Scottish Independence: Monarchy or Republic?

Tuesday 19th August 2014

Doors & registration at 7pm, events starts at 7.30pm.

Teachers Building (Laphroaig Lecture Theatre), St Enoch Square, Glasgow, G1 4DB.

There will be a 5-minute introductory address by Gary McLelland on behalf of Republic Scotland. After which the chairperson will take over.

The chair will introduce each speaker, and give them 5 minutes to set out their position in relation to the independence referendum and the monarchy.

After which the chair will field questions from the audience.

Towards the end of the event, the chair will ask each panellist to give a summing-up of his or her position, before a short closing address by Gary McLelland.

N.b. The event may be recorded or livecast.

About Republic Scotland.

Republic Scotland is a devolved regional campaign team of Republic.

Republic is a membership-based pressure group campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement with a directly elected head of state.

We represent all Britain’s republicans, bringing the case for a republic to a wider audience while scrutinising the actions of the royal household. We are strictly non-party political and have the support of over 30,000 republicans.

We are a democratic organisation, led by our members and underpinned by a set of core principles. We are an inclusive movement, with members and supporters from across the political spectrum and from a diverse range of backgrounds.

For more information on the society, see: http://republic.org.uk/

Chair:

David Torrance: David is an Edinburgh-based writer, journalist and broadcaster, regularly appearing on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC television, as well as supplying obituaries to the Herald and commentary for the Scotsman, The Times and several websites.

David is author of several books including the critically acclaimed 2006 ‘The Scottish Secretaries’, as well as the 2010 biography of First Minister Alex Salmond; ‘Against All Odds’.

Panellists:

John Mason: After accountancy training in Glasgow, he has worked for housing associations, nursing homes, and with a charity in London. He also spent 3 years in Nepal with an NGO representing churches from all over the world. He was elected as the Councillor for the Garrowhill ward in 1998 at a by-election and led the SNP Group on the Council since 1999 and in 2007 was elected as Councillor for the new ward of Baillieston.

He was elected as MP for Glasgow East following a by-election in July 2008, and was elected as MSP in May 2011. His other interests include involvement in Easterhouse Baptist Church, hill-walking and camping. John describes himself as a ‘soft’ republican.

Zara Kitson: Zara is an organiser of So Say Scotland, a citizens’ assembly inspired by constitutional innovation in Iceland, has an MA in Public Policy from Glasgow University, and is starting her own business, Dream Graft, to support other companies and communities going through change.

She is a member of National Collective, and an active campaigner for a Yes vote in next year’s independence referendum. In 2012 she narrowly missed out on election to the Castle Ward on Stirling Council. Zara was selected as the Scottish Green Party candidate in the 2013 Dunfermline by-election, and is a republican.

Jamie Gardiner: Jamie Gardiner was raised in Stirling, where he went to school and began his work on behalf of the Conservative party. He then went on to study PPE at Somerville College, Oxford, becoming President of the Oxford University Conservative Association. Since 2007 he has worked for Accenture as a Strategy Adviser to executives of Fortune 500 companies.

Jamie was the number 4 list candidate for the Conservative party in the 2014 European Parliament elections. Jamie is a monarchist. As well as his political activism, Jamie works as a volunteer for the domestic violence charity Refuge.

Robert Brown: Robert is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Rutherglen ward in South Lanarkshire Council. Robert was previously a partner & consultant with a Glasgow firm of solicitors. He was a Liberal Glasgow City Councillor for a few years in the 1970s and 1980s, and has been Convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Policy Committee since the early 1990s. He was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Robert was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for political service and is a supporter of constitutional monarchy.