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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