Remembering childhood holidays in Scotland and my first venture into politics Gerry Hassan July 20th 2016 Everybody’s first experiences of summer holidays are always likely to be special - tinged with evocative memories and memorable moments. My earliest recollection of a summer holiday was the sojourn from Dundee to Girvan in 1969, just before I went to primary school. This trip involved my dad’s light green coloured Volkswagen Beetle; the experience of which left me with a deep-seated affection for such cars. It was the only family holiday on which my maternal granny, Flo (who my mum never got on

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A Very British Coup: The rise of Theresa May could see the end of the UK Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 17th 2006 Theresa May became the UK Prime Minister this week – elected on a mandate of 199 Tory MPs in what amounted to a very British coup. She is only Britain’s second ever woman Prime Minister, following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher. But in other respects she follows Gordon Brown as the twelfth PM in the last 100 years who has entered Downing Street without a popular mandate. Jeremy Corbyn is clinging on as Labour leader –

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After Cameron, Boris and Corbyn: What will Tomorrow’s Leaders Look Like? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 14th 2016 Leadership in the modern world is cited as the answer to nearly every issue, problem or area of life – from business, to turning round failing organisations, to the success of football clubs. In the last month, political leadership has been all over the news. There has been David Cameron’s rather hasty resignation; the coronation of Theresa May as Prime Minister; and Boris Johnson’s positioning for power, withdrawal from the Tory leadership contest, and then subsequent appointment as Foreign Secretary in May’s

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This is the Age of Groupthink Britain and it is increasingly been found out Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 10th 2016 When has British politics ever been in such a state of flux? The Tories, UKIP and English and Welsh Greens in leadership contests; the Labour Party in a series of convulsions from top to bottom; Brexit; and now thirteen years after the UK went to war in Iraq finally comes the publication of Chilcot. The Tories do know how to utilise a crisis. It is one of the reasons that they are one of the most successful electoral

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The anger about the Iraq Disaster isn’t just about Iraq and Blair Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 7th 2016 It is hard to envisage now but once upon a time Tony Blair was an eager to please, likeable, pragmatic politician. In 1997 he caught the mood of the times and led Labour to an election victory of historic proportions, and inflicted the worst ever defeat on the Conservatives, which they took more than a decade to recover from. At that year’s Labour conference Alastair Campbell, Blair’s Head of Communications, leaked a private poll which revealed that Blair had a 93%

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After Britain: Is Scottish Independence the New Normal? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 6th 2016 These are unprecedented times. The Tories, UKIP and English and Welsh Greens are all in the middle of leadership elections, while Jeremy Corbyn is holding on by his fingertips in a stand-off with his own parliamentary party There is a lot of bewilderment, frustration and resentment – not just amongst Remain voters in the EU referendum, but also in the bitterly divided Leave camp. In the midst of this maelstrom Scottish independence looks like the new normal: less risky and the safer option than the

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Is this the beginning of the end of Britain? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 3rd 2016 It may not be the beginning of the end of the UK quite yet. But it is the end of British politics - and Britain, as we know it. The British state faces its biggest geo-political set of challenges in generations. Blair and Iraq, Anthony Eden and Suez pale compared to this in terms of damage to the UK’s reputation, and only Neville Chamberlain and Munich, and Lord North’s loss of the American colonies, are in any way in the same league.

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Nine Months in the Death of Labour: A Response to the Corbynistas Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 28th 2016 These are surprising times in Britain and its politics. Cameron gone. England and Wales dragging the UK out of the EU. The England football team defeated by Iceland. And somehow Jeremy Corbyn was meant to be the antidote to these political times. He was different from the typical 21^st century politician, a throwback to the days when all male left-wingers were like underpaid sociology lecturers - badly dressed and presented, rambling but affectionate and with their heart in the right place.

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This is the world of little Britain and Scotland wants no part Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 26th 2016 This is what the death of a nation looks like - petty nationalism, populism, fact-free politics, and surprises everywhere. This is the world of ‘little Britain’ - and it isn’t pretty. These are unpredictable times. There is anger and frustration. Whole sections of British society feel that politicians, elites and experts don’t understand them. Such is their desperation and feeling of powerlessness that many felt that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are the answer. This referendum is about Europe, and

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Whatever happens, Britain has already left the building Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 22nd 2016 The UK has already left Europe. It never really joined in any real sense. National debates like this reveals much about the psyche of a country, and how it sees its collective hopes and fears. For one, it illuminates a lot about the ghosts of the past that haunt a country. In the Scottish indyref, for example, a great deal of this focused on the perceived legacy of Thatcherism and deindustrialisation. In this European debate, the ghosts seemingly ever-present are those of the spectre of

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