Scottish Independence

Celebration and a Politics of Collective Joy is central to making Scotland’s Future Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 13th 2018 The sunshine has been out a lot in Scotland recently and in more ways than just the weather. It seems us Scots are feeling happier about things and more optimistic about the future - 36% look to the future with hope, whereas 29% of us feel that Scotland’s best days are behind us. Comparative English figures show that 17% feel optimistic about the future and 49% think that England’s best days are in the past. The above figures tell us

Continue Reading Celebration and a Politics of Collective Joy is central to making Scotland’s Future

A Tale of Two Nations and Becoming Normal: Ireland and Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 30th 2018 Ireland has made international headlines in the last week as the country voted to legalise a woman’s right to choose, overturning decades of religious and moral dogma. Meanwhile in less dramatic terms Scotland’s debate on independence and its future has been shaped by the publication of the governing SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission. The two have similarities in ways neither is aware of. i) Ireland’s trust in its own people Ireland’s debate was ostensibly about a woman’s right to choose and repealing the

Continue Reading A Tale of Two Nations and Becoming Normal: Ireland and Scotland

Independence has to be about more than an indyref. It is a state of mind Gerry Hassan Sunday Herald, May 13th 2018 Scotland and the UK feel in hiatus and stasis - awaiting the unfurling and unraveling of Brexit. Some people are marching. Last Saturday’s gathering was significant given the lack of SNP and Scottish Green support. It shows the energy, but also frustration and impatience, in parts of independence opinion. But it also shows the limits of such a politics. Any movement that marches under banners like ‘Tory Scum Out’, and with Tommy Sheridan on the platform, isn’t

Continue Reading Independence has to be about more than an indyref. It is a state of mind

Living in the Shadow of Empire State Britain and the Problem of Cultural Dementia Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, April 19th 2018 The UK has been an uncomfortable place in the last few days. There has been the controversy over the Windrush deportations, Tory Cabinet minister Esther McVey defending the rape clause at the Scottish Parliament as ‘non-invasive’, and the resuscitation of Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ 1968 speech from beyond the grave. On top of this there has been the Trump-led bombing of Syria, backed by UK and French forces, without parliamentary vote or international approval. We have to understand

Continue Reading Living in the Shadow of Empire State Britain and the Problem of Cultural Dementia

A Warning from the Past: What happened to Scottish Labour could happen to the SNP Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 14th 2018 What goes up must come down is a truism worth remembering in relation to politics - as well as to economics and every kind of asset or property bubble. There once was a political party in Scotland which saw itself as the embodiment of the radical tradition, in touch with voters, and embodying social justice. It became more and more complacent, self-congratulatory, and out of touch – eventually morphing into the Scottish establishment. That party was the Scottish

Continue Reading A Warning from the Past: What happened to Scottish Labour could happen to the SNP

Time to Wake Up and Ask Some Difficult Questions abut the SNP and Independence Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, January 23rd 2018 ‘What Do You Do When A Society Lies to Itself?’ So said writer Umair Haque this week in the context of the constitutional standoff in Trump’s America. But it is true of most nations most of the time; certainly it is true of today’s UK - and also of modern Scotland. Scottish politics are currently in what can only be described as a phoney war - a becalmed period of inertia and inactivity in-between the storms that buffet politics.

Continue Reading Time to Wake Up and Ask Some Difficult Questions about the SNP and Independence

Brexit is turning Britain upside down – and Scotland has a chance to say No Gerry Hassan The Guardian Comment, January 15th 2018 Brexit has turned British politics and Britain itself upside down. But to the UK Government and Westminster political classes it is business as usual on the home front as far as Brexit and everything else is concerned. Not for them that Brexit is nearly entirely an English revolt (with Welsh acquiescence), or that Scotland and Northern Ireland are being dragged along against majority sentiment in their territories. Today the Scottish Government published its latest paper on Brexit,

Continue Reading Brexit is turning Britain upside down – and Scotland has a chance to say No

The World in 2018: Trump, Brexit, Britain and the Scottish Debate Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 10th 2018 The New Year is always a time for reflection. I spent the Christmas and New Year break in the United States, providing an opportunity for reflection and a different take on the world. Two and a half weeks in an American urban setting, even in one of the wealthiest and most creative clusters in the country around Boston and Cambridge, showcases what works and what doesn’t. Conspicuous wealth sits side-by-side crumbling infrastructure and poverty personified by the MBTA train system that looks

Continue Reading The World in 2018: Trump, Brexit, Britain and the Scottish Debate

Is Scotland really a social democratic country? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 18th 2017 At last week’s SNP conference in the middle of her keynote speech, Nicola Sturgeon asked: ‘What kind of country do we want to be?’ She wasn’t expecting an answer, and seemed surprised when a member of the party faithful shouted out ‘an independent one.’ Behind Sturgeon’s non-question is the belief in Scottish difference, the efficacy of our values, and the link of both of these to the idea of Scotland as a social democratic country. Thus, around the conference chatter and commentary, Lesley Riddoch on Sky

Continue Reading Is Scotland really a social democratic country?

Scottish Independence in the Age of Disruption: Big Questions for the SNP, Labour and Tories Gerry Hassan LSE Politics Blog, October 9th 2017 Scottish politics are in a strange place at the moment - not one of calm, but of transition with the future uncertain. After several years of high-octane politics, and the twin peaks of disruption of the 2014 indyref and 2016 Brexit vote, all of Scotland’s main political parties have some adjusting to do. The SNP, ten years in office, are still trying to digest the reverse of the 2017 UK election; the Tories how to continue their

Continue Reading Scottish Independence in the Age of Dirsruption: Big Questions for the SNP, Labour and Tories