Open Democracy

The Next Scottish Constitutional Revolution: Why Calman Isn’t the Answer Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 25th 2010 The Queen’s Speech today is a remarkable moment in British politics: the first British coalition government in 65 years, the spectacle of the Cameron-Clegg double act, and the possible emergence of new political force, ‘liberal conservatism’. It is also a significant time in Scottish politics, with the announcement of a new Scotland Act, drawing from the ideas of the Calman Commission, but considering delaying or even ditching the most important part: the tax powers. Calman proposes that Scottish income tax rates would be

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The Next Radicalism: Comments on After the Politics of Left and Right Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 24th 2010 This is my response to comments and discussion on my recent essay, After the Politics of Left and Right: The End of ‘Modernisation’ and ‘Progressive Politics’. This is a perplexing, fascinating time both in terms of the big issues and values, and the immediacy of day to day politics. This sees the hesitant start of the ‘new politics’ of the Con-Lib Dem administration embracing a very unBritish politics, the final burial of ‘New Labour’ and the crisis of the neo-liberal project

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After the Politics of Left and Right: The End of ‘Modernisation’ and ‘Progressive Politics’ Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 18th 2010 This is an extended, more ambitious essay - based on Monday's article in The Scotsman - which I am posting as it has had such a positive response on Open Democracy. Life changes you. Time passes and you slowly realise that you have changed. You become mellower and more reflective. You recognise the validity of opponent’s points even when you disagree with them. This happens to some of us. Others remain stuck - repeating themselves, showing the same degree

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The Perilous Politics of ‘No Mandate’ and Genuine Scottish Self-Determination Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 12th 2010 British politics have just entered absolutely uncharted territory – with the establishment of ‘the Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration’ as David Cameron calls it. This is the first British coalition government – along with the first time the Liberals have been in office – since Churchill’s wartime administration – the anniversary of which was funnily enough on Monday (May 10^th 1940). Yet, Scottish politics seem to be settling into a pattern and set of positions which feels strangely familiar. The Labour and SNP can hardly

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The ‘Four Nations’ Politics of the Disunited Kingdom Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 9th 2010 A vast amount of energy has already been expended on the 2010 UK General Election, but one vital, complex and revealing aspect of it has remained resolutely ignored until now. This is the ‘four nations’ politics of this election – with very different election results in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. This is not an arcane political anorak point, for it carries consequences for the character of United Kingdom politics, and indeed, whether there is such an entity anymore, and for the individual contests

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Goodbye to Gordon Brown and All That Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, May 6th 2010 The last act of Gordon Brown has surely arrived. A gruelling election campaign fighting on two fronts. Three years of leading a disunited, unpopular government. Thirteen years in office and a culmination of mistakes made and enemies created. Gordon Brown is as well as being the Prime Minister for the last three years and a senior Labour politician for more than two decades, a prolific writer who has ‘written’ and ‘produced’ more than a dozen books under his name. In the last few weeks, Brown has

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Coming Up for Air North of the Border: The British Media, Scotland, the SNP and the Crises of Britain Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 29th 2010 The SNP are generally, a force for good in, and for, Scotland. They have been a decent, honest, mostly progressive government. They have, like all the mainstream Westminster parties, struggled to elucidate a vision about the economy and society post-crash, but they have continued to express a very different, mostly generous and outward-looking voice since then. The SNP have always been a problematic entity for the British media to understand, represent and reflect the

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The British Election Debates, the Lib Dem Surge and the Americanisation of Our Politics Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 21st 2010 The British election campaign is shaking up many of the in-built assumptions and contours of British politics. Despite three decades of upheaval under Thatcherism and Blairism, the advocates of these approaches implemented their ideas, while keeping many of the traditional structures and assumptions of the British political system intact. These are now been exposed, questioned and put under scrutiny in a way they seldom have before. After all of this it is apt that we have witnessed so far

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A Tale of Two Labour Manifestos: ‘Choice’ and the Absence of England Gerry Hassan Open Democracy. April 12th 2010 The Labour manifesto has been launched finally today – the 25^th British election manifesto according to BBC lunchtime news. It is a day of multiple Labour manifesto launches with the main British programme, and Scottish and Welsh versions, published. I am going to focus my attention here on the British and Scottish editions, as these are the ones I am familiar with, so apologies to Welsh readers. The British Labour manifesto, ‘A Future Fair For all’ (also the title of the

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The Battle of Britain 2010 Edition and Living in the Shadow of Empire Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 6th 2010 After a seemingly never-ending period the ‘official’ election campaign has finally begun. The 2010 British general election will be about many things: thirteen years of New Labour, Cameroon’s Conservatives, the state of the economy, public services and public spending, and the condition and character of our politics, political system and democracy. Underlying all of this is a wider set of questions and issues which can be summarised as: who are we, what do we want to be, what kind of

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