Scottish politics

Why the Reform Bandwagon is coming to Scotland – and what can be done to stop it? Sunday National, 25 May 2025 Gerry Hassan Nigel Farage and Reform are on the march across England, Wales and Scotland. What was once seen as purely an English (as well as Welsh) phenomenon is now making clear inroads in Scotland. In the past few weeks Reform have risen to 21% in Westminster voting intentions in Scotland and 20% in one Scottish Parliament poll in regional list voting intentions. This would make them the main opposition party to the SNP and dramatically alter

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The Road from 2014 is Over: A New Road Map is needed for Scotland and Independence Sunday National, 27 April 2025 Gerry Hassan Scottish politics has had some climatic moments recently - the UK Supreme Court decision on women’s and trans rights; the SNP and Labour trying to deal with the challenge of Reform; and the brief excitement of an opinion poll with a sensational degree of independence support. Beyond this Scottish politics is characterised by drift and by being in the doldrums with a lack of dynamism, direction and purpose –

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Get Ready for the Age of Disruption Coming to Scotland! Sunday National, December 29th 2024 Gerry Hassan Politics everywhere across the West is shaped by failure, exhaustion and unpopularity in the mainstream - and increasingly by anger and rage amongst voters. Both Scotland and the UK are no exception. Labour’s election victory with 34% of the vote was the smallest in history for a party winning an overall parliamentary majority. Since then it has been downhill all the way with a government showing a lack of sure-footedness and political acumen on issue after issue, and with no sense of how

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Labour, the Starmer Project, the Battle for Britain and Our Collective Future Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 24 November 2024  We are nearly five months into this Labour government - elected after 14 years of Tory government mired in scandal, division and failure which the public were desperate to see the back of. Why then does it already feel as if this government is running to stand still, barely able to articulate what its vision, and nervous about the kind of Britain it wants to bring about? What consequences does this have for challenging the status quo; for healing a broken

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Ten Years on from 2014: Making Sense of the Next Ten Years of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 29 September 2024 The ten-year anniversary of Scotland’s indyref has come and gone relatively unmarked. For something which shook things up so much it was very quiet and understated, a low-key affair from every political persuasion, media and academia. This does not mean that the ten-year point is not significant. Rather it is a time to pause, to draw breath and reflect on what has passed, on the bigger context and forces changing Scotland and the UK, and what the future may

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Scotland Ten Years On from the Indyref Gerry Hassan Bella  Caledonia, 18 September 2024 Ten years ago today Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain in the UK union and against independence. This was a momentous, historic watershed under which we are still living, not yet having come to terms with its consequences and continued influence. Many across the political spectrum, pro and anti-independence, have struggled post-2014. But most of the mainstream politicians who participated in the 2014 campaign, including SNP senior figures and strategists, failed to see the indyref at the time in its wider context - of a

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Where stands the SNP and independence? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 2 September 2024 The SNP conference met in Edinburgh over the past weekend. It was an understated affair compared to the huge gatherings in the years post-2014. The mood was not surprisingly of a diminished party in numbers, appeal and rationale - but at the same time less demoralised and defeated than might have been expected. Rather party members at least on the surface appeared to still have some spirit and energy. This begs the question were they just putting on a brave face, do they have an inner core

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Project: The Next SNP. Deadline: Post-2026 Election Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 25 August 2024 The SNP meets next weekend in Edinburgh in a state of transition which marks the end of one political era - that of SNP dominance - and the beginning of a new era. The SNP is experiencing a mix of emotions in having to navigate a very different political environment from the one that it has become used to since 2007. It has experienced election defeat, political turbulence - and a crisis of party, government and independence. The SNP used to have a positive narrative and

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Are we witnessing the Strange Death of Nationalist Scotland? Gerry Hassan New Statesman, 29 July 2024 Twelve years ago, I co-wrote The Strange Death of Labour Scotland – a historical account of how Labour’s dominance of Scotland ended. At the first public event held to discuss the book, the land reform campaigner Andy Wightman commented rather prophetically that “in a decade you will be writing the follow-up - “The Strange Death of Nationalist Scotland”. And so, it has come to pass. In the 2024 election, Labour swept back from near-extinction in 2015 to take 37 seats, reducing the SNP to

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Three Futures of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 28 July 2024 Understand the present and shaping the future depends on understanding the past. Sometimes difficult through the noise, smog and smirr, but during disruption and change it is more necessary than ever. The major shifts experienced by Scotland over the past 25 years - the establishment of the Parliament following the emphatic victory for self-government in the 1997 referendum; the SNP’s coming to office in 2007; followed by the 2014 indyref bringing the idea of independence centrestage and into the mainstream, where it has remained since – are seismic. Yet

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