The Beginning of the Break-Up of Britain? Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 11th 2012 The Scottish constitutional question has shot to the top of the UK political agenda. The manoeuvrings of the UK Government and Scottish Government on the Scottish independence issue have consistently led the UK news bulletins this week, even giving the high impact HS2 development go-ahead a run for its money. We are now entering uncharted waters. Scotland and the UK are now changing and things will never be the same again. Whatever the outcome of the stand-off between the two governments and the eventual referendum,

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The Scotland that Opposed Thatcher Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 7th 2012 History calls for reflection; leaders’ standings rise and fall and then rise again, and a sense of perspective eventually emerges which tells a fuller picture. Harold Wilson’s stock rose in the 1980s as Labour lost election after election, while some observers tried to make the case for Ted Heath’s apparently doomed premiership; in time some will even attempt to make the case for Tony Blair. This political stock taking moment has now come for Margaret Thatcher, aided by the release of the film ‘The Iron Lady’ with

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The ‘Three Scotlands’ and How to Win an Independence Referendum Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, January 4th 2012 Scottish politics post-the election and the return of a majority SNP Government have existed in a seeming state of limbo, a kind of political phoney war. The SNP have won a landslide victory but have yet to produce a serious strategy for winning independence; the unionist parties in Scotland have all been reduced to an existential crisis about defining their purpose and point; while David Cameron’s government (if it ever thinks about Scotland) is of the view that the break up of the

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How to Play Political Poker: The High Stakes of the Independence Debate Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 31st 2011 The Scottish constitutional debate will increasingly be the main, if not the only, debate in our national politics over the next year. It is going to be a debate which not only has a Scottish interest, but for obvious reasons, a UK audience, alongside a wider European and international relevance. It is crucial for many reasons that we conduct this debate in the best way possible. International attention, including the world’s media, will be on us. We have to rise

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Why are so Many Women’s Voices Missing from Scottish Public Life? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 24th 2011 Scotland was once a masculinised culture and society, a place where men built big, heavy things and large numbers of women stayed at home. We have changed in many respects, and to some the separate worlds of men and women’s work have almost disappeared. This is the feminisation of Scotland to some, seen in the gender revolution that was the first Scottish Parliament which saw record numbers of women MSPs, numerous women Cabinet ministers, and a raft of prominent women

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Dear Johann or Ken: A Seven-Step Recovery Plan for Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 17th 2011 Dear Johann (or, in the unlikely event, Ken), Congratulations on being elected Scottish Labour’s sixth leader in twelve years; that’s nearly as hot a seat as Hearts or Chelsea FC, those two tottering giants. Of course, I should be accurate, and acknowledge you as the first ‘official’ leader of all Scottish Labour; but I wouldn’t get too excited about presiding over your mighty empire now shrunken. Once the powerhouse of Scotland, Labour now holds Glasgow and North Lanarkshire at council

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The Search for an Alternative to Trad Labour: The Cul-de-sacs of Marxism Today and Tommy Sheridan Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, December 16th 2011 Andrew Pearmain, The Politics of New Labour: A Gramscian Analysis, Lawrence and Wishart £15.99. Alan McCombes, Downfall: The Tommy Sheridan Story, Birlinn £9.99. Stories which explain British politics and in particular Labour politics capture a phenomenally narrow strip of the political landscape. The classic accounts and influential books on British Labour have been of this kind. Life in the distant provinces of Scotland, Wales and the North of England exists either in a small walk

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The Voice of ‘We are 99% Scotland’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 10th 2011 The Scottish debate trundles on; accusation and counter-accusation are traded in the Scottish Parliament, Westminster and media about the most important issue in recent political history, namely independence. All of the political parties are in unfamiliar terrain and don’t quite know what to do. In this strange situation, everyone sticks with what they know best, trying to feel safe in their comfort zones. Behind the often arid talk of the constitution and things like ‘devo max’ and fiscal autonomy, the real issue is what kind

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How we Democratise Scotland’s Future: Challenging the Conceit that ‘There is No Other Way’ Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, December 8th 2011 The concurrent Scottish, British and European debates go on as mostly separate, but interconnected conversations; political and economic parallel universes often seeming oblivious to the existence of each other. The British state sovereigntists wax lyrically as if their moment has come, the Tory Party, in David Cameron’s once revealing remarks, returning to its comfort zone of ‘banging on about Europe’, while Labour slowly shift away from two decades of pro-Europeanism, and the Lib Dems and SNP fall nervously

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A Modern Scotland of Love, Empathy and Equality Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 3rd 2011 Some things seem to be faultlines and triggers to certain parts of Scottish society; the relationship between Labour and SNP, ‘the Old Firm’, and homosexuality and gay rights. The composition of such a list tells a lot about a society – how it comes to terms with difference, treats minorities, and deals with its own traditions and history. On first examination the SNP Government seem to have walked into a cultural war. The Kirk, Catholic Church and Muslim organisations are up in arms about

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