A Westminster Year Zero - The Scottish Cultural Revolution and the Dawn of the New Iconoclasts

“The hand of Vengeance found the Bed

To which the Purple Tyrant fled

The iron hand crush’d the tyrant’s head

And became Tyrant in his stead.”

William Blake

I was very pleased to read that our grand old neoclassical 18th/19th century municipal building here in Inverclyde is having some maintenance work carried out. Even during these times of austerity and dwindling public funds, it is important that our symbols of civic pride and architectural beauty are maintained. The Municipal buildings are A listed and the Grand Corridor and Council Chambers are very fine examples of Georgian and Victorian splendour.

Years back on Doors Open Day, a lovely long serving Council official informed me that it is unclear which statues once stood on each plinth within the now empty alcoves dotted all around the outside walls of the building or even what some of the remaining carvings represent. This sad state of affairs is down to the fact the original plans are apparently lost?

I don't know about the reality of these lost drawings and maybe someone with a little more knowledge about these things can put me right?

However, I do have my own theory about some of the carvings on the riverside facing part of the building, between the James Watt Statue and the Fire Brigade museum, near Drummer's Close. I think they might feature an obscure figure known as ' Father Clyde'. 

I am basing this claim on the fact that the wise looking old gent carved into the wall, seems to have seaweed in his beard and a Poseidon type quality about him, identical to other carvings of Father Clyde which feature on similar Georgian and Victorian era neoclassical buildings in Glasgow, also built off the back of ships, sugar and tobacco.  

The idea seems to have been to try and imbue the town and buildings with some sort of mythic power via an ancient romantic progenitor, like Japanese emperors descended from Gods, claiming their authority from the mandate of heaven. 

Yet, venerable aesthetics, solemn décor and guys in a tailed suits and gowns, organising our democratic institutions, isn't everyone's cup of tea. 

For example, regardless of where each of our political affiliations lie, we should all be deeply regretful that the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South; Mhairi Black MP, has decided to step away from politics come the next general election. 

It is a depressing state of affairs, when passionate young women in politics, bringing much need energy and diversity to the House of Commons, are no longer seeking re-election due mainly to their unhappy experiences during their time as MPs at Westminster.

Indeed, it is woeful that a popular politician, elected on a wave of optimism, has become so fed up with the culture which she has encountered within Westminster, that she has decided to give up being an MP. I hope that Mhairi uses her many talents to continue to make a positive contribution to political discourse and the improvement of society, outside parliament, which I am sure she will.

Where I might respectfully disagree with the MP for Paisley would be her assertion that the UK Parliament is an outdated institution and like a ‘museum’ with ‘silly traditions’, which ‘allows tradition to rule over reason’. We hear a lot of opinions like this these days, progressives are increasingly hostile to any institution which maintains ceremony and ritual as part of its tradition, especially with regards to ceremonial robes of office, clerical dress and traditional architecture.

To be honest. I am never sure just how much of this hostility to the supposed ‘pomp’ of Westminster is rooted in political opportunism rather than art and design tastes. As I don’t recall the MP condemning the grandeur and gowns of Glasgow University's own arcane graduation ritual, when Mhairi Black successfully graduated with a first class honours degree in politics from that ancient Scottish institution. Similarly, Bute House isn't exactly a Barratt home, kitted out with Ikea furniture. 

The other thing to remember is that civic spaces such as town halls and parliament buildings should indeed be grand and palatial. These are temples, not to the power of the state or the market but temples of democracy which are supposed to honour and uphold the democratic representation, rights and privileges of us citizens. Why should only aristocrats and the wealthy express their sovereignty and power through grand architecture, fine art and ritual but not us commoners?

Such opulent symbolism in the political chamber should be understood as a cultural strategy to stress importance, differentiating the space from normal meeting rooms. Ornate public buildings should be seen as a gesture of respect to voters and constituents.   

And what's the alternative? Replace the speakers chair with something made from formica or MDF?  Take down the oak panelling and replace it with breezeblock? Cover over the marble floors with office carpets? Instruct all the Clerks, Provosts, Aldermen, Mayors and Mace Bearers to take off their regalia and just rock up in t-shirts, jeans and trainers?  

This type of performative, year zero iconoclasm is a superficial form of ersatz radicalism, where the furniture is moved around and the drapes are changed (quite literally). It does nothing to eradicate true inequality or eliminate genuine injustice.

Without wanting to sound too much like the late Roger Scruton, when has any kind of cultural revolution ever left us with anything good? If you don't believe me, speak to any lay Catholic about the state of many of our uninspiring, bland 70's monoculture churches and polyester vestments, which are now more reminiscent of a trip to British Home Stores and C&A with your Mum, rather than the Sistine Chapel, following the reforms of Vatican II.  

Meanwhile, just up the road in Johnstone, Johnstone High Parish which dates from 1792, has been earmarked for closure by the Church of Scotland. The congregation and the Minster are rightly upset at what they see as the closure of an historic vibrant parish, in favour of merging with St Paul's in Johnstone for financial reasons. You can probably guess which one of the two Churches is closing, based on the spirit of the age.  

   

Or remember the lessons from Dostoevsky's novels on the danger of misguided idealism sweeping away tyranny without regard for the risk of anarchy. Dostoevsky suggest that the end result of abandoning morality for the sake of an idea of freedom will be a tyranny far worse than the past, like the Nhilists in his Devils, who manipulate and take advantage of the people for their own self-aggrandisement.

In reality, ceremony and ceremonial robes are supposed to be rituals which foster polite interaction and act as ways of controlling aggression, while encouraging a dynamic of harmony respect, tranquillity. Each of these rituals always have their origins  in community and are always done communally.

Anyone familiar with the basics of Confucianism will know that the act of ritual propriety distinguishes a special event from a normal one, like the the difference between a dinner meal and communion. Or the difference between a Japanese tea ceremony and a quick cup of Nambarrie from a giant Sports Direct mug. As Confucius says in the Analects "Ts'ze, you love the sheep; I love the ceremony."  

I am glad we are maintaining our beautiful old Municipal Buildings, especially as half the town is now being pulled down, regenerated and redeveloped. Our Oak Mall Shopping centre which was once such a symbol of modernity, is now half empty and looks set to be pulled down. The brutalist Police station and other tired old 60's economy buildings around the town, also look to be on the way out too.

So lets keep our Municipal buildings with its magnificent Victoria Tower. The Tower was constructed to celebrate Greenock's prosperity, perhaps we might now look on it as a great beacon of hope amid these days of austerity and hope that these hard times will not last long and that our prosperity will soon return once again. 

God Speed Greenock.