British Establishment

The UK has failed but we have to address Scottish shortcomings Gerry Hassan Newsnet Scotland, April 26th 2014 The Scottish independence debate is about many things. It is about the state of modern Scotland and its different possible futures. But it is also about the condition of the UK, its multiple crises and how these impact north of the border. The state of the United Kingdom is one of the main drivers of the Scottish debate. It has become an accepted fact that the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world, ranked fourth in a

Continue Reading The UK has failed but we have to address Scottish shortcomings

The Birth Pains of Scottish Democracy and the Anguish of ‘Posh Scotland’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 26th 2014 Many strange things will be written about Scotland this year. Some will be uncomprehending, some inappropriate or wrong, with others likely to be malevolent and wishing to sew seeds of confusion or distrust. One existing strand is the pain expressed by some English media voices. There is the liberal ‘Guardian’ reading classes, some of whom have just bothered in the last few weeks to look north from their cosmopolitan concerns and to plea, ‘don’t leave us alone with the wicked Tories’.

Continue Reading The Birth Pains of Scottish Democracy and the Anguish of ‘Posh Scotland’

What happens after the demise of ‘the Holy Trinity’ of Britishness? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 17th 2013 It has been a week of momentous events. The unfolding Egyptian tragedy, the restarting of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, and in our corner of the world, the first Scotland v. England match in over a decade. It feels inappropriate and insensitive to mention a mere football match in the company of such historic events. Yet, I think with that caveat the game mattered because it offered a glimpse of future possible arrangements. Two neighbours and friends with a rich, shared history, but who

Continue Reading What happens after the demise of ‘the Holy Trinity’ of Britishness?

Living on an Island: Scotland and the London Question Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 29th 2013 May 2015: Boris Johnson wins the UK general election and declares London de facto independent from the rest of the UK, stating that it will from now on keep the taxes it raises and spend most of the money it needs itself. Rewind to today. On a regular basis plaintive pro-union voices can be heard asking when Scotland’s constitutional debate will ever end. The answer is that it won’t, because it will never fully reach a final destination. That is because a large part

Continue Reading Living on an Island: Scotland and the London Question

The Framing of the Scottish Independence Debate: A Tale of Two Referenda Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, May 15th 2013 Two independence campaigns are now running in the UK: one on Scottish independence; the other which has become more public in the last week, on the UK’s possible exit from the European Union. Strangely they operate in near complete isolation of each other, with the Euro referendum being talked about as if we still lived in the high days of untrammelled Westminster parliamentary sovereignty. In the last week, the front page of the Scottish edition of The Times reported a

Continue Reading The Framing of the Scottish Independence Debate: A Tale of Two Referenda

On Living in an Old Country: The Power of the Past after Thatcher Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 15th 2013 The last week has effectively been an elegy on Britain’s recent past and present rolled into one. This is not just about Thatcher, but the numerous references to the Churchill and Attlee funerals and how we marked these past titans. Is this who we really were, we ask with curiosity? Are we still that same people who dreamed dreams, stood alone against the Nazis, and built a welfare state, we ask, with a hint of anxiety? Britain seems increasingly a

Continue Reading On Living in an Old Country: The Power of the Past after Thatcher

How the World of Eton Sees Scotland and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 20th 2012 The name of Eton resonates down through English tradition and privilege: from the Dave ‘n’ Boris show to the wider return of the old Etonians across public life. It has produced nineteen British Prime Ministers and a host of Scottish and British iconoclasts and radicals from Tam Dalyell and Neal Ascherson to John Maynard Keynes and George Orwell. Eton was an august setting for debating Scottish independence in the week of the Scottish and UK Government’s agreement. On the same day the

Continue Reading How the World of Eton Sees Scotland and Scottish Independence