Political History
Originally a separate police burgh founded in 1871, it became part of Glasgow in 1905. It was the smallest such burgh in Scotland at just 108 acres (0.44 km2). During its 34-year existence, the burgh had its own council, elections, coat of arms, provosts, town hall, council chambers, fire brigade, police force, and police court. Govan Burgh to the west survived even longer, from 1864-1912, before it too was annexed by the City of Glasgow.
The inaugural council in 1871 was one of the first examples of working class representation in Scotland with 5 "working men" candidates being elected to the 12 member council under the guidance of Andrew Boa, an activist who also served on the Glasgow Trades Council. This was well before the formation of the Scottish Labour Party in 1888 by Keir Hardie and Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham.
During the area's time as an independent burgh, there were nine Provosts of Kinning Park:
- Alexander Abercrombie (1871–1874)
- Thomas Dick (1874–1877)
- William Muir (1877–1883)
- George Lindsay (1883–1890)
- James Whyte (1890–1893)
- John Campbell (1893–1896)
- Alexander Mitchell (1896–1899)
- William Gray (1899–1902)
- Thomas McMillan (1902–1905)
In 1970, the neighbouring Kingston ward of Glasgow Corporation was the first in Scotland to elect a Muslim councillor, Bashir Mann.
More recently, political activity in the district has received national publicity in relation to the Glasgow headquarters of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in Stanley Street which occupies a site adjacent to the former Kinning Park Burgh Chambers. This SSP building was the scene of the Executive Committee Emergency Meeting on 9 November 2004, which led to later disagreement between prominent Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan and many of his committee colleagues. The minutes of the meeting are disputed and they became a key point of discussion in the libel case which Sheridan brought against the News of the World newspaper in 2006.
Read more about this topic: Kinning Park
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or history:
“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country—and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”
—Charles Krauthammer (b. 1950)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)