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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A Very Quiet Kind of Revolution: The Shape of the UK after the Election Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, November 20th 2009 It has probably escaped the attention of all but the most assiduous Guardian reader, but this week marked an explosion of activity on constitutional reform which is going to continue for the next few weeks. The Queen’s Speech saw the UK Government announce it would ‘take forward’ proposals to give the Scottish Parliament more powers, drawn from the recent final report of the Calman Commission, which comprised Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives. A White Paper will be published

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Why Calman isn’t the Answer: Breaking the Elite Consensus of Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 20th 2009 At the fag end of a Parliament beset by scandal and crisis with a discredited political class and unpopular Labour Government, we are about to witness a flurry of constitutional proposals for Scotland. The Queen’s Speech saw the UK Government declare it would be ‘taking forward’ proposals over the Calman Commission with a White Paper published in the next few weeks. At the same time, the Scottish Government, which boycotted Calman, will next week publish a White Paper putting more detail to

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The Continued Struggle for Scotland’s Soul: Politics after Glasgow North East Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, November 13th 2009 The Glasgow North East campaign never really got started in the way some by-elections catch fire or one candidate creates a bandwagon. And yet, this result will send ripples through the political classes. It is revealing that Labour held on with relative ease – achieving a 1.89% swing to Labour from the SNP - in one of the most battered and deprived constituencies in Scotland and the UK, while the Scottish Nationalists failed to make any headway despite the popularity

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The Wider Tragedy and Very Partial Case for Gordon Brown Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 12th 2009 Gordon Brown is a troubled man so the prevailing wisdom goes. He does not have his demons to seek from his flawed personality to the ghost of Tony Blair that wont quite leave the stage. He is widely seen in the media as an unattractive mixture of indecision, control freakery and paranoia. In a matter of years he has been transformed from being ‘the Iron Chancellor’ who was feared by the Tories he dismissed with consummate ease such as Michael Howard and

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Churchill’s Continual Shadow Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, November 4th 2009 Churchill is everywhere – claimed by Nick Griffin and the BNP, praised by historian Andrew Roberts, and the subject of two recent biographies on his war years by the American writer Carlo d’Este and Max Hastings (1). As the Second World War nostalgia industry gets into gear – passing the 70^th anniversary of the European branch of the war (the Chinese-Japanese war starting earlier) – the build up goes on towards the marking of the Battle of Britain and ‘our finest hour’ next summer. ‘Into the Storm’ was a timely

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Stephen, What Difference Does It Make? The World of Twittergate Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 4th 2009 The big issue facing the planet these last few days has not been Tony Blair trying to become Euro President, the on-off Afghan elections, or MP expenses. That’s so old thinking and square! The only issue in town has been Stephen Fry throwing a hissy fit on Twitter and taking umbrage at being called by a fellow Twitter ‘boring’ to which Fry announced his ‘retirement’ from the site. Fry has 945,295 followers on the site, and has been ranked the third most influential

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No More Heroes Anymore? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 31st 2009 Britain is not a happy land. It is a place filled with disgruntlement, anger and resentment. This is about more than anxieties caused by recession. Instead, people have a sense that greedy bankers, politicians, BBC bosses and many others are just looking after themselves and that something profound has changed. That the civic code governing society has fundamentally altered. This is tinged with an air of who do we believe in anymore? Thirty years ago the Stranglers sang ‘No More Heroes’ and it has come to pass. Who,

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Reimagining ‘the English Question(s)’: English Voices, Spaces and Institution Building Gerry Hassan Public Policy Research, Volume 16 Number 2 Introduction It is a decade since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly and just over thirty years since the Scots and Welsh first voted on devolution in the ill-fated 1979 referendums. While the Scots and Welsh, along with the Northern Irish have each voted twice on their constitutional status or devolution, one part of the UK – namely England - has not voted once. Some commentators and observers now talk about the emergence of ‘the English

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