The Crisis of the British State and the End of the Cameroon Conservative Project Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 8th 2011 This week has been a seismic moment in British politics and public life. Not just for Rupert Murdoch and News International, but for much deeper and serious issues about the condition of British democracy and about who has power and influence in contemporary society. In short, this goes to the heart of what the British state has become and to the role of our political classes in all of this. This may seem like a schadenfreude moment for

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The State of the Union Debate Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 5th 2011 BBC Newsnight addressed the difficult issue of the state of the union. Up for discussion was how we all get on with each other, Scottish nationalism, the English dimension, the four nations, the meaning of the union, and issue of Europe (1). The BBC had conducted a poll of English respondents with Com Res (2) which found that 36% thought Scotland should be independent with 48% disagreeing. There was a general feeling of ambiguity about the consequences of this. 19% thought England would be better off

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The Strange Death of Labour Scotland Gerry Hassan Chartist, July/August 2011 Things have changed dramatically in Scotland. Our political map has altered completely. The Nationalist landslide has carried nearly all before it, winning in areas it never thought possible. Labour have been pushed back to a few isolated pockets, overwhelmed even in its former West of Scotland heartland. It is possible to note the limits of the SNP’s appeal at the moment of their greatest triumph (45.4% on FPTP vote), just as it was salutary to do with New Labour in 97 and Thatcher in 87. This is

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After Rage against the Machine: The Search for an Alternative Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 2nd 2011 The return of mass public sector strikes; British living standards experiencing their biggest fall since 1977; the escalating Greek debt crisis; the shaky future of the eurozone and European project in doubt. These are just some of the headlines this week. All across the West governments are cutting public spending, services and benefits, and privatising and marketising what were once seen as public goods. Many governments are enduring significant unpopularity and even questions of legitimacy. They face publics uneasy, unsure and resistant

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How do we bring change to our public sector? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 25th 2011 One of the growth areas in the last few years in Scottish public life has been the establishment of various Commissions drawing together ‘expert’ opinion. We have had a broadcasting commission, Calman on the powers of the Scottish Parliament, and before that one on tuition fees. Next week sees the publication of the Campbell Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services. Given the plethora of Commissions it is worth noting that the Scottish Government does not have a central resource of

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Rising Now and Being Four Nations Again! Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment is Free, June 24th 2011 The Olympics are coming to London and apparently it has been decreed by the high-heiduns of the British Olympic Association (BOA) that there will be a ‘Team GB’ taking to the football field. They insist this has absolutely nothing to do with their 1.7 million unsold tickets which went on sale this morning, mostly for football, or the losses they think they can cover with ‘Team GB’ replica strips. The Olympics aren’t really about football, so you could say does

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It’s Only a Game: ‘Team GB’, Football and the Nature of the UK Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, June 22nd 2011 The story of the ‘Team GB’ football project entering next year’s Olympics has been rumbling on for a few years. Some people will think this is a sideshow and only about the game of football, but instead it goes to the heart of what the UK, who runs it, and how it is seen internationally. ‘Team GB’s’ role in the 2012 London Olympics was lauded by the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) claim of ‘a historic agreement’ with the other

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The Pains of Labour after Blair and Brown Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 18th 2011 The condition of British Labour may seem a distant subject to many Scots. We after all have a SNP majority government and our politics now march to a different beat. Despite everything, British Labour still matters. It is the majority Scots party at Westminster, winning 41 out of 59 seats only last year. And British politics still matter, for as long as Scotland remains part of the UK. There is a strange atmosphere in what used to be called ‘the people’s party’. Ed Miliband’s

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What is the Problem with Scottish Men? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 11th 2011 The story of Scottish men is a familiar one as well known as that of Scotland itself. There is the story of local heroes, Bravehearts, conquerors and warriors, along with a few explorers and inventors through our history. In the present day this panoply of possibilities has reduced to one about confusion, negativity and about men who have mostly lost their way. Men dominate most of the public life of Scotland: politics, business, media, the public conversations and public spaces. However, there is a deep

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The Story of Becoming a Modern Scottish Man: Part Two Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 9th 2011 First, my father took voluntary redundancy from NCR in 1978. He was for a period of six months unemployed and went on a government-training centre course. This involved him fine-tuning his arithmetic and maths skills to a level I was well past, so I was able to assist my dad’s tutoring. I felt ashamed that my dad was unemployed. We lived in a working class neighbourhood filled with bank managers, teachers, and people running small firms. I had only known one unemployed

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