Changin Scotland No. 15: March 19th-21st 2010 Into our eighth year speakers confirmed include Peter Oborne, author of 'The Triumph of the Political Classes' and Anthony Barnett, founder of Charter 88 and co-director of the Convention on Modern Liberty. Oborne and Barnett will be surveying the state of British democracy and what we can do about it! Plus the usual loads and loads more, live music and fun. Plus celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Ceilidh Place!

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Scotland’s Debates: Why We Need to Change the Culture of Denial Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 2nd 2009 Two alternative ways of understanding Scotland have come to the fore of late. One sees independence versus a reformed union representing Scotland and the politics of constitutional change. The other seen in the BBC Scotland TV series ‘A History of Scotland’ is about understanding our past, where we came from, what made us and who we are now to aid us better shape our future. Both are not without difficulties. The constitutional debate on both sides, independence versus the union, remains

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The Making of the Modern SNP: From Protest to Power Gerry Hassan in Gerry Hassan (ed.), The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power, Edinburgh University Press The Scottish National Party celebrates its 75^th anniversary this year in good heart and shape. Established in 1934 as the amalgamation of two parties - the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party - it now finds itself in the unprecedented position of being Scotland’s Government after winning the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the first set of national elections the party has won in its history. The SNP has, in the

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Scotland’s Real Debate: The Wider Campaign for Genuine Self-Government Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, November 30th 2009 Today sees the publication of the Scottish Government’s independence White Paper. Last week Jim Murphy, Scottish Secretary of State, launched the UK Government’s White Paper on the Calman Commission proposing more powers to the Scottish Parliament. These are two competing visions of Scotland. Alex Salmond has declared in the run up to his paper’s publication that ‘only independence gives Scotland the freedom to achieve its full potential as an equal member of the international community’. Jim Murphy launching his White Paper in the

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Tangerine Dreaming Gerry Hassan November 28th 2009 A word of commendation about the publication today of ‘the official history of Dundee United FC’ – ‘Dundee United: the Official Centenary History’ – written by Peter Rundo and Mike Watson (1). Rundo is United’s official match programme editor and Watson, is a former MP and MSP, who has written two previous books on United, ‘From Rags to Riches’ and ‘The Tannadice Encyclopaedia’. This is a beautifully cared for, put together and loved book, which the authors have painstaking spent time on in research and choosing the illustrations. And it is superbly

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The Mindset of Denial: A Panel of Experts Write Gerry Hassan November 27th 2009 I have written fairly often on the subject that passes for sectarianism in Scotland, at times written on football, and occasionally written on both. For some reason, my column yesterday in ‘The Scotsman’ that addressed these subjects, along with racism and homophobia, rankled a range of Rangers opinion who decided to get in contact. I cannot claim that these half dozen Rangers fans who contacted me are a representative cross-section of the club’s support, but what is interesting is that these fans expressed themselves in a

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Looking into the Void: James Naughtie’s Northern Odyssey Part Two Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, November 27th 2009 After James Naughtie’s laugh a minute, cliché-ridden put down of Scotland and the town of Kilmarnock, I listened to his latest jaunt on the ‘Today’ programme (1) into the northern territories with a mix of fear and trepidation. This was an altogether different tone of programme, reflective and somewhat nuanced, allowing shades of grey, complexity and ambiguity, and thus making the earlier programme even more perplexing in its black and white putdowns, self-satisfaction and labelling of the whole town of Kilmarnock as a

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Some Thoughts on James Naughtie’s Sunshine on Scotland Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, November 26th 2009 Have just listened to Jim Naughtie’s deliberately downbeat, dour and depressive journey north to Kilmarnock for the Today programme (1), searching everywhere for doom and gloom and not surprisingly finding it. This was an awful stereotypical kind of item and one which makes you wonder if an intelligent debate is possible about the future of the UK and Scotland’s aspirations in it. Certainly something, which makes you, question the BBC’s capacity to contribute to such an important debate. Continue Reading Some Thoughts on James Naughtie’s Sunshine on Scotland

Scotland’s Continued Shame Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 26th 2009 The Scots like to think of themselves as a welcoming, friendly people who are less xenophobic, racist and prejudiced than others. At the same time, we know that the scar of sectarianism blights our land, and that racism and homophobia are equally prevalent and problematic. There is a perception that there is a PC class and industry that have positions of power and influence that think they have the right to judge what we think, say and do. The Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland has done lots of

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Where is Scotland Going? Foreign Lands and Forgotten Places Anthony Barnett in discussion with Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, November 24th 2009 Scottish politics often seem like a foreign land to the Westminster cognoscenti, its political class and media. Where is Scottish politics and where is it going? After all the talk of the popularity of the SNP and Alex Salmond and problems of Scottish Labour what was the significance of the recent Glasgow NE by-election? Labour got an unexpectedly large majority, confounding expectations in a constituency held by Speaker Martin and was tainted by the expenses scandal. It seems to

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