Copenhagen has its East End. At least, it seems like that to me. After several years in Valby, it was about as close to Dennistoun, Parkhead and Shettleston as I would get.
Of course, being Denmark, the comparison doesn’t really work. This small independent country is not like Scotland at all. Its political and economic sovereignty are intact.
We got off at Valby station and checked out where it all began. My first rented accommodation was here. And it was also where my girlfriend became my live-in partner. I was in my early 30s, so it was perhaps time?
So what’s East End about Valby? Well, its citizens are more working class. Many people live in ‘tenements’ among small historic houses of yesteryear. Then there’s the closeness of the community. The long meandering road, ‘Valby Langgade’, could be a stretch of 1960s Duke Street. A couple of community schools, historic library, older villas alongside functional no-frills housing, and urban intimacy is complete.
Then there are the scents – food scents. Glasgow to me is still associated with early morning aromas from bakeries. And as we stroll through Valby, there are those breakfasty smells and couthie wee shops. This working class part of the Danish capital was never bad, it has just become much better. I wish I could say the same about Duke Street.
A few things a Glaswegian might notice is that the local infrastructure looks modernised and vastly improved. Another thing is that there are no betting shops or pubs. A number of stylish new restaurants and cafes have appeared, though. One of them, a charming little Persian place, has a menu fit for the gods.
We look up, and observe that all of the tenements are in fine condition. Everything has new thermal-glass windows. There’s also a distinct lack of litter on the streets. With broader cycle paths, there are fewer cars. The good weather brings one after another of those chic female cyclists whose poise and form is a thing of velotastic beauty.
Anyway, we’re talking about buildings from the 1880s onward, and you’ll be hard pressed to find even one that has a tree or bush growing out of its roof. This is in stark contrast to the generational neglect of Glasgow’s irreplaceable architectural heritage. That’s a crime that should lead to prosecution of those gravy-train Labour politicians and councillors who oversaw this cultural vandalism.
Our stroll takes us near to the historic Carlsberg brewery. Like everything else here, it’s a class above its Glasgow counterpart, in this case, Tennent’s on Duke Street.
But we take a left and head into the park known as Søndermarken. We’re not far from Frederiksberg Castle – another of those royal buildings built in the 1700s (1705, to be precise). Every date on the information signs relates to the national sovereignty of this wee country. And each year mentioned evokes a heart-breaking parallel association with the dismantling of the Scottish state, its institutions, and its military occupation by our southern neighbour.
We’re here in Søndermarken for ‘Weaving the Light’. Turns out the underground water reservoir, built after the 1850s cholera epidemic in Copenhagen, is now a subterranean ‘art scene’.
The current exhibit at ‘Cisternerne’, as this place is called, is by the South Korean artist, Kimsooja. “The audience is invited into an ethereal space where light, projected into iridescent colour spectra, transforms the former water reservoir into a sacred sea of light”. It’s dark, damp and has a cathedral-like ambience. Most of our fellow ‘tourists’ are international, judging by the whispered languages.
It’s regretful that a Nation movie was never made about Denmark. It was in the planning, and I’d offered to accomodate and transport the production team (Phantom Power’s Al and Lesley R.) but it never came to anything. More’s the pity, as this country has a smaller landmass and fewer resources than Scotland, yet is one of the most prosperous and contented in Europe. But, of course, the Danes have their national identity, language, and culture intact.
We’re reminded of this as we pass the traditional Danish restaurants near Frederiksberg Castle and park. These date back to the 19th century and serve exclusively Danish cuisine. There’s no flag schizophrenia, either. There’s only the Danish ‘Dannebrog’ flying here. What’s not to like about a nation that is comfortable in its own skin?
Denmark has never forgotten the occupation by its southern neighbour. Being dictated to by a foreign power is against everything in the DNA of Danes. The trauma of the 1940-45 period is the subject of yet another major production, ‘Når Befrielsen Kommer’ (‘Before it Ends’), from the flourishing domestic film industry.
As you read these words we’ll be back in the shadow of Frederiksberg Castle to support our daughter in her first half-marathon. The 21km-route through this bright shiny city looks fabulous.
One day in an independent Scotland, when the trauma of our 300-year occupation is over, we too, can begin weaving the light, once again. Until then, the best way to achieve this is by de-legitimising the colonial exploitation of the occupying power. And those leading the way on this are the Independence for Scotland Party. ISP under Colette Walker’s leadership has embraced abstentionism. She deserves the vote of every genuine independence supporter in Rutherglen and Hamilton West on 5 October. ISP have also embraced the Stirling Directive and the concept of direct democracy – a Swiss-style reinstatement of Scotland’s own historic constitution. What’s not to like?
The days of voting for candidates, who believe political change can be achieved in the English-majority parliament at Westminster, are surely over. Any Scottish MP, swearing fealty to the English crown, will achieve nothing once embedded within the structures of the British state. Anyone who tells you they can, is lying to you.
Forgive me for re-stating this yet again, but General Election 2024 offers us the opportunity to do for Scotland, what Irish voters did for Ireland at General Election 1918 – vote for politicians who reject Westminster’s colonial rule of our historic nation. To quote and paraphrase an election poster from an abstentionist party a century ago:
“Is Scotland a Part of England?
On April 12th, Captain D. D. Shehan said in the English House of Commons:
“I know all the English arguments. They only take account of England’s position. It is quite natural they should only take account of England’s position, but they are all founded upon the English delusion that Scotland is a part of England.”
If Scotland is not a part of England, why should Scottish Members attend the English Parliament, especially when they are outnumbered there 6 to 1?
Vote for the Independence for Scotland Party.
And show the world that Scotland is not a part of England.”
peteryoung.dk 