Scottish Independence

How not to do a break-up: Brexit and lessons for Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, December 9th 2020 Today is 1,630 days since the UK narrowly voted for Brexit – and Scotland along with Northern Ireland voted Remain. ‘Taking Back Control’ was meant to be simple, smooth and straightforward, according to its adherents. It was meant to be ‘the easiest trade deal in history’ where the UK held all the cards in any negotiation. And so the Brexit denialism continues with David Davis, former Minister for Brexit, saying on Monday that ‘we must remember that Britain has nothing to

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Independence is a story about all of us – and there is serious work to do Gerry Hassan Sunday National, December 6th 2020 2020 has been the year of many striking things. It has been a year of progress for Scottish independence. A raft of polls show a consistent majority for independence and the SNP is polling strongly. Nicola Sturgeon is massively more popular than Boris Johnson; while the SNP’s trust ratings on a range of issues is impressive. All of which points towards the likelihood of a pro-independence majority in seats and votes in the 2021 elections. Some independence

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The SNP, independence and the politics of solidarity Gerry Hassan The National, November 30th 2020 The SNP annual conference was, like all party gatherings at the moment, a strange affair conducted through virtual discussions connecting thousands of homes and living rooms. This gave it a decent social media footprint, but restricted what broadcasters had to cover and portray to the wider nation. This conference was the starting gun for the 2021 elections, with the major chance for any cut through being Nicola Sturgeon’s keynote address on St. Andrew’s Day. This was carried by most broadcasters - with the right-wing

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The Pressures of Success: What Independence has to do to win Gerry Hassan Sunday National, November 15th 2020 It has been a historic week, and we are only half way through the month. Trump defeated, Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street, a COVID-19 vaccine, fourteen polls in a row for independence, and - to top it all - the Scottish men’s football team qualifying for the Euros. Things are looking up. Being in a winning position changes everything. It brings fresh questions, expectations and pressures. There is the cumulative effect of the SNP being in office by 2021 for fourteen years

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The UK is increasingly run by corporate insiders. And Scotland is, too Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, October 27^th 2020 Politics has always been about power – who has it, how they exercise it, in whose interests they use it. Yet, increasingly politics has become associated with a professional elite who live, breathe (and have only ever worked in) politics and are, in how they see the world, divorced from the vast majority of the population. This group operate as a self-serving selectorate, sometimes described in the UK as a ‘chumocracy’. As we’ve seen with Boris Johnson, the corporate class and

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Let’s Talk about Power in Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, October 25th 2020 Britain is broken. Its state and government is callous, indifferent and incapable of looking after the interests of the people. And even more so, the British establishment – old and new – only cares about itself and its cronies. As Britain is engulfed in multiple crises, we cannot just sit back and idly watch and assume that we are different and morally better here. We have to prove that this is so, and embody it in our actions. The now well-used term ‘British establishment’ slipped into popular

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Is This The Tipping Point of Scottish Independence? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, October 18th 2020 Independence is the new normal and the mainstream. This is a huge historic shift and moment. It is a dramatic change and opportunity that will require a very different politics and attitude compared to 2014. Then independence represented the insurgents and outsiders, the new kids on the block, shaking the insiders, taking independence in from the cold and the margins. This is independence’s tipping point – or getting close to that point; the moment when everything changes: the argument, context and how the public see

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The Legacy of Donald Dewar and Scotland’s Stories: Past, Present and Future Gerry Hassan Sunday National, October 11th 2020 Twenty years ago today Donald Dewar tragically died at the age of 63. His loss was an incalculable one to the fledgling Scottish Parliament and to Scottish Labour: the first institution eventually finding its feet, while the second lost its way. Dewar was Scotland’s first ever First Minister who presided over the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. He reasserted Labour’s devolution commitment when others doubted it and, in the months following the 1997 Labour election victory as Scottish Secretary of State,

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Donald Dewar and the Lost Story of Devolution Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, October 8th 2020 A significant and poignant moment in Scotland’s recent history comes up this weekend on Sunday, with the 20^th anniversary of the tragic death of the first ever First Minister Donald Dewar at the age of 63. Donald Dewar was a profoundly decent person, imbued with an older sense of public mission and morality, who often seemed out of kilter with the times - drawing from a deep reservoir of how the middle and professional classes used to behave. His death robbed the Scottish Parliament of

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The Brexit power grab and the collapse of British conservatism Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, September 30th 2020 In the midst of a pandemic and the prospect of No Deal Brexit the UK Government continues its path of self-harm and self-destruction – with a central place given to the UK internal market bill. Such is the normalisation of irresponsible uber-right-wing politics, aided by the long-term ratchet effect of Brexit, that this watershed bill - tearing up legal agreements and trashing the UK’s reputation further – that was once much commented upon now is taken as the norm. When the UK

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