Alex Salmond, Rupert Murdoch and the Pitfalls of Crony Capitalism Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, April 26th 2012 Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, has emerged as a significant player in the Leveson inquiry. This is a result of the release of 163 pages of emails from News Corporation which have publicised the extent of their contacts with the Scottish Government. The charge is that the Scottish Government were prepared to go into bat for the Murdoch empire as a quid pro quo for ‘The Sun’ supporting the SNP in last year’s elections. This is contested and denied by Rupert

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The Saga of ‘Team GB’ and the Country that doesn’t know its own Name Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 21st 2012 This week the clock counting down to the London Olympics passed the 100 days to go mark, while the Olympic authorities announced their rigorous social media and Twitter guidelines like a rerun of some Beijing 2008 police operation. The story of ‘Team GB’ the Olympic football project continues to offer more entertainment, bewilderment and anxiety with a ‘shortlist’ just announced of 80 players. Steven Fletcher, along with David Beckham is apparently included. Next week the draw takes place

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What is the story of Scotland’s biggest city and who will tell it? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 14th 2012 The forthcoming local elections are reduced in most of their coverage to their impact on UK and Scottish politics. Most attention is focused on the tragi-comedy and pantomime of Boris versus Ken, with even the plethora of local referendums on Mayors across some of England’s cities concerned with what happens to this or that Labour MP. The only other place that gets a serious look in is the battle for Glasgow, between Labour and SNP for control of

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The Price of Scottish Independence: Scotland and the UK according to the Free Marketeers Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 13th 2012 It is a sign of the times, and of its importance as an issue, that the global player which is ‘The Economist’ has Scottish independence as its cover and main feature this week, declaring, ‘It’ll cost you: The price of Scottish independence’. Their cover, leader, main UK article and a secondary piece, tell something about ‘The Economist’s’ view of Scottish independence, the UK and the world, each of which I will examine. ‘The Economist’ takes a dim view

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The People’s Game Still? Punters, Pundits and Change Part Three Gerry Hassan April 13th 2012 Celtic and Rangers never used to dominate Scottish football to the degree they do now. In this concluding piece, I am going to measure the degree to which the Old Firm’s near stranglehold on the game is increasingly driving fans away, then address the role of the media, and end with some observations about how we can change the game. The scale of Celtic and Rangers attendances and the size of their support has long been one of the defining accounts of the

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The People’s Game Still? Games under the Shadow of Giants Part Two Gerry Hassan April 12th 2012 The story goes like this. Scottish football has always been about Celtic and Rangers. Live with it. Get used to it. This is increasingly the way of the world: oligopoly, closed competition, success following money. Leaving aside the early days of the Scottish game this perspective invites pessimism and fatalism. And funnily enough it isn’t true. The economic, social and cultural forces of Scotland from Victorian times onwards favoured the dominance of Celtic and Rangers from the moment the game professionalised.

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The Missing Million Scots: What Do You Do When Democracy Fails You? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 7th 2012 A causal observer might think that the Scottish political classes love consultations and going through the motions of public engagement and dialogue. This is evidenced in the simultaneous UK and Scottish Government consultations on the independence question; something we have seen before with the ‘national conversation’ and the Calman Commission. While politicians and their supporters invoke the public, no one seems to take cognisance of who is missing from this debate, who they are, why and what we might do

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The Continued Legacy of Britain’s South Atlantic Adventure Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, March 31st 2012 The 30^th anniversary of the beginning of the Falklands war is next week, a conflict that matters to this day. Like many at the time, I had to first find the South Atlantic islands on a map, then put them into my leftist anti-Thatcherite view of the world, and then observe the mood of a Britain I barely recognised. The Falklands war raised so many questions then and now. Was this a war of principle or pride? What did this say about Britain’s self-image

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The Comeback of ‘Gorgeous George’ and What It Says About British Politics Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, March 30th 2012 A seismic shock has been delivered to the British body politic and its insular, complacent, steady as she goes assumptions. It is one with many levels, layers and complications: the return of George Galloway as the ‘Respect’ MP for Bradford West overturning a Labour majority of 5,763, winning by a margin of 10,140 over Labour, with an impressive 18,341 votes (55.9%), considerably more than the combined Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem vote of 12,402. Already the qualifiers are out, implying

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