In Sleepy Scotland Download

Description

Sleepy Scotland was the name trade unionists in England used during the 19th century to describe the situation in industrial ‘North Britain’. In an essay published in 1896, the socialist, Murray Kaye wrote, ‘One feature that stands out prominently in Glasgow in the temporary nature of its citizens habits. There is no expression of permanency in their social, ethical, industrial or economic movements. The house will do for a ‘whup of dearth’; we sin today and repent tomorrow; the job will last till we get a better; the clothes will pass muster; the food will do for a ‘shove past’; and when in debt we borrow another loan.

‘Thousand of citizens live in lodgings like birds of passage and there is practically no limit to the method of exploitation.’ The transformation of Glasgow, 1896