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

Continue Reading A Tale of Two Labour Manifestos: ‘Choice’ and the Absence of England

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

Continue Reading The Battle for Scotland and How It Can Change Britain

Caledonian Dreaming and the Slow Separation of the United Kingdom Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, April 9th 2010 As David Cameron and Gordon Brown campaign in Scotland today one could for a brief moment think this is just another part of Britain which the big parties pass through and fight over for the next few weeks. Scotland is just not another part of the UK. It is increasingly another country, and is getting more so, with implications for it and the rest of the UK. Scotland does not have that many marginal seats; Labour won 40 out of 59 seats

Continue Reading Caledonian Dreaming and the Slow Separation of the United Kingdom

The Empire State Building of the United Kingdom Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 8th 2010 The 2010 election campaign has now formally begun, as politicians zigzag up and down the country in search of voters. There is a palpable sense of anxiety and doubt about the multiple crises the country faces: economic, democratic, and where we see ourselves in the world and how we conduct our foreign policy. Despite all this there is a propensity in our political classes to adopt a business as usual approach and talk in only the narrowest of ways of the crises we face. Politicians

Continue Reading The Empire State Building of the United Kingdom

The Battle of Britain 2010 Edition and Living in the Shadow of Empire Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 6th 2010 After a seemingly never-ending period the ‘official’ election campaign has finally begun. The 2010 British general election will be about many things: thirteen years of New Labour, Cameroon’s Conservatives, the state of the economy, public services and public spending, and the condition and character of our politics, political system and democracy. Underlying all of this is a wider set of questions and issues which can be summarised as: who are we, what do we want to be, what kind of

Continue Reading The Battle of Britain 2010 Edition and Living in the Shadow of Empire

Doctrine and Ethos in the  Scottish Labour Party Gerry Hassan and Eric Shaw Paper to the Political Studies Association Annual Conference,'Regionalist Parties and Territorial Politics' April 1st 2010 Before I was born my father was involved in socialist politics and from boyhood I have known all the great men – Hardie, Maxton, Tom Johnston and Wheatley. I have heard some describe the wonderful society that socialism will bring to the working class. All of them went down to the Parliament in London, and from there they could never deliver socialism to the Scottish working class.

Continue Reading Doctrine and Ethos in the Scottish Labour Party

Some Thoughts on Sovereignty, Voice and Power Gerry Hassan from Rosemary Bechler (ed.), The Convention on Modern Liberty: The British Debate on Fundamental Rights and Freedom, Open Democracy/Imprint Academic 2010 What is the UK? British political science says that the UK is a unitary state. But it is not: it is what’s called a ‘union state’. A union state is shaped by national and regional differentiation beginning with 1707 and the negotiation of Scottish autonomy, the retention of pre-union rights, and so on. These are political concepts known across the world, yet the political centre has

Continue Reading Some Thoughts on Sovereignty, Voice and Power

Go Brown To A Fourth Term: The Strange Story of Labour’s Comeback Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, March 27th 2010 As the Scottish Labour Party meets today in Glasgow, the party now finds itself in the surprising situation of an open, competitive election with everything to play for. Labour has been through a lot these last few years: recession, a banking crisis, three attempted coups against the leader, cash for honours, the expenses crisis, and that’s without mentioning Iraq and Afghanistan. Labour is short of members, resources and monies, and yet it is still standing. Is Gordon Brown really ‘the Comeback

Continue Reading Go Brown To A Fourth Term: The Strange Story of Labour’s Comeback

The Rotten State of British Democracy and A Five Point Plan on How It Works For Some! Gerry Hassan March 24th 2010 Just the usual kind of week in British politics, the type of which we have had many of in the last year of two of this totally rotten, corrupted British Parliament. The whole thing defies belief sounding close to an Ortonesque caricature about politics, the power of money and the loss of any sense of moral compasses in a whole host of the political classes. We have just had Alistair Darlings’ Budget which was a carefully calculated

Continue Reading The Rotten State of British Democracy and A Five Point Plan on How It Works For Some!

Beginning a Conversation about Change and Glasgow: A Discussion with Carol Craig Gerry Hassan Sunday Times, March 21st 2010 Glasgow is a place of complexity, many identities, of both dreams and problems. This is the city of ‘Glasgow: Scotland with Style’, the supposed new, vibrant city, and then there is the urban wasteland of gangland ‘No Mean City’. Then there is the Glasgow of fiction, film and prose, from James Kelman to Edwin Morgan. Carol Craig’s new book on the city, ‘The Tears that Made the Clyde: Well-being in Glasgow’ is an attempt to address some of these contradictions. In

Continue Reading Beginning a Conversation about Change and Glasgow: A Discussion with Carol Craig