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Are we witnessing the Strange Death of Nationalist Scotland?
Are we witnessing the Strange Death of Nationalist Scotland? Gerry Hassan New Statesman, 29 July 2024 Twelve years ago, I co-wrote The Strange Death of Labour Scotland – a historical account of how Labour’s dominance of Scotland ended. At the first public event held to discuss the book, the land reform campaigner Andy Wightman commented rather prophetically that “in a decade you will be writing the follow-up - “The Strange Death of Nationalist Scotland”. And so, it has come to pass. In the 2024 election, Labour swept back from near-extinction in 2015 to take 37 seats, reducing the SNP to
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Three Futures of Scotland: And how to shape the future by understanding the past
Three Futures of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 28 July 2024 Understand the present and shaping the future depends on understanding the past. Sometimes difficult through the noise, smog and smirr, but during disruption and change it is more necessary than ever. The major shifts experienced by Scotland over the past 25 years - the establishment of the Parliament following the emphatic victory for self-government in the 1997 referendum; the SNP’s coming to office in 2007; followed by the 2014 indyref bringing the idea of independence centrestage and into the mainstream, where it has remained since – are seismic. Yet
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Can a New SNP emerge which speaks a new story of Scotland?
Can a New SNP emerge which speaks a new story of Scotland? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 17 July 2024 The scale of SNP defeat should not have taken anyone by surprise. It has been a long time coming, and is a long way down from Peak Nat. But it still shocked many, whilst others too sensitive have looked away from the resulting carnage. This is what happens when parties experience defeat. Unity goes. The sense of shared purpose and direction diverges. And unless the SNP wake up, they could still fall much further. In particular, the 2026 Scottish elections now
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Anatomy of a Loveless Landslide: Labour’s Victory, the Nature of Britain and Post-Democracy
Anatomy of a Loveless Landside Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 12 July 2024 One week ago the UK underwent a quiet kind of revolution. We drew the curtain on years of Tory chaos and psychodrama. A Labour Government was elected with a large overall majority; the Tories won their lowest ever vote in their history; the SNP suffered a significant reverse; while the Lib Dems, Reform and Greens increased their representation and votes. The UK election was an expression of multi-party politics in voting. It was a very European-style result with five GB-wide parties competing besides SNP and Plaid, along with
Barbarism Begins at Home: The Continuing Great Moving Right Show and War on Democracy
Barbarism Begins at Home Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 2 July 2024 Across the West politics are fractured, divisive, and raise more questions than answers. Biden vs. Trump; the authoritarian US Supreme Court extending Trump’s Presidential immunity; the march of the far-right in the French legislative assembly elections; the UK election and emptiness of the mainstream – a trend reflected by Andrew Hindmoor in Haywire: A Political History of Britain since 2000 as ‘the growth of modern miserabilism’ and as evidence that ‘the country is in decline and everything is getting worse.’ Everywhere the forces of the populist right are either
Seventy Years of Hurt Never Stopped Us Dreaming: Scottish Football and the Need for Change
Seventy Years of Hurt Never Stopped Us Dreaming Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 30 June 2024 We all know the script. The Scottish men’s national team qualify for a major tournament. We raise our hopes. Once more they go out in the first round to deflation and dismay. All of this feels very familiar. We have been disappointed and hurt so often. The men’s national team have turned up for twelve major tournaments. Twelve major tournaments have seen us come home at the earliest opportunity. This story of underachievement and underperformance runs from the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland to last
How not to do radicalism: The hold of capital-ism on Labour’s left from Benn to Corbyn
The Searchers: Andy Beckett, Allen Lane £30. Review by Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 14 June 2024 This book covers the rise and fall, and rise again and subsequent fall, of the Labour left over a period of over fifty years - from the late 1960s to the present. Andy Beckett locates such an epic canvas through telling the story of five connected individuals - Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott. Such an approach aims to make this more human and relatable. However, this is a questionable conceit, as it assumes a major thread connecting all
UK Election 2024: The emptiness of the mainstream, punishment elections and ghost parties
UK Election 2024: The emptiness of the mainstream, punishment elections and ghost parties Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 11 June 2024 The UK is experiencing a turbulent, messy, argumentative election contest. One where the main players and institutions seem unsure of themselves; their place in the world; their relevance - and moreover their ability to govern and present policies and ideas. Whatever the final election result it looks certain that the Labour Party will be elected with a sizeable majority. The Conservatives will be decisively rejected, the right split by the rise of Farage’s Reform; while in Scotland the dominant governing
Change is coming to Scotland: Can Scottish Labour seize the opportunity?
Change is coming to Scotland: Can Scottish Labour seize the opportunity? Gerry Hassan Chartist, 10 June 2024 This is a change election; both in the UK and Scotland. A sense of wanting to punish the Tories after 14 years pervades the UK; and a similar, if less emphatic, desire can be felt in Scotland with regard to the SNP after their 17 years in office. Scottish politics are in flux. This is the end of the era of SNP’s effortless dominance under Salmond and Sturgeon. The SNP is in a crisis of leadership – both of party and of government.
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As Scotland goes to the polls caution and continuity – in Labour and the SNP
As Scotland goes to the polls caution and continuity are not enough – in Labour and the SNP Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 26 May 2024 The UK election on 5 July has huge consequences that could draw the curtains on fourteen Tory years - and see the election of a Labour Government under Keir Starmer. All expectations are that the Tories will lose badly, and Labour could win by a landslide. However the Tories won emphatically in 2019 and Labour need to gain 124 seats for a majority of one seat - something they have done twice in post-war times
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