Generational Politics

All Across the Globe: The Politics of Protest Gerry Hassan Sunday National, June 7th 2020 All around the world people are protesting. Black Lives Matter have filled the streets of America. Everywhere from Canada to Australia, New Zealand to Germany, France to England and here in Scotland people are showing their solidarity with those taking a stand after the killing of George Floyd and linking it to their own specifics in a global cause. There has never been a time in recent history when streets, park gates and public spaces across Scotland have been more festooned with home-made signs and

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The Beatles, the Sixties and what happens to music after the virus? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, April 5th 2020 Next Thursday one of the landmark anniversaries of popular music and culture occurs: the 50^th anniversary of the public break-up of the Beatles when Paul McCartney broke the unexpected news. The dreams and hopes of a huge swathe of young people and generation who had grown up with the Beatles as the world around them dramatically changed would never be the same again. Leaving aside that the Beatles had to all intents already broken up before McCartney’s announcement, but not made

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How do we tell the stories of the past from generation to generation? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 22nd 2019 A number of events happened in the last week that brought home t the passing of time and what really matters in life - and how we understand it (or not). First and foremost, I took my Auntie Betty, now aged 85, to the former fishing village of Auchmithie near Arbroath. Betty was the lifelong best friend of my mother, and not my natural auntie, but family in the best sense. She provides a major connection to my parents, gives

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What Future is there for Young Working Class Scotland? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 15th 2016 There is something about Scots and class, and in particular about working class identities. Many Scots define themselves when given a choice as working class, yet in terms of occupations and status, on any definition, a majority would be categorised as middle class. Interestingly, in some surveys, a majority of such middle class people reject this term, and call themselves working class (one survey a decade ago saying that 52% of middle class people identified as working class). Some of this is history, tradition

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Reflections on Turning Fifty in the Scotland of 2014 Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 26th 2014 I knew from an early age I would turn 50 in 2014. It was simple maths. At age eight, reading the ‘Tell Me Why’ encyclopedias of facts and figures, I became aware of a sense of time. Apparently the sun would explode in around five billion years wiping out all life on planet earth and any chance I had of immortality. And at around the same time, confronted with this reality, I worked out that I would be 36 in 2000, 50 in 2014

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From ‘Generation Self’ to ‘the Saltire Generation’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, March 16th 2013 Scotland is to embrace giving 16-17 year olds the vote in next year’s independence referendum. This is a powerful statement of intent of Scotland wanting to do something different, and enfranchise young people in the debate on Scotland’s future. Yet it leaves important questions unanswered. How different are young people from the rest of society? What political motivations dominate a generation who grew up as children after Scotland last qualified for an international football tournament – the World Cup of 1998? And more seriously, who began

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