Northern Ireland

The crisis of unionism has become the death of the union as we know it Gerry Hassan Sunday National, April 18th 2021 The UK is not in a good state - undermined by the concerted actions of the UK Government, continuing to showing a lack of understanding of the union. All of this is coming to a head as we approach the Scottish elections, raising the stakes for how people vote and raising difficult questions about the nature of UK democracy. This Tory Government is dramatically changing the UK and the union, how political authority is exercised, the relationships between

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Does Boris Johnson’s ‘deal’ pose the end of the Union? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, October 20th 2019 It has been another tumultuous Brexit week. But this is not the end of Brexit, or even the beginning of the end, but just another staging post in this drawn-out process. Fundamental to the Johnson deal is what is proposed for Northern Ireland. In place of the so called ‘backstop’ the province is instead put in a special place in relation to the rest of the UK and EU. It remains legally in the UK customs territory, while practically remaining in the EU

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The death of British conservatism as we have known it Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 11th 2019 British conservatism has been one of the most successful political philosophies and political parties the world has ever known. As we speak it is engaged in the latter stages of its thirty year civil war on Europe, which has convulsed the party, bringing it to a state of near self-destruction, abandoning its traditional tenets and debasing constitutional norms that for most of its history have been its raison d’etre. Whatever happens on Brexit in the next few months and years, much will have

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The Ireland Question is not just about Ireland, but a selective view of Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 29th 2017 Brexit has become a constitutional and political clusterfuck - a rolling embarrassment for Britain in a show that is set to run officially at least until 11pm on 29 March 2019, and in all probability for years after. It is a crash between a right-wing Fantasyland version of Britain (witness Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and Jacob Rees-Mogg) and at the margins, a left-wing British exceptionalist story led by Corbyn which hopes, by keeping quiet, to pick up the pieces,

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The Problem with Britain and Why It Can’t Be Tidily Put Back Together Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 14th 2016 Britain throughout its history has had a reputation for stability and security. This after all was one of the main clarion calls in the indyref and, more recently, the Brexit vote, but this has always been a bit of a myth and is now increasingly fictitious. In the European referendum and its aftermath, much of the discussion that occurred repeatedly - supposedly about the country, its challenges and future - wasn’t actually about the UK, but instead about England. This

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