The European Debate has only just begun for Scotland and the UK Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, November 15th 2015 Europe has returned to the centre of British politics. The phony war within the Tories is over as David Cameron revealed his want list from European leaders. It wasn’t exactly long or substantial. He wants change in four areas - exempting the UK from ‘ever closer union’, boosting economic competitiveness, protection of the non-euro countries from further integration, and restrictions on EU migrants drawing UK benefits. These requests are not far-reaching, leading Tory MP Bernard Jenkin to ask ‘is that it?’

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If Independence is a State of Mind then we have to fundamentally change Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, November 8th 2015 Years ago the dream was that the Scottish Parliament would usher in a new politics. It was going to be different from adversarial Westminster – consensual, caring, thoughtful, leading to better debates and laws. Much of this was wish-fulfillment. There has always been mutual scorn between Labour and SNP – aided by the fetishisation of tiny differences, given they agree on so much. But in recent years all of this seems to have got worse. And the last week in

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Will the Real Scottish Labour Party Finally Stand Up? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, November 1st 2015 Scottish Labour met this weekend. This used to be the key political gathering in Scotland. No longer. But the party is in better spirits than many would think after the May 2015 wipeout. It is a party changing. It has a new leader. Lots of new members. And more autonomy after a ‘concordat’ was signed last Monday with British leader Jeremy Corbyn. The party hopes that the tide is turning against the SNP and that its Teflon quality and Sturgeonmania have finally

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‘English Votes’ is political vandalism and fundamentally changes Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, October 25th 2015 This week the United Kingdom profoundly changed in how it does politics, democracy and how Parliament operates. The House of Commons decided by 312 to 270 voters to alter the nature of its composition by differentiating the voting rights of MPs through introducing English votes for English laws. Meaning that – for English-only matters and legislation - Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs will be excluded from a new ‘grand committee’ stage of the bill – which effectively replaces the substantive second reading

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The SNP cannot afford to become the Party of the Status Quo Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, October 18th 2015 The SNP is understandably in good spirit. This is the sort of times that politicians dream of. In the aftermath of the indyref, the SNP has gone from strength to strength, winning 56 out of 59 Westminster seats in May, and looking certain to retain and even strengthen their parliamentary majority at Holyrood next year. Despite this the SNP leadership feels it has to negotiate a careful line. First, talk about a second indyref has been effectively banned in public. Even

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The Appeal and Vision of Tory Britain shouldn’t be underestimated by the left Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, October 11th 2015 The Tory conference gathered this week in good spirits after unexpectedly winning an overall majority in May, and with all their main UK political opponents in disarray. One rather significant anniversary passed unnoticed this week. This was the 65^th anniversary - the day after Cameron’s speech - of Harold Macmillan’s ‘you’ve never had it so good’ election victory in 1959 when the Tories won a third term and overall majority of 100 seats. Britain and Scotland have changed dramatically

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‘Nationalism alone is not enough’ as the SNP finally shows it is mortal Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, October 4th 2015 After eight years of defying the laws of political gravity, the normal rules of politics are back. The SNP are, like everyone else, mortal. Michelle Thomson, newly elected SNP MP for Edinburgh West, has built a £1.7m property portfolio with her husband through buying properties at knock down prices from vulnerable people. Her solicitor, Christopher Hales, who undertook the conveyancing work on 13 properties was struck off last year by the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal. Whatever the legality of

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 ‘The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil’ Still Matters Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, September 27th 2015 One year after the referendum has seen a golden summer and autumn of Scottish theatre. Adaptions of Alasdair Gray’s ‘Lanark’ at the Citizens’ Theatre, and Alan Warner’s ‘The Sopranos’ at the Traverse, along with John McGrath’s ‘The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil’ at Dundee Rep. These are all iconic, evocative plays that tell much about the Scotland in which the original texts were written, the times in which they are set, as well as the present day.  ‘Lanark’

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Corbyn and Anger: Rage Against the Machine is understandable but never ever enough Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, September 20th 2015 Jeremy Corbyn has dominated the news headlines this week. Let’s start with the obvious - the failure of mainstream politics. Conventional British politics are bust. The Labour right, the Blairites and soft left have nothing to offer their own party, let alone the country. More seriously, the Cameron Conservatives after five years in office have yet to find a convincing governing mantra. ‘Big society’ and ‘compassionate Conservatism’ are long dead, leaving little that represents Cameron and Osborne beyond living within

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Scotland and Britain Have Changed: The 'Big Bang' of the Indy Ref and After Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, September 13th 2015 One year ago Scotland went to the polls. An amazing 85% of us voted: 45% for independence and 55% against – both expressions of Scottish self-government and a desire for a different Scotland. Scotland did not vote for independence, but nor did it settle for the status quo of the existing union. Instead, it voted to continue in a kind of interregnum – a transition from something familiar to something still hazy with a destination as yet unknown.

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