Scottish Independence

The disunited Kingdom and the confusion in Britain's political elites Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 5th 2015 Scotland is still making the news. The tartan tsunami that is the SNP surge shows little to no sign of abating as election day approaches. Beyond Scotland’s shores the UK and international media are making frequent references to the debate north of the border. Strangely some of this coverage – mostly in London based outlets – is even more ill-informed and inaccurate than was seen during the indyref. This is itself no mean feat. Then most neutral and pro-union opinion thought No would win.

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An Exchange with ‘the Economist’ on Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan April 2nd 2015 ‘The Economist’ has a problem with Scottish independence from its infamous ‘Skintland’ front cover to its editorial view and general language it chooses to use. In the last three years, it has consistently used a pejorative language to describe the Scottish independence case, moving me to write pointing this out. They did not publish my letter, but felt moved to reply attempting to rebuff my points. (more…)

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Time for a Future Scotland of Head and Heart: A Challenge to Independence and the Union Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, March 22nd 2015 Scotland for many at the moment feels an exciting place. But for others there is a sense of dismay and confusion. The latter is particularly evident in pro-union opinion. This week, ‘The Times’ commentator Magnus Linklater agreed with William McIlvanney’s recent revision of L.P. Hartley’s ‘the past is a foreign country’, referencing Scotland - ‘when you get to my age the present is a foreign country’. Linklater agreed. He noted falling oil prices, the economic balance

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The tartan tsunami and how It will change Scotland and the UK for good Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, March 20th 2015 The UK general election campaign is upon us – struggling to make sense of the state of the country and how its institutions and politics are seen. Underneath all the political rhetoric and exchange we are about to witness is tangible anxiety and unsureness about who ‘we’ are and the very existence, or not, of a ‘we’ in terms of connection, culture and collective memories - which can be found equally on both left and right. Scotland has

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Is David Cameron the Biggest Threat to the Union? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, March 15th 2015 Scotland has become one of the main issues in the forthcoming UK election. It is not only that Jim Murphy and Ed Miliband feel anxious about the number of Labour seats they will hold in Scotland and the extent of the SNP juggernaut. What is also true is how Scotland is playing out in Conservative strategy and how David Cameron is using it to hurt Labour in two ways. First, he is aiming to hurt them in England and take votes from them with

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What happens to the Spirit of 2014? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, December 21^st 2014 It has been an action packed 2014. Scotland’s year has witnessed drama, theatre and spectacle: the Commonwealth Games, First World War anniversaries, the Ryder Cup, and of course, the Big Day in September - the independence referendum. Scotland voted to stay in the union for now, but changed in the process, became more self-confident and more sure in its capacity to self-govern itself. The UK political classes seemed less sure-footed by the day. The spirit of 2014 witnessed the greatest democratic expression of Scots ever seen

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Message to the Messengers Part Two: Where next after the indy referendum? Gerry Hassan Scottish Left Project, December 12th 2014 The winds of change are without doubt blowing through Scotland. There is the decline of traditional power and institutions, the hollowing out and, in places, implosion of some of the key anchor points of public life and a fundamental shift in authority in many areas. This is Scotland’s ‘long revolution’ – which the indyref was a product of and which then was a catalyst of further change. It is partly understandable that in the immediate aftermath of the referendum,

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Message to the Messengers: What do we do after Yes? Gerry Hassan Scottish Left Project, December 5th 2014 It is a frenetic, dynamic time to be living in Scotland – politically, culturally and in many other aspects of public life. Nearly three months since the momentous indyref Scotland is still gripped by a sense of movement, possibilities and new openings – up to and beyond the 2015 and 2016 elections. Yet at the same time in parts of the independence movement there are unrealistic expectations of political change, of belief that the union is finished, and that Scotland can embark

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What kind of Scotland does Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP want? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 12th 2014 Scotland and Scottish politics are in unchartered waters. The post-indyref has shaken and rearranged the normal reference points: SNP membership has gone through the roof, while the Labour ‘winners’ have laid claim to putting on a paltry 1,000 members. Amid all the noise and debate, there is in the confusion, an eerie lack of substantive discussion, as people try to find their way. In the Labour Party a clutch of left-wingers believe that their core problem is the party’s embrace north

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Time Travel: the Parallel Universe of Post-ref Scotland and the Voice of Doubt Gerry Hassan Twenty five years ago this coming Sunday an event occurred which changed our lives and is still shaping much of the modern world: the fall of the Berlin Wall. This brought about the demise of the Soviet bloc, the end of the Yalta settlement which had divided Europe from 1945, the unification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it, its monolithic variant of Communism and any aspirations it had to making and being the future. Much of the last 25

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