BBC Scotland: Time to move beyond Defend or Demolish to Democratising Gerry Hassan The National, 19 October 2021 BBC Scotland has long fascinated and agitated a large part of the country, independence supporters in particular. It is inarguable that the BBC’s shortcomings do more than irk one political constituency. Rather, BBC Scotland falls between several different stools trying not to alienate people, and in doing so fails to passionately serve any compelling version of Scotland. In recent days the death of veteran broadcaster Colin Bell has caused much retrospection on the state of BBC Scotland, specifically on how things

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Luftwaffle: The Trashing of the Last Good Story of Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 13 October 2021 The Second World War looms large in the life of Britain. Never a day passes without a politician, public figure or celebrity making some crass reference to the war, linking it to the present convulsions and challenges which the UK faces. Once upon a time World War Two references were few and far between, and chosen with care and humility. This was undoubtedly true for the immediate decades after the war of 1945-65 – a period which ended with the death of

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The case for the union is not in a good way but that doesn’t mean independence can be complacent Gerry Hassan The National, 12 October 2021 The pro-union argument has been playing hard ball of late but underneath the posturing is a profound lack of substance and coherence. One minute the Downing Street union unit is promising this and that; the next it is disbanded; the next we have “muscular unionism” followed by “wheesht on independence” – to the backdrop of Boris Johnson’s bravado boosterism. Johnson’s speech minus the gags and unending optimism had little to say on Scotland. We

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Is this really the best Tory case for the union? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 10 October 2021 Strength in Union: The Case for the United Kingdom, edited by Andrew Bowie, Centre for Policy Studies. The Tory Party are seeking a coherent strategy to deal with Scotland and the threat of independence – one that twin-tracks between looking at iconic infrastructure projects they can fund and wrap a Union Jack around, and the ‘wheesht on independence’ mindset – that  entails not talking about the issue to avoid making it more real. If the latter is more than a passing Downing

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The political times are changing: Boris Johnson’s broken economic Britain and beyond Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 6 October 2021 Boris Johnson’s campaign of shameless differentiation from the Tory Governments that directly proceeded him goes on, as he tries to distance himself from David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May. It has now extended to a break not just with the past Tory decade of austerity, but over the past weekend to a rupture with the politics and economics of the past four decades which have shaped the UK. This is in words a break with Thatcherism and New Labour, and

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How to defeat the Tories and aid democracy Gerry Hassan The National, 5 October 2021 Tory problems mount by the day. There’s fuel and food shortages evoking the 1970s, a Brexit that seems only to be delivering problems and, in Boris Johnson, a PM who seems to know and care little about detail and the real lives of people. Despite all of this and more the Tories are still in the lead in the polls and the odds remain against Labour winning the next election outright. Labour has a mountain to climb to win the next election that could be

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Keir Starmer, Labour and the Limits of Gordon Brown’s Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 3 October 2021 The state of Labour matters in UK politics - and to Scotland. Can it mount a serious challenge to Boris Johnson’s Tories, or does UK politics faces the bleak prospect of perpetual Tory Governments? Thus, the mood of Labour at its recent conference and after has consequences. The party gathering at Brighton was filled with drama, controversy - and heckling. In his lengthy keynote speech Starmer covered subjects including Scotland, the SNP, and the case for the union – citing Gordon Brown and

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Glasgow School of Art, Power and the Chumocracy Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 28 September 2021 How power is held to account has been a problem in Scotland, predating the Scottish Parliament and the independence debate – neither of which have aided the shining of a light into the recesses of public life which for too long have been in darkness. Many public institutions and bodies have fallen short and let down people, with their failings only brought to wider attention too late or long after the event – from deaths in hospitals such as the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Glasgow

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Labour’s problems are about much more than Keir Starmer Gerry Hassan The National, 28 September 2021 Labour meet in Brighton this week for another conference in opposition and in the wilderness, with clear evidence of being collectively bewildered and confused. Not only that but Keir Starmer’s leadership is openly being questioned across the party – not just from the Corbynite left but on the centre and right from where he has drawn most support until now. No one seems sure what Starmer stands for, or even if he has the real skills needed to be a leader. Yet

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The world turned upside down and living with hurt and loss Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 22 September 2021 The past eighteen months have witnessed tumultuous, unprecedented times for everyone on this planet. A global pandemic has ripped through our lives turning them upside down and in the process killing nearly five million people globally on official records, alongside just under 250 million people falling ill. In the face of this government, scientists, public health experts and media have struggled to comprehend the complexity, epidemiology of the virus, and role of government in temporarily restricting freedoms to reduce death and protect

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