What do you do when democracy fails you? The crisis of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 15th 2011 Scottish Labour has at last awoken from its slumber. Douglas Alexander’s speech at Stirling University on Thursday was an important moment for the party and wider body politic. Alexander expressly admitted that the traditional Labour approach is over, conceding that ‘the old Labour hymns’ have become ‘increasingly unfamiliar to an audience increasingly without personal knowledge of the tunes’. He recognised the need for ‘an alternative story’, ‘a renewed story’ and ‘a new statecraft for this new decade’.’ Old Labour’ has

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Fear and Loathing and the Power of Class in Modern Britain Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 8th 2011 Britain has changed dramatically since 1945. In most accounts of post-war Britain from populisers such as Andrew Marr – the confident tale told is of the forward march of the classless society. There were the 1950s and ‘you’ve never had it so good’ affluence, the 1960s protest and music, the 1980s individualism and consumerism, and then the noughties and the property and credit card booms. This is the BBC-Ladybird Book guide to modern Britain heard in phrases such as ‘we are

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Why we need to understand the Cameroon Conservatives Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 1st 2011 Why do so many people caricature Conservatism? This can be seen on the left, anti-Tory opinion, and of course, most of Scottish public life. The Conservatives are reduced to a series of stereotypes: of being selfish, uncaring, just for the super rich, not understanding what it is like to live on modest means, unmoved by poverty, and wanting to turn back the clock to Dickensian Britain. If these clichés were true the British Conservatives would be reduced to some impotent rump the size of

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Changin Scotland A weekend of politics, culture and ideas …. And fun! Friday November 4^th-Sunday November 6^th The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool Details of Programme Below: (more…)

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The age of the rainbow coalitions Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 24th 2011 Political colours are all the vogue at the moment. We have had Red Tories and Orange Book Liberals. And now we have the latest manifestations, Blue Labour and Purple Labour. The last two are signs of some intellectual activity in British Labour, as it tries to come to terms with the post-Blair/Brown era. Blue Labour is associated with Ed Miliband’s favourite guru, Maurice Glasman, which emphasises community, authority and the need for the state to provide some solidarity in society. Purple Labour is the creation of

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The Missing Ingredient in Scottish Labour: Leadership Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 17th 2011 The Scottish Labour Party might be in a terrible place at the moment, but it believes that it is slowly beginning to dig itself out of the mess it is in. It has started to address the inadequacies of its structures through the Jim Murphy-Sarah Boyack review – which seems so far more cautious, than transformative. Politics isn’t just about structure, but more tangible issues such as culture, purpose and the issue of leadership. Labour politicians touched on this during and after the election when

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Modern Life Isn’t Rubbish: How do we celebrate Scotland while acknowledging complexity? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 10th 2011 Modern life is filled with anxiety, doubt and worry, and yet, for many, modern life has never been better. In Scotland, this predicament is pronounced. Supporters of the SNP and self-government feel this is the culmination of years of struggle: the belief that we have an opportunity for Scotland to break free and regain its nationhood. Labour and unionist opponents emphasis the uncertainty, coming cuts, and what they claim is the absence of a Nationalist vision of independence. Both

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It’s Time for a Radical SNP Vision for Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 3rd 2011 It was a strange summer. A few months ago the SNP won a landslide victory which challenged many of the assumptions about Scotland and Scottish politics. The SNP Government had then, and still has, enormous goodwill and support behind it. Immediately after the election, the SNP got embroiled in the spat over the Supreme Court, an important issue, but one where its tone and language was all wrong. Then came the mess of the Sectarian Bill, tackling one of Scotland’s biggest issues in

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My Own Personal Enlightenment: How the Internet is Remaking Us Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 27th 2011 One of the biggest stories of this week was the decision of Steve Jobs, Chief Executive of Apple, recently rated the world’s most valuable company, to stand down. Apple has changed our planet. It has given us the ipad, iphone, itunes and so much more, importantly leading the way in integrating fashionable products with ingenious software. We now live in an age redefined by Facebook, Twitter and the conversations and connections the Internet offers. There have been the supposed ‘Twitter’ revolutions in

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Why a Left Revival Won’t Happen and What Do We Do About It? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 20th 2011 The state of Scotland, the UK and the global economy rightly demands that we engage in radical, far-reaching thinking. To some this is the ideal opportunity for a revival of the left and challenging the conventional group think of the last few decades. Most of us recognise that Scotland and the wider world are not happy places. The scale of inequality, exclusion and relative poverty in our own homeland, let alone the globe should shock. The recent figures of

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