Afghanistan British Dead Passes 200 and The Amnesia of Imperialism August 16th 2009 As the British death toll in Afghanistan now passes 200 – the sheer historical amnesia in Britain, and the United States, about our involvement in this region strikes new depths. British involvement in Afghanistan is now set to pass its eight-year and is, in Gordon Brown’s words, a ‘vital’ mission to ‘make Britain safer by making Afghanistan more stable’ (1). The 2001 attack was the third invasion of the country Britain has been involved in after the 1838 and 1878 onslaughts, commonly known as the First and

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What Happened to the Giants of Scotland? Life after Archie, Arthur and Bob Crampsey The Scotsman, August 13th 2009 Gerry Hassan The big boys football season starts this weekend. All across Scotland, football fans will be tuning in their radios, watching TV results, and turning to newspaper back pages and special supplements. Another year, another season, and yet something has gone wrong with the way football is presented and reported in this country. It has come to represent a very unflattering, unattractive aspect of ourselves which should give us pause for thought. It wasn’t always like this. Once football

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The Progressive Conservatives and The Strange Case of Phillip Blond August 12th 2009 British politics are clearly gearing up for the run-in to the election. George Osborne’s speech at Demos made the pitch for the Conservatives as ‘unapologetically progressive’ and advocates of a ‘fairer society’. Mandelson slammed his old Greek yacht friend for ‘political cross-dressing’, a quality which used to the measure of Blairite/New Labour success. Several things are going on here. One is the New Labour-Cameron convergence – which Demos is unashamedly and is trying to put itself at the centre of, and become the unchallenged courtiers to the

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Breaking Out of ‘The Golden Thread of Liberty’: Understanding and Interpreting the United Kingdom Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 10th 2009 Vernon Bodganor, The New British Constitution, Hart Publishing, 319 pp., £17.95. James Mitchell, Devolution in the UK, Manchester University Press, 216 pp., £60. Anthony King, The British Constitution, Oxford University Press, 432 pp., £25. Peter Kellner, Democracy: 1,000 Years in Pursuit of British Liberty, Mainstream, 540 pp., £25. As a theoretical proposition the United Kingdom would probably win few converts because it seems such a fragile concoction. Imagine the reaction to a political scientist who proposed to create

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The Secret World of Cathkin Park and Third Lanark FC Gerry Hassan Cathkin Park is one of the most moving and fascinating places in Glasgow: a tribute to a past age of a city, working class culture and football. It was the home of Third Lanark, or Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers to give their full name, Glasgow’s main ‘other’ team from their inception until they went out of business in 1967. It is a magical, mysterious place. Forty two years after Thirds passed into folklore most of Cathkin Park still stands – the bowl of the concrete terrace with their

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Here are some of the books that in the last couple of weeks I have been reading: Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, University of Chicago Press 2007 Hayek is one of the two great bogeymen of the New Right (the other being Milton Friedman) and this is Hayek’s most famous and influential book. It is actually a powerful and convincing case against the tyranny of the state and collectivism, and a book whose eloquence and logic was widely recognised when it was first published in 1944 by even left-wingers such as George Orwell. And this despite

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Here are some of the things keeping my feet dancin' at the mo .... CeU Beautiful Brazilian debut from a couple of years, by this young female singer-songwriter. CeU is pronounced ‘sew’ and translated from Portuguese means ‘sky’ and ‘heaven’. This starts slowly and sweetly and a little mainstream, but hidden in it are all sorts of depths and quirky tunes, beats and melodies drawing on soul, jazz, trip hop and Brazilian grooves. Polyphonic Voices of Georgia: Anchiskhati Choir A fascinating release and departure for the stunning Soul Jazz Records with a Sacred Music series. Georgia (the Transcaucasian republic)

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Blowing the Whistle on the 'McLad Phenomenon' Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 6th 2009 Scottish men don’t have good health, life expectancy or know how to open up about their emotions. They drink too much, are easily prone to violence, and are more likely to be the victims of violence. Negative images abound about men in modern society and Scottish men in particular. From Rab C. Nesbitt to the male characters in ‘Taggart’ and the ‘Walking Wounded’ lost men in McIlvanney’s and Kelman’s novels, it all seems a bit grim. Is it really this bad and why do these portrayals

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The Cult of the Self and the Power of Capitalism: Two Thinkers Comments August 3rd 2009 I have just been reading two of my favourite websites, Pop Matters, which covers contemporary culture, and the brilliant OpenDemocracy. In the former, a review of a book by Chris Hedges - ‘Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle’ – throws up a number of interesting points. According to Hedges, American society is characterised by: The cult of self dominates our cultural landscape (and) ... has the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need

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‘Broken Britain’ and Why Some People Are More Unequal Than Others? Gerry Hassan Compass, July 31st 2009 Response to comments on ‘Broken Britain’ article on Compass website: http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=5129#comments I think it is much simpler and more complex than people seem to be saying. For example, it is not difficult to start by acknowledging the reach of ‘Broken Britain’ and that the left has lost its way. Some find it difficult to acknowledge Labour has done some decent things in power, while others find it difficult to be critical of anything. These both seem inherently conservative positions. Continue Reading ‘Broken Britain’ and Why Some People Are More Unequal Than Others?