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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The ‘Anyone But England’ Phenomenon and the Scottish Psyche Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, June 23rd 2010 The Scotland-England relationship has been historically one of the defining features of Scottish life. In recent years Scottish football fans have begun more and more to identify with whoever England is playing whether it be the World Cup, European Championships or a mere friendly. All of this has now reached epic proportions. There has been the ‘Anyone But England’ (ABE) phenomenon which has spawned a website, campaign and numerous commercial ventures. Kilt makers Slanj have got into trouble for making ABE t-shirts and

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The Official Voice of Our Broken Constitution Speaks Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 19th 2010 Vernon Bogdanor is a respected authority on the British constitution, and someone who we should take seriously. In his writing and in his previous position as the tutor to the young David Cameron at Oxford University, Bogdanor has become in effect a pillar and part of the British constitution. Bogdanor is both a reformer and a deep conservative, someone who sees the British constitution in needs of radical overhaul, but believes in it as an idea and sees reform as reinforcing its legitimacy, authority and

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The Darkness at the Heart of Labour Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 17th 2010 British politics may have been changed utterly by New Labour and entered uncharted waters with the new coalition, but part of Britain has shifted back to what it sees as normal service. Labour post-election has returned to some of its favourite comfort zones, with the party viewing itself in opposition to what it calls a ‘Tory Government’ and opposing public spending cuts which it is seeing as the return of Thatcherism. What does all this say about Labour and the New Labour era? To many it

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Labour’s Family Affair Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 14th 2010 The five Labour candidates gathered yesterday in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall before a packed audience of 400 party members. This proved to be a lively hustings with good humour, animated discussion and no rancour. If it had any faults it lacked any real disagreements, provided little detail, and pandered to what they thought a Scottish audience would want. Iain Gray opened the meeting declaring before anything had happened ‘that the hustings showed Labour was on the way back’. Then came the official story of Scottish Labour: the party had learnt

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Labour Begins its Long Conversation: The Leader Hustings Come North of the Border Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 13th 2010 The Labour summertime show headed northwards; the first UK party leader election since Tony Blair began the New Labour era in 1994. The five Labour candidates gathered in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall before a packed audience of 400 Scottish party members. This proved to be a lively hustings with good humour, animated discussion and no rancour. If it had any faults it lacked any real disagreements, provided little detail, and pandered to what they thought a Scottish audience would want,

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The Labour Leadership Contest and What We Do About the New Labour Generation Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 9th 2010 It is now the famous five with Ed, David, David and Andy joined by Diane Abbott. This is the widest Labour leadership contest for thirty-four years – since 1976 when Jim Callaghan beat Michael Foot for the leadership (and hence Prime Ministership) from a field of six candidates. Thank goodness for small mercies in terms of the number of candidates, yet as has been pointed out this is the narrowest, most unrepresentative Labour leadership contest – socially – in the

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