Scottish Labour Party

Scottish Labour and how the World As We Know It Turned Upside Down Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, February 8th 2015 The Scotland we have known has been turned upside down. Once Scottish politics followed certain, predictable lines. Scottish Labour had become the dominant party of the land. It sent 40-50 MPs to Westminster, ran most of local government, and in huge swathes of Scotland no real opposition existed. All empires come to an end. And so it has proven with Scottish Labour. The party which was on the winning side of the independence referendum now finds itself facing electoral Armageddon

Continue Reading Scottish Labour and how the World As We Know It Turned Upside Down

The Myth of ‘Glasgow Man’ Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, February 1^st 2015 ‘Glasgow man’ is expected to be a critical factor in the forthcoming general election contest in Scotland. He, or it, is central to Jim Murphy’s attempt to save Scottish Labour and win back 200,000 Labour supporters who voted Yes in the referendum. It is also pivotal to the SNP’s attempt to breakthrough in traditional Labour seats. Glasgow man is shorthand for a certain political demographic - the equivalent of ‘Basildon man’ who supposedly won it for Thatcher, and of ‘Mondeo man’ who contributed to Blair’s three election

Continue Reading The Myth of ‘Glasgow Man’

Jim Murphy’s ‘Clause Four’ Moment and ‘Putting Scotland First’ Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, January 11^th 2015 Jim Murphy has to do some simple things right now - as well as some difficult ones. He has to get noticed, cause a noise and get up certain people’s noses. Murphy faces some significant challenges. He has a short time span in which to make an impact on, and make a difference to, Labour’s electoral prospects for the May 7^th UK general election - and how it is seen by the electorate. Both are tough asks. Who was the last Scottish Labour leader

Continue Reading Jim Murphy’s ‘Clause Four’ Moment and ‘Putting Scotland First’

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,

Continue Reading Message to the Messengers Part Two: Where next after the indy referendum?

The Arrival of Jim Murphy and Scottish Labour’s Challenge Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, December 14^th 2014 A once impregnable organisation is in trouble and lost its way. It yearns for a now distant golden age and has continual problems of leadership and falling ratings. The above is about Glasgow Rangers FC, but it could be equally true of Scottish Labour. Two pillars of the Scottish establishment now on hard times. Scottish Labour yesterday elected Jim Murphy as its seventh leader in fifteen years, and Kezia Dugdale as deputy leader. That degree of change is the mark of an institution where

Continue Reading The Arrival of Jim Murphy and Scottish Labour’s Challenge

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

Continue Reading What kind of Scotland does Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP want?

Does Scottish Labour Really Want to Change? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, November 2^nd 2014 What is the point of Scottish Labour? Apart from providing good copy, entertainment and stories of endless political infighting and gossip. This is the question Labour’s three declared candidates need to answer: Jim Murphy, MP, and Sarah Boyack and Neil Findlay, both MSPs. And after the resignation of Johann Lamont and Anas Sarwar as leader and deputy, the party now faces the challenge of electing an entire new leadership team. Will the party wake up and smell the scent of decay which surrounds it? It

Continue Reading Does Scottish Labour Really Want to Change?

Scottish Labour: The Never-ending Soap Opera That Matters Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 29th 2014 Scottish Labour loves talking about itself.  The evidence for this is everywhere in the last few days, in print media, TV and radio studios, and social media. Organisations which have lost their way, which are in decline and crisis, often do this as a displacement activity. Think of the Tories ‘banging on’ about Europe, or the BBC post-Savile. Such behaviour is never a good sign. It makes people think their internal obsessions are important, and that the minutiae of such debates matter to the

Continue Reading Scottish Labour: The Never-ending Soap Opera That Matters

We are One Scotland: Anatomy of a Referendum Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 24th 2014 It was a momentous moment in Scottish and British history. The Scottish independence referendum. It dominated Scottish and British airwaves in the last couple of weeks, and became a huge international story. Nearly every single cliché has been dug up, used and then over-used to exhaustion. What then as the excitement, claim and counter-claim quieten down, is there left to say and do? Actually, there is quite a lot. Let’s talk about the immediate reactions post-vote from the Scottish and British political classes. They both

Continue Reading We are One Scotland: Anatomy of a Referendum

Is Scottish Labour Having a Good Independence Referendum? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 9th 2014 Scotland is on the move. The polls have shown a significant shift towards Yes. One poll so far has produced a Yes lead, a watershed moment not just in the campaign, but also in the history of Scotland and the UK. Change is all around us. There is the enthusiasm of Yes; the incompetence and fear of No; the distrust in Westminster, Cameron and Miliband (the latter two earning each 23% trust ratings in Scotland), and the quiet sentiment that the Scottish Parliament is best

Continue Reading Is Scottish Labour Having a Good Independence Referendum?