.

Kenneth Roy

The expert view is wrong.
These deaths could
have been prevented

Bob Cant

What does
'Tutti Frutti'
say to us now?


6

John Cameron

The great 'Chariots
of Fire' was the
purest hokum
4

7

Andrew Hook

Down with
everything: the new
American mantra
5

7

Ronnie Smith

Tanned and smiling,
Mr Blair arrives
among us
5

7

Islay McLeod

Villages of
Scotland:
(3) Thornhill
5

14.12.11
No. 492

SR's remarkable growth as an independent magazine is based largely on word of mouth. Here are examples of our journalism:


* SR played a leading role in the successful campaign to save St Margaret of Scotland Hospice


* An SR investigation into Scotland's care homes revealed the truth about Southern Cross a full year before the company collapsed. We put the facts in the public domain. They were ignored until it was too late


* SR campaigned for greater transparency in Scottish public life and won a landmark judgement from the Scottish information commissioner which has led to a transformation in the information available about executive salaries and pensions in public bodies


*  Having discovered elderly people still living in a near-derelict block of flats in Glasgow, sometimes without a water supply, SR campaigned to have them decently re-housed. With the help of Scotland's housing minister, Alex Neil, we succeeded


* SR continues to campaign – so far without success – to broaden the range of appointments to national organisations beyond a self-perpetuating elite


Since SR does not accept advertising or sponsorship of any kind, and since the support it receives from its publisher (the Institute of Contemporary Scotland) is limited, SR depends on the generosity of individual supporters through the Friends of the Scottish Review appeal. The standard donation is £30. To become a Friend, and help to ensure that SR goes on flourishing
Click here

Unlike many publications SR doesn't have an online comment facility – we prefer a more considered approach. The Cafe is our readers' forum. If you would like to contribute to it, please email islay@scottishreview.net



7
Dusk in the city

 

A month of Glasgow studies by Islay McLeod

 

5. Figure in an alley

 


 



Home Movie

 

Gerard Rochford's December poem

 

I know the scene – an aunt,
the mix of perfume and talc,
demanding a kiss
on her rouged target of cheek.

I am three: reluctantly oblige,
wipe my lips on my sleeve,
and hide again behind my mother.

But this is way different.
Gaddafi, that grotesque mask of a head,
closing down on a wee girl and asking:
Do you love your grandpa?
He repeats the question,
insisting, pleading.

After several lashes of his tongue,
she pushes her hand over his mouth,
shies away and confesses all she can,
a thumbs-up sign, avoiding the smell of his face.

Will she bear his name? And will she be spared the video
of her grandfather's criminal death, the howling pack,
and only recall with pity that desperate face,
a scared old man in a tent, after all that killing,
still seeking love wherever it might be found?

 


Gerard lives in Aberdeen. He is the Scottish Review's makar and
contributes a poem each month. His publications include 'Failing Light'
and 'Of Love and Water'