Scottish Independence

The Continuing Scottish Revolution: Time to Tell New Stories of Scotland Scottish Review, January 10th 2017 Gerry Hassan It has been an unprecedented political year, and 2017 will also be full of high drama - globally, across Europe, in the UK, and nearer to home in Scotland. Politics isn’t everything. Just as important is culture - a word used and over-used, seemingly about everything and everywhere, but difficult, and sometimes impossible to pin down and define. Culture when we forensically examine it can mean so many things. It can describe individual growth and enrichment. It can be about a

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As Britain crashes and burns can Scottish politics embrace more humanity and substance? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, December 8th 2016 Britain is falling apart by the day. ‘British politics’ no longer exist in any form outside the House of Commons; ‘Brexit Britain’ is an inaccurate term considering the divided vote and kingdom; while the UK Government wastes our resources going to the Supreme Court to prevent a parliamentary vote actioning a referendum decision that was supposedly about parliamentary sovereignty. It’s confusing isn’t it? Meanwhile Tory politicians and newspapers rail against judges as ‘Enemies of the People’, and the influence of

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Time for a Bolder Scotland: The Seven Stories of Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan The National, November 30th 2016 We are living through unprecedented times of change and uncertainty. The words and phrases we use can barely keep up - ‘post-truth politics’, 'fake news', ‘alt-right’, the vacuity of ‘Brexit means Brexit’, and the debate on whether Trump is a ‘fascist’ or not. Language itself is struggling to convey and understand these times. This is true in Britain and Scotland. ‘The Economist’ magazine, in its review of the year and assessments of next year, when talking of Brexit observed that ‘When

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Tom Nairn’s Break-up of Britain turns 40 and is as relevant as ever Gerry Hassan The National, November 24th 2016 Few books about politics stand the test of time like Tom Nairn’s The Break-up of Britain. Next year will see its 40^th anniversary. Originally published during the Queen’s Jubilee of 1977, the book offered a blistering counterblast to the then official commemorations – and self-congratulation of political and media elites who used the occasion to reflect on the wonders of the British way of doing things. The UK has undergone dramatic change since then. Superficially in form and appearance it

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Scotland the Bold or Scotland the Timid? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 22nd 2016 Is Scotland really special? Are we a land that has bucked the retreat of the centre-left and social democracy, and proven itself immune to the right-wing populism sweeping the West from Brexit to Trump? Significant parts of Scottish opinion are always looking for any reason to jump on a wha’s like us exceptionalism: one which invokes our morality, values and commitment to social justice, alongside our collective opposition to all things evil from Thatcherism and Blairism to neo-liberalism. Truth of course is rather different.

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Scotland the Bold: Making the Case for a Radical Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday Herald, November 6th 2016 This weekend I attended a Donald Trump campaign rally in New Hampshire. It was a surreal experience - of a Presidential candidate who isn’t a professional politician, who has a limited conventional manifesto, and is running on what amounts to populist instinct and anger. Win or lose, this offer has resonated with a sizeable audience of dissatisfied people who are looking for change and who believe that Trump rather than Hillary Clinton best provides it. Last week I was at a Clinton-Elizabeth Warren

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High-wire Politics, the SNP after Conference and the Next Independence Campaign Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, October 17th 2016 The SNP’s rise to become Britain’s third party – in parliamentary seats and mass membership – has corresponded with its annual conference adopting the importance, scale and feel of one of the two UK big parties This is of course fitting and appropriate, but still something of a transition given the SNP are obviously a Scottish-only party, and in places maintain the feel and ethos of a party which for decades has defined itself as a family and community. The mood of

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The SNP has got us where we are, but the SNP on its own isn’t enough in the future Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, October 12th 2016 The SNP have played a huge role in getting us to where we are today. They are central to where Scotland goes in the future - but they on their own are not enough. Without the SNP there is significant doubt that we would ever have got a Scottish Parliament. It is true that Labour legislated for it, but they were first brought back to devolution in the 1970s by the electoral threat of

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We need a Spirit of Independence to shape the Scotland of the Future Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, September 19th 2016 No one needs reminding that Sunday represented the second anniversary of the indyref. It was a significant watershed: a passing of time from being in the shadow of the 2014 vote to looking to the future. If that’s true, then an awful lot of attitudes are fairly entrenched. While that’s true of both pro-union and independence opinion, it belies the forces of change to more ruthlessly assess, be honest about failings and foibles, and change and adapt to be successful.

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It’s Time for Dangerous Talk: Jaytalking Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 15th 2016 These are strange times. We are told everyday in every way by numerous experts and talking heads that this is an age of unprecedented change, uncertainty and flux. That nothing can be taken for granted. Yet this is also an age of great conformity and conservatism; not only in mainstream politics but in large acres of what passes for popular culture – from music to novels, theatre, comedy, TV and visual arts. Scotland fits into this pattern rather well. It has shaken the UK to near

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