A Hopeful Guide to Scotland
A Hopeful Guide to Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 17th 2014 This week, depending on the building US-UK government clamour for more military action in Iraq, Scotland will be the biggest story on the planet. News crews and journalists from all over the world are covering this. Glasgow and Edinburgh hotels are enjoying an unexpected bonanza with high occupancy rates. For at least one week, James Robertson’s famous dictum about ‘The News Where You Are’ will be met by the shock that for a short while, ‘The News Where We Are’ will be the same! It has,
Is Scottish Labour Having a Good Independence Referendum?
Is Scottish Labour Having a Good Independence Referendum? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 9th 2014 Scotland is on the move. The polls have shown a significant shift towards Yes. One poll so far has produced a Yes lead, a watershed moment not just in the campaign, but also in the history of Scotland and the UK. Change is all around us. There is the enthusiasm of Yes; the incompetence and fear of No; the distrust in Westminster, Cameron and Miliband (the latter two earning each 23% trust ratings in Scotland), and the quiet sentiment that the Scottish Parliament is best
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Beyond the Cultural Cringe: The Need for a Multi-Story Scotland
Beyond the Cultural Cringe: The Need for a Multi-Story Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 3rd 2014 The independence referendum is remaking Scotland. History is being made which scholars will look back and study years from now. The very idea of Scotland is on the move and changing, as is what we think of as politics and even the notion of what is public. One of the constant refrains, both in the independence debate, and over the last 30 years, has been the importance, role and, critically, the fragility of Scottish culture. Whether it has been the existence (or not)
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Scotland: On the Eve of a Historic Choice
Scotland: On the Eve of a Historic Choice Gerry Hassan, Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland, Luath Press £11.99 Reviewed by Joe Lafferty On the eve of a historic referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014, Gerry Hassan’s Caledonian Dreaming is a landmark book. He articulates, with incisive political and historical analysis, the landscape of what has taken the UK and Scotland to where they are today. And at the same time, this is a profoundly human book. Hassan is no stranger to serious and heavyweight political analysis with a number of books under his belt from The
Tom Devine, the Indy Ref and the Myths of Modern Scotland
Tom Devine, the Indy Ref and the Myths of Modern Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 20th 2014 The independence referendum to some is their lifeblood; to others it is a distraction; but what it inarguably has done is to reveal much about what Scotland is, thinks and feels. Something interesting happened this week when respected historian Tom Devine came out for independence. His reasoning was, he said in an interview in ‘The Observer’ that, ‘It is the Scots who have succeeded most in preserving the British idea of fairness and compassion in terms of state support and intervention’. The
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The Power and Absence of Doubt in the Nationalist Independence Cause
The Power and Absence of Doubt in the Nationalist Independence Cause Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 13th 2014 It has not been a great week for the independence cause and for the SNP. This has been made worse by the self-denial and delusion expressed by a host of independence supporters including parts of the commentariat, the SNP and on-line opinion. The SNP’s position on currency union, along with EU membership, has for ages been the weak flank of their entire proposition. Thus, it should have been no surprise to anyone when Alistair Darling basically mugged Salmond on the former in
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The Strange Death of Liberal England Continued
The Strange Death of Liberal England Continued Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 30th 2014 Liberal England is in a state of confusion. There is the challenge of the Scottish independence referendum, the continued right wing drift of UK politics, and the slow detachment of the UK from the European Union. All of the above cause apoplexy and dismay to the thinking elements of the English left. One response to this from people such as Labour MP John Cruddas and Billy Bragg is to try to re-ignite the English radical imagination and challenge the increasingly English nationalist overtones of Nigel
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A Letter to Scotland’s New Radicals
A Letter to Scotland’s New Radicals Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 9th 2014 Radical Scotland’s re-emergence and re-invigoration around the independence referendum has been one of the most welcome and positive occurrences for many years in Scottish politics. This is a real challenge and change from the predictable stale menu which has been passed off as our political debate and choices for decades. This is even more true of what has presented itself as radical and left politics. An array of groups, networks and initiatives of which the most prominent are National Collective, the Radical Independence Campaign and Jimmy
What do we do about the United Kingdom? And Why Federalism isn’t the Answer
What do we do we do about the United Kingdom? And Why Federalism isn’t the Answer Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, July 4th 2014 In the last few weeks political debate has become filled with talk of the possibility of a federal United Kingdom. This has come not surprisingly exclusively from pro-union voices. There was Tory MSP Murdo Fraser’s recent thoughtful speech, David Torrance’s short book on British wide federalism, and even former Prime Minister Gordon Brown mulling over the subject. Murdo Fraser in his Reform Scotland talk said that ‘federalism within the UK, if it were workable and could be
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A Scotland Beyond Yes and No: My Journey to Yes
A Scotland Beyond Yes and No: My Journey to Yes Gerry Hassan National Collective, June 26th 2014 I want to live in a Scotland which is not defined by Yes and No - a world of ‘us’ and ‘them’ - of politics, families and friendships reduced to the emotions of football supporters and tribalism. I want to live in a world of one Scotland and many, multiple, diverse Scotlands. This is a time of many different debates in our nation; about the nature of our constitutional status and the meaning of independence, about who has power and authority in an
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