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Jeff Zycinski | 21:08 UK time, Sunday, 8 January 2006

Statues of Burns and Scott in Glasgow
Walking around Glasgow city centre today, I found myself in George Square. It's full of statues which most of us don't notice anymore. It must say something about us as a nation, however, that we have chosen to honour and remember so many writers. Here Robert Burns sits in the shadow of Sir Walter Scott.

A few years ago I made a series for Radio Scotland called Blokes on Blocks in which we asked whether some of these figures from history still deserve their place on the plinth. I remember the Dundee poet telling me that Burns was the Jimi Hendrix of his day and the sculptor talking about his bust of Pat Lally and arguing that the public demolition of statues in post-Soviet Russia proved that public art still had a power to excite.

Looking at the statue of Robert Burns, I'm reminded that our quest to find the nation's favourite Scottish poem is almost at an end. The winner will be announced on the 25th January, but you still have time to vote!



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