This poem by Rod MacGregor of Dundee was written for Charlie’s coronation. It also makes reference to the words of Mary Brookesbank, the communist songwriter, poet and author, also from of Dundee. Her words, Oh dear me, the world’s ill-divided/ Them that work the hardest, are the least provided/ I maun bide contented dark days or fine,…
The Only Boss I Ever Liked
Rod MacGregor follows Bruce Springsteen’s political development through his music Now I been lookin’ for a job but it’s hard to find Down here there’s just winners and losers And don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line —Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen It was nearly three decades ago, in May 1981, that I…
The Only Boss I Ever Liked
Now I been lookin’ for a job but it’s hard to find Down here there’s just winners and losers And don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line —Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen It was nearly three decades ago, in May 1981, that I first saw Bruce Springsteen (aka The Boss) in concert at…
Feed The World
Africa’s new global role for the 21st century? Hands up anyone who thought that the G8 and G20 conferences were modern inventions at which the rich and powerful decide the fate of the world. It could be contended that they had a precursor one hundred and twenty-five years ago. Between November 15, 1884, and November…
Tibet – A country suffering from Chinese imperial repression
Rod MacGregor of Dundee SSP puts the case for Tibetan self-determination. The Indian town of McLeod Ganj takes its very Scottish sounding name from a British military officer, having been a garrison town during British rule in India. Though it is now over six decades since the British state gave up its imperial ambitions in…
It was the worst of times, it was the best of us!
In this article Rod MacGregor looks at how the Danish people took effective action to protect their Jewish population from Nazi extermination October 1, 10 p.m., 1943 Copenhagen. Nazi occupation forces knock on the doors of the Danish Jewish population. In Denmark, the “final solution” to the “Jewish problem” is under way. The following morning,…
Half truths, mistruths and anything but the truth— a brief history of a century of wartime propaganda
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. —Voltaire The government of the United States had a major problem. It was April 1917, and on the sixth day of that month, eager to get into the First World War, they declared war on Germany. Their big problem was this. Although the…
Man’s Best Friend?
This experience comes from leafleting during a council by-election in the Lochee ward in Dundee, but I imagine that what is described in this little ditty is transferable to anywhere that dogs lurk unseen, waiting to give their canine judgement on political activists of any persuasion. For we, who politics inspire, There is a time…
The Defiance Of Science
Rod MacGregor looks at science, secularism and the role of religion In his book about oil depletion, Half Gone, Jeremy Leggett, one-time oil company high flier and former chief scientist with Greenpeace, tells of a particularly bizarre conversation he had with a lobbyist from the Ford Motor Company at a conference on climate change. The…