Bella Caledonia

Living in the Shadow of Empire State Britain and the Problem of Cultural Dementia Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, April 19th 2018 The UK has been an uncomfortable place in the last few days. There has been the controversy over the Windrush deportations, Tory Cabinet minister Esther McVey defending the rape clause at the Scottish Parliament as ‘non-invasive’, and the resuscitation of Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ 1968 speech from beyond the grave. On top of this there has been the Trump-led bombing of Syria, backed by UK and French forces, without parliamentary vote or international approval. We have to understand

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Culture in Scotland in the midst of storms: A Call for Dangerous Cultures Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 16th 2018 Culture in Scotland is in difficult times: public spending cuts, the lost decade of stagnant living standards for the vast majority of people, limits to the Scottish Government’s largesse and devolution powers, controversy over Creative Scotland’s decision making and funding priorities resulting in the debate over the future of the Scottish Youth Theatre - and much more (with some questioning the continued existence of Creative Scotland). If you think these are dangerous waters you ain’t seen nothing yet. While some

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Time to Wake Up and Ask Some Difficult Questions abut the SNP and Independence Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, January 23rd 2018 ‘What Do You Do When A Society Lies to Itself?’ So said writer Umair Haque this week in the context of the constitutional standoff in Trump’s America. But it is true of most nations most of the time; certainly it is true of today’s UK - and also of modern Scotland. Scottish politics are currently in what can only be described as a phoney war - a becalmed period of inertia and inactivity in-between the storms that buffet politics.

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We have reached a watershed for UK politics: Time for independence to catch the wave of change Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, June 20th 2017 These are bewildering and often disorientating times to live in. In recent weeks and months it has felt at times difficult to keep up with the speed of events – as history has been seemingly made and remade every few days. Such periods call for being honest, respectful in debate, and reflection and self-awareness in everything any of us say or do in public. Look around at the events in the UK and world and they

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Build It and They Will Come: Scotland and Independence after the election Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, June 13th 2017 The 2017 election marks the end of an era of Scottish politics. The immediate shadow of the 2014 indyref dominating everything is over. As is the age of the Big Tent, omnipotent SNP carrying all before it. The re-emergence of the Scottish Tories and the stalling of the retreat of Scottish Labour has confounded many Nationalists. Not only is the post-2014 indyref environment over, so too is politics defined by the constant invoking of Thatcher and Blair. No matter the depths

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The Continuing Battle for Scotland: Goodbye to British politics and Goodbye to Britain? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, April 19th 2017 The age of perma-campaigning and elections continues in Scotland. Theresa May’s snap election, supposedly to give her a mandate for Brexit which she already had, will be Scotland’s seventh visit to the polls in the last three years. For some of us, a select few, this is nirvana. For many more it is an unwanted intrusion. But while mainstream media vox pops show us the now legendary Brenda from Bristol say how disgusted she is at having to vote again,

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Ten Years on the SNP and Scottish nationalism require a different politics for the future Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 24th 2017 The SNP have been a breath of fresh air to Scotland. Fifty years ago this year the modern SNP emerged with the talismanic victory of Winnie Ewing at the Hamilton by-election, and Scotland was never quite the same again. If you doubt this, think of a Scotland without the SNP. The only way Scots would be able to show their dissatisfaction with Westminster and difference from the rest of the UK would be to remain loyal to

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An Open Letter to the SNP and Independence Supporters Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 17th 2017 These are fast moving political times for Scotland. The events of the last week illustrate the accelerated fragmentation and disintegration of the UK as we know it. But these are also times of high stakes and stand-offs, with the Scottish and UK Governments gaming and predicting the actions of the other. Monday’s announcement by Nicola Sturgeon took the UK Government by surprise and seized the centrestage of British politics – forcing the postponement of triggering Article 50. Theresa May’s most recent statement, declaring

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Could Scotland really be reduced to the status of a region? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 18th 2017 When did present day Scotland begin? Not the ‘modern’ Scotland of post-war times, or the upside and then downside of Labour Scotland. But the land that we visibly live in today – shaped by the ghosts of industries long gone and the sins and excesses of Thatcher and Blair. The conventional answer is 1979: the ‘Year Zero’ of Scottish sensibilities when, for many, the world was turned upside down with election of the Thatcher Government and the stalled first devolution referendum. However,

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The Continuing Scottish Revolution: Time to Tell New Stories of Scotland Scottish Review, January 10th 2017 Gerry Hassan It has been an unprecedented political year, and 2017 will also be full of high drama - globally, across Europe, in the UK, and nearer to home in Scotland. Politics isn’t everything. Just as important is culture - a word used and over-used, seemingly about everything and everywhere, but difficult, and sometimes impossible to pin down and define. Culture when we forensically examine it can mean so many things. It can describe individual growth and enrichment. It can be about a

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