and liked than the politician herself.

And still with the law, I refuse to believe the scurrilous accusation in respect of Strathclyde Police, on the front page of another nameless paper, until I see an official denial by the Lodge (either one).

Strathclyde Police

I am indebted to the Herald for the story of Scott McEwan.

Scott was allegedly arrested following a robbery after an armed siege at the hotel where he stayed.The siege involved police marksmen and helicopters and must have been a very frightening experience, especially since Scott is partially sighted and had previously been homeless, presumably with some of the vulnerabilities which homeless persons have who live in the sort of hotels where he was living.

He was called from his building with the marksmens' red dots on his chest and arrested. Now, anyone can make a mistake, but Scott was completely innocent and this is the kind of mistake which ends up with innocent people dead.

Almost as bad was the treatment he received subsequently, after he had been cleared of any wrongdoing. According to the Herald he claims that the police 'threw me out of the police station in the pouring rain' and he collapsed in the street whilst trying to make his way back, unassisted, to his lodgings. I repeat that this was a vulnerable young man, partially sighted who had had a severe shock. He ended up in hospital, surprisingly enough.

Worst of all, Strathclyde Police said that they had no comment to make. Now, surely an accountable police force should have to account for its conduct, but who is going to hold them to account. If they will not explain themselves to the public that they are supposed to be protecting then is that not how we define a police state? One where the police do what they like and do not feel the need to answer to the people.

They should be forced to explain and to bloody well explain right now. Cathie Jamieson, where are you hiding. You are supposed to be the Justice Minister in the Scottish Parliament. Tell us where the justice is if the police can act like this with impunity. They are a law unto themselves and you should be doing something about it.