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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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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