Glasgow’s future after COVID Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 2nd 2021 Glasgow it was announced this week would finally come out of Level 3 restrictions. By Friday Scotland’s biggest city will have endured 277 days of severe limitations on our freedoms that have come at an increasingly cost to the people and fabric of the city – the only place in the UK where people could not meet their friends in their homes, hug friends and relatives, or travel out of the city. It has begun to feel like a city under siege, where the pressures and restrictions have really

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After a dramatic season can football resist the pull of corporate capitalism? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 26th 2021 The past few days saw the climax of the domestic Scottish football season. One that has been difficult for clubs, players, managers, coaches, and fans as we have all come to terms with a different type of football - and sport – during the pandemic. The past year has seen all sorts of milestones: Rangers winning the league; Dundee returning to the top flight beating Kilmarnock in the play-offs ending Killie’s 28 year run in the Premiership; the return of Hearts

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What do we do about Rangers? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 19th 2021 Glasgow Rangers FC have returned to the top of the football game in Scotland. At the same time twice in the spate of two months a section of their fanbase (small but incredibly visible) have trashed parts of Glasgow - engaging in hooliganism, thuggery and violence in George Square and its surrounds. What the above events show is something toxic at the heart of Rangers and a section of their support, along with wider collusion and a malaise in the football authorities. Beyond this there is a

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Glasgow People Power, Kenmure Street and defeating Priti Patel’s Home Office Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 18th 2021 On Thursday last week Kenmure Street in Pollokshields on Glasgow’s Southside made worldwide headlines. As the forces of the British state, in the form of the UK Home Office and UK Border Agency, attempted to forcibly detain and deport two young men the local community resisted and defeated them showing the potential of people power. On that morning a UK Border Agency van came down the narrow confines of Kenmure Street and officials swooped to detain the two young men, Lakhvir Singh

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The campaign of the next Scottish indyref has already begun Gerry Hassan Sunday National, May 16th 2021 The campaign of the next Scottish indyref has already begun. The Scottish and British Governments both know this and all that is left to be decided is the timing, the immediate context and details. This could be the end game for the UK as we know it and the start of a new chapter for Scotland. That requires that people get serious and up their game. If anyone thought the issue of the power of the British state was some distant, abstract issue

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A Celebration of Democracy – and Goodbye to Yesterday’s Men Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 12th 2021 The Scottish elections attracted major media coverage - not just here, but across the UK and internationally. They have been portrayed as historic, and a potential turning point that could decide the fate of the independence question, and ultimately, determine the future of the UK. They were a major moment of democratic engagement. The five previous Scottish elections I discussed last week all had fairly unimpressive turnouts - 58.4% in 1999, 49.7% in 2003, 54.0% in 2007, 50.5% in 2011, and 55.8% in

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A big moment for Scotland and Democracy Gerry Hassan Sunday National, May 9th 2021 The morning after the 2014 indyref UK PM David Cameron stood on the Downing Street steps and said it was time to listen to England and bring in “English Votes for English Laws.” Fast forward seven years, Scotland went to the polls and before most of the results were declared Boris Johnson gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph where he said no to another indyref calling it “irresponsible and reckless.” Tory contempt for the people runs deep when they express what Tories decree is the

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Twenty Years of Scottish Elections and the Importance of the Everyday Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 5th 2021 Today is the last day of campaigning in the Scottish Parliament elections – held under the restrictions of the COVID pandemic. This has been a strange experience, almost surreal at times, as if coming from a far-off political universe we have vaguely heard of but never visited beamed into our homes via TV and radio. There is an element of ‘the society of the spectacle’ about most modern elections and politics that raise profound questions. Is this really who we are

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Europe puts a light on for Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, May 2nd 2021 Remember in 2014 Scotland was told: “What is [the] process for removing our EU citizenship? Voting Yes.” Now the same voices tell us that Scotland becoming an EU member is too difficult – the supposed ‘queue’ for membership, EU terms and spectre of a ‘Spanish veto’. Yet large parts of Europe have not forgotten that Scotland voted to remain a European nation - and part of the EU - in the 2016 vote, and still has the desire to be a self-governing EU nation. An initiative

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Glasgow on the Edge Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 28th 2021 Glasgow is a great city with a proud history, traditions, cultures and a rich record of invention, industry and radicalism. There are of course many different Glasgows within the city’s boundaries – and often reality jars with how the city likes to see and think of itself. One key example is the consistent conservatism and high-handed bureaucracy of Glasgow City Council in a city that prides itself on its commitment to radicalism. Too often though down the years the city’s municipalism has been characterised by the exact opposite

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