The Trouble with the BBC and its view of Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, December 1st 2019 The BBC is one of the defining institutions of the UK for both supporters and detractors. Increasingly the BBC is not in a good place. It is not having a good election. This follows on from criticism of its coverage of the 2014 indyref and 2016 Brexit vote. On top of this the BBC finds itself under fire from every political direction - Corbynistas, Scottish independence supporters and right-wing Conservatives. The media landscape the BBC sits in is profoundly changing. This is now

Continue Reading The Trouble with the BBC and its view of Britain

History in the Making: The End of the Era of Neo-liberalism – in the UK and Globally Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 27th 2019 This, we are continually told, is meant to be a seismic, even historic election - usually referring to the fundamental implications of Brexit. What is seldom addressed is that this election also signifies far-reaching change in another aspect of politics. This is the confirmation of the jettisoning of the economic assumptions which have defined UK politics for the past 40 years - sometimes described as neo-liberalism. This shift is a continuation and reinforcement of a change

Continue Reading History in the Making: The End of the Era of Neo-liberalism – in the UK and Globally

Class still defines and disfigures Britain and Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, November 24th 2019 Class still matters and defines much of Britain and Scotland. It shapes life chances, educational opportunities, work advancement and careers, health, life expectancy, culture, politics - and who makes and does not make the key decisions in society. Dr. Fiona Hill, the British-born US public servant, spoke this week at the Trump impeachment hearings about being born in Bishop Auckland in the north of England, saying: ‘This country [the US] offered me opportunities I would never have had in England. I grew up poor with

Continue Reading Class still defines and disfigures Britain and Scotland

Men Behaving Badly: Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew and Trump Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 19th 2019 Boris Johnson in the past week has seen his Tory fortunes soar. This was in a week when Johnson belatedly went and spoke to the people affected by the Yorkshire floods and faced their anger. In the same period, he struggled to answer why he might be ‘relatable’; avoided giving a straight reply to that well-known killer question, ‘how many children do you have?’, and with wider consequences for our politics professed to not know the number of Russian oligarchs who fund the Tory

Continue Reading Men Behaving Badly: Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew and Trump

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan Sunday National, November 17th 2019 This week Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s trip to Scotland made the headlines - and not for positive reasons. Corbyn’s position in less than 24 hours changed more than once on independence. First, he shifted from his previous position of not having an independence referendum in the ‘early years’ of a Labour Government, indicating that a vote would not take place in ‘the first term’ of an administration. Then when this was seen as the significant shift it was, he rowed back and returned to the first position,

Continue Reading Jeremy Corbyn, Labour and Scottish Independence

Conventional wisdom is no guide to the future in an age of turmoil and surprise Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 13th 2019 UK general elections are never about one single subject even when politicians try to define them as such. Ted Heath’s ‘Who governs Britain?’ election of February 1974 became about the state of the country, and Winston Churchill’s belief after the war in Europe ended in 1945 that he would be elected by a grateful electorate turned out to be illusive as voters instead looked to the future. Similarly this election will not be about just one issue

Continue Reading Conventional wisdom is no guide to the future in an age of turmoil and surprise

Letter from America: Civil society matters more than who wins elections in the UK, US and elsewhere Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 6th 2019 Britain from afar looks very unhappy and divided. This much is obvious from the USA - not exactly a benign, peaceful, harmonious world itself. But in its media coverage, and the people I have spoken to in the past week, there is a universal understanding that things are not going well in the USA or the UK. Everybody I have spoken to in America has heard of Brexit, knows that Boris Johnson is UK Prime Minister

Continue Reading Letter from America: Civil society matters more than who wins elections in the UK, US and elsewhere

Letter from America: Let’s Stop Looking to America for the Future Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 30th 2019 ‘You don’t know how lucky you are. Never take your democracy for granted. You don’t realise what it’s worth until it’s too late.’ Mikola Statkevich, former Belarusian Presidential candidate, 2015 America likes to think of itself as the shining light on the hill, as the exemplar in the whole world of life, liberty and happiness. Yet the America of today is increasingly turning it back on such a version of itself. This is a dysfunctional, divided, unhappy society, increasingly not at ease

Continue Reading Letter from America: Let’s Stop Looking to America for the Future

The Last UK General Election Ever? Or the Last Bar One? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, October 27th 2019 Boris Johnson on Monday makes what is his third attempt to get the votes to call a UK general election – needing 434 votes to win a two-thirds majority under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. This piece was written before the moves by the Lib Dems and SNP to bring about an election on December 9^th via a simple, single line bill. This may have more chance of succeeding later this week. But whether it does or does not it doesn’t invalidate

Continue Reading The Last UK General Election Ever? Or the Last Bar One?

Tony Blair and the Road from Baghdad to Boris Johnson’s Brexit Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, October 26th 2019 Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson and others from the New Labour era have of late been on our airwaves talking endlessly of the evils of Brexit and the need for a second referendum on Europe. But seldom if ever do they publicly reflect on their own disastrous role in fanning the flames which led to the current Brexit debacle. Blair and Campbell advocated and led the case for the Iraq war - an illegal war based on a campaign of disinformation,

Continue Reading Tony Blair and the Road from Baghdad to Boris Johnson’s Brexit