The Perilous Politics of ‘No Mandate’ and Genuine Scottish Self-Determination Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 12th 2010 British politics have just entered absolutely uncharted territory – with the establishment of ‘the Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration’ as David Cameron calls it. This is the first British coalition government – along with the first time the Liberals have been in office – since Churchill’s wartime administration – the anniversary of which was funnily enough on Monday (May 10^th 1940). Yet, Scottish politics seem to be settling into a pattern and set of positions which feels strangely familiar. The Labour and SNP can hardly

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Scottish Politics: The Same But Very Different! Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, May 9th 2010 The state of Scottish politics now stands at a great moment of uncertainty and confusion. The Scottish election results themselves throw up numerous questions and dilemmas for all the parties, which they are just beginning to digest, and now have to frame in the context of the post-election negotiations between the UK main parties. Scottish Labour had a triumphant holding of the line. Scotland was the only nation or region of the UK to witness an increase in the Labour vote (2.5%), and a swing

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The ‘Four Nations’ Politics of the Disunited Kingdom Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 9th 2010 A vast amount of energy has already been expended on the 2010 UK General Election, but one vital, complex and revealing aspect of it has remained resolutely ignored until now. This is the ‘four nations’ politics of this election – with very different election results in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. This is not an arcane political anorak point, for it carries consequences for the character of United Kingdom politics, and indeed, whether there is such an entity anymore, and for the individual contests

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Back to the Future: Is it Time for a 1980s Revival or Not? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, May 8th 2010 The Scottish election results throw up numerous challenges for all the parties and their prospects in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections. Scotland has on one reading confirmed its difference. We are a different political place. Labour held its own, while falling back everywhere else. The Tories have got nowhere, while Lib Dem and SNP hopes have been unfulfilled. Just as the Westminster elections were about the mantle of ‘change’, with the prospect of a minority Tory Government, the battle in

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Election Night Excitement and Quiz Gerry Hassan May 6th 2010 I am preparing for election night, and will be doing a live commentary in my local restaurant, Cookies, on Nithsdale Road, Glasgow, before going in to do a morning session for BBC Radio Scotland. It looks like it could be an exciting and slightly anxious night. A close run election in seats. The prospect of the first election of a Tory Government ejecting Labour from office since 1979. The Tories have a mountain to climb – and if we go from a Labour overall majority to a Tory overall majority

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The Myth of ‘Red Scotland’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, May 6th 2010 This general election looks set to confirm some of the characteristics of modern Scotland, and in particular that this is a centre-left country, defined by parties of the centre-left, and in which the Tories only play a bit part. This is one of the many findings from the fascinating Scotsman/YouGov poll published yesterday. On policy issue after issue – unemployment, health, education – Labour easily leads the Conservatives by wide margins as the favoured party, the one exception being immigration. David Cameron is not yet unpopular in Scotland

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Goodbye to Gordon Brown and All That Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 6th 2010 The last act of Gordon Brown has surely arrived. A gruelling election campaign fighting on two fronts. Three years of leading a disunited, unpopular government. Thirteen years in office and a culmination of mistakes made and enemies created. Gordon Brown is as well as being the Prime Minister for the last three years and a senior Labour politician for more than two decades, a prolific writer who has ‘written’ and ‘produced’ more than a dozen books under his name. In the last few weeks, Brown has

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The Forgotten Scotland Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, May 4th 2010 Scotland prides itself on its difference, radicalism and egalitarian traditions. This is a nation which tells itself that it has never voted for the Tories since the 1950s, saw off the poll tax, and is more collectivist and less individualist than the rest of the UK. There is much in Scotland’s political and social traditions to be proud of, but much folklore, myth and self-congratulation. Moreover, while the Scottish Parliament has done many beneficial things, there is a general air of complacency and smugness at the heart of Scotland’s

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The Third British Debate Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 30th 2010 This was a combative, fascinating debate, starting slowly, which built up as each of the leaders reached for the elusive knock out blow. Cameron opened talking about the state of the nation and  ‘the economy stuck in a rut’, Clegg, of ‘doing things differently’ (again), and Brown acknowledged that he sometimes  ‘didn’t get things right’. Then it was on to an evening talking or not talking about cuts, tax cuts, inheritance tax, bankers and the economy. Cameron saw a country wrecked where he promised to ‘roll up his sleeves’,

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Coming Up for Air North of the Border: The British Media, Scotland, the SNP and the Crises of Britain Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 29th 2010 The SNP are generally, a force for good in, and for, Scotland. They have been a decent, honest, mostly progressive government. They have, like all the mainstream Westminster parties, struggled to elucidate a vision about the economy and society post-crash, but they have continued to express a very different, mostly generous and outward-looking voice since then. The SNP have always been a problematic entity for the British media to understand, represent and reflect the

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