Time for an Independence of the Scottish Mind Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 9th 2015 A second independence may be off the agenda of SNP conference for now, but Alex Salmond regards it as ‘inevitable’. Such are the pressures and tensions of success. Where do you take a movement which came close to winning independence last September? How do you balance pragmatic and idealist hopes? What do you after the SNP ‘tartan tsunami’ of May this year which carried nearly all before it – and, when your opponents are so weak and disorientated? There is talk in places of a

Continue Reading Time for an Independence of the Scottish Mind

A People’s Revolt in Labour but where will it end? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 2nd 2015 ‘The Labour Party has gone mad’. ‘It has abandoned its senses’. ‘This is a summer of insanity’. These and suchlike comments made about Jeremy Corbyn are now familiar refrains in the Westminster mainstream. Before that this disdain was targeted northwards - asking ‘has Scotland gone mad?’ Jeremy Corbyn’s rise and emergence has caught the Westminster bubble by surprise, but isn’t hard to fathom. The other three challengers are dire. What passes for Labour stars are sitting it out. Labour members are dismayed and

Continue Reading A People’s Revolt in Labour but where will it end?

‘You’re Fired’: Jeremy Corbyn and what Voters Want to Say to the Political Classes Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 26th 2015 This week Tony Blair compared Scottish nationalism to ‘cavemen’ and told supporters of Jeremy Corbyn who wanted to vote with their heart to ‘get a transplant.’ You always know something is up when the political insults start flying. Labour have no idea what has happened in Scotland, and to compound matters for the party establishment, this week saw the rise of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership challenge. The trigger was a poll which put Corbyn not just ahead of the other

Continue Reading ‘You’re Fired’: Jeremy Corbyn and What People Want to Say to the Political Classes

The Nationalist Lion Roars at Westminster! Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 19th 2015 The times are changing in Scotland and Britain: the SNP impact at Westminster; Tory maneouvres to hurt, harm and trap Labour on union reform and welfare, and the vacuum of Labour and Lib Dems post-election defeat. The SNP scored early blood on fox-hunting and English votes for English laws – forcing government postponement on the first and regrouping and redrafting on the second. This has produced Tory anger and fury at the Nationalists, and eventually see the Tories attempt to get their revenge. A significant part of

Continue Reading The Nationalist Lion Roars at Westminster!

The Summer of the Living Undead: A Labour Party for What? Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 15th 2015 The Labour leadership contest is noteworthy for a number of factors, none positive or helpful for the party. Labour have just suffered their second consecutive defeat. They finished 113 seats behind the Tories in England. It has now become a cliché to say they face an existential crisis; as Matthew Norman pointed out in ‘The Independent’ this week, it is in fact a ‘post-existential crisis’ (1). The party is in collective denial, retreating into its comfort zones, and almost numb at the

Continue Reading The Summer of the Living Undead: A Labour Party for What?

Is Osborne’s Budget the Future of Britain or Will His Bubble Burst? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 12th 2015 For the last fortnight I have been sailing round the northern coast of Norway on holiday – perhaps an appropriate place to view George Osborne’s budget. He clearly thinks that he is on top of the world - the first Tory majority government budget since 1996, his seventh budget, and the second this year, the last only in March. Osborne did many traditional Tory things – cutting inheritance tax and welfare, stole some of Labour’s clothes on a higher national minimum

Continue Reading Is Osborne’s Budget the Future or Will His Bubble Burst?

Making the Debate on More Scottish Powers Real Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 5th 2015 Another week has seen more turbulence and uncertainty across Europe, north Africa and the Middle East. The unprecedented Greek vote on European Union intransigence will, whatever its outcome, have huge continental implications. In this frenetic period, what have Scottish politics been dominated by, since the May general election? From nearly every corner and political persuasion – from the SNP to Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and Greens – the incessant talk has been of ‘more powers’ and whether the Smith Commission and ‘the Vow’ is being

Continue Reading Making the Debate on More Scottish Powers Real

Clearing the Scottish Fog of War Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 28th 2015 This has been a momentous news week. The Greek crisis; Britain and Europe; the human desperation at Calais; and the related tragedy in the Mediterranean. While this has been going on Scotland has had its own mini-ripples which pale in comparison. There was the controversy over Royal Family funding and the Crown Estate in Scotland, and at the same time, the ongoing problem of cybernat abuse and social media misbehaviour. The Royal story saw a whole range of UK papers run front-page headlines stating ‘Scotland to cancel

Continue Reading Clearing the Scottish Fog of War

The Rise and Fall of the House of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan June 22nd 2015 The story of the Scottish Labour Party was, until recently, one of the defining stories of Scotland over most of the 20^th century. First there was its rise - the emergence of ‘Red Clydeside’ and the socialist pioneers, and how radicalism gave way to respectability. Second, there was the ‘golden era’ of action and purpose - of Tom Johnston, and the big ideas and schemes, which began to fade as Labour morphed in the 1960s and 1970s into the political establishment. And finally, there has

Continue Reading The Rise and Fall of the House of Scottish Labour

The Greek Crisis matters to Scotland, Britain and Europe - as well as Greece Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 21st 2015 Europe is not a happy place. The European Union has failed to agree a common stance on the human disaster of Mediterranean immigrants, while Vladimir Putin has used military aggression to alter the boundaries of Russia and Ukraine and annex Crimea, as Europe has stood by. Closer to home, Britain is preparing for a referendum on whether or not to continue its EU membership - the first full member state to ever do so. And then most seriously, there

Continue Reading The Greek Crisis matters to Scotland, Britain and Europe – as well as Greece