Time to be Bold in Making a New Scottish Democracy!
Time to Be Bold in Making a New Scottish Democracy! Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 19th 2013 We hear all the time that a ‘historic decision’ awaits Scots next year but so far this has seemed like a typical Scots campaign as nervous forces of change face a techy displaced establishment and a media unsure of its role. All this in the context of traditional institutions declining, new ways of organising and social media emerging, and a country dramatically changed in the last three decades, which ‘official Scotland’ finds difficult to fully grasp. Our traditional politics struggle with this. The
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A Memo to James Naughtie on his Return to Scotland
A Memo to James Naughtie on his Return to Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 10th 2013 Dear Jim, It has come to my attention that you planning to move north to cover the independence referendum, admittedly for only two days a week. Since you last worked in Scotland in 1977 a lot has altered that you might find at first a bit bewildering. Scotland has changed, not entirely in ways immediately apparent or straightforward. Some institutions which have the same names as 36 years ago have changed, nearly totally out of recognition. New bodies and different ways of things
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What did devolution ever do for Easterhouse?
What did devolution ever do for Easterhouse? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 5th 2013 Labour likes to think that ‘devolution’, like the NHS is its exclusive project. ‘We legislated for the Scottish Parliament’ you hear on occasion from numerous party spokespeople. This is proprietorial, but there is also a Labour story which stresses that devolution is about changing Scotland, better governance and improving lives, differentiating it from the Tories and SNP. However, Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in the last week made remarks at Labour conference which seem to raise questions about how the party sees
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The Independence Debate is not a Non-Event but Changing Scotland
The Independence Debate is not a Non-Event but Changing Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 28th 2013 How often have you heard it said: the independence referendum is a non-event and as boring as paint drying? This has become the uncontested view of part of mainstream Scotland and many in public life and the media. Last week ‘Newsnight Scotland’ anchor Gordon Brewer stated as fact that the whole thing was ‘dull as dishwater’, while others regularly pronounce that it is ‘turning off voters’, ‘deadening’ and ‘never-ending’. It is a cliché, caricature and articulating a world-weary, cynical, Paxmanesque attitude of condescension.
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Scotland’s comforting stories and the missing voices of public life
Scotland’s comforting stories and the missing voices of public life Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 24th 2013 Scotland in its politics, culture and sense of its identity likes to tell itself a comforting story. There was once a Labour Scotland optimistic story of lifting working people up, and now there is a Nationalist account about the possibilities of independence. There is even a positive pro-union version that has not been fully articulated in public for many years. All of these are partial accounts, and one of the many challenges they face is the continued existence of negative stories which emphasise
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The UK is not skint – it is a playground for the rich and privileged
The UK is not skint – it is a playground for the rich and privileged Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 21st 2013 It has been Scotland’s week in the news with British and world media flocking north to cover the story of one year to the referendum. Such coverage paints a particular Scottish story by necessity and tends to leave the wider picture of what has changed and what needs to change at a British level. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a strange land; not technically a nation but a state. It is a unique
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Yes to a Different Scotland
Yes to a Different Scotland Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 18th 2013 One year to the Scottish independence referendum. A historic milestone. A host of mainstream media programmes, discussions and items yesterday and today are marking it. One of the most important was ‘Newsnight’s’ Berwick upon Tweed programme on Tuesday broadcast to a British wide audience which looked as though it was filmed in the ‘Great British Bake Off’ tent! The programme was revealing and fascinating, from Kirsty Wark’s conspicuous slips showing her bias, to Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State’s constant reciting of the word ‘separation’ in her opening
Fighting Poverty is about more than the Bedroom Tax
Fighting Poverty is about more than the Bedroom Tax Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 14th 2013 This week’s Scottish Government Budget for 2014-15 and 2015-16 saw battlelines drawn on who and how best to mitigate the worst effects of the bedroom tax. Now in a week when the UN special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik weighed in against the measure, it has to be recognised that this is not the main challenge facing welfare in Scotland. In terms of the UK government’s recent welfare policies, the new guidelines in relation to the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) with their harsh regime of sanctions and
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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
Scotland is Different and not that Different: But what does it mean?
Scotland is Different and not that Different: But what does it mean? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 7th 2013 Scotland is different. Everybody who lives or works here or knows anything about Scotland recognises this. Scotland has had a distinctive history, traditions, institutions and set of experiences. Unlike Wales, it never fully disappeared, even at the height of unionist Britain, and remained a legal and administrative entity and not part of ‘Greater England’. All of this meant that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was relatively simple and straightforward, building on the legacy of over a century of
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