An Open Letter to the SNP and Independence Supporters Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 17th 2017 These are fast moving political times for Scotland. The events of the last week illustrate the accelerated fragmentation and disintegration of the UK as we know it. But these are also times of high stakes and stand-offs, with the Scottish and UK Governments gaming and predicting the actions of the other. Monday’s announcement by Nicola Sturgeon took the UK Government by surprise and seized the centrestage of British politics – forcing the postponement of triggering Article 50. Theresa May’s most recent statement, declaring

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Indyref2 is coming but can we do better than two versions of Little Britain? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 15th 2016 The ides of March 2017. One single day - Monday March 13^th - will go down as an epic day in the fragmentation of the United Kingdom. The Brexit Bill passed through all its stages in the Commons and Lords shorn of any extra commitments. Nicola Sturgeon announced the prospect of a second independence referendum. And the UK Government in response decided to shelve the triggering of Article 50 for two weeks. That’s without mentioning what is happening in

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Nationalism – Scottish or British – is never enough. It always says: ‘We are the Good Guys’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 8th 2017 Nationalism is one of the defining features of Scotland and modern Scotland. Last week UK Prime Minister Theresa May came north to the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow, asking the Scots to think again, lambasting the SNP and their ‘constitutional obsessions’ and ‘tunnel vision nationalism’. Apart from the ridiculousness of the first point, considering the UK Government’s obsession with Brexit, the second was in the tradition known the world over of majority nationalisms (British) lecturing minority

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The Long Suicide of Scottish and British Labour Hurts Us All Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 1st 2017 Political parties rise and fall. They have no permanent right to a lease on the terrain they occupy and the voters they appeal to. Scottish politics has seen the decline of many once powerful forces - the Liberals, Tories, and now the Labour Party. This weekend, and since, has witnessed what can only be described as the last vestiges of the long painful suicide of the Scottish Labour Party. Moreover, this coincided with the on-going pains and problems of the Corbyn Labour

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Prisoners of the Past: Tony Blair, Trump and Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 22nd 2017 The past is a powerful force and that is even more true in the strange times we are living in. Take the waves of reaction and revulsion emerging last week after Tony Blair came back from the cold to announce his new initiative on Brexit. Blair’s intervention took place at the start of the 20^th anniversary of the first New Labour landslide, but also bizarrely after the Commons voted to trigger Article 50, and six days before two critical by-elections for

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The Day Britain Died: Brexit, Trump and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 15th 2017 Last week a Rubicon was crossed as the House of Commons voted 494 to 122 – a government majority of 372 - to give a third reading to triggering Article 50. Just as seriously on the same day - Wednesday February 8^th 2017 – the UK Government reneged on its promise to take 3,000 child refugees (what was called the Dubs amendment) and slashed the number to 350. If that wasn’t enough the Commons at the same time voted to refuse to offer any

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Trump, Political Violence and when is it right to punch Nazis? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 8th 2017 It is a season of heated tempers and invective across the political world. One that matches the widespread atmosphere of confusion and disorientation. This is a mood in which there are winners and losers: people who crave this kind of moment, and many who lament the passing of the previous era. Mainstream political sentiment is uncomfortable and on the defensive. But radicals of the right and left celebrate this new found chaos as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Are they right

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Scottish Independence has to move with the times Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 1st 2017 Scotland has in recent times liked to see itself as progressive, democratic and European. What’s so special about that you might think? A bit like apple pie and being kind to animals. But these undoubtedly mainstream values were rightly seen as increasingly at odds with the direction of the UK in the last few decades. The UK wasn’t any of these things and this has become even more pronounced and obvious post-Brexit vote. The Scottish case for these three qualities in 2014 was about something

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Despite Trump and Brexit there are still Reasons to be Cheerful Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 26th 2017 A haunting refrain echoes around the globe. The world, many emphatically say, has gone to pot what with Trump, Brexit, terrorism, ISIS, the march of the far right, fake news, alternative facts and more. This miserablist take on modern times has a familiar refrain in Britain. It states that the country has gone in entirely the wrong direction these last 30 to 40 years. ‘Margaret Thatcher / poll tax / Tony Blair / Iraq war’ has become a spellbinding, intoxicating description

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Could Scotland really be reduced to the status of a region? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 18th 2017 When did present day Scotland begin? Not the ‘modern’ Scotland of post-war times, or the upside and then downside of Labour Scotland. But the land that we visibly live in today – shaped by the ghosts of industries long gone and the sins and excesses of Thatcher and Blair. The conventional answer is 1979: the ‘Year Zero’ of Scottish sensibilities when, for many, the world was turned upside down with election of the Thatcher Government and the stalled first devolution referendum. However,

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