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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The Scottish Potential of ‘the Big Society’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 13th 2010 The prevalent reaction of many people I know in Scotland to David Cameron’s idea of ‘the Big Society’ is to pour scorn on to it, and dismiss it as window dressing for the forthcoming cuts. This has a similarity to the haughty dismissal of ‘the Con Dem Nation’ prevalent in centre-left chattering circles. Whatever you think of the coalition, there is a smugness, self-satisfaction and unattractive sense of certainty in this mindset. Politics often involves the knee-jerk, tribalism and the instant dismissal of opponents, but there

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The Last Man of Iron: Who Comes After the Jimmy Reids of this World? Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 13th 2010 The tributes to Jimmy Reid have been many and fulsome. They have come from across the political spectrum and from near and far – from his hometown of Glasgow to the Govan of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, to across the UK and internationally. If Reid hadn’t lived and led the public life he did, you almost feel that he would have been invented. His life and persona told the story of a certain part of Scotland: of Red Clydeside, the

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Gerry’s Desert Island Disc Grooves Gerry Hassan August 10th 2010 For some reason over the last few weeks I began thinking about my Desert Island Disc choices. In part it has been listening to the show a bit more of late – usually by accident, rather than design – caused by an increase in Radio 4 listening. Then there is my rising dissatisfaction with the conservatism and smug self-satisfaction with what modern pop culture has turned into. People going on about the Beatles. Give it a rest. The sixties. Punk and new wave which turned out to be even more

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Where do we go from here? Part Three: Agency and self-determinations, retaking the future without Marx Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett Open Democracy, August 5^th 2010 This is the third, final, exchange of a wide-ranging three part conversation between Anthony Barnett and Gerry Hassan, touching on the state of British politics and democracy and how the left - weak and disorganised in the face of a resurgent neoliberalism - can propose and build alternatives to the dominant dogmas of the past thirty years. You can read Part I 'The frustrations of British politics' here, and Part 2 'Challenging

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Where do we go from here? Part Two: Challenging 'the Official Future' Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett Open Democracy, August 4th 2010 This is the second of a wide-ranging three part conversation between Anthony Barnett and Gerry Hassan, touching on the state of British politics and democracy and how the left - weak and disorganised in the face of a resurgent neoliberalism - can propose and build alternatives to the dominant dogmas of the past thirty years. You can read Part I here. Thanks for the message Gerry! How am I supposed to get to sleep without an answer to

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