Scottish politics

Michael Marra and the Search for the Soul of Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 27th 2012 Scotland has had its moments in the last week: the drama of the SNP NATO vote, the revelations of the EU legal advice, and the tragic death of singer-songwriter Michael Marra. What if anything do politics, legal manoeuvrings and matters of life and death have in common? To take the last first, Michael Marra was a unique talent and voice, a gentle, unassuming man who spoke of his native Dundee, of Scotland and of the world in a quiet yet uncompromising manner which

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An Open Letter to Alex Salmond Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 13th 2012 Dear Alex, Next week you will address the SNP Annual Conference, closer than ever to what you have strived all your political life for: Scottish independence. You need to give a speech like you have never done before. Here are some suggestions. 1. Stop using the same template to shape your speech. Some of us have noticed that you have a habit of giving a rather similar speech year-in, year-out. There is a reference to a cultural figure, usually the Makar, Edwin Morgan. Then there is

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Searching for the ‘New Tartan Tories’ of Scottish Public Life Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 11th 2012 Scottish politics has certainly burst into life in the last two weeks if the scale of overblown rhetoric and insult is any gauge. The catalyst has been Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont’s speech challenging the consequences and cost-effectiveness of certain universal benefits in hardened financial times. The interventions from politicians and the ensuing public discussion tell us some revealing truths about our ability to have honest conversations. Firstly, lets look at some of the language used in this debate. Lamont talked about

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Lets Start the Debate over the Future of Scotland’s Social Democracy Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 29th 2012 A number of pantomime villains have crossed our screens of late with malicious intent on their mind, out to harm vulnerable people, make mischief and engage in duplicity. This is not the latest outing of J.R. Ewing in the return of hit TV series ‘Dallas’. Instead, I am talking about that other retro-outfit seemingly stuck in the 1970s – the Scottish Labour Party – and the dismissive response of many to Johann Lamont’s attack on the ‘something for nothing’ culture of

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Scotland’s Democratic Revolution is Long Overdue Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 15th 2012 Scottish devolution was always going to produce centralisation, such as the Procurement Reform Bill along with single police and fire forces, and at the same time the rhetoric of change seen in the current Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill. It is over a year since the publication of the Christie Commission and as financial circumstances tighten, never has the time been more ripe for radical reform. One approach is already on offer: the English marketisation route beloved by Andrew Lansley when he was at health; an alternative

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Time to Wake Up to the Realities of Fantasy Island Britain Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 13th 2012 The ‘phoney war’ of the referendum long debate seems like it is slowly coming to an end with Nicola Sturgeon’s appointment as SNP campaign head. In so doing, it has illustrated the paucity of much of what has passed for discussion so far. There are significant omissions and avoidances on the Nationalist side - the presentation of independence as continuity, a new state of affairs where everything can be different and the same, and where we can still be British and

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The Language and Philosophy of Our Politics is the Problem Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 8th 2012 The British party conference season just began this week with the gathering of the Greens (of England and Wales) with their new leader, Natalie Bennett. This has become increasingly not just an age of economic crisis, but one of how politics is done and articulated across the West, from Scotland and the UK to the wider world. People are anxious, concerned, worried about money, bills, household debts, the future of their children and grandchildren and more. They crucially in large numbers don’t

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The problem we have with some men in public life Gerry Hassan The Scoisman, August 25th 2012 Politics and public life have for centuries been male dominated and while there have been huge changes in the last few decades too many men still seem to live in a different age. In the last week with the Julian Assange extradition case, we have witnessed George Galloway and Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, venture into territory no one should go into. Then there was Ian Davidson’s combative behaviour towards Isabel Fraser, followed up by Michael Kelly in these pages

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Is Scotland Really the Social Democratic Country It Proclaims? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 18th 2012 There is a widespread assumption across most if not all of Scotland that this is a land of the centre-left; that we don’t vote Tory, didn’t buy into Thatcherism, and that we are all the children of social democracy. Leaving aside the Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys on Scots/English differences (which show there aren’t that big differences), there is a prevalent belief that centre-left, left and collectivist values percolate through and define our society. Some voices on the left believe that they speak for

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The Scotland of Equality and Fairness: If We Want It We Have To Will It Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 28th 2012 The Scottish Government announcement on same sex marriage brought forth responses for and against, but one of the most common among supporters was to see it as proof of our progressive characteristics. ‘Well done Scotland showing you are progressive’ and ‘Scotland – compassionate and inclusive’ were just two of many similar comments on the social media site twitter. This was Scotland as ‘a beacon for progressive opinion’ in Alex Salmond’s words – a tale many of us

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