Scottish Independence

Minority Report Scotland:  Politics and Ideas in a Substance Free World Gerry Hassan National Collective, September 6th 2013 A week in Scottish politics. Two discussions and two long-term, deep challenges in the independence referendum debate showcased. These are how we address social justice, poverty and exclusion, and the way the mainstream media and broadcasters in particular are portraying this debate. The two examples I wish to draw from are a ‘Newsnight Scotland’ ‘special’ on Monday (September 2^nd) and a ‘Scotland Tonight’ ‘special’ on Thursday (September 5^th).  Both addressed, if that is the right word, the subject of welfare and pensions;

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Scotland’s Big Debate, Mini-Crises and A  Tale of Two Establishments Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 27th 2013 We hear all the time from all quarters and opinions that the independence debate is a historic one and a momentous decision. Sadly often it doesn’t feel like that at the moment, seeming more like the next installment in the Labour-SNP dirty war or a bitter by-election in a closely fought parliamentary seat. The key issues, if you go by what has been in the media in the last few weeks, has been who paid for a newspaper article, whether Labour for Independence

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The Power of the London Scots Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 24th 2013 One of the most powerful group of Scottish opinion formers do not live and work in Scotland, but are the London Scots. This group are never far from the public gaze. They come into focus with the northern exodus of the London and Southern classes at Festival time, personified in Andrew Marr’s recent intervention at the Book Festival about the state of Scotland. Marr stated that, ‘There is a very strong anti-English feeling (in Scotland), everybody knows it’ and that ‘it could become toxic’. Two of his

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What happens after the demise of ‘the Holy Trinity’ of Britishness? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 17th 2013 It has been a week of momentous events. The unfolding Egyptian tragedy, the restarting of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, and in our corner of the world, the first Scotland v. England match in over a decade. It feels inappropriate and insensitive to mention a mere football match in the company of such historic events. Yet, I think with that caveat the game mattered because it offered a glimpse of future possible arrangements. Two neighbours and friends with a rich, shared history, but who

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Unionists, come out and declare your ‘nationalism’ Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 10th 2013 The story is familiar: there is a pesky, partisan, immature nationalism out and about influencing our body politic. This is the account of Scottish nationalism put forward by a range of commentators and public figures. Yet it could as easily be articulated about the ideas of unionism because unionism is at its heart a form of nationalism - British state nationalism. Scottish nationalism has its faults and limitations. It is cautious, conservative and shaped by the characteristics of the society from which it was born. It

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Labour and Independence: The Power of the Past Gerry Hassan National Collective, August 2nd 2013 Beyond the posturing, allegations and counter-allegations of recent days on the vexed subject of Labour for Independence, there are a series of important and often unexplored questions which tell us much about Scottish politics. Why does Labour, ostensibly ‘a non-nationalist, non-unionist party’ in the words of Lallands Peat Worrier’s reflective blog (1), so preclude not only any consideration of independence, but so firmly, trenchantly and aggressively, a rejection of it? The answer is complex, and can be found deep in the history and evolution of

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Britain – no longer the land of the future, but one living in the past Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 27th 2013 Once upon a time many years ago, like many other Scots, I believed in Britain. Britain seemed the future: it had appeal, appeared modern, progressive and full of promise. That now seems a world away from the Britain of today: one which looks to have given up on the future and instead appears content to live permanently in a fictitious past. This is the fantasyland Britain we see before us this week - of a society, culture and

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The Limits of Labour and Nationalist Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 20th 2013 The Scotland of the present is a product of how we understand our past; and the past is always been made, remade and contested. It is not then too surprising that in recent weeks Labour figures such as Brian Wilson and Maria Fyfe in this paper have laid into what they have seen as the over-promotion of the Nationalist tradition – with both criticising visitScotland for profiling Robert McIntyre’s election as SNP MP for Motherwell in 1945. What people like Wilson and others are asserting is

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Living on an Island: Scotland and the London Question Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 29th 2013 May 2015: Boris Johnson wins the UK general election and declares London de facto independent from the rest of the UK, stating that it will from now on keep the taxes it raises and spend most of the money it needs itself. Rewind to today. On a regular basis plaintive pro-union voices can be heard asking when Scotland’s constitutional debate will ever end. The answer is that it won’t, because it will never fully reach a final destination. That is because a large part

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The Long and Winding Road to What Kind of Scotland? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 22nd 2013 The Scottish independence debate has not so far connected or impacted on the vast majority of Scots beyond the politically committed. It is a point Alex Salmond reflected on this week, for his own obvious reasons, but true nonetheless. A small but significant watershed moment took place this week with the conclusion of ‘Road to Referendum’, a three part STV series on Scotland’s recent political history presented by Iain Macwhirter. ‘Road to Referendum’ was well made, persuasive and accessible with good choices of

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