British Establishment

The British establishment is now broken beyond repair. But Scotland needs more than a ‘not Westminster’ attitude Gerry Hassan The National, 22 February 2022 Sixty years ago, the British establishment was losing its authority, moral compass and in deep decay. The Tory Party was mired by scandal and misconduct by senior ministers, with an out of touch PM Harold Macmillan failing to grasp the scale of crisis and decay. Meanwhile organised religion and traditional authority were characterised by hypocrisy and double standards, with repressive attitudes holding back progress. In this climate people were indignant, filled with anger and rage at

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We need to address accountability in public life in the UK and Scotland Gerry Hassan The National, 1 February 2022 The UK is a country lacking accountability in public life. Increasingly, those in senior positions of authority in government, civil service or public bodies resign or take responsibility for anything they have done. There never used to be such an indefensible state of affairs. Previously government ministers used to resign for policy failures, shortcomings of their departments, and for breaking constitutional convention of ministers. Lord Carrington, Thatcher’s first Foreign Secretary, resigned as a result of the Argentinian invasion of the

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Despite the lessons of history the British establishment are talking about partition Gerry Hassan The National, June 15th 2021 Partition has been much referenced of late concerning the state of the UK. We have seen hyper-anti-independence supporters like George Galloway float the “partitioning” of Scotland in the event of independence. And we have seen numerous Tory MPs get hot under the collar when talking about the Northern Ireland protocol, declaring that this amounts to the dismemberment and “partitioning” of the UK. Something is clearly in the air and beyond lone political voices key figures in the British political establishment

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The British constitution works only for the British establishment Gerry Hassan Sunday National, April 12th 2020 Boris Johnson has been incapacitated for most of this week which has brought up thorny questions of where political power lies in the UK, the role of the Prime Minister and the nature of the unwritten constitution. We have been repeatedly told that government is working smoothly without the Prime Minister, that cabinet government and collective ministerial responsibility are happening, and from acting-up Dominic Raab that all of this is made easier by the fact that they are all friends and allies working together.

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David Steel, Cyril Smith and how the establishment still looks after its own Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 4th 2020 Last week, as Harvey Weinstein finally faced justice in America, the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse gave its verdict on David Steel. It damned him for his years of silence and inaction on the child sex abuse of Cyril Smith, Liberal, then Lib Dem, MP for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992; saying that Steel had ‘abdicated his responsibility’ and had not been motivated by ‘the lens of child protection but through the lens of political expediency’. The backstory

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Class still defines and disfigures Britain and Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, November 24th 2019 Class still matters and defines much of Britain and Scotland. It shapes life chances, educational opportunities, work advancement and careers, health, life expectancy, culture, politics - and who makes and does not make the key decisions in society. Dr. Fiona Hill, the British-born US public servant, spoke this week at the Trump impeachment hearings about being born in Bishop Auckland in the north of England, saying: ‘This country [the US] offered me opportunities I would never have had in England. I grew up poor with

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Jeremy Corbyn’s Moment of Reckoning and the Fears of the British Establishment Gerry Hassan Sunday National, August 25th 2019 Next week another critical Brexit moment happens when Jeremy Corbyn calls together all the opposition parties at Westminster, to plan to win a vote of no confidence against Boris Johnson’s government to stop a No Deal Brexit. Jeremy Corby has offered to lead a temporary minority government that would aim to extend the Article 50 notice period, hold an election and referendum. This is high stake politics, with the nature of Brexit, the future of political parties and leaders, as

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The Royal Family, Britishness and Living in Disneyland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 23rd 2018 The Royal Family are an important part of what it means to be British, and whether you like them or loath them, they are one of the few remaining national symbols of cohesion which unite lots of people. Yet the monarchy is more popular in some places than others. A recent Delta Poll for Policy Exchange showed that support for the monarchy ranged from 55% in England to 52% in Northern Ireland, 49% in Wales and 46% in Scotland. Asked if the monarchy was a

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The UK as we know it can't survive Brexit and Trump Gerry Hassan The Guardian, November 17th 2016 The United Kingdom’s sense of itself and place in the world is more in question now than it was before Donald Trump’s election. It was already facing the precarious process of Brexit that has destabilised the nature of fifty years plus of UK foreign policy and international alliances. All of this should be a moment for opposition but Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour are missing in action, focusing on internal battles, and letting the struggle with the Tories slip through their fingers. Whatever the

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Why Scotland has finally woken up and become a democracy Gerry Hassan September 21st 2014 It has been an incredible few years to live in Scotland. Assumption after assumption about public life, society and the closed order of how politics has been traditionally done, has been turned upside down. People will still feel raw on either side. Yes people feel deflated and disappointed; No supporters sense that they were forced into a debate they didn’t want to have. But if we step back the bigger picture is an impressive and powerful one. It is one many of the observers from

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