The Long Silence and Slow Emergence of England Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 26th 2010 England has always been a sensitive subject at the heart of the United Kingdom. Most Scots bristle when ‘England’ is used when Britain’ is meant; others find it horrifying that at times ‘Britain’ is used when clearly ‘England’ is the intention. Once upon a time British politics used to throw around these terms with a sense of élan and confidence. Baldwin and Churchill often used to talk of ‘England’ and know that they meant ‘Britain’. Churchill, who seems even more to be the defining figure

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England’s Dreaming or Not: A View from North of the Border Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, April 23rd 2010 England is the biggest part of the United Kingdom - a nation, and a set of identities and places that provides much of the meaning, power and purpose of the whole UK. ‘England’ is sometimes seen as synonymous with ‘Britain’, much to the chagrin of Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and pedants everywhere. ‘Britain’ is regularly used as a term when, in reality, people are talking about ‘England’. It can be argued that England pays a penalty for its place and role

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The Second Big Debate Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 23rd 2010 The dynamics this week were very different: Clegg, the new favourite, Cameron, the previous frontrunner, and Brown, the supposed steady incumbent. Nick Clegg had to navigate difficult terrain between being an ‘outsider’ and emphasising his experience, including drawing on his work for EU Commissioner Leon Brittan. When we got to Afghanistan and nuclear weapons, the temperature changed, and Brown told Clegg to ‘get real’ and Cameron said ‘I agree with Gordon’. Brown was better than the previous week, avoiding mentioning no percentages or three point plans, and even cited

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The British Election Debates, the Lib Dem Surge and the Americanisation of Our Politics Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 21st 2010 The British election campaign is shaking up many of the in-built assumptions and contours of British politics. Despite three decades of upheaval under Thatcherism and Blairism, the advocates of these approaches implemented their ideas, while keeping many of the traditional structures and assumptions of the British political system intact. These are now been exposed, questioned and put under scrutiny in a way they seldom have before. After all of this it is apt that we have witnessed so far

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The Big British Debate Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 16th 2010 It was history in the making supposedly. Whatever it was, politics will never be the same again - for good and bad. Gordon Brown showed himself as a master of facts - endless facts and numerous percentage figures about public services delivering and improving. He took half an hour before he mentioned a single human being and that was his father who only got a passing mention. David Cameron told a host of stories inhabited by individuals and their stories, of being victims of crime, of being an immigrant

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The Dream is Over: The Sixties, the Beatles and the Baby Boomers Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 15th 2010 This week is the 40^th anniversary of one of the most pivotal cultural moments of the post-war era in Britain and globally: the break-up of the Beatles. Forty years ago on Saturday, Paul McCartney released his first ever solo album. In it was a pre-prepared interview which announced to a shocked world that ‘the dream is over’ and the Beatles were no more. Some people have never quite got over that moment, or more accurately, have decided to choose to remain

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To the Editor The Guardian Letters Page April 12th 2010 The Guardian did it again with its coverage of Scotland. On Saturday in the Sports Section (April 10^th) there was not one mention of the two Scottish Cup semi-finals. And on Monday (April 12^th) no coverage of either result, including Ross County’s sensational victory over Celtic. But you did have space for the Spanish League. The Guardian seems to imagine its readers want to inhabit a parallel universe where they know nothing about Scottish football. This would be a place where they knew nothing about Celtic winning the European Cup

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Who Benefits from Future Labour or Tory Governments? Gerry Hassan Fascinating figures from YouGov’s Sunday Times weekend poll – which as far as I can find are only available online and not in the newspaper version (at least north of the border) (1). When voters were asked who they thought would most benefit from a Conservative Government they responded: The rich                                                   47% Married couples                                      37% Hardworking men and women                30% The poor                                                  11% Single parents                                           8% Immigrants                                                7% Continue Reading Who Benefits from Future Labour or Tory Governments?

A Tale of Two Labour Manifestos: ‘Choice’ and the Absence of England Gerry Hassan Open Democracy. April 12th 2010 The Labour manifesto has been launched finally today – the 25^th British election manifesto according to BBC lunchtime news. It is a day of multiple Labour manifesto launches with the main British programme, and Scottish and Welsh versions, published. I am going to focus my attention here on the British and Scottish editions, as these are the ones I am familiar with, so apologies to Welsh readers. The British Labour manifesto, ‘A Future Fair For all’ (also the title of the

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The Battle for Scotland and How It Can Change Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday Times, April 11th 2010 The Scottish election has begun - a contest taking place in a different land, terrain and politics from the rest of the UK. This is a nation with two Parliaments and two Governments (one Labour, one SNP) where a Westminster election comes at another point in the Holyrood election cycle: three years into a relatively popular SNP Government. Westminster issues for England such as health and education are debated in the UK media as if devolution never happened, and Scotland along with Wales

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