Anachronistic Streets names

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Postby Seamey » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:00 am

glasgowken wrote:Sorry to go off topic a bit, but did the South African consulate use the new Nelson Mandela Sq name on their official letters, or continue to use St. George's Place ?


The consulate refused to use the new address and then eventually it was closed.
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Nelson Mandela

Postby lordsleek » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:59 pm

I remember quite clearly the change and remember thinking that the incumbent SA government would not give a flying fork about it. However like many things I was happy they did it cos some times futile or apparently insignificant gestures add up to something important.

any way though is Emma really that young?
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Re: Nelson Mandela

Postby HollowHorn » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:43 pm

lordsleek wrote:Ducks

Wise choice there, LS. Image
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Postby tedmaul » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:11 am

Dexter St. Clair wrote:Tedmaul stick your narrow political perspective beside your Hang Nelson mandela T Shirt.


Yawn. Nice try, genius. Try and read what was written, not what you imagine was written. It is a fact that Nelson Mandela has nothing to do with Glasgow and the re-naming of St. George's Place was political prejudice and an abuse of power by overpaid, over-rated, underworked councillors. Fact.

Tell me, genius, do *you* know if the taxpayer had to fund the councillors wee joke and pay for the reprint of business stationery, etc? Or where the businesses just told to 'eh, it's oor city, take it or leave it, aw right'?

Seamey wrote:The consulate refused to use the new address and then eventually it was closed.


Excellent. Another triumph for the City Chambers. God bless them.
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Postby johnnyanglia » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:14 am

I have always been very wary of events such as the Nelson Mandela renaming. I must admit coming from a leftist perspective i felt that it was vogue political tokenism on behalf of the council. A few years later during the Anti Poll Tax campaign the city fathers very quickly capitulated and enforced Tory legislation. I think that streets should not be renamed. As George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". My own personal anacronistic street name offering is Mafeking Street.
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Postby Vladimir » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:15 am

It is a fact that Nelson Mandela has nothing to do with Glasgow


I think more people admire him than they do most of the characters other streets and squares have been named after. I mean, do we still want a 'George' square, what did he ever do for anybody?
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Postby tedmaul » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:35 am

Vladimir wrote:
I think more people admire him than they do most of the characters other streets and squares have been named after. I mean, do we still want a 'George' square, what did he ever do for anybody?


Fair enough. We should rename it 'Bobby Sands Square', in the spirit of Glesga's honouring of international disputes.

Funnily enough (though not very funny), the Iranians renamed the street of the British Embassy in Tehran after Mr Sands in order to maximise embarrassment of a foreign nation on their soil. Thankfully, only a shower of totalitarian, theocratic fascists would try something as unpleasant as that and it wouldn't happen in Scotland.
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Postby JayKay » Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:15 pm

IIRC after Mandela Square was named, the South African government offices changed their address to a PO box number.

A futile and petty act of defiance perhaps, but it is only through acts of defiance, from the petty and the futile to the heroic, that change comes about.

One other interesting fact was that when Mandela visited Glasgow, he stayed at the then Townhouse Hotel, which was on Mandela Square.

Incidentally, I've always thought that George Square should be renamed. Sensational Alex Harvey Actionplatz has a certain ring to it... :wink:
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Postby Alex Glass » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:11 pm

tedmaul wrote:
I would prefer a positive campaign which sought to name or rename streets in Glasgow after notable Glaswegians or Scotspeople whose lives and achievements are globally recognised. Then again, knowing the City Chambers buffoons, we'd have Donald bloody Dewar Street rather than Adam Smith Street. Ho hum.


There is a street in Drumchapel named after Donald Dewar. This was following a campain by the local community. It didn't involve the re-naming of a street it was a new street as part of a housing development I think.
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Postby Dexter St. Clair » Sat Jul 15, 2006 7:23 am

A few years later during the Anti Poll Tax campaign the city fathers very quickly capitulated and enforced Tory legislation.


Not quite. They left it to Strathclyde to collect and they came under pressure for the workforce to make sure they got paid.

And Terrymaul where are your "facts" and your evidence to back the facts up?


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Postby cheesemonster » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:43 am

Vladimir wrote:I mean, do we still want a 'George' square, what did he ever do for anybody?

So er, who was "George" anyway?
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Postby crusty_bint » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:53 am

King George III - the one with the "madness" who lost the American colonies. The original intention was to ave a statue of him in the middle but for one reason or another this never transpired.
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Postby Vladimir » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:57 am

So not only did he do nothing for Glasgow, he in fact made life worse for it. Yeah, I think the name needs changed...
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Postby crusty_bint » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:59 am

No, that's a common misconception. The loss of the colonies had relatively little impact on Glasgows economy of the time. Trade was simply transferred from Virginia to the West Indies.
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Postby Vladimir » Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:57 am

At any rate, it kind of harks back to colonialism. Bit strange to have a place named after Nelson Mandela while at the same time having so much of the city named after the exploitations of the imperial period.
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