What Would a ‘Good Man’ in Scotland Look Like? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 16th 2010 Scottish society historically and in contemporary times has long been shaped by men and masculine values. This is a society where for long it made sense to be a certain kind of man – tough, resilient, hard and seemingly powerful – whether it was working in a factory or shipyards or on a farm. Today, we have to acknowledge that we have serious problems with Scottish men – which can be charted statistically, but even more culturally and socially. Scottish men have poor health,

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The Paradoxes of Devolution and the Forces of Conservatism Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 16th 2010 Devolution north of the border has always been filled by paradox and contradiction. Promising radicalism, while influenced by conservatism. Articulating a vision of ‘the new politics’, yet in reality shaped by institutional vested interests. Supposedly about Scotland’s voice and place as a nation, but driven by Labour fear of the Nationalists and the bogeyman of ‘separatism’. A new pamphlet by centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, ‘The Devolution Distraction’ by Tom Miers savages most of the assumptions and emotional supports of

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A Poem for Tim Edwards 1958-2010 Gerry Hassan July 15th 2010 It has been a moving last couple of days. Today witnessed the sad and moving tribute to the life and passions of Tim Edwards, who died suddenly at the age of 51 just a week and a half ago. And yesterday witnessed the fourth anniversary of the passing of my mother, Jean Carr, at the age of 73, after a long, painful illness. Tim was a good man - that goes without saying. He was a gentle man and a passionate man and that’s a mix I have always

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Westminster, Referendums and Whatever Happened to ‘Respect’? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 9th 2010 The Scottish Parliament along with the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies will be beginning to think that they are unloved and uncared for by the Westminster Parliament. Plans to establish five year fixed term UK Parliaments meant that May 7^th 2015 would be a day when voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted in two sets of elections at the same time: devolved and UK contests. Now they have gone and done it again, proposing that the AV referendum is held on May 5^th 2011

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Scottish Politics Before the Storm Gerry Hassan Chartist, July/August 2010 The UK general election has brought defeat and bad news to Labour with the end game of the New Labour era producing a demoralised party with its second lowest vote since 1918. At the same time the results painted a mixed picture for the party: with its decent showing in parliamentary seats, and emergence of the Con-Lib Dem coalition government, feeding into a widespread sense of denial and belief that Labour isn’t in too bad a state. The national and regional results have aided this sense of complacency, with Labour

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After the Century of Isms: What is the Future of the Future? Gerry Hassan July 7th 2010 1. How Do We Think of the Future? This talk is going to take us on a journey into the future, look at the idea of ‘story’ and ‘the official future’, what it is, why we are living in it, and the possible alternatives. In this it will draw on the work of two futures projects – Scotland 2020 (1) and Glasgow 2020 (2) – which I led working with the UK think tank Demos. 2. The Notion of Futurology The conventional way

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The Coming British Revolution Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 6th 2010 In the streets and parks of Britain everything seems to be as it always has been. This feels like a typical British summer with those totems of modern life passing us by: Glastonbury, Wimbledon and England crashing out of the World Cup after another catastrophic underperformance. Yet behind these comforting cultural moments things are changing dramatically. The new Con-Lib Dem government is presenting the case for public spending cuts the like of which we have never seen in the history of the UK. Its call for a rebalancing of

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Salmond’s Big Leap Forward or Not: Rethinking the Case for Independence Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, June 30th 2010 Alex Salmond has dominated the last few years of Scottish politics, and become the leading figure of the first decade of devolution. Labour figures have come and gone, but it is Salmond who has transformed the SNP into a disciplined force, made what was called ‘the Scottish Executive’ into ‘the Scottish Government’, and the office of the First Minister into the undisputed leader of the Scottish nation. He has fundamentally altered the character and nature of Scottish politics, yet while he

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The Second Moment of Devolution Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 28th 2010 Scottish politics are on the move: the Calman/fiscal autonomy debate, the implications of the Budget and forthcoming cuts, and Alex Salmond’s repositioning of the SNP on independence. Salmond has stated in an interview in ‘The Times’, ‘The centre of gravity in Scottish politics currently is clearly not independence. You must campaign for what is good for Scotland as well as campaigning for independence.’ This is seismic stuff in an age of epic change where old assumptions are going to be ripped up. Salmond has surveyed the political landscape

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A New Era Starts for Scottish Politics: Alex Salmond and Independence Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 26th 2010 Scottish politics are on the verge of their biggest shakeup for decades. A linked debate on the Calman commission, fiscal autonomy and the implications of the Budget and forthcoming cuts, will now be shaped by Alex Salmond’s repositioning of the SNP on the call for independence. Not since the early years of the Thatcher Government has Scotland politically faced the prospects of such fundamental and irreversible change. Salmond shows the scale of his ambition and intent in an interview in Friday’s edition

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