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Jimmy Reid's funeral in 2010 was attended by Gordon Brown the former Prime Minister, Alex Salmond the First Minister and other leading politicians. Eulogies were given by his friends Sir Alex Ferguson and Billy Connolly. Crowds lined the streets for the funeral cortege. The Daily Telegraph described Reid as the 'greatest MP Scotland never had' in its obituary. Yet to date there has been no biography of the man who was an iconic figure in Scotland and hugely popular both as a politician and then as a TV and media commentator. Written with the approval and input of his family and friends it provides an insight into the man and his life. MacAskill's biography describes Jimmy Reid's rich and var...
On 21 December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 departed London Heathrow for New York. Shortly after take-off, a bomb detonated, killing all aboard and devastating the small Scottish town of Lockerbie below. Only one man has ever been convicted of the crime: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, though few believe that he acted alone. In 2009, a request was made by Libya for al-Megrahi's release from prison on compassionate grounds after he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The decision to grant or deny that request fell squarely and exclusively on the shoulders of one man: Kenny MacAskill, Scotland's Justice Secretary from 2007 to 2014. Detailing the build-up to the atrocity and the carnage left in its wake...
The arrival of January 1919 sees Europe in turmoil, with revolution breaking out across the Continent. Glasgow's industrial community has been steeled by radicalism throughout the Great War, and as the spectre of mass unemployment and poverty threatens, a cadre of shop stewards, supported by political activists, is ready to strike for a forty-hour week. They face a state nervous of their strength and anxious about the wider consequences of their action, with the War Cabinet monitoring the situation closely. On 31 January, now known as Bloody Friday, tensions came to a head when 60,000 demonstrators clashed with police in George Square. The Scottish Bolshevik Revolution (so termed by the Secr...
By any measure, the story of the Scottish National Party is an extraordinary one. Forced to endure decades of electoral irrelevance since its creation in the 1930s, during which it often found itself grappling with internal debate on strategy, and rebellion from within its own ranks, the SNP virtually swept the board in the 2015 general election, winning all but three of Scotland's fifty-nine seats in Westminster. What's more, under the current leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP has never been a more important force in the landscape of British politics. The leaders who have stood at its helm during this tumultuous eighty-year history - from Sir Alexander MacEwen to Nicola Sturgeon and Al...
'You know me as the Lockerbie bomber. I know that I'm innocent. Here, for the first time, is my true story: how I came to be blamed for Britain's worst mass murder, my nightmare decade in prison and the truth about my controversial release. Please read it and decide for yourself. You are now my jury'. (Abdelbaset al-Megrahi). For the first time the man known as 'the Lockerbie bomber' tells his story. This long-awaited book argues that, far from being an unrepentant terrorist, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the innocent victim of dirty politics, a flawed investigation and judicial folly. Based on exclusive interviews with Megrahi himself, and conclusive new evidence, it destroys the prosecution case and puts the Scottish criminal justice system in the dock. Megrahi: You Are My Jury makes a compelling argument that the murderers of the 270 Lockerbie victims were acting on behalf of an entirely different government, rather than Colonel Gadafy and Libya.
A father details his loss, grief, and fight for the truth following his daughter’s death in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 was the largest attack on Britain since World War II. 259 passengers and 11 townsfolk of Lockerbie were murdered. Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the crime. He maintained his innocence until his death in 2012. Among the passengers was Flora, beloved daughter of Dr Jim Swire. Jim accepted American claims that Libya was responsible, but during the Lockerbie Trial he began to distrust key witnesses and supposed firm evidence. Since then, it has been revealed tha...
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When the Clyde Ran Red paints a vivid picture of the heady days when revolution was in the air on Clydeside. Through the bitter strike at the huge Singer Sewing machine plant in Clydebank in 1911, Bloody Friday in Glasgow's George Square in 1919, the General Strike of 1926 and on through the Spanish Civil War to the Clydebank Blitz of 1941, the people fought for the right to work, the dignity of labour and a fairer society for everyone. They did so in a Glasgow where overcrowded tenements stood no distance from elegant tea rooms, art galleries, glittering picture palaces and dance halls. Red Clydeside was also home to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow Style and magnificent exhibitions showcasing the wonders of the age. Political idealism and artistic creativity were matched by industrial endeavor: the Clyde built many of the greatest ships that ever sailed, and Glasgow locomotives pulled trains on every continent on earth. In this book Maggie Craig puts the politics into the social context of the times and tells the story with verve, warmth and humour.
The Political Martyrs memorial in Edinburgh looms large on the city's skyline but its history is relatively unknown. And that is not by accident. As Edinburgh's New Town was constructed, a narrative of kilts and loyalty was created for Scotland, with its radical history deliberately excluded. The French Revolution lit a spark in Scotland, inspiring radicals and working people alike, and uniting them in opposition to the King and his government. The oligarchy of landowners that ran Scotland was worried. Leading radicals like Thomas Muir and fellow political reformists were later rounded up and transported to Botany Bay. But they fought back and formed the Society of the United Scotsmen, seeking widespread political reform throughout the Union and were prepared to use physical force in defence of their ideals. As social and economic hardship followed in Waterloo's wake, the flame of radicalism was further ignited. This is Scotland's radical history.
A series of articles contributed by politicians, academics and Civic Scotland that envisage what Scotland can be in 2020.