Scotland

A Short Cut Out and Keep Guide to Scotland for COP26 Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 3 November 2021 Welcome to Scotland. This is your chance to contribute to saving the planet – or at least to making it a slightly more hospitable place. While undertaking your serious work in Glasgow here is your concise cut out and keep guide to some essential facts about life in Scotland.

1. Scotland is a nation. It was once an independent nation. It might be an independent nation in the future. And it might not.
2. Scotland has its own legal and education systems,

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I am a European and want to live in a country which calls itself European Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 13th 2021 I am a European. In the past few years of Brexit, and many of the ridiculous posturing positions of the UK Government, I have never felt more European. Of course the EU and Europe are different things. And there is in places a logical, coherent argument for Brexit – which while I disagree with I can respect and understand. But the events of the past four and a half years have brought to the fore an intemperate,

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What holds Scotland back? Our relationship with England and ourselves Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 9th 2020 Scotland has travelled far in recent decades. The country is more autonomous, confident, self-governing and secure in having multiple identities. This is what we often tell ourselves and there is truth in it. Yet it is also true that after 20 years of the Scottish Parliament we still have many areas in which to progress, and numerous barriers that hold us back and limit the lives of too many. Much of what restricts us can be directly linked to structural issues and hard

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MY FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2017 December 15th 2017 Here is a selection of my books of the year. By its nature, this is subjective - made up of books I have read, enjoyed and been impressed by, and isn’t thus an attempt to comprehensively cover every subject. While the vast majority of books listed were published this year, there are a few from late 2016, and a couple published before then. Scotland: My Favourite Books of the Year James Robertson, Michael Marra: Arrest This Moment, Big Sky Press This is a beautifully produced book on a precious talent -

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Despite Trump and Brexit there are still Reasons to be Cheerful Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 26th 2017 A haunting refrain echoes around the globe. The world, many emphatically say, has gone to pot what with Trump, Brexit, terrorism, ISIS, the march of the far right, fake news, alternative facts and more. This miserablist take on modern times has a familiar refrain in Britain. It states that the country has gone in entirely the wrong direction these last 30 to 40 years. ‘Margaret Thatcher / poll tax / Tony Blair / Iraq war’ has become a spellbinding, intoxicating description

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Was 1966 the last great British sporting moment? Andy Murray apart? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 12th 2016 ‘They think it’s all over. It is now.’ These are some of the most famous words ever in the history of British sporting commentary. The fiftieth anniversary of 1966 is upon us. When England beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley and became football World Cup champions. It is a long time ago, but as the European Championships kick off, with everyone taking part from the UK bar Scotland, the memories and myths of that triumph still linger. 1966 is obviously for English

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A Letter to the Editor of ‘The Economist’ on Scotland and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan June 4th 2015 Dear Zanny, I am a long-term reader and admirer of ‘The Economist’. Even when I disagree with the magazine’s position I know that I can trust it to aid myself learning and becoming more knowledgeable on an issue. This is true across the globe, and subject matters, with one consistent exception: the subject of Scottish independence. I am not talking about ‘The Economist’s’ anti-independence stance, which you are perfectly entitled to take. Nor would I wish to dwell on the appropriateness

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Glasgow is not Scotland so let's stop pretending it is Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 10th 2015 Someone observing Scotland from afar could easily fall under the apprehension that all there is to the nation is Glasgow. A Martian, or alien from another world, who had the misfortune to only follow and comprehend our country through the transmissions of BBC Reporting Scotland or STV News at Six would think that we were a strange land. They would imagine that all there was to this country was a few streets, only inhabited by men, where football and crime were the

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Lessons from Anzio: Scots do not need to cling to the wreckage of Britain Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, February 2nd 2013 Today is the 70^th anniversary of the final surrender of the last German forces at Stalingrad, the battle which militarily and psychologically dealt an irreversible blow to Hitler’s plans for world domination. Last week I was in Rome on holiday and went to commemorate the 69^th anniversary of the Anglo-American landings at Anzio, just south of the capital, the summation of which occurred a year and a half after Stalingrad. This was the week of Cameron’s big European intervention,

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The Saga of ‘Team GB’ and the Country that doesn’t know its own Name Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 21st 2012 This week the clock counting down to the London Olympics passed the 100 days to go mark, while the Olympic authorities announced their rigorous social media and Twitter guidelines like a rerun of some Beijing 2008 police operation. The story of ‘Team GB’ the Olympic football project continues to offer more entertainment, bewilderment and anxiety with a ‘shortlist’ just announced of 80 players. Steven Fletcher, along with David Beckham is apparently included. Next week the draw takes place

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