Brexit is aiding the break-up of Britain but this crisis has deeper roots
Brexit is aiding the break-up of Britain but this crisis has deeper roots Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 20th 2018 Brexit isn’t going well. Two years after the referendum vote for the UK to leave the EU there is still no agreed plan on what kind of Brexit the UK Government wants. Theresa May’s administration staggers from day to day - too weak to dare to define what it stands for - facing regular crises, critical parliamentary votes and defeats. Last week, after Scottish affairs was reduced to 15 minutes in the House of Commons, the SNP walked out during
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The Good Ship Britannia Sinks Below the Waves: Scotland, Brexit and the Thoughts of Tim Shipman
The Good Ship Britannia Sinks Below the Waves: Scotland, Brexit and the Thoughts of Tim Shipman Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, June 13th 2018 The events of the last two days have shown how the British establishment, political classes and their supporters view the UK. There is the contempt and chaos in the Brexit process; ‘Taking Back Control’ has come down to running roughshod over parliamentary processes, Henry VIII powers, with Scotland being treated with the disdain of a mere fifteen-minute non-debate on the key Brexit bill. Similarly, crocodile tears for Northern Ireland were shown to be empty - with no
Alex Salmond, Showbiz and whatever happened to the politics of optimism?
Alex Salmond, Showbiz and whatever happened to the politics of optimism? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 16th 2017 All political leaders have a certain limited shelf life. If they are very successful and lucky they win elections, hold power and make decisions, but the public eventually grow tired and wary of their constant public presence. The twilight years and long goodbyes of the likes of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ted Heath and his thirty year grudge with Thatcher, are all examples of how difficult many find the transition. Thatcher, whatever your political views of her, won three elections in a
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A Summer of Discontent in Scotland’s Independence Movement
A Summer of Discontent in Scotland’s Independence Movement Gerry Hassan Sceptical Scot, August 9th 2017 It isn’t a happy time for the Scottish independence movement. To some it seems like the silly season; to others a summer of discontent. But clearly something is going on which matters for the state of Scottish politics and the cause of independence. The context is important. The SNP reverse in the 2017 election came as an unwelcome shock to many independence supporters. It has thrown many post-2014 assumptions into the air concerning the inevitability of another independence referendum, its timing and result. The differences
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Scotching the Myths of Modern Scotland
Scotching the Myths of Modern Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 7th 2017 Cultures and nations live by myths. This has been so since the dawn of civilisation and has never been more apparent in recent weeks, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London that have so dominated the first half of 2017 in Britain and the UK general election. The popular slogan invoking the spirit of the Blitz and World War Two - ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ - embodies how the British like to see themselves when under pressure. There is stoicism, a
‘When I hear the word Scotland I want to say: ‘Shut the Fuck Up”
‘When I hear the word Scotland I want to say: ‘Shut the Fuck Up’’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 3rd 2017 ‘When I hear the word Scotland, I want to say: ‘Shut the Fuck Up.’’ These were the emotive words someone said at a public event in Newcastle I spoke at exactly one year to the day after the 2014 indyref. They undoubtedly voiced the views of a part of the country - by that I mean a part of England. But at the same time their anger and loss of patience taps into something that is clearly going on
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The Continuing Battle for Scotland: Goodbye to British politics and Goodbye to Britain?
The Continuing Battle for Scotland: Goodbye to British politics and Goodbye to Britain? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, April 19th 2017 The age of perma-campaigning and elections continues in Scotland. Theresa May’s snap election, supposedly to give her a mandate for Brexit which she already had, will be Scotland’s seventh visit to the polls in the last three years. For some of us, a select few, this is nirvana. For many more it is an unwanted intrusion. But while mainstream media vox pops show us the now legendary Brenda from Bristol say how disgusted she is at having to vote again,
A Scotland without Nationalism
A Scotland without Nationalism Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 19th 2017 Wouldn’t it be great to live in a Scotland without nationalism? That is the clarion call put forward regularly by opponents of the SNP and independence. Nationalism is a worldwide phenomenon - although many popular discussions, including those in Scotland, take place without offering any definition. Yet, the late James Kellas spent his academic life studying nationalism, described it as: Nationalism is both an ideology and a form of behaviour … In all cases, nationalism seeks to defend and promote the interests of the nation … Nationalist behaviour is
Nationalism – Scottish or British – is never enough. It always says: ‘We are the Good Guys’
Nationalism – Scottish or British – is never enough. It always says: ‘We are the Good Guys’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 8th 2017 Nationalism is one of the defining features of Scotland and modern Scotland. Last week UK Prime Minister Theresa May came north to the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow, asking the Scots to think again, lambasting the SNP and their ‘constitutional obsessions’ and ‘tunnel vision nationalism’. Apart from the ridiculousness of the first point, considering the UK Government’s obsession with Brexit, the second was in the tradition known the world over of majority nationalisms (British) lecturing minority
Could Scotland really be reduced to the status of a region?
Could Scotland really be reduced to the status of a region? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 18th 2017 When did present day Scotland begin? Not the ‘modern’ Scotland of post-war times, or the upside and then downside of Labour Scotland. But the land that we visibly live in today – shaped by the ghosts of industries long gone and the sins and excesses of Thatcher and Blair. The conventional answer is 1979: the ‘Year Zero’ of Scottish sensibilities when, for many, the world was turned upside down with election of the Thatcher Government and the stalled first devolution referendum. However,
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