On a soaking wet night in summer 2022, a hardy band of UK Column's Scottish audience met with David Scott and Alex Thomson for a wonderful, warm and informal gathering in Motherwell's GLO Centre.
Alex was in Scotland to speak, alongside David, at an anti-war and anti-NATO event in Govan (footage forthcoming on the UK Column website). Never ones to miss an opportunity, they decided, at the last minute, to put the word out the the UK Column audience that a get-together was on. The GLO centre in Motherwell was the venue; the date was Tuesday 16 August. They choose a bad night. The heavens opened, the rain poured down and Rangers were playing PSV Eindhoven at Ibrox in the Champions League, guaranteeing both competition for attention and west-central Scottish road gridlock.
Never daunted, so many UK Column viewers turned up that use of the larger main auditorium had to be hastily negotiated. What followed was a memorable night of chat, tea, biscuits, laughter and heartfelt support.
We start off here with a few introductions, how David and Alex first met each other at a UK Column–British Constitution Group conference (Telford, February 2015), and some descriptions of what it is like to work on the UK Column. Most of the night was turned over to questions from the audience. In Part 1, questions included:
How does the truth movement find unity?
and:
Should representative democracy be replaced by direct democracy?
We also discussed how to resist tyranny, how to enjoy the victories, and how to work together.
Often passionate, with the cool and thoughtful contributions from Alex Thomson contrasting with David Scott's experiences of campaigns and struggles, it was a great night.
This is also a chance to hear Alex's finest Scots as he discusses the problem of people who are "daft in the heid", find out the problem with the former head of the Scottish Civil Service, and listen to the UK Column audience booing Tony Blair.
Part 2 is here.