A bit of plugging going on for something my employer is up to – though don’t worry, it isn’t in the least bit controversial.
The University of Stirling is home to a new project entitled the Scottish Political Archive which seeks to chronicle Scotland’s political history through photographs and campaign material.  The project is still in its early stages and a lot of cataloguing work is still ongoing (along with website construction) but there’s plenty to see already.
I stuck a few links up on Twitter a couple of days ago and the reaction from politicos seemed fairly positive – with many enjoying seeing a slightly different side to the politicians they thought they knew quite well (John Swinney with hair brought several giggles from the assembled Twitterati).
This post is really to serve two purposes – firstly, I’m trying to advertise it. Â It’s kind of a service for political junkies (the kind of people who, say, read political blogs) to show the evolution of Scottish politics through media, photography and campaigning over the last 60 or 70 years. Â So use it – go and have a look through some of the photographs, look for your favourite politicians, keep an eye out on Facebook for updates to the site as well.
You can see the photographs on Flickr here or “like” the Scottish Political Archive on Facebook here (Facebook login required). Â Alternatively, the Scottish Political Archive’s photo blog is here, which carries the same material in a slightly different format.
Secondly, its a plea for help. Â But I’m not asking for much. Â The Scottish Political Archive is trying to make its picture as complete as it can. Â Current work is focused on three collections – those of the Scots Independent newspaper, Bruce Watson (former SNP Chairman) and George Robertson (former Labour MP and NATO Secretary-General). Â They range from photographs, policy documents, campaign materials and pamphlets. Â But they don’t want to stop there.
To that end, they are looking for material. Â Photographs of politicians at campaign stops, conferences, leaflets for elections and by-elections… you know the kind of thing. Â If you have that sort of thing (and if you don’t, you’re not a real political anorak) lying around – probably in your garage – get in touch. Â The Scottish Political Archive would be delighted to take it, scan it, archive it online – and return it to you (unless you want rid of it!). Â Of particular interest are materials from 1979 and 1997 referendums, by-election campaigns and other election materials.
You can contact the Scottish Political Archive through Facebook or by emailing scottishpoliticalarchive@stir.ac.uk if you have anything you’d like to share.
Apologies for this being a text-only post. I would have used a photo from the archive, but I think some of them have special copyright/ permission status, and I’m not sure which ones! Â Anyway – have a wee look, and let them know what you think!
#1 by Indy on November 26, 2010 - 9:11 am
You should be pleased to know the Flickr archive has been spreading like wildfire among SNP activists – particularly the SI donations. Brilliant stuff. Happy days etc.
#2 by Camperoo on November 26, 2010 - 11:08 am
um…did you know Strathclyde Uni already has a Scottish Parliamentary archive going back to 1999?
#3 by Malc on November 26, 2010 - 11:21 am
I didn’t know that – but I assume they probably do. Have you some links?
#4 by Malc on November 26, 2010 - 11:24 am
Actually – I have seen that before. But as you say – its a Scottish Parliamentary Archive. This is a broader project – going back further, and taking in the referendums, campaigns for devolution, by-elections, Westminster elections, party conferences… you get the idea.
#5 by Stuart Dickson on November 28, 2010 - 5:34 am
Sorry to go off topic, but I just wanted to let readers know that Ladbrokes are the first bookie to publish odds for the imminent Scottish GE. It is a “Most Seats” market, whereas I think an “FM Salmond vs FM Gray” market might have attracted more interest. Anyhoo, their starting prices are:
Lab 1/5
SNP 3/1
Con 100/1
LD 100/1
Please note that the Smarkets.com betting exchange also have similar prices, but with the SNP at a slightly tastier 7/2 at the moment.
I do not see much value in either the Labour or the SNP prices (with the latest Angus Reid, ComRes, Ipsos MORI, Populus, TNS-BMRB and YouGov polls all showing strong Labour support in Scotland at present), but it is fascinating to see Ladbrokes totally writing off the Lib-Cons even at this early juncture. It truly is a classic two-horse race.
#6 by James on November 28, 2010 - 9:09 am
Fascinating, Stuart. I’m waiting for the “next FM” and # of SGP seats before I throw my money away though.
#7 by Ian Smith on November 28, 2010 - 12:12 pm
I was alerted to the political archive early last week and to some photographs of myself dating back to 1977. Slightly off topic but possibly of some interest to political anoraks. In 1979 I was the SNP candidate in Kinross and West Perthshire, one time seat of Alex Douglas Home and subsequently bequeathed to Nicolas Fairbairn QC who was defending in the 1979 contest. I had produced several issues of a constituency newspaper including one for distribution during week one of the election campaign. On page 2 of the election issue I reproduced an article by Colin Bell, then a columnist on The Sunday Mail which included a message from a worker in the Westminster Parliament’s post office to various Scottish MP’s to remind ‘Nicky’ that he had a sack of uncollected constituent’s mail stretching back several weeks which had to be collected before Parliament was pa-rolled.
‘Nicky’ took great umbridge at the piece and it’s potential political damage with 30K copies out for distribution to all households in his constituency. Shortly after midnight on the Friday evening at the start of the campaign while the election agent and myself were busy distributing the paper to branches around Perthshire my wife, tucked up in bed in Doune, took a call from a lawyer acting for Nicky to notify me of an injunction obtained late that evening at the High Court in Edinburgh to stop all distribution of the paper. My wife called me at the office in Crieff with the news and after a discussion with my agent, now an SNP Councillor in Perth, we decided to distribute several thousand more copies to outlying branches with notices attached that these had to be distributed, without fail over the weekend. Of course, by the time we were able to contact all the branches already in possession of their quota, comply with the injunction and halt the distribution early the following week over 15K copies had been popped through letter boxes. Assisted by a couple of news items in the national press highlighting ‘the outrage’ of censoring a story already carried in The Sunday Mail and the MP’s neglect of constituent’s mail and the curiosity of thousands more who received their issue of ‘Focus’ with a 6″ x 4″ cut-out near the top of page 1 we took many phone calls from voters interested to hear what the ‘offending’ story was all about. Happy days indeed!