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
Stay Calm: The Country formerly known as the UK is Breaking Up
Stay Calm: The Country formerly known as the UK is Breaking Up Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 5th 2017 Sometimes years go by without domestic and international crises. Then like buses, a whole series of them come along at the same time to the extent that hardly anyone can keep up. It is exhausting to keep up for citizens, the media and the participants directly involved. In the last week, the Scottish Parliament voted 69-59 to hold a second independence referendum, Theresa May finally triggered Article 50 for the UK to leave the EU, and the UK got involved in
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Imagine a Parallel Universe Scotland without the SNP
Imagine a Parallel Universe Scotland without the SNP Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 29th 2017 Nearly every adult in Scotland has an opinion and view on the SNP: the good, the bad, the positive, the negative and the indifferent. The SNP have been a constant presence in public life at least since Winnie Ewing’s famous and oft-cited Hamilton by-election victory: a result which did much to bring into being the modern SNP and the contemporary Scotland we live in. Yet, the SNP are now such a powerful force that it is hard to imagine that only two generations ago it
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Ten Years on the SNP and Scottish nationalism require a different politics for the future
Ten Years on the SNP and Scottish nationalism require a different politics for the future Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 24th 2017 The SNP have been a breath of fresh air to Scotland. Fifty years ago this year the modern SNP emerged with the talismanic victory of Winnie Ewing at the Hamilton by-election, and Scotland was never quite the same again. If you doubt this, think of a Scotland without the SNP. The only way Scots would be able to show their dissatisfaction with Westminster and difference from the rest of the UK would be to remain loyal to
Indyref2 is coming but can we do better than two versions of Little Britain?
Indyref2 is coming but can we do better than two versions of Little Britain? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 15th 2016 The ides of March 2017. One single day - Monday March 13th - will go down as an epic day in the fragmentation of the United Kingdom. The Brexit Bill passed through all its stages in the Commons and Lords shorn of any extra commitments. Nicola Sturgeon announced the prospect of a second independence referendum. And the UK Government in response decided to shelve the triggering of Article 50 for two weeks. That’s without mentioning what is happening in
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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
Prisoners of the Past: Tony Blair, Trump and Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack
Prisoners of the Past: Tony Blair, Trump and Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 22nd 2017 The past is a powerful force and that is even more true in the strange times we are living in. Take the waves of reaction and revulsion emerging last week after Tony Blair came back from the cold to announce his new initiative on Brexit. Blair’s intervention took place at the start of the 20th anniversary of the first New Labour landslide, but also bizarrely after the Commons voted to trigger Article 50, and six days before two critical by-elections for
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The Day Britain Died: Brexit, Trump and Scottish Independence
The Day Britain Died: Brexit, Trump and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 15th 2017 Last week a Rubicon was crossed as the House of Commons voted 494 to 122 – a government majority of 372 - to give a third reading to triggering Article 50. Just as seriously on the same day - Wednesday February 8th 2017 – the UK Government reneged on its promise to take 3,000 child refugees (what was called the Dubs amendment) and slashed the number to 350. If that wasn’t enough the Commons at the same time voted to refuse to offer any
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Scotland’s Radical Tradition is richer and more diverse than ‘Red Clydeside’
Scotland’s Radical Tradition is richer and more diverse than ‘Red Clydeside’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, December 14th 2016 The 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution will be in 2017. The seizure of power by Lenin and Trotsky in October 1917 was one of the central events of the twentieth century, took Russia out of the imperial quagmire that was the First World War, and led to revolutionary uprisings across Europe – from Berlin and Bavaria to Budapest. Scotland had its own mini-version of this in ‘Red Clydeside’ and the series of events between 1911-19 – which saw agitation, protest and
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