The Limits of the ‘Think Tank’ Revolution Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 8th 2008 Gerry Hassan has worked extensively with several UK think tanks. In this comprehensive essay, he argues that, in Britain as in America, the think tank model has worked better for the right than for the left, and calls for new thinking about the kind of institutions that can nurture progressive ideas. ‘Think By Doing: From Local to Global’, ‘Giving Communities More Power to Run Themselves’, ‘Diverse Communities Bring Benefits For All’, ‘Free the Radicals’, ‘Make Life Chances Depend Less on the Lottery of Birth’. These soundbites

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Thatcher's Shadow Falls over Alex Salmond Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 26th 2008 Alex Salmond's remark to Iain Dale that Scots 'didn't mind the economic side' of Thatcherism, created a storm of hypocrisy and exposed a fundamental truth about Scottish politics, argues Gerry Hassan, in this extensive essay. Mainstream politicians are as united in tacitly accepting Thatcher's legacy as in publicly abominating her policies. British politics have for the last thirty years been shaped by Margaret Thatcher, Thatcherism and the legacy of Thatcher’s period in office. All of the mainstream politicians who have followed her – John Major, Tony Blair,

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After The Conservative Nation: The State of the Union and Post-Unionist Politics Gerry Hassan Chapter in Jonathan Rutherford and Jon Cruddas (eds), Is the Future Conservative, Lawrence and Wishart in association with Compass 2008 We should not forget that Alex Salmond couldn’t ask for more effective allies in his campaign to break up the Union than sour Little Englanders who cry ‘good riddance’ when independence for Scotland is suggested. I’ll fight them all the way. No one is prouder of being English than I am. But I am also passionately attached to the idea of Britain. David Cameron, Speech at

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What is Labour's British Story? Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 5th 2008 The recent salvo across Gordon Brown's bow by David Miliband shows that there is still some life in the top echelons of Labour. However, Milband's prognosis, along with the delicate decoding and musings of Sunder Katwala, embody the problems and limitations of thinking in London's Labour circles. (more…)

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The Lessons of Glasgow East Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 25th 2008 Gerry Hassan shows how the Scottish National Party's by-election victory in a previously unassailable Labour fiefdom is a signal of shifting tectonic plates in United Kingdom politics as a whole. Scottish and British politics are clearly moving into a new political era. The sensational Glasgow East by-election victory for the Scottish National Party (SNP) and humiliation for Labour in one of its safest seats is evidence enough, but even it only hints at the scale of the changes underway and the degree to which a momentous contest

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The Artistic Imagination and the Progressive Imagination: Beginning A New Dance Gerry Hassan Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy Arts and Culture Special Issue Editorial, Summer 2008 1. Society cannot be arranged for the benefits of artists; 2. Without artists civilisation perishes. I have never yet seen this dilemma solved (there must be a solution), and it is not often that it is honestly discussed. George Orwell, ‘As I Please’, Tribune, 1944, quoted in Anderson (2006: 186) Introduction Arts and culture in Britain are blossoming. Gallery attendances have hit new highs. Museums are enjoying new levels of popularity aided

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Changing Scotland, Differing Scotlands: The Future of the Union After Devolution Gerry Hassan Chapter in Gilles Leydier (ed.), La dynamique de la devolution au Royaume-Uni, Universite du Sud Toulon-Var 2008 Introduction Scottish politics has changed dramatically in the last decade. We have seen the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, the election of the Parliament by a broadly Proportional Representation system and the formation of the first coalition government made up by Labour and the Lib Dems. (more…)

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Changin’ Scotland No.  11   March 14-16th 2008 Sue Palmer on ‘Toxic Childhood’ and ‘Detoxing Childhood’ with Carol Craig, Rowena Arshad on racial equality, Philip Schlesinger on the media and broadcasting, Iain Macwhirter, Gerry Hassan and Susan Deacon explore Scottish and British politics after Blair, Kevin Williamson on radical books, Brian Turner on poetry and the US war in Iraq and Madge Bray on working with Georgian street children.

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Brown and the Importance of Being British Gerry Hassan Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy Winter 2008 There is a golden thread which runs through British history, of the individual standing firm against tyranny and then of the individual participating in their society. It is a thread that runs from that long-ago day in Runnymede in 1215, on to the Bill of Rights in 1689 to not just one, but four great Reform Acts within less than a hundred years. Gordon Brown, Hugo Young Memorial Lecture, December 2005 ‘Come on,’ he said.’ ‘It’s not a trick question. Just

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A short history of the future: the story of the beginning of the break-up of the UK Gerry Hassan Chapter in Mark Perryman (ed.), Imagined Nation: England after Britain, Lawrence and Wishart 2008 I think the unravelling, should it come, would probably be a protracted nightmare. It would be a divorce, a division of the spoils on a kind of epic, spectacular scale. If we think of such issues as the army, things like British embassies overseas, Britain’s permanent representation on the United Nations – all of these things would have to be unravelled and negotiated and fixed somehow.

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