Is it time to think of independence for London? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 24th 2017 Every day in so many ways the UK becomes more obviously divided and fragmented. The current UK general election campaign showcases this - with the absence of any real national UK politics beyond the theatre of Westminster with instead numerous national and sub-national debates. There are, along with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, several different Englands. And then there is the special case of London. As the capital of England and the UK, London is an island apart from the rest of us. It

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Sorry seems to be the hardest word in Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 17th 2017 Power and privilege seldom likes to have to openly reflect on its place in front of others. Instead, power likes to present its position as a natural state of affairs – to just be, manifesting and imbuing a sense of its own importance. This is how power exerts and expresses itself, from the City of London to senior bankers and the forces of international capitalism. The same is true of Scotland and in recent years this has been aided by, in significant areas, power

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 The Winner Doesn’t Take It All: Phoney War or the Beginning of a New Era? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 10th 2017 Scotland’s permanent political campaign continued last week with the local elections. These were important for who runs Scotland’s 32 councils, local services and what passes for the remnants of local government, after decades of centralisation under Labour, Tories and SNP. But the stakes were higher than usual with the impending UK general election. Everybody could claim some spoils. The SNP ‘won’ - finishing with most votes and seats. The Tories made significant gains in votes and seats. Labour

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‘When I hear the word Scotland I want to say: ‘Shut the Fuck Up’’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 3rd 2017 ‘When I hear the word Scotland, I want to say: ‘Shut the Fuck Up.’’ These were the emotive words someone said at a public event in Newcastle I spoke at exactly one year to the day after the 2014 indyref. They undoubtedly voiced the views of a part of the country - by that I mean a part of England. But at the same time their anger and loss of patience taps into something that is clearly going on

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Anniversaries Galore: Are the best days of Scottish football long behind it? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 26th 2017 The only excitement this year in senior Scottish domestic football has been whether Celtic will go through the season undefeated in league, Scottish Cup and League Cup, and whether a historic treble is possible. Along with that there are a whole host of memorable anniversaries. The 50th anniversary is coming up - on 25 May - of Celtic becoming the first British team to win the European Cup; while the 50^th anniversary just passed on 15 April of Scotland’s legendary 3-2

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The Continuing Battle for Scotland: Goodbye to British politics and Goodbye to Britain? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, April 19th 2017 The age of perma-campaigning and elections continues in Scotland. Theresa May’s snap election, supposedly to give her a mandate for Brexit which she already had, will be Scotland’s seventh visit to the polls in the last three years. For some of us, a select few, this is nirvana. For many more it is an unwanted intrusion. But while mainstream media vox pops show us the now legendary Brenda from Bristol say how disgusted she is at having to vote again,

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A Scotland without Nationalism Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 19th 2017 Wouldn’t it be great to live in a Scotland without nationalism? That is the clarion call put forward regularly by opponents of the SNP and independence. Nationalism is a worldwide phenomenon - although many popular discussions, including those in Scotland, take place without offering any definition. Yet, the late James Kellas spent his academic life studying nationalism, described it as: Nationalism is both an ideology and a form of behaviour … In all cases, nationalism seeks to defend and promote the interests of the nation … Nationalist behaviour is

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The Left’s Big Problem: Ken Livingstone and talking about Hitler and the Jews Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 12th 2017 These are dark days for British Labour. Much worse than 1983 - or the 1950s. Only the shock of 1931 comes anywhere near to the present malaise when the party was betrayed by former Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald going off with the Tories. Labour is heading for the rocks, irrelevance and ridicule. The only things holding it up are the even more self-destructive behaviour of UKIP, and the workings of the First Past the Post electoral system which

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Stay Calm: The Country formerly known as the UK is Breaking Up Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 5th 2017 Sometimes years go by without domestic and international crises. Then like buses, a whole series of them come along at the same time to the extent that hardly anyone can keep up. It is exhausting to keep up for citizens, the media and the participants directly involved. In the last week, the Scottish Parliament voted 69-59 to hold a second independence referendum, Theresa May finally triggered Article 50 for the UK to leave the EU, and the UK got involved in

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Imagine a Parallel Universe Scotland without the SNP Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 29th 2017 Nearly every adult in Scotland has an opinion and view on the SNP: the good, the bad, the positive, the negative and the indifferent. The SNP have been a constant presence in public life at least since Winnie Ewing’s famous and oft-cited Hamilton by-election victory: a result which did much to bring into being the modern SNP and the contemporary Scotland we live in. Yet, the SNP are now such a powerful force that it is hard to imagine that only two generations ago it

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