Scottish Nationalists

Kezia, Jezza and Indy: Where are the Big Ideas of the Next Scotland? Gerry Hassan This week the SNP hit a new high mark in the polls - 62% for next year’s Scottish elections. Elsewhere Kezia Dugdale was elected Scottish Labour leader as the Jeremy Corbyn bandwagon came to much acclaim north of the border. What do you with popularity? It is a question politicians seldom have to answer. The nearest equivalent to the SNP now is Blair’s New Labour – which, less we forget, was once hugely popular. There is the question of where opposition comes from and what

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Time for an Independence of the Scottish Mind Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 9th 2015 A second independence may be off the agenda of SNP conference for now, but Alex Salmond regards it as ‘inevitable’. Such are the pressures and tensions of success. Where do you take a movement which came close to winning independence last September? How do you balance pragmatic and idealist hopes? What do you after the SNP ‘tartan tsunami’ of May this year which carried nearly all before it – and, when your opponents are so weak and disorientated? There is talk in places of a

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The Nationalist Lion Roars at Westminster! Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 19th 2015 The times are changing in Scotland and Britain: the SNP impact at Westminster; Tory maneouvres to hurt, harm and trap Labour on union reform and welfare, and the vacuum of Labour and Lib Dems post-election defeat. The SNP scored early blood on fox-hunting and English votes for English laws – forcing government postponement on the first and regrouping and redrafting on the second. This has produced Tory anger and fury at the Nationalists, and eventually see the Tories attempt to get their revenge. A significant part of

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The Rise and Fall of the House of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan June 22nd 2015 The story of the Scottish Labour Party was, until recently, one of the defining stories of Scotland over most of the 20^th century. First there was its rise - the emergence of ‘Red Clydeside’ and the socialist pioneers, and how radicalism gave way to respectability. Second, there was the ‘golden era’ of action and purpose - of Tom Johnston, and the big ideas and schemes, which began to fade as Labour morphed in the 1960s and 1970s into the political establishment. And finally, there has

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The SNP Ascendancy is changing Scotland and the SNP Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 14th 2015 The Scottish sun is out, and summer is approaching. This is true not just of the weather but reflects the mood of the SNP, their popularity, and especially that of leader Nicola Sturgeon. In the last week a TNS opinion poll for next year’s Scottish Parliament election put the SNP on 60% and Labour 19% in the constituency vote - a historic all-time high and low respectively. This would give the SNP a second overall majority and more seats than it won in its

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Are we really a nation of equality and fairness? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, May 24th 2015 Scotland is one of the hot subjects of the moment. This is true even in places that usually ignore us - such as Westminster. One take from the centre-left Compass pressure group is that Scotland is the progressive future they would like to see across the UK. Another from disgruntled Labourites wants to get even with the SNP for taking so many parliamentary colleagues from them. It feels good to be talked about. But actually these voices aren’t really interested in Scotland. Instead, they

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Scotland’s Peaceful Revolution and the End of the Old Britain Gerry Hassan The Hindu, May 16th 2015 Britain feels and looks very different now from only a week ago. The general election threw up many surprises - the re-election of a majority Conservative Government, the scale of the Scottish National Party (SNP) landslide, and Scotland and England pointing in completely opposite political directions. The SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies, reducing the dominant Labour Party north of the border from 41 seats at the previous election to a single seat. A whole host of luminaries lost their seats including

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A Tale of Two Nations. And Two Leaders Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, May 10th 2015 We awoke on Friday morning to a very different world. A nearly completely yellow Scotland. A bluer England. And a patchwork Wales. The first majority Tory Government elected since 1992 whilst Scotland passed in one night from Labour dominance to an even more impressive SNP strength. These and more things weren’t meant to happen. David Cameron’s re-election as Prime Minister with a majority has taken many people by surprise. No UK Government sitting for a full term has seen its vote rise since Anthony

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Scotland embarks on a New Era Gerry Hassan Irish Times, May 9th 2015 Scotland has had landmark Westminster elections before. There was 1997 when Scotland voted out every Tory MP. Then in October 1974 there was the first ever Scottish-wide Nationalist surge; in 1955 there was the high tide of Tory Unionism when they won over half the votes and seats; and in 1922 Labour broke through for the first time and ‘Red Clydeside’ went to Westminster. This is one of those moments - and more. History has been made by the collective expression of the Scottish people. Records have

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A Cut Out and Keep Guide to Understanding the 2015 General Election in Scotland Gerry Hassan May 5th 2015 This has been an election campaign like no other in living memory in Scotland. While Westminster commentators have regularly stated that this is the ‘most boring’ and ‘risk free’ election they can ever remember, north of the border nothing like this has ever been seen before. Scotland is on the cusp of huge political change which could see Scottish Labour’s Westminster political establishment vanquished, and a new political dispensation and map of the country created, which will not only have

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