Goodbye to the Britain that we have all grown up with
Goodbye to the Britain that we have all grown up with Gerry Hassan The National, 7 June 2022 Four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations; wall-to-wall endless media coverage and sycophantic commentary on TV, radio and papers; and as the weekend concluded a Tory leadership vote of no confidence was finally triggered against Boris Johnson, beginning the slow end of his disastrous, chaotic Premiership. These are strange political times – of upheaval, disruption, chaos. But over the past few days we are witnessing - underneath all the fluffery and hype - something deep, profound, lasting and unnamed; effectively an elegy and
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What are we celebrating in the Queen’s Jubilee?
What are we celebrating in the Queen’s Jubilee? Gerry Hassan The National, 31 May 2022 This is a watershed week for Britain and the monarchy at the marking of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It does however raise the question - what exactly are we celebrating? The Queen has been Head of State for the past seven decades so there is her long record of public office and linked to this her commitment to those vague words “service” and “duty”. But what has the Queen actually contributed during this period that has seen fourteen PMs from Churchill to Johnson? She has
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Seventy Years of the Queen matters and why the UK is not a democracy
Seventy Years of the Queen matters and why the UK is not a democracy Gerry Hassan The National, 8 February 2022 The Queen this year marks 70 years on the throne with Sunday past being Accession Day – the day her father George VI died and she became Queen. This represents the opening salvo in a year of official commemorations, celebrations and pageantry. The dominant words used to describe the Queen are “service”, “duty” and “sacrifice”, that underline that whatever ones feels about the institution and its hereditary entitlement there is popular affection for the person. But these words have
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The Queen’s Jubilee is the time to have a debate about Britain’s atrophied democracy
The Queen’s Jubilee is the time to have a debate about Britain’s atrophied democracy Gerry Hassan The National, 4 January 2022 The monarchy goes to the heart of what the UK is and what it is to be British. It is strange then that most discussions try to avoid the implications and consequences that flow from the power, influence, status and role in public life of the monarchy. All of this will come to a head in 2022 with the Platinum Jubilee – marking the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth on the throne – on 6 February; then celebrated in
