Isn’t it time the People’s Game cared about and listened to fans? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 28th 2021 This weekend sees one of the showcase moments of Scottish football - the Scottish League Cup final between Livingston and St. Johnstone. Yet, the game which so many people care about and love is at a massive crossroads facing questions which will define its long-term future. The COVID-19 pandemic has meant the game has gone nearly an entire year with no crowds in attendance, hence a huge reduction in income for the game and clubs. What, you may ask, is special

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What has gone wrong with Scottish politics and democracy? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 24th 2021 There is a feeling of crisis across Scottish politics and democracy. Partly this is the sense of decay and drift in the SNP with infighting, divisions and lack of trust between senior figures in the party; amplified by the Salmond-Sturgeon implosion. But there is more at play both in the SNP and public life, which points to things not being quite right in politics and democracy. All across political life there is now a hyper-adversarial nature - not just between, but within parties –

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A Different Class: Choose Your Side Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 21st 2021 Class is one of the defining concepts of life, Scotland and capitalism – but barely receives much informed analysis on our TV screens. Instead, we are offered unstated but loaded assumptions in news, TV documentaries and countless other programmes, with a distinct bias on how success, aspiration and failure are seen and judged. In today’s environment Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars – a new four-part series on BBC Scotland - is a breath of fresh air; the first two of which have been aired. This is in

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How do we talk and listen in an age of noise? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 17th 2021 Scottish public life doesn’t need to look far for controversy and heat at the moment. There is the ongoing Nicola Sturgeon-Alex Salmond saga, the mess of the Scottish Parliament inquiry, the growing sense of drift in the SNP and the Scottish Government; combined with gathering authoritarianism and belief that it knows best. Added to this is a palpable lack of accountability and taking of responsibility of many in power. There is the Crown Office controversy involving Duff and Phelps, and only last

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Who will speak for a democratic England in the break-up of Britain? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 14th 2021 The UK is in major flux. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are increasingly in a different political space and marching to their own beats. Westminster day by day underlines its incompetence and unfitness, which leaves us with the huge topic of England - and its place and role in the future. As UK politics increasingly come to resemble ‘four nation politics’ the question of how England is governed, thinks of itself and collectively sees its future, has become one of the

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Labour needs to find a very different story of Britishness and patriotism Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 10th 2021 The big question of what the Labour Party stands for and represents has been raising its head again, particularly in relation to the party and Britain and Britishness - including such hot topics as patriotism and flags. The initial hook for this was a Labour strategy document which, in the aftermath of the party’s emphatic defeat in the 2019 UK election, recommended ‘the use of the flag [and] veterans dressing smartly at the war memorial’ – with the intent to

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How to win the argument, case and vote for independence Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 7th 2021 The SNP are high in the polls, Nicola Sturgeon’s popularity is hugely positive and massively outperforms Boris Johnson, and independence has now been in the majority for 20 polls in a row over the past twelve months. Boris Johnson has not had a good COVID, Brexit or Premiership. He has little political touch, is too opportunist, and looks exhausted. Even Scottish Tories say he is ‘toxic’ here, and only this week Luke Graham was sacked as head of the No 10 Union Unit;

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Joanna Cherry, Andy Wightman and the importance of dissent Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 3rd 2021 These past few weeks have not been quiet ones for the SNP and Scottish Greens, the two pro-independence parties in the country. First of all, respected Green MSP Andy Wightman announced he was leaving the party, and this week, Joanna Cherry was sacked from her position on the SNP Westminster frontbench: Cherry, MP for Edinburgh South West commented: ‘Despite hard work, results and a strong reputation I’ve been sacked today from the SNP front bench’. Running through both events are how political parties

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The state of the union and independence after Johnson’s Jaunt Gerry Hassan Sunday National, January 31st 2021 Boris Johnson came to Scotland last week: much trailed and talked about but certain to have no lasting effect. This was the week where a once-revered Scottish institution announced it had fallen on hard times. Once popular with Edinburgh ladies of a certain age and the middle classes who believed that they had a refined taste and lifestyle; the similarities between Jenners department store on Princes Street, Edinburgh and the Scottish Tories, are many. This illustrates the long-term collapse of the institutions of

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Gordon Brown and how to heal broken Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 27th 2021 Gordon Brown is coming to the rescue again - raising the alarm, saying that the UK is in danger of becoming a ‘failed union’ unless there is dramatic change. This is the same Gordon Brown who was centrestage in the latter stages of the indyref and pivotal to ‘The Vow’, and who promised a ‘near-federal union’ for the UK within two years of 2014. Before that he was at the apex of New Labour - as Chancellor, then Prime Minister, over thirteen years. Gordon Brown

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