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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The Myth of ‘Divided Scotland’
The Myth of 'Divided Scotland' Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 16th 2014 One of the most oft-repeated descriptions of Scotland at the moment in the heat of the independence referendum is the problem of ‘divided Scotland’. A Yes victory will leave a ‘deeply divided Scotland’ claimed Better Together chief Blair McDougall (Better Together, June 8th 2014), while a pro-independence website declared in response, ‘A deeply divided Scotland will be the result of a No vote’ (Arc of Prosperity, June 9th 2014). Much cited recent polling shows that 38% of Scots believe divisions will remain whatever the referendum outcome, while 36%
Changin Scotland: March 28th-30th
Changin Scotland A weekend of politics, culture and ideas …. And fun! Friday March 28th-Sunday March 30th The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool WHO HAS POWER IN MODERN SCOTLAND? In association with the Reid Foundation Friday March 28th 8.00-9.30pm: Welcome: Gerry Hassan and Jean Urquhart Scotland after the Crash: The Collapse of RBS Ian Fraser, author, forthcoming ‘Shredded: The Rise and Fall of RBS’ (more…)
History in the Making: The Battle for Scotland’s Future
History in the Making: The Battle for Scotland’s Future Gerry Hassan National Collective, November 20th 2013 The campaign on Scottish independence has reached new levels - a battle of competing specialist documents – firstly, there has been an Institute for Fiscal Studies report, matched by a Scottish Government paper on the economic independence, and next week the much anticipated White Paper on Scottish independence. The latter is a milestone in the pro-independence debate. Whatever its content, style and persuasiveness things will never quite be the same again. A devolved administration in part of the UK lays out the case for
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Changin Scotland November 1st-3rd at Newbattle Abbey College
Changin Scotland Scotland’s alternative festival of ideas, culture and politics Friday November 1st-Sunday November 3rd Newbattle Abbey College, by Dalkeith This November Gerry Hassan and Jean Urquhart are at Newbattle Abbey College just south of Edinburgh for a weekend on how to do social change, activism and campaigning in a different way! This weekend will be a departure in feel, style and setting – and is facilitated and led by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert of the Centre for Artistic Activism who are based at New York University. This will be a participatory weekend bringing together community politics with
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The Emergence of ‘the Third Scotland’
The Emergence of ‘the Third Scotland’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 12th 2013 Two Scottish establishments facing one another - one the old Labour Scotland which has administered and dominated public life for the last 50 years; the other the newcomer on the block: the bright, shiny SNP establishment full of vigour and promise. This is what lies behind the slugfest of the ‘Yes/No’ debate, its partisan adherents, and the simple, superficial presentation of this in large sections of the mainstream media. Two weeks ago a piece I wrote for ‘Scottish Review’ outlined the nature of this non-debate
Games with Shadows: Living in Thatcher’s Scotland
Games with Shadows: Living in Thatcher’s Scotland Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 10th 2013 We live in Thatcher’s Britain, yet that statement is obvious, contentious and deeply divisive. And this is all the more true of Thatcher north of the border. Thatcher is simultaneously both history and present day. You can hear this in the differing accounts on TV and radio; with conservative figures claiming she remade the modern world from knocking down the Berlin Wall and freeing Eastern Europe, to preventing a future ‘socialist Britain’; while elements of the left wail in pain and agony at how events have
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Creating a Space for a Different Scottish Future
Creating a Space for a Different Scottish Future Gerry Hassan National Collective, March 7th 2013 Thinking, imagining and attempting to create the future, and embracing and encouraging change, comes naturally to human beings. We do these things everyday in numerous ways throughout our lives, subconsciously and unconsciously, usually without reflection or realisation. Recognising that we do is one of the first steps in demystifying these terms, democratising them, and taking them back from the consultancy class and from managerial jargon. When I first saw Say So Scotland’s initiative to develop a Citizens’ Assembly I was initially wary, thinking it was
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Scotland as an Idea and Place of Substance
Scotland as an Idea and Place of Substance Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 29th 2012 It has been a tumultuous year, across Europe, the world, and in its own way for Scotland. It was the year that the independence referendum was agreed, of the collapse and rebirth of Rangers FC, and the continued decline of the British establishment and public trust in it. At the year’s end, the Radical Independence Conference brought together a new generation of twentysomething activists, Creative Scotland parted company with much of the arts world (and lost as a result two of its senior figures), and
Michael Forbes, Donald Trump and the Unpredictable Scotland Emerging
Michael Forbes, Donald Trump and the Unpredictable Scotland Emerging Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 1st 2012 The Scots have a strange and often perplexing relationship with those in authority and power. Sometimes we damn them and at other times we choose to believe their official story. More often than we show a lack of curiosity in scrutinising and challenging authority. Instead, there is a deafening silence of the Scots across large acres of public life, in conferences, gatherings and fora which represent ‘civic Scotland’. Michael Forbes has been a huge exception to this general rule. The Aberdeenshire farmer who stood
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