The Long March to Scotland’s Independence Referendum Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 4th 2009 The world of politics and history sometimes throws up by complete accident fascinating and revealing coincidences. So it proved on the 70th anniversary of Britain and France reluctantly declaring war on Nazi Germany after Hitler had taken the decision two days previously to unleash his war machine on Poland. On such a day laden with history the SNP administration fired the first official shots in the referendum on Scottish independence. Alex Salmond, First Minister, committed his administration to bring forward a bill to hold

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'Libyagate': The Stark Face of ‘Britain plc’ Revealed Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 30th 2009 The idea that the British government and the Libyan government would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it form part of some business deal ... it’s not only wrong, it’s completely implausible and actually quite offensive. Peter Mandelson, First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, President of the Board of Trade and Lord President of the Council  (1) Nobody doubted that Libya wanted BP and BP was

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The Consequences of the Lockerbie Release and the Fools of Devolution Gerry Hassan Open Democracy. August 28th 2009 The fallout after the al-Megrahi case continues to show that devolution – and Scottish devolution in particular – has the capacity to show the limited understanding that many have about the current constitutional state of the UK. Worse than that for many this boils over into resentment, anger and rage, which at points is directed at the Scottish Government and Parliament, and sometimes ‘Scotland’ as an entity. James Macintyre’s short piece in today’s New Statesman, ‘The Folly of Devolution’, is a

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The Releasing of al-Megrahi: Scotland’s Parliament Debates Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 24th 2009 The decision by the Scottish Government to release the convicted Libyan bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person who has been found guilty for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which blew up over Lockerbie, has had huge consequences, both domestic – in Scotland and the UK, and internationally. The ripples and waves caused by the Scottish Government’s release of al-Megrahi are manifold, and show how Scotland, its statehood and nationhood are misunderstood – from Scotland, to the UK and further afield. Firstly, the recall

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The 70th Anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the Re-emergence of Russian Imperialism August 23rd 2009 Today is the 70th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop, the respective Nazi and Soviet Foreign Ministers, on August 23rd 1939 and prefiguring the Nazi and Soviet invasions of Poland and the start of the Second World War. The pact was hugely contentious at the time, had huge consequences and matters to this day. In 1939 it showed the bankruptcy of British and French foreign policy to resist the Nazis and their inability to form a common front with

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Whatever Happened to ‘the Scottish Tut’? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 22nd 2009 Many years ago growing up in Dundee I felt the tangible sense of stuffiness and stodginess. This was caused by the pervasiveness of ‘the Scottish tut’ by which complete strangers felt that they had the right to go around telling others off, looking at them as if they were beneath them, and uttering that stellar rebuke, ‘the tut’. Growing up you could almost sense this attitude in the air; it seemed to linger about in the ether and give the atmosphere a heavy, thick feel which almost

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Lockerbie, Justice and the Price of Devolution Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 21st 2009 Scotland’s Government arrived on the international stage with the announcement by SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the one person convicted of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and the death of 270 people over the Scots town of Lockerbie on that fateful day, December 21st 1988, was being released. MacAskill took his responsibilities seriously and appropriately, realising the importance of his decision with the eyes of the world on him. In his demeanour, statement and subsequent interviews, MacAskill seemed to

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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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