British politics

The Road from 2014 is Over: A New Road Map is needed for Scotland and Independence Sunday National, 27 April 2025 Gerry Hassan Scottish politics has had some climatic moments recently - the UK Supreme Court decision on women’s and trans rights; the SNP and Labour trying to deal with the challenge of Reform; and the brief excitement of an opinion poll with a sensational degree of independence support. Beyond this Scottish politics is characterised by drift and by being in the doldrums with a lack of dynamism, direction and purpose –

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Not doing the Labour thing is what Labour do Scottish National, 30 March 2025 Gerry Hassan This Labour government faces tough choices. Constrained domestically and internationally, they are hampered by the structural weaknesses of the UK economy; the legacy of fourteen Tory years; by Brexit and by Trump, along with the limits of Starmer and Reeves’ agenda. Allowing for all this there is also the inherent conservatism of Labour; its lack of understanding of the British state; and the lack of political touch of this Labour government. Reeves has shown a complete absence of political antenna and sensitivity. Combined with

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Get Ready for the Age of Disruption Coming to Scotland! Sunday National, December 29th 2024 Gerry Hassan Politics everywhere across the West is shaped by failure, exhaustion and unpopularity in the mainstream - and increasingly by anger and rage amongst voters. Both Scotland and the UK are no exception. Labour’s election victory with 34% of the vote was the smallest in history for a party winning an overall parliamentary majority. Since then it has been downhill all the way with a government showing a lack of sure-footedness and political acumen on issue after issue, and with no sense of how

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Ten Years on from 2014: Making Sense of the Next Ten Years of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 29 September 2024 The ten-year anniversary of Scotland’s indyref has come and gone relatively unmarked. For something which shook things up so much it was very quiet and understated, a low-key affair from every political persuasion, media and academia. This does not mean that the ten-year point is not significant. Rather it is a time to pause, to draw breath and reflect on what has passed, on the bigger context and forces changing Scotland and the UK, and what the future may

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The last days of Boris Johnson and what comes after? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 8 June 2022 Tory leadership votes of no confidence come around much more frequently nowadays. This is not a misperception, but rooted in the decline in the authority and quality of Tory leaders, the nature of the Tory tribe and the failures of Toryism to address the UK’s underlying issues. The current debacle and decline of is directly connected to the lack of any redeeming moral and positive qualities in him as a public figure. But this is about much more than ‘Partygate’, the lies he

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Ukraine’s fight is a fight for all of us and for democracy and security Gerry Hassan The National, 1 March 2022 There is only one story at the moment - the Russia invasion of the Ukraine and how we respond to it. This comes after years of Western misjudgement and appeasement of Putin and Russian aggression in Chechnya, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbass region of the Ukraine in 2014, leading to full-scale invasion last week. How often do we have to learn the same lessons? The need to stand

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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

Continue Reading The British establishment is now broken beyond repair. But Scotland needs more than a ‘not Westminster’ attitude

In the age of rebellion we can do better than Boris Johnson and Toryism Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 2 February 2022 2022 is the centenary of a year of rebellion. The Irish Free State was born in 1992, the ‘Red Clydesiders’ went to Westminster; and the year gave its name to the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers after they overthrew a sitting Prime Minister – David Lloyd George – then heading up a Tory-Liberal coalition government. Boris Johnson and this Tory Government should know that today we live in even more an age of rage and rebellion – being the

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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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It is not just Boris Johnson that is the problem but Toryism and the British State Gerry Hassan The National, 25 January 2022 Boris Johnson’s Premiership is in tatters, he is discredited as a person and politician, and his tenure is coming to a predictable, messy end. The only question is timing. Already lots of once true believers in Johnson are trying out unconvincing lines like “let’s look at the big picture, and all the right calls the Prime Minister has made” which is delusional and an insult to voters. Others try to be subtler, distancing themselves from the PM,

Continue Reading It is not just Boris Johnson that is the problem but Toryism and the British State