The Twilight of the Westminster Model: Scotland, Europe and Referendums
The Twilight of the Westminster Model: Scotland, Europe and Referendums Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 9th 2010 The SNP minority government under Alex Salmond has finally accepted political arithmetic and retreated on its promise to hold an independence referendum before the May 2011 Scottish Parliament elections. At the same time there is to be an AV referendum on the same day as devolved elections – something the Electoral Commission has already made a previous ruling against (1) – on a policy no one supports, as well as a future Welsh devolution referendum. Now Daniel Hannan, Tory MP and freethinker has
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The First Tony Blair Book and the Failure of New Labour
The First Tony Blair Book and the Failure of New Labour Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 5th 2010 This week has been a total Blair-fest. The launch of Tony Blair’s memoirs, the carefully crafted and controlled TV interviews, and the even more planned book signing with resulting protests. It has all had a certain cinematic, star quality to it; like outtakes from Piers Brosnan in ‘The Ghost’. An interesting aspect of ‘Tony Blair: A Journey’ is how little Blair wrote as a politician, and how temporary and superficial it all was. So where Gordon Brown has written or edited thirteen
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The Coming Scottish Revolution and Tony Blair’s Memoirs
The Coming Scottish Revolution and Tony Blair’s Memoirs Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 2nd 2010 Scottish politics have been in a sense of disbelief since the UK general election. The Con-Lib Dem coalition government is being slowly assessed by the main two parties north of the border, SNP and Labour. We have an SNP administration under Alex Salmond – which has proven itself a decent, competent, relatively popular administration – which now seems to have run out of money and ideas. And a Scottish Labour Party under the uncharismatic Iain Gray which seems even more bereft of ideas, but which
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Where Scotland Stands? The Strange State of the Scottish Left and the Cultural Assembly of a Nation
Where Scotland Stands? The Strange State of the Scottish Left and the Cultural Assembly of a Nation Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 18th 2010 The left in Scotland is in not in a good state on any level, in terms of numbers on the ground, ideas, the wider environment and its general psyche. Clearly if we were talking about the old Stalin point of how many divisions the Pope has – the Scottish left have very little of an army remaining to call to arms. This sad state of affairs has dawned more upon me in recent years through a
The Last Man of Iron: Who Comes After the Jimmy Reids of this World?
The Last Man of Iron: Who Comes After the Jimmy Reids of this World? Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 13th 2010 The tributes to Jimmy Reid have been many and fulsome. They have come from across the political spectrum and from near and far – from his hometown of Glasgow to the Govan of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, to across the UK and internationally. If Reid hadn’t lived and led the public life he did, you almost feel that he would have been invented. His life and persona told the story of a certain part of Scotland: of Red Clydeside, the
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Where do we go from here? Part Three: Agency and self-determination, retaking the future without Marx
Where do we go from here? Part Three: Agency and self-determinations, retaking the future without Marx Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett Open Democracy, August 5th 2010 This is the third, final, exchange of a wide-ranging three part conversation between Anthony Barnett and Gerry Hassan, touching on the state of British politics and democracy and how the left - weak and disorganised in the face of a resurgent neoliberalism - can propose and build alternatives to the dominant dogmas of the past thirty years. You can read Part I 'The frustrations of British politics' here, and Part 2 'Challenging
Where do we go from here? Part Two: Challenging ‘the Official Future’
Where do we go from here? Part Two: Challenging 'the Official Future' Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett Open Democracy, August 4th 2010 This is the second of a wide-ranging three part conversation between Anthony Barnett and Gerry Hassan, touching on the state of British politics and democracy and how the left - weak and disorganised in the face of a resurgent neoliberalism - can propose and build alternatives to the dominant dogmas of the past thirty years. You can read Part I here. Thanks for the message Gerry! How am I supposed to get to sleep without an answer to
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Where do we go from here? Part One: The frustrations of British politics
Where do we go from here? Part One: The frustrations of British politics Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett Open Democracy, August 2nd 2010 In the first of a wide-ranging three part conversation, Anthony Barnett and Gerry Hassan discuss the state of British politics and democracy and how the left - weak and disorganised in the face of a resurgent neoliberalism - can propose and build alternatives to the dominant dogmas of the past thirty years. Hi Gerry, There is a strange mixture of moods here in political London. There is a Tory right, with Spectatorish leanings, used to
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The Fantasyland of ‘The Spirit Level’ and the Limitations of the Health and Well-Being Industry
The Fantasyland of ‘The Spirit Level’ and the Limitations of the Health and Well-Being Industry Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 1st 2010 I feel that the world is full of closet egalitarians, that at some level people know this makes sense. They were pushed into the closet by Reagan and Thatcher and monetarism and neo-liberal economics, but many people didn’t really stop believing that some of the old left ideas were important. We just lost confidence in them, and I think maybe we thought they just weren’t relevant to the modern world. I feel that the left entirely lost its
The Coming AV Referendum, Coalition Problems and the Electoral Commission
The Coming AV Referendum, Coalition Problems and the Electoral Commission Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 28th 2010 There is a sense of gathering storm clouds for the coalition on the forthcoming AV referendum. Nick Clegg made a statement to the House of Commons on its last day sitting before summer recess, and dismissed any concerns about having the AV vote on the same day as the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved elections, as well as English council elections. Forty-four Tory MPs have signed a Commons motion tabled by backbencher Bernard Jenkin opposing a referendum on the day identified: May
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