The venerated Shandon Mince - mentioned on these pages before - has a recent News entry whose accompanying picture (replicated here) baffles me completely ...... can anyone explain to me why Tom Oswald (ex-City MP) was campaigning to have the Union Canal drained??
I'm sure there is a perfectly logical answer - but I can't think of it?
... printable responses only please - thank you :-))
14 comments:
I would reckon that is an Edinburgh Sucker. Wouldn't you?
... how they laughed :-)
- seriously, why would anyone want to drain a canal? ... maybe it was for a tram-line??
Oooops. Mistake. That comment should have appeared on this post.
Sorry.....
However, it is nice to see that my comments can be recycled. Maybe I could be a politician as well!
I dunno, neither, boss! All I kens is that the photo is Mr J McMally getting signatures for the petition. And it was 24th September 1950. Mind you, it was a dirty old backwater then and canalside chic wasnae around.
As a matter of interest (OK, infinitesimally small interest) I have a copy of Max Beers "History of British Socialism" volume 2 which was presented to Tom by the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Group in 1962. Anyone know where volume 1 is?
I assume that 'some people' considered it to be 'derelict', an 'eyesore', abandoned, useless, 'dangerous' etc.
Remember, they did fill it in when they built Wester Hailes, though they had to keep the water flowing because it was still being used industrially by the North British Rubber Works (I assume that was still there when that fascinating photo was taken) and the North British Distillery and possibly the Caledonian Brewery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgie).
FORTUNATELY WH wasn't built ON the canal.
As YOU know, the Canal has been re-opened and re-vitalised. The towpath is rather busy - yes and some cyclists should slow down and be more courteous - and some dog owners....
Not too many small boys have downed and not too many shopping trolleys have been sunk - the pessimists aren't always right!!!!
Trivia Quiz: who is the most famous person to have drowned in the UC?
If you actually WANT a copy of HoBS they are available -
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sortby=3&sts=t&tn=%22History+of+British+Socialism%22&x=0&y=0
If you check the original http://www.jcglass.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Shandon/News/news-641.html the photo is bigger and it's easier to read the poster -
"Tom Oswald SAYS The Union Canal Must Go - The Town Council Must Take Action Now - Don't Wait For LONDON".
interesting....
Ed / Chris
Thanks for the various comments.
It does indeed seem an odd petition to have been running - none of my colleagues seem to know what was behind it ... do let me know if you find out!
Chris - no idea about the famous-drowning I'm afraid??
Andrew
and the answer is
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst980.html
apparently it was foggy and he might have been in the pub
Chris
Many thanks - you can link via my name on this post ...
Andrew
I'd take anything said by Chris Hill with a pinch of salt, he did manage to get things soooooo wrong about kids and cycling on Radio Scotland's Tom Morton show last week.
Still, at least the nice policeman who informed Tom of the real facts was able to set the record straight.
Imagine getting a beamer on national radio - what an embarassment eh!
Anonymous
Sorry - not a big Radio Scotland fan, so didn't hear that show ... tend to have Radio 4 on all the time :-((
Andrew
Perhaps Anon could enlighten me about what the "nice policeman" said. (AND whether he was talking about Edinburgh)
I wasn't actually on the radio - TM read a bit of my e-mail.
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