What Do We Do About Forgotten Scotland? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 23rd 2010 Most politics is not about the art of lying or spinning. It is about telling partial truths or half-truths which often conceal the wider reality. Examples include that the 1960s are the source of most of our problems, the start of the decline of authority and the left’s undermining of moral values. The alternative view is that the 1980s were where it all went wrong, the age of selfishness and Thatcherism. Then there is the account of Scotland as a rich, prosperous country with near-limitless potential,

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The Coming Big Ideas in Scottish Politics Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 16th 2010 Scottish politics is going through the motions at present. There is the excuse of waiting for the Comprehensive Spending Review. But a deeper malaise is at work. The political classes have run out of money and ideas, and devolution – that much trumpeted project – now seems shorn of vision and dynamism. Scotland is currently shaped by risk-averse conservatives in our political parties and institutions, and number crunching accountants earnestly lecturing us that we cannot afford things we once cherished and it is time to sell

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Anatomy of a Very British Revolution Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, October 13th 2010 We live in more than merely interesting political times: an age of scandal, powerlessness, fluidity, paradox and mainstream collective groupthink about the world. The Cameron-Clegg coalition has proven to be a personification of all of this, and one publication I read carefully to gain understanding of it some of the runes is ‘The Spectator’. I like ‘The Spectator’. James Forsyth is a fascinating and emerging voice, Fraser Nelson a decent editor, better than the myopic Blairite warmonger Matthew d’Ancona, if not in the same league as Boris

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The Long Hollowing Out of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 9th 2010 The self-styled most sophisticated electorate in the world has spoken: the election of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet by Labour MPs. It has resulted in fewer Scots, no Welsh and lots more women. These are the first elections to Labour’s Shadow Cabinet since 1996 and show many changes since the days of Blair’s first Cabinet in 1997 which was stacked with talented Scots: Brown, Cook, Dewar, Robertson, Darling and Strang. The decline of Scottish Labour is marked from the onset of New Labour to today. In the 1994

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The Slow Revolution of Gay Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 2nd 2010 Scotland is a land of inclusiveness, faimess and kindness, a place which worries and cares about the disadvantaged, marginalised and those who face discrimination. This Scottish story of egalitarianism – ‘we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns’ – is well known and frequently told, but limited, partial and very flawed. It is also a very narrow notion of equality, focused on the economy, the workplace and class, and excluding numerous other aspects of Scottish life which don’t fit this picture – such as the hierarchical, conservative nature of much

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Changin Scotland A weekend of politics, culture and ideas …. And fun! Friday November 5^th-Sunday November 7^th Bea Campbell, writer, commentator and campaigner: On Men Ian Jack, The Guardian, author, ‘The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain’ – examines Scottish Culture David Torrance, on his biography Alex Salmond: Against the Odds Tom Miers, Policy Exchange, author, ‘The Devolution Distraction’ on why devolution has failed Scotland (more…)

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Where Britain Stands After the Commonwealth Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 30th 2010 The Commonwealth has been much in the news of late. Sadly this hasn’t been for good reasons but bad ones showing the ineptitude, dirt and squalor of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi which open within the next few days. This PR disaster has raised the spectre of what is the point of the Commonwealth Games – coming to Glasgow next time in 2014 – and more fundamentally, what is the point of the Commonwealth and would anyone miss it if we just quietly pulled the plug on

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After 'new Britain': The Strange Death of 'the Labour Nation' Gerry Hassan Renewal:  A Journal of Social Democracy, Autumn 2010 The question that hovers above the Iraq inquiry is – since the evidence on Saddam Hussein’s weaponry was so flaky and the post-war planning so atrocious – why on earth Tony Blair did it. One theory, albeit not the one likely to be offered by Mr Blair himself, is that his militarism and messianism, the mix of responsibility and entitlement that he evinced, are part of the inheritance of all post-imperial British leaders… If empire is the backdrop of Britain’s

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Why Labour’s New Leader Needs to Play it Long in Opposition Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 25th 2010 Labour delegates gather in Manchester in much better heart than many expected a few months ago. The party is recovering in the polls, having drawn level with the Tories in one poll, and by next week ‘the Miliband momentum’ of David or Ed will have taken Labour into the lead for the first time since Gordon Brown failed to call the election he had been planning for in 2007. Many myths exist about Labour in opposition - with differing degrees of truth.

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Labourism, the New Labour revolution and what comes next? Gerry Hassan Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Autumn 2010 The New Labour era has finally ended. And though the full scale of the destruction and wreckage which it has inflicted upon British politics, society and progressive ideas will not be entirely clear until we can gain an element of hindsight through the passage of time, this is not a happy story. Nor is there any prospect of a ‘Back to the Future’ politics for Labour - a ‘restoration’ that returns us back to the certainties and parameters of

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