The Twilight of the Westminster Model: Scotland, Europe and Referendums Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 9th 2010 The SNP minority government under Alex Salmond has finally accepted political arithmetic and retreated on its promise to hold an independence referendum before the May 2011 Scottish Parliament elections. At the same time there is to be an AV referendum on the same day as devolved elections – something the Electoral Commission has already made a previous ruling against (1) – on a policy no one supports, as well as a future Welsh devolution referendum. Now Daniel Hannan, Tory MP and freethinker has

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If A Spaceman Came Travelling to Scotland …. Gerry Hassan September 8th 2010 I went to an enterprising and illuminating event run by the Scottish Parliament Futures Forum, the Royal Society of the Arts and Barnardos Scotland called ‘Open Thinking’. Here are the opening thoughts I explored …. Imagine for a second – that a Martian landed here today amongst us. How would they understand the Scotland and the world they find: A footballing mad nation – not very good at football – which doesn’t really take it all very seriously – and isn’t very interested at changing

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What Does the Public Think of Tony Blair? Gerry Hassan September 6th 2010 Amidst all the hullabaloo about Tony Blair’s autobiography and the frenetic activity around promoting it, protesting at book launches, and people moving it around book shops – and placing it in crime or sci-fi – it is interesting to note the complex pattern of public attitudes towards Tony Blair. A YouGov poll last week asked whether voters thought Tony Blair had been a good or bad Prime Minister: it found 47% thought he had been ‘a good PM’ and 46% ‘a bad PM’; this wasn’t that different

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The First Tony Blair Book and the Failure of New Labour Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 5th 2010 This week has been a total Blair-fest. The launch of Tony Blair’s memoirs, the carefully crafted and controlled TV interviews, and the even more planned book signing with resulting protests. It has all had a certain cinematic, star quality to it; like outtakes from Piers Brosnan in ‘The Ghost’. An interesting aspect of ‘Tony Blair: A Journey’ is how little Blair wrote as a politician, and how temporary and superficial it all was. So where Gordon Brown has written or edited thirteen

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They Might Be Giants: The Old Firm’s Great Escape to England Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 4th 2010 Scottish football sells newspapers, fills the airwaves and carries a resonance way beyond the football field. It contributes economic benefits, social capital, the occasional feel good factor, and raises Scotland’s profile and reputation globally. Scotland per head is the third most fanatical football nation in Europe after Iceland and Cyprus. It is also since the advent of the European Champions League the joint most uncompetitive senior football league anywhere in the continent – along with the Ukraine. The two nations – Scotland

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The Coming Scottish Revolution and Tony Blair’s Memoirs Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 2nd 2010 Scottish politics have been in a sense of disbelief since the UK general election. The Con-Lib Dem coalition government is being slowly assessed by the main two parties north of the border, SNP and Labour. We have an SNP administration under Alex Salmond – which has proven itself a decent, competent, relatively popular administration – which now seems to have run out of money and ideas. And a Scottish Labour Party under the uncharismatic Iain Gray which seems even more bereft of ideas, but which

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A Short List of Things I Love About Living in Modern Scotland Gerry Hassan August 26th 2010 Years ago – inspired by the ending of ‘Manhattan’ the film – I wrote a list of over twenty things that made feel glad to be alive. Woody at the end of the film – feeling down in the dumps – cites a load of things that make life worth living; I cant remember if like me he cited Frank’s voice, but I feel he did in spirit, and can still recall him mentioning Louis Armstrong and other jazz references. That list got

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The Age of Radicalism after ‘the Left’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 26th 2010 Scotland sees itself as a centre-left country. We haven’t voted for the Tories since the 1950s, didn’t like Mrs Thatcher and her ism, and are supposedly more comfortable with collectivism than individualism. The Scottish left has a rich and proud history - standing against exploitation and discrimination, for social justice and democracy, and filled with struggles, battles and personalities. There have been negatives; the lack of original thinkers and ideas, alongside a profound insularity and conservatism (for all the professed internationalism). Such negatives are often put

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Why We Need an Alternative Festival of Politics! Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, August 23rd 2010 Scotland has many wonderful qualities and attributes which make me proud to live and work here, and feel passionate and hopeful about this nation. This includes lots of people that I feel honoured to know who push for and lead change, aid others, and challenge the closed minded nature of much of institutional Scotland. Yet at the same time there is an increasing problem with how we do politics, public engagement and public conversation. And that brings me to the Festival of Politics (1) –

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Where Scotland Stands? The Strange State of the Scottish Left and the Cultural Assembly of a Nation Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 18th 2010 The left in Scotland is in not in a good state on any level, in terms of numbers on the ground, ideas, the wider environment and its general psyche. Clearly if we were talking about the old Stalin point of how many divisions the Pope has – the Scottish left have very little of an army remaining to call to arms. This sad state of affairs has dawned more upon me in recent years through a

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