The Fourth Most Unequal Country in the Developed World
The Fourth Most Unequal Country in the Developed World Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, March 17th 2012 One of the most important influences shaping the coming debate on the future of Scotland will be the nature of Britain. While various anti-independence campaigners interrogate every aspect of the Scottish Government’s case, they overall fail to deal with the reality of modern day Britain. The actions and reputation of the British government matter, along with the condition of the state, society, economy and culture. We have travelled a long way from the 1970s when John P. Mackintosh summarised the Scottish Nationalist case
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How Do We Connect with ‘the Lost Generation’?
How Do We Connect with the ‘Lost Generation’? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 26th 2011 The economic storm clouds are gathering and looking increasingly foreboding across Britain: rising unemployment, low to non-existent economic growth, rising debt levels and record youth unemployment. The political ping-pong of Westminster and the Scottish Parliament seems nearly completely irrelevant to much of this showing a debate which is mostly dispiriting and irrelevant to the big economic questions. We have to look seriously at the true nature of youth unemployment in the UK and across Europe. In the UK youth unemployment for those aged
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Why a Left Revival Won’t Happen and What Do We Do About It?
Why a Left Revival Won’t Happen and What Do We Do About It? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 20th 2011 The state of Scotland, the UK and the global economy rightly demands that we engage in radical, far-reaching thinking. To some this is the ideal opportunity for a revival of the left and challenging the conventional group think of the last few decades. Most of us recognise that Scotland and the wider world are not happy places. The scale of inequality, exclusion and relative poverty in our own homeland, let alone the globe should shock. The recent figures of
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The Age of Responsibility
The Age of Responsibility Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 13th 2011 As the burning embers fizzle out and the streets and cities of England return to some degree of normalcy, so the inquest begins into the causes and consequences of what we are all now calling ‘the English riots’. It is clear the losers are those who have chosen to simplify and attempt to make too obvious political capital out of the troubles: Ken Livingstone for one was disowned by many Labour colleagues for jumping on ‘the cuts were to blame’ bandwagon ahead of next year’s London Mayoral contest.
