British politics

The Queen’s role in politics is one of the last remnants of feudalism Gerry Hassan Sunday National, September 15th 2019 The Queen has been publicly involved in politics in the past few weeks on an unprecedented scale. There has been Boris Johnson’s suspension of the UK Parliament, the nature of his advice to the Queen, the Court of Session judgement calling his actions ‘unlawful’, followed by Johnson saying when asked if he mislead the monarch: ‘absolutely not’. The Queen is the public front of an intricate, complex institution called ‘the Crown’. As any watchers of the Netflix series of the

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Boris Johnson and the art of self-deception Gerry Hassan Sunday National, September 8th 2019 Boris Johnson has long had a problematic relationship with the truth. When a journalist, he was fired from ‘The Times’ for making up a quote; in the last month as UK Prime Minister he stated that he was in favour of proroguing Parliament when he publicly said he was against it, claimed to be against having an election he was planning and then for holding a contest, and saying that he is negotiating a Brexit deal with the EU, while preparing for a No Deal Brexit.

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Britain is in a mess: Is a different democracy possible? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 4th 2019 Nearly everyone now agrees that British politics isn’t working - and that our political system, politicians and Parliament are in a mess and broken. Even more than this, our economic system and social contract have long ago become frayed, discredited and stopped working for the interests of the vast majority of people. This is the context in which the country is convulsed by Brexit. Everywhere people are talking, thinking and worrying about it. Out on a Saturday night in a local Indian restaurant

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Politics - mainstream and radical - is badly failing us at the moment Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 21st 2019 Politics has never mattered more than it does now – from climate change and the future of the planet, to arguments around Brexit, Scottish independence and Trump, not to mention, the gathering global economic storm clouds. Political party membership in the UK has rebounded after decades of decline. In the last six years, party membership has increased more than two-fold - from 0.8% of the electorate in 2013 to 1.7% in 2019, showing a renewed desire for political engagement. This

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Is there any hope for Scottish Labour? And does it matter to the rest of us? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, June 2nd 2019 Scottish Labour once carried all before it. They were admired by some, feared by others. They couldn’t be ignored, were taken seriously and mattered. Today the party is not only struggling to be taken seriously by anyone, but has to fight for attention, battling to avoid the ignominy of being seen as irrelevant by most voters. Many will say ‘hell mend them, they deserve their fate’ but the collapse of this once powerful party has consequences well

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The Death of Tory England and the Decline of The Spectator Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 15th 2019 For eighteen years I have subscribed to and enjoyed reading The Spectator magazine. But under Fraser Nelson’s editorship from 2009 the magazine has slowly and irrevocably gone downhill and into the gutter. Gone are the days when it was a civilised, gentle, iconoclastic read where an article could surprise and entertain from unusual angles. Good pieces still occasionally appear, but in the midst of a very different content. One that is often nasty, condemning, quick to judge people, and with a sense

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Standing Up to Child Sex Abuse: The Story of David Steel and Cyril Smith Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 27th 2019 The mantra of the current age is that we take child sex abuse seriously. We listen to victims, we respect them, and we act on allegations, knowing how difficult and painful it is for people to come forward. This is a comforting account on an important and sensitive issue. But in the light of recent events we have to ask whether we really take child sex abuse that seriously? Have we really changed that much as a society from

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The ‘F’ word rears its head again: Federalism and Labour Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 13th 2019 One political principle unites not just the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn to Tom Watson but also the Conservative Party - from Theresa May to the most ultra-Brexiteers in the Jacob Rees-Mogg faction. That principle is a belief in parliamentary sovereignty: which for all its elevated sound actually means the right of governments to do what they like and not be bound by things like the rule of law, human rights or what previous administrations have done. It is of course a

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1979: The beginning of the end of the ancien regime that ruled Scotland and the UK Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 1st 2019 Today is the 40^th anniversary of Scotland going to the polls to vote in the first devolution referendum on Labour’s proposals for a Scottish Assembly. This marked the beginning of Scotland’s constitutional revolution through referendums which, at the moment, stands at a triptych of 1979, 1997 and 2014 but which may have another addition. Despite this there will be no bunting, no ceremonies and no plaques unveiled to mark today. Both then and now, Labour’s plans for

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As Labour and Tories splinter the old political order is broken beyond repair Scottish Review, February 20th 2019 Gerry Hassan The Labour Party have finally split after months of rumours – with so far eight Labour MPs resigning from the party and three senior Tories joining them – and numerous stories of many more considering their position in both parties. This may or may not amount to a seismic meltdown of Labour and of two party politics as we know it. But something is rotten and deeply wrong with British politics. This is usually portrayed as the product of Brexit

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