Matt Geraghty has played the part of; soldier, photographer, poet, jazz club entrepreneur, (very amateur) boxer, journalist, designer, event director, PR professional, theatre manager, brand director, and Dad.
Matt is now Assistant Editor at both The Holborn Magazine and The Chap Magazine – as well as writing forSabotage Times and, of course, Ungagged.
You can read more from Matt on his Medium profile.
Allan Grogan was the founder and National Spokesperson of Labour for Independence – a pro independence organisation which campaigned from within the Labour Party from 2012-2014.
Steve McAuliffe was born and raised in South East London, and is a published author, performed playwright and a lover of the poetry and ethos of William Blake.
His writing has appeared in various political and poetical publications to date.
Having left a secondary Modern with little more than 2 O-levels and a comprehensive education in avoiding violence through humour, he finally returned to education in his early 30’s, when he attended Ruskin College in Oxford. Ruskin at that time was a perfect place to hone his political beliefs; there he mixed with veterans of the miner’s strike, plus assorted anarchists, communists and a handful of anarcho-syndaclists. He eventually attained a Master’s Degree in Scriptwriting from Goldsmith’s College in London
All Steve’s writing is fired by a desire for social justice and the idea of individual liberty, as well as an unshakeable belief in the power of the imagination. He says two quotes from William Blake best sum up his philosophy;
‘Imagination is a glimpse of the divine’
And:
‘I must create my own system, or be enslaved by another man’s’
Having written endless plays, and film and TV scripts Steve has recently discovered that the best vehicle for his voice is poetry.
In July he had his first collection of poetry published, entitled: ‘Thamesmead’
You can read some of his writing on his website
Or you can follow him on Twitter
Read some of Steve’s Ungagged Articles here
And his Ungagged Poetry here
Eric Joyce writes and works on issues related to Africa, the extractive industries and Scottish independence. He is a former soldier and politician, having served 15 years in the British Army then 15 more as the member of the UK parliament for Falkirk. While in parliament, Eric served on both the front and back-benches; in government and in opposition.
Eric was a Labour, then independent, MP who opposed independence until Brexit. He entered and exited politics in fairly well-known and controversial circumstances. Today, he edits and contributes to the project ‘FromnotoYes.scot’ which aims to help Scots who previously opposed independence to move across and support it.
‘FromnotoYes.Scot’ will soon launch a new, updated website. It features regular comment features and will shortly include a weekly blog. There is a newsletter for anyone who would like to be sent it. There will be occasional and open ‘From No to Yes’ events where all will be most welcome.
Contact Eric at eric@ericjoyce.co.uk
Debra Torrance is the youngest daughter of a bookkeeper and a butcher. A late baby, her parents were preparing to become Nanna and Pops not new a mum and dad again.
Debra was brought up in the east end of Glasgow and moved around Scotland from the highlands to Fife before settling in Milngavie. She has lived on the other side of the world and the other side of the Clyde.
A digital artist who studied as a 3D animator at uni, Debra can turn her hand to just about everything, from digital design and production to photography.
Debra also finds time to play wheelchair rugby for Caledonian crushers, the only wheelchair rugby team in Scotland. All of the players have various impairments on at least three of their limbs and, as a relatively high function player, Debra plays attack. She wrote a piece for the MS Society recently where she described it as chess with a ball, if the pieces were manually pushed big heaps of highly engineered metal wheelchairs. You can read it here.
When she has some downtime, Debra and her girlfriend like to go out exploring castles, standing stones or good restaurants of Scotland. They love Arran in particular. If Debra had to emigrate to any country it would be Iceland.
A politically minded, rebellious, LGBTQ, anti-trident, anti-austerity, republican, and Jedi, Debra is a natural history enthusiast, lover of maps and self-confessed geek. She can spend hours looking at google earth and can’t walk past a Burns at an antique book fair without buying it.
Debra likes a blether.
You can follow Debra on twitter @FewArePict
Or check her out on YouTube
You can see some of Debra’s ungagged Art here
And read Debra’s Ungagged Articles here
Victoria Pearson is a writer and mum of four who lives behind a keyboard in Bedfordshire, England.
Having always wanted to be a writer, V started to think it was an achievable dream when she wrote and edited a feature for the Guardian when she was 17. Following that, she appeared live on the Richard and Judy show to discuss factors that influence teenage pregnancy rates in the Uk.
V has worked as a peer mentor to help reduce teenage pregnancy rates and educate young people about drug and alcohol misuse, and moved on from that to working as a Learning Support Assistant for children with Special Educational Needs. With a keen interest in communication in all forms, V specialised in working with children on the Autistic spectrum and supporting them to stay in mainstream education.
V was politicised at an early age by her Socialist grandfather, who she used to bond with over “fat men arguing” (PMQs), but she became more active following the birth of her third child, who was born with Congenital Heart Defects. Having received world class health care for herself and her son, V was horrified to discover that in countries without universal health care, people who couldn’t afford $100,000 for the life saving operation her son had received for free were being forced to abort their much wanted children. She has made it her personal mission to try and stop NHS privatisation, believing it to be the UK’s proudest achievement.
Following the Brexit vote, V joined the Labour party, hoping to help protect human rights and workers rights. She wanted to join “the good guys”, but remains unconvinced that’s what Labour are. V lives in hope that we are headed towards a society where socialism will cease to be seen as a dirty word and we will begin to move toward greater equality, protected free healthcare and Universal Basic Income.
V writes strange fiction (which you can find here), and poetry as well as fantasy, sci-fi and dystopian novels. She is rumoured to be 106, but is far too tired to find out if that’s true.
You can follow V’s political ramblings on twitter – @vspearson85
Or find out more about her writing on her blog and website or on Facebook.
bikerneil.home.blog 