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The Age of Responsibility
The Age of Responsibility Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 13th 2011 As the burning embers fizzle out and the streets and cities of England return to some degree of normalcy, so the inquest begins into the causes and consequences of what we are all now calling ‘the English riots’. It is clear the losers are those who have chosen to simplify and attempt to make too obvious political capital out of the troubles: Ken Livingstone for one was disowned by many Labour colleagues for jumping on ‘the cuts were to blame’ bandwagon ahead of next year’s London Mayoral contest.
A Citizen’s Politics for Scotland and the UK
A Citizen’s Politics for Scotland and the UK Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 6th 2011 There is a crisis of public life and ethics in Britain: of the standards of public institutions in politics, business and much of the media, which throws up huge questions about the purpose of politics and democracy. Our mainstream politics and politicians seem to be beyond understanding this. Thankfully away from this narrow, cloistered world, numerous writers, groups and initiatives are exploring ways of addressing these challenges. Charles Moore, arch-Thatcherite and official biographer of the great lady has written a fascinating piece, ‘I’m starting
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Argentina’s Dilemmas have Lessons for Scotland
Argentina’s Dilemmas have Lessons for Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 30th 2011 For most of the last two weeks I have been located in Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas. This would seem at first glance to be as far from Scotland as you could imagine, excluding the ghosts of Ally’s Tartan Army of 1978. I was there for the Copa America football tournament, which saw the favourites Argentina and Brazil knocked out, and Uruguay’s free-flowing football triumph. Argentina in many respects felt very different. In the world of football, there was the celebratory nature of opposing fans,
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The ‘Forward March’ of Scottish Nationalism and the End of Britain As We Know It
The ‘Forward March’ of Scottish Nationalism and the End of Britain As We Know It Gerry Hassan Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy, Summer 2011 Introduction Scotland has been changed dramatically and fundamentally. The SNP landslide victory has resulted in a completely different political map of Scotland. This is a wider set of changes than just a northern, near-foreign politics of little real interest to the Westminster village. For a start there is the demise of the Labour hegemony north of the border. This is part of a deeper crisis of the British political class and state, British identity
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The Changing Tory Story of Scotland and the Union
The Changing Tory Story of Scotland and the Union Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 16th 2011 While the British media and political classes have obsessed over the mega-story of the crisis of the Murdoch empire and parallel state within a state, the constitutional debate about Scotland has quietly and yet profoundly moved on. The Conservatives have a long and proud tradition in relation to the politics of the union. This doesn’t mean they haven’t made serious errors of judgement at points, whether in Ireland or post-war decolonisation. Taking a wider view there has been a potent Tory account of
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The Conservatives, the Union, Scotland and the British State
The Conservatives, the Union, Scotland and the British State Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 11th 2011 While the entire British political and media class obsesses over the Murdoch News International scandal, former Prime Minister John Major has made a major speech on Scotland’s place in the union. Speaking to the transatlantic Ditchley Foundation, Major laid out the case for Scottish self-government over nearly every aspect of domestic policy, raising its own taxes, and leaving economic, defence and foreign policy with Westminster. He stated: Why not devolve all responsibilities except foreign policy, defence and management of the economy? Why not
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The Time for a Scottish Media Voice
The Time for a Scottish Media Voice Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 9th 2011 The world has been turned upside down these last few days. There have been elements of an old fashioned morality play and Citizen Kane all rolled into one. Things have been talked about in public which you are not meant to say in front of the children. Ed Miliband and Labour have finally after years turned on News International freed from their previous fear. David Cameron has tried desperately to find his moral compass and appeared at least temporally to have lost his political touch.
The Crisis of the British State and the End of the Cameroon Conservative Project
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
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
The Strange Death of Labour Scotland
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
