Notes From The Smoking Area

When anyone asks me where I am from, I always say Dundee.

Then I have to explain I am from there but I live in Edinburgh now.

No matter how confusing it can become or how many people look at me sideways because they have never heard of Dundee, I will always be a proud Dundonian.

I was brought up in what my mum likes to call Downfield, but my school was in Kirkton.

I have incredibly fond memories of living in Dundee.

My first job was on the Hilltown,

For those of you from Dundee- you know- but for those of you who haven’t had the privilege of visiting the Hilltown, let’s just say as I would travel through it on the number 22 bus with my granny she would turn to me and say:

“And that Hugh, is why you don’t do drugs.”

As much as this became a funny inside joke between my grandmother and I, it highlighted to me an issue that has plagued Dundee for years and only got worse as I grew older.

Going to school in Kirkton, I was friends with people from both sides of the affluencey divide.

As a child this is obviously not something you particularly consider a factor when getting to know someone, but as we grew up together the issue became unavoidable.

I don’t want to become a spiteful class warrior. However, growing up going to a school whose pupils were the most effected by generational Tory austerity, I feel compelled to speak on it.

We are seeing politicians like Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, say they know what ‘working class’ people want.

I will not lament on their predatory practices, this is not the time. But I saw what it was like for children in my class to come to school hungry.

To be the sole carer of their entire family as their parents had disabilities and support was limited.

Or being casually told by a friend that both of her parents had died from drug overdoses when she was in primary one.

As someone who bore witness to this, I have no idea how these children continued to show up to school everyday.

Yet, they did.

Dundee is not its headlines- Dundee is the real lives being lived behind them.

Dundee is the teacher that provides breakfast for their pupils who they know won’t get it at home. The teacher who will provide uniforms and show up for their pupils when no one else will. The teachers who gave up their breaks and lunchtimes to help get their students through exams as they knew that education was for many the only way out.

Dundee is the young girl who raises both of her siblings while caring for her mum. Who goes onto become a Nurse as she didn’t use her circumstances as evidence the deck was stacked against her but proof she could overcome anything.

Dundee is the child who decides in Primary 4 that the cycle stops with her. Whose grandmother stepped up and cared for her just as her grandmother did for her. Dundee is that girl going onto be the first person in her family to go to university.

Behind the headlines stating that Dundee is the drug death capital of Europe, as well as the suicide and teen pregnancy capital- there is a blatant attempt to shame these individuals into believing that its not only their fault but that by default having a child at 16 makes you deserving of poverty.

I went to a high school that was made a school where teen mums and expectant mums could still get an education and not have to decide between education and being a parent.

There are certainly reasons why I would argue not to have children full stop- mainly the drain I see it is on my own parents’ bank accounts- but that’s not the point.

People do have children, people do take drugs, people do fall on hard times.

Does that make them any less deserving of basic human necessities?

Of course it doesn’t.

In Dundee you are judged by your character- not your wallet or social status.

Dundee is a city full of culture.

A culture of care and understanding.

A culture of hard work and perseverance.

In Dundee, you will be done a right turn before a wrong turn. People will help you not in order to get something in return but because they believe it to be the decent thing.

For as long as there is air in my lungs and ink in my pen, I will advocate and fight for the people of Dundee because what they taught me about decency and hard work carries me through every interaction I have now.

I have learned more from the people of Dundee than you could possibly be taught in a private school.

While Dundee may have its issues (and it does) what is more telling is the response from locals.

Most recently knife crime has become an issue in the city and what was the locals response?

To march.

To congregate.

To show these young boys that there are other answers.

Or a young DJ who has turned her success into something the entire city can share in. Running her own festival. That is Dundee.

Dundee is the odds being stacked against you in every way and yet you still succeed.

There is a native intteligance that comes with being a Dundonian.

Sometimes I miss home and I feel it slipping further from my grip. But then I remember Dundee is who I am.

Dundee is the reason I say ‘the circle’ instead of roundabout.

Dundee is why call it chewny and not chewing gum.

Dundee is the reason why I will never cast judgement on those in a different circumstance to me.

Dundee will always show up for its people. No matter where they have settled.

That encapsulates the Dundonian spirit

A people I am proud to be a part of…