The End of ‘Sunday Post Scotland’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 2nd 2011 The SNP Government now finds itself at the onset of what looks like a cultural war with religious organisations on the subject of same-sex marriage. The Church of Scotland has now come out against gay marriage, joining the Catholic Church, Muslim community and ‘Scotland for Marriage’. To observers this has all the hallmark of Section 28/Clause 2a where the then Scottish Executive of Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander incurred the wrath of Brian Souter and others on the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. It isn’t the

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How Do We Connect with the ‘Lost Generation’? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 26th 2011 The economic storm clouds are gathering and looking increasingly foreboding across Britain: rising unemployment, low to non-existent economic growth, rising debt levels and record youth unemployment. The political ping-pong of Westminster and the Scottish Parliament seems nearly completely irrelevant to much of this showing a debate which is mostly dispiriting and irrelevant to the big economic questions. We have to look seriously at the true nature of youth unemployment in the UK and across Europe. In the UK youth unemployment for those aged

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Which England Will Dare to Speak in Britain and Europe? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 19th 2011 The European crisis has already told us many things; that the eurozone in its current form is not sustainable; that German leadership of the continent is going to become more pronounced; and that Greece, Italy and maybe one or two others are going to have decades of European-inflicted austerity. Another factor is Britain’s continued role as the awkward, distant partner in Europe; a country which sees the European project as something it was hoodwinked into by its political classes and establishment. And

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The Danger of a Westminster led Scottish Independence Vote Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 12th 2011 Once upon a time referendums were seen as ‘unBritish’, as the sort of thing that continental Europe and dictatorships did. Now we seem to talk of little else. There has been as trust in politicians has declined, a rise in the use of referendums, with two UK wide polls, three Welsh, two Scots and two Northern Irish votes since the 1970s, along with a host of local votes. Politicians’ interest in direct democracy is driven by what they think the results will be.

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The Power of Black and White Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 5th 2011 Scottish political debate is characterised and marred by a host of difficult divides and fractures. There is anti-Nationalist Labour hatred; the rage of the so-called ‘cybernats’; and a widespread, almost national sport of anti-Toryism. All of these are part of a Scottish problem which we see not only in our politics, but also across society, culture and football. Why do large parts of the Labour Party so virulently hate the SNP? And why do part of the Nationalist community, ‘the cybernats’

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From the ‘How’ to the ‘Why’ of Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 29th 2011 Scottish independence was once viewed as an eccentric, maverick subject, something not to be taken seriously or mentioned in polite society. Well no more. The unionist parties talk at the moment of nothing else, and even the self-obsessed London political class and media have noted that something is happening. After years of ignoring independence, now they want instant answers, detail and a vote – all on their terms. The ‘how’ of Scottish independence has become nearly universally accepted, and we have quickly moved

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Ian Davidson, the Labour-SNP Divide and the Language of Violence Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, October 28th 2011 Does the recent Ian Davidson-Eilidh Whiteford controversy matter? Is it a storm in a political teacup? Or does it reflect something wider and more sinister in our culture? First, there are the alleged words of Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow South West, about giving a woman, Eilidh Whiteford, SNP Banff and Buchan MP, ‘a doing’, meaning threatening actual physical violence and abuse. This does sound like the sort of thing that Davidson could say; he has form with using aggressive, hard,

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The Twilight of the British State: Alex Salmond, Scottish Independence and the European Question Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, October 28th 2011 This is a fascinating and fast moving period of politics, at a global, European, British and Scottish level, challenging many of the most deep-seated and unexamined assumptions held across the political spectrum. In the last week we have seen the euphoric SNP conference at Inverness showing a party on the crest of a wave which seems to think that the future is within its grasp. Then we have at Westminster the return of the popular bogeyman – Eurosceptism

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A Post-Nationalist Politics for the Nationalist Movement Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 22nd 2011 The SNP gathering at Inverness is an historic occasion for the party with a discernable feeling that this is their moment and that nearly anything, including independence, is possible. International dignitaries, corporates and lots of hangers on are evidence of the SNP’s importance. Even the UK media in one of their episodic fits have noticed Scotland and the SNP with various correspondents scuttling north and dusting down their clichés. Inverness catches the SNP in transition. They have mastered the art of government and even more

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Anatomy of a Scottish Revolution: The Potential of Post-Nationalist Scotland and the Future of the United Kingdom Gerry Hassan Political Quarterly, July-September 2011 Introduction The face of Scottish politics has been utterly changed. The political map of Scotland which was once uniformly Labour red across the Central Belt is now nearly completely SNP yellow with small pockets of Labour representing a battered, seemingly defeated army. Why has Scotland changed so dramatically, and what does this mean for Scottish politics? What has occurred in Scottish society, identity and the politics of nationalism and unionism? What are the likely consequences

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