Scottish Independence

Does Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP have the courage to challenge Scotland and her own side? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, September 4th 2016 This week First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched a major new initiative on independence. At the moment she is playing for time – waiting to see the developing post-Brexit landscape, Theresa May’s hand with Article 50 and the broad outline of the deal the UK is proposing with the EU. There are numerous factors at work. Sturgeon has to be seen doing something. She has to appear in charge and doing something on independence. Plus there is the

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Flags and Stramashs in Scotland’s Summer of Independence Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 24th 2016 A couple of weeks ago I was involved in one of the many online conversations about politics that now characterise Scotland. Afterwards the animated chat in the pub turned to the previous day’s pro-independence march in Glasgow. Saltires had been there in plenty – and one person, perhaps more fully signed up to independence than the others, asked ‘Why is Scotland the only place in the world where people are told off for flying their flag?’ This was met by myself and others with incredulity,

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The Problem with Britain and Why It Can’t Be Tidily Put Back Together Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 14th 2016 Britain throughout its history has had a reputation for stability and security. This after all was one of the main clarion calls in the indyref and, more recently, the Brexit vote, but this has always been a bit of a myth and is now increasingly fictitious. In the European referendum and its aftermath, much of the discussion that occurred repeatedly - supposedly about the country, its challenges and future - wasn’t actually about the UK, but instead about England. This

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The SNP’s Depute Leadership Contest could aid a more honest version of independence and post-Brexit politics Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 7th 2016 The SNP is about to have a leadership election. A depute leader contest. Given the SNP is in government in Holyrood - with 63 out of 129 MSPs - and last year won 56 out of 59 Westminster seats, this will have some impact. Rarely do Deputy Leaders count in parties. Labour has had one since 1922 and none were that important: John Prescott didn’t restrain Blair, and Tom Watson can’t show Corbyn the door. Tories don’t

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Gerry Hassan, Independence of the Scottish Mind: Elite Narratives, Public Spaces and the Making of a Modern Nation, Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-137-41413-7 Reviewed by Scott Hames Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Summer 2016 The feverish upheaval of Scottish politics has gradually become its own kind of normal. On 5 May the voters practically yawned as they seized their second chance in twelve months to slaughter the Scottish Labour party. (The body-count is considerable, but it was an apathetic smothering compared to the gore of 2015.) As the SNP’s post-referendum insurgency beds down into cautious hegemony, boredom and

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A Very British Coup: The rise of Theresa May could see the end of the UK Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 17th 2006 Theresa May became the UK Prime Minister this week – elected on a mandate of 199 Tory MPs in what amounted to a very British coup. She is only Britain’s second ever woman Prime Minister, following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher. But in other respects she follows Gordon Brown as the twelfth PM in the last 100 years who has entered Downing Street without a popular mandate. Jeremy Corbyn is clinging on as Labour leader –

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After Britain: Is Scottish Independence the New Normal? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 6th 2016 These are unprecedented times. The Tories, UKIP and English and Welsh Greens are all in the middle of leadership elections, while Jeremy Corbyn is holding on by his fingertips in a stand-off with his own parliamentary party There is a lot of bewilderment, frustration and resentment – not just amongst Remain voters in the EU referendum, but also in the bitterly divided Leave camp. In the midst of this maelstrom Scottish independence looks like the new normal: less risky and the safer option than the

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Is this the beginning of the end of Britain? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 3rd 2016 It may not be the beginning of the end of the UK quite yet. But it is the end of British politics - and Britain, as we know it. The British state faces its biggest geo-political set of challenges in generations. Blair and Iraq, Anthony Eden and Suez pale compared to this in terms of damage to the UK’s reputation, and only Neville Chamberlain and Munich, and Lord North’s loss of the American colonies, are in any way in the same league.

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This is the world of little Britain and Scotland wants no part Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 26th 2016 This is what the death of a nation looks like - petty nationalism, populism, fact-free politics, and surprises everywhere. This is the world of ‘little Britain’ - and it isn’t pretty. These are unpredictable times. There is anger and frustration. Whole sections of British society feel that politicians, elites and experts don’t understand them. Such is their desperation and feeling of powerlessness that many felt that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are the answer. This referendum is about Europe, and

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Whatever happens, Britain has already left the building Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 22nd 2016 The UK has already left Europe. It never really joined in any real sense. National debates like this reveals much about the psyche of a country, and how it sees its collective hopes and fears. For one, it illuminates a lot about the ghosts of the past that haunt a country. In the Scottish indyref, for example, a great deal of this focused on the perceived legacy of Thatcherism and deindustrialisation. In this European debate, the ghosts seemingly ever-present are those of the spectre of

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