The UK is not skint – it is a playground for the rich and privileged Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 21st 2013 It has been Scotland’s week in the news with British and world media flocking north to cover the story of one year to the referendum. Such coverage paints a particular Scottish story by necessity and tends to leave the wider picture of what has changed and what needs to change at a British level. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a strange land; not technically a nation but a state. It is a unique

Continue Reading The UK is not skint – it is a playground for the rich and privileged

Yes to a Different Scotland Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 18th 2013 One year to the Scottish independence referendum. A historic milestone. A host of mainstream media programmes, discussions and items yesterday and today are marking it. One of the most important was ‘Newsnight’s’ Berwick upon Tweed programme on Tuesday broadcast to a British wide audience which looked as though it was filmed in the ‘Great British Bake Off’ tent! The programme was revealing and fascinating, from Kirsty Wark’s conspicuous slips showing her bias, to Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State’s constant reciting of the word ‘separation’ in her opening

Continue Reading Yes to a Different Scotland

Changin Scotland Scotland’s alternative festival of ideas, culture and politics Friday November 1^st-Sunday November 3^rd     Newbattle Abbey College, by Dalkeith This November Gerry Hassan and Jean Urquhart are at Newbattle Abbey College just south of Edinburgh for a weekend on how to do social change, activism and campaigning in a different way! This weekend will be a departure in feel, style and setting – and is facilitated and led by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert of the Centre for Artistic Activism who are based at New York University. This will be a participatory weekend bringing together community politics with

Continue Reading Changin Scotland November 1st-3rd at Newbattle Abbey College

Fighting Poverty is about more than the Bedroom Tax Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 14th 2013 This week’s Scottish Government Budget for 2014-15 and 2015-16 saw battlelines drawn on who and how best to mitigate the worst effects of the bedroom tax. Now in a week when the UN special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik weighed in against the measure, it has to be recognised that this is not the main challenge facing welfare in Scotland. In terms of the UK government’s recent welfare policies, the new guidelines in relation to the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) with their harsh regime of sanctions and

Continue Reading Fighting Poverty is about more than the Bedroom Tax

The Emergence of ‘the Third Scotland’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 12th 2013 Two Scottish establishments facing one another - one the old Labour Scotland which has administered and dominated public life for the last 50 years; the other the newcomer on the block: the bright, shiny SNP establishment full of vigour and promise. This is what lies behind the slugfest of the ‘Yes/No’ debate, its partisan adherents, and the simple, superficial presentation of this in large sections of the mainstream media. Two weeks ago a piece I wrote for ‘Scottish Review’ outlined the nature of this non-debate

Continue Reading The Emergence of ‘the Third Scotland’

Scotland is Different and not that Different: But what does it mean? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 7th 2013 Scotland is different. Everybody who lives or works here or knows anything about Scotland recognises this. Scotland has had a distinctive history, traditions, institutions and set of experiences. Unlike Wales, it never fully disappeared, even at the height of unionist Britain, and remained a legal and administrative entity and not part of ‘Greater England’. All of this meant that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was relatively simple and straightforward, building on the legacy of over a century of

Continue Reading Scotland is Different and not that Different: But what does it mean?

Minority Report Scotland:  Politics and Ideas in a Substance Free World Gerry Hassan National Collective, September 6th 2013 A week in Scottish politics. Two discussions and two long-term, deep challenges in the independence referendum debate showcased. These are how we address social justice, poverty and exclusion, and the way the mainstream media and broadcasters in particular are portraying this debate. The two examples I wish to draw from are a ‘Newsnight Scotland’ ‘special’ on Monday (September 2^nd) and a ‘Scotland Tonight’ ‘special’ on Thursday (September 5^th).  Both addressed, if that is the right word, the subject of welfare and pensions;

Continue Reading MInority Report Scotland: Politics and Ideas in a Substance Free World

A Rare Moment of Wisdom at the Heart of British Democracy Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 31st 2013 Parliamentary debates about military intervention are often rightly solemn occasions. They carry the weight of history and memories of past triumphs and disasters. The Syria debate this week had initially been downplayed by the Cameron government as it faced the realities of parliamentary arithmetic and the possibility of defeat. But this was historic, evoking past even more momentous debates, and opening a chapter in British foreign policy which could see military intervention in Syria without the UK. The entire parliamentary debate on

Continue Reading A Rare Moment of Wisdom at the Heart of British Democracy

Scotland’s Big Debate, Mini-Crises and A  Tale of Two Establishments Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 27th 2013 We hear all the time from all quarters and opinions that the independence debate is a historic one and a momentous decision. Sadly often it doesn’t feel like that at the moment, seeming more like the next installment in the Labour-SNP dirty war or a bitter by-election in a closely fought parliamentary seat. The key issues, if you go by what has been in the media in the last few weeks, has been who paid for a newspaper article, whether Labour for Independence

Continue Reading Scotland’s Big Debate, Mini-Crises and A Tale of Two Establishments

The Power of the London Scots Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 24th 2013 One of the most powerful group of Scottish opinion formers do not live and work in Scotland, but are the London Scots. This group are never far from the public gaze. They come into focus with the northern exodus of the London and Southern classes at Festival time, personified in Andrew Marr’s recent intervention at the Book Festival about the state of Scotland. Marr stated that, ‘There is a very strong anti-English feeling (in Scotland), everybody knows it’ and that ‘it could become toxic’. Two of his

Continue Reading The Power of the London Scots