Mods and mockers

Comedy gold from the Glasgow East by-election:

Less a case of 'the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton', and more a case of the battle for the soul of Scottish Republican Socialism was lost in the tuck shop queue at St Andrews Secondary School in Shettleston.

Someone over at the Glasgow East by-election thread on Urban 75 mentions the awkward fact that Trish McLeish "was in the same LPYS, Labour Party, Militant, Militant Labour, SSA and SSP with Frances Curran - and she waits over 20 years to come out with this tosh?" Sad that even the most rebellious mod could have been cowed by democratic centralism for over twenty years.

Hat tip to 'Fedayn' over at Urban 75.

Solidarity - an inside view

Just to want to flag up an interesting contribution from Graham Cee Campbell, who was the Glasgow Convener for Solidarity from December 2006 till June 2007, to the Sheridan's Solidarity Falls Apart post on the Socialist Unity Blog.

Word of warning. There's no dirt, gossip or sticking the political boot into the opposition in the contribution (well maybe a bit of the political boot aimed at CWI members within Solidarity), but I did think it was an interesting read for filling in the gaps in my understanding on what's been going on in Solidarity since the early days of its formation, and Sheridan missing out in retaining his seat in the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 elections.

Scottish SWP's Popular Front Of Especial Spite

Further to this earlier post on the blog.

Following the sighting of this article in today's Herald, it looks like their Chief Scottish Political Correspondent, Robbie Dinwoodie, has been refreshing the Socialist Unity Blog page. It's a shame that he couldn't have the netiquette to at least namecheck the blog that provides him with the story.

Btw, it turns out that in a past life Robbie Dinwoodie was a callow youth in the Edinburgh Branch of the SPGB in the early seventies. To paraphrase that old story about Pete Best, 'Where did it all go right?'

Solidarity at Christmas

Via the Socialist Unity Blog, comes the news that The Scottish Steering Committee of the Socialist Workers Party have decided to do a rewrite of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. New proposed title for the caledonian version of the 1930s classic self-help book? 'Chib Them Before They Chib You'

Via the Glasgow Herald - and the left blogosphere - comes the news that Solidarity only elected representative, Glasgow City Council member, Ruth Black, has defected from Solidarity to join the Labour Party. Being a person of the deepest political integrity, Councillor Black will be resigning her seat, and fighting the subsequent by-election as the Labour Party candidate (but only after first putting herself forward for selection as the Labour Party candidate, of course*).

But it's not all bad news for the Solidarity camp, George Lucas has directed a YouTube video defending Tommy Sheridan against Darth Murdoch and the recent perjury charges.

*I'm lying.