Whatever happened to Scotland’s Salon Society? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, February 5th 2011 One of the early hopes of the Scottish Parliament and the era of ‘new politics’ was that Scotland would awaken to a new age of engagement which would produce a more informed, inclusive politics. A lot of this was wish-fulfilment; certainly much of the talk of ‘new politics’ and an emboldened civil society was just that. Yet at the same time this feeling tapped a sense that Scotland could sustain a kind of salon society – a modern day harking back to the Enlightenment vision of Edinburgh.

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The English Democratic Deficit Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 29th 2011 What happens in England matters to us north of the border, from its politics and culture to general state of mind. England is by far the largest part of the UK in population, size and wealth, and despite devolution, what goes on in England has enormous consequences for Scottish politics and society. At the same time, England finds itself in the strange position of being the one nation in the UK without a democratic forum in the shape of a Parliament or Assembly. It is also the one nation

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The Coming Scottish Revolution Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 22nd 2011 The appeal of the familiar. Or so it seems. Apparently Scots are in their droves returning to Scottish Labour with the latest polls predicting the party could win an overall majority in next May’s election. There are only two governing parties in this contest: Labour or SNP – either on their own, or in alliance with others, but never each other. What kind of appeal are they going to offer to Scottish voters? Scottish Labour have learnt the trials of opposition after the wobble of Wendy Alexander’s leadership, going

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The Blairite Ascendancy Goes On and How We Have to Stop It Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 21st 2011 What a fascinating end to a watershed week in British politics. A week shaped by the continued Blairite dominance of British politics. Cameron’s ‘modernisation’ of the health service opened the week, and Blair’s evidence to the Chilcot inquiry and Andy Coulson’s resignation, David Cameron’s Head of Communications, closed it. The Blairite ascendancy continues shorn of its New Labour platform. In many respects this worldview does not now need to be rooted in any one political party to

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Back to the Future, Or Not: The Strange Rise of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 19th 2011 Scottish politics is away to change and not change – with according to the most recent TNS-BMRC poll – Scotland getting itself into a frenzy of excitement at the anticipation of Iain Gray’s Scottish Labour returning to office (1). The figures are worth highlighting: Labour is polling 49% of the constituency vote and 47% of the regional vote: enough to see it get an impressive 69 seats in the 129 seat Parliament and thus an overall majority. What is going on

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The British Obsession with Parliamentary Sovereignty Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 15th 2011 The curse of the European issue has been slowly re-emerging for the Tory led government after a period of relative quiet and calm. Right-wing voices have stated that the European Union Bill with its Clause 18 defining parliamentary sovereignty is not clear and powerful enough to block the continued encroachment of Brussels into British public life. What then is this thing called parliamentary sovereignty, why are our political classes obsessed with it, and what does this tell us about the health of our democracy? Britain’s parliamentary sovereignty

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Time for Next Step on SNP’s Journey Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 14th 2011 Scotland has experienced an interesting experiment. Four years of the first ever SNP administration, the first ever Scottish Government committed to independence. Now is surely an appropriate time to assess how much this has changed the SNP and Scotland and what the prospects for future change are? This has been a decent administration, one that in many areas has had or attempted to articulate the right instincts on a range of economic, social and cultural matters. It has felt like Scotland’s Government, our national and international

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An Open Conversation on Compass with Jeremy Gilbert Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 14th 2011 Gerry, When I was at Sussex Jonathan Dollimore used to have a great riposte to ever carping postgrad who complained that he hadn't mentioned x y or z issue in his latest paper - "Great point - now why don't YOU go and write about that?" Gerry you've been complaining for more than a year now that Compass doesn't address these issues, but I have three points to make in response: 1) You've never given more than the vaguest hint as to what it would

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An Open Letter to Compass: The Problem with the British State Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 12th 2011 After Neal Lawson and John Harris wrote a call for ‘New Socialism’ in the ‘New Statesman’ (1) I responded (2). Now Neal has posted a note about what I said (3). He feels that I am being uncomradely and this upsets him as I have long been complementary of Compass’ work and have collaborated with them in a number of ways. I consider myself a friend and admirer of Compass and its work. In these challenging times they are one of the

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Fear of a Red Planet: The World in 2050 Today! Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 8th 2011 The future is going to work out fine. Beyond the crash, uncertainties and ‘unknown unknowns’. We have it from no less an authority than HSBC and their ‘The World in 2050’. It is going to be alright for the world, for the West and Britain, which is despite all the problems and competition still going to be a Top Nation in 2050! Forty years on world economic output will have tripled, food and water scarcity will be avoided and Malthusian predictions proved wrong

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