The Twilight of Empire State Britain
The Twilight of Empire State Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 22 August 2021 The UK’s reputation took another hit last week, as after the Brexit debacle and 150,000 dead from COVID-19 came the Afghanistan humiliation. The calamity and chaos in Kabul has united people in shock and fury at the incompetence and hubris of the present UK Government in a way those other disasters have not. It has provided defining accounts of a rotten, venal Tory class of entitlement timeservers such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab – and a government that only cares about its own self-preservation. It is
We are living in age of multiple revolutions
We are living in an age of multiple revolutions Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 22nd 2021 This Wednesday is five years exactly since the UK overall – led by England and Wales – voted for Brexit. The matter is still alive and present in so many ways – in the Northern Ireland protocol, in Scotland, in the UK argumentative relationship with the EU, and in the dividing lines which shape British politics. Here are eleven takes about the state of British politics and its future. ONE: Brexit is not just about leaving the EU. It is not just a
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The UK is not a fully-fledged democracy: An alternative history of Britain
The UK is not a fully-fledged democracy: An alternative history of Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 14th 2021 The events of the past few days, in the aftermath of the death of Prince Philip, have brought the nature of British society, history and democracy to the fore – or rather the all-pervasive official account that is articulated day in and day out. We are continually told – sometimes subliminally and sometimes explicitly - that the monarchy is central to Britain, Britishness and our way of life and being, and that it is part of what makes us unique, stable
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Gordon Brown and how to heal broken Britain
Gordon Brown and how to heal broken Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 27th 2021 Gordon Brown is coming to the rescue again - raising the alarm, saying that the UK is in danger of becoming a ‘failed union’ unless there is dramatic change. This is the same Gordon Brown who was centrestage in the latter stages of the indyref and pivotal to ‘The Vow’, and who promised a ‘near-federal union’ for the UK within two years of 2014. Before that he was at the apex of New Labour - as Chancellor, then Prime Minister, over thirteen years. Gordon Brown
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A Tour Inside Gordon Brown’s Britain
A Tour Inside Gordon Brown’s Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 25th 2020 Gordon Brown in recent times has increasingly recognised that something is wrong, even rotten, in the state of Britain, regularly talking about ‘a dysfunctional UK’. This is part of Brown’s continual manoeuvres post-2014 to have a say in the future of Britain’s constitutional arrangements and to make the case that the status quo increasingly ill-serves the nations and regions of the UK. Thus it comes as no surprise that he has taken pen to paper and written a substantial New Statesman essay that makes his case of
We need to know our history: The rise and fall of the British Prime Minister
We need to know our history: The rise and fall of the British Prime Minister Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 11th 2020 Leadership is one of the mantras of the modern age, and no more so than in politics. National leadership - and success (and conversely failure) - is endlessly analysed. Is Boris Johnson in irretrievable decline and was he ever right for the job? Can Nicola Sturgeon maintain the level of popularity of herself and the SNP to the 2021 elections? And does anyone remember the Lib Dems and who their leader is? (answer: Ed Davey). The new book
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Labour troubles, the Independent Question and the future of Britain
Labour troubles, the Independence Question and the future of Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, September 27th 2020 Labour conference met this week but in the new online world of Zoom the only cut through was Keir Starmer’s keynote address along with his TV response to Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 broadcast. It is now nine months since the Tories won a landslide election victory. But the world has been turned upside down since last December. Boris Johnson was sold as a great communicator and campaigner, but as UK Prime Minister has proven inept, unfocused, untrustworthy and amateurish. Labour matters in UK politics.
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Labour has to stop being ambivalent and tell a convincing story about Britain: its past, present and future
Labour has to stop being ambivalent and tell a convincing story about Britain: its past, present and future Gerry Hassan Prospect, September 24th 2020 Keir Starmer in his keynote conference address has indicated that he wants to reclaim patriotism as a principle and thread that runs through everything the Labour Party stands for. This on the surface might sound uncontroversial but it isn’t. The Corbynistas had an instinctive opposition to all things patriotic and to many of the traditional symbols and institutions of Britishness. More than this the Conservative Party have long claimed patriotism as their own. And in response
What comes after Richard Leonard for Scottish Labour? Time for an Independent Labour Party
What comes after Richard Leonard for Scottish Labour? Time for an Independent Labour Party Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 9th 2020 Scottish Labour once seemed to have an ironclad grip on Scottish politics, winning election after election, and seeing off opponents whether it was Tories, SNP or the occasional Lib Dem. For two political generations - from 1959 to 2007 - Labour won every single nationwide election for Westminster in seats, and from 1964 in votes; and in the first two Scottish Parliament elections to 2007. It became defined as the party of power, the insider class and hence,
The future of Labour matters to everyone – and to Scottish self-government
The future of Labour matters to everyone – and to Scottish self-government Gerry Hassan Sunday National, January 5th 2020 Nearly a month ago Labour stumbled to one of the worst defeats in its history. Yet the weeks after the calamity of the election of a Boris Johnson government with an overall majority of eighty seats, have seen Labour no further forward in recognising the scale of its reverse or how much it needs to change. This matters – for, despite everything, Labour still matter. They are still by far the principal opposition to the Tories at Westminster and the only
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