Scottish Review

The world turned upside down and living with hurt and loss Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 22 September 2021 The past eighteen months have witnessed tumultuous, unprecedented times for everyone on this planet. A global pandemic has ripped through our lives turning them upside down and in the process killing nearly five million people globally on official records, alongside just under 250 million people falling ill. In the face of this government, scientists, public health experts and media have struggled to comprehend the complexity, epidemiology of the virus, and role of government in temporarily restricting freedoms to reduce death and protect

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Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon: A Tale of Two Very Different Leaders and Parties Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 15 September 2021 Last weekend the world marked 20 years since the 9/11 attacks, while many of us were absorbed in the birth of a new British tennis star, Emma Raducanu, as she sensationally won the US Open on Saturday evening at the age of eighteen. There were also the rival attractions of the annual conference of the SNP, this year held online, and the inaugural conference of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party in Greenock Town Hall. Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon

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The World Turned Upside Down: Life after 9/11 and the West’s War Machine Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 8 September 2021 Twenty years ago, the world changed dramatically on 11 September 2001 when al-Qaeda attacked the USA and overturned the post-Cold War assumptions of the West. Prior to this, in the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West believed in its in superiority with ‘the end of history’, ‘the clash of civilisations’, a belief in globalisation, progress and increasing prosperity. All were to be tested in the next two decades and found wanting. The aftermath of that dramatic

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The Limits of Seeing Glasgow in Black and White Terms Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 1 September 2021 Last weekend Rangers and Celtic met in the first ‘Old Firm’ derby of the season. Hotly anticipated in some quarters and dreaded in others, it was marked by a Rangers victory with supporters of the club then walking through the city centre singing anti-Irish, anti-Catholic songs full of bigotry and hate, while police officers passively watched them. We have been here so many times before in the strange world of Scottish football that the senses of many are numbed, while others choose to

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Looking back on the Scotland of 1979 and past visions of the future Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 24 August 2021 Last week I was speaking to a close friend about some of the big things in life - family, childhood, growing up, parents – and the impact all these have on who you become and how you remember and interpret the past. I recalled a photo of myself aged 15 in my home in Edzell Court, Ardler, Dundee (see above) which I had used to illustrate an article in the past year. Sitting on my bedroom floor, I was happy

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The Afghan War and the Problem that is the West Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 18 August 2021 The Afghan War has ended in abject failure. A failure whose shape, consequences and brutality will only be fully clear as it is played out in the coming weeks, months and years. In response the UK Government has recalled Parliament to sit on Wednesday, confirming the impotence of the UK. Events on the ground have overtaken the US and UK authorities and other Western capitals. In places there appears a dereliction of duty with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab caught AWOL on holiday

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‘All Things Must Pass’, 'Sgt. Pepper' and what happens after the human race? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 11th 2021 Just over a week ago I was immersing myself in the Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’. I have never been its biggest admirer, preferring the experimentation of the later works and the sheer exuberance and pop brilliance of the early singles and albums. But the various reissues of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and in particularly the 50^th anniversary reissue which came out a few years ago has finally allowed me to appreciate the staggering kaleidoscope of its sound and range of songs. As I

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Wake Up Scotland: 1,339 and counting …. Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 4th 2021 Last week the tragic milestone that is Scotland’s drug death total for the year ending 2020 came out. The figures showed that 1,339 people died, a rise of 5.9% on the previous year’s bad enough total of 1,264. This is up from 455 in 2007, the year the SNP came to power- a staggering increase of 194% in the drug-related mortality rate over their time in office. This is the highest annual number of drug deaths recorded in Scotland since records began in 1996, and the

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How do we hold power to account in Scotland? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, July 7th 2021 Scotland has a rich tradition of celebrating its difference and distinctiveness, seeing in its autonomy a kind of semi-independence that is exhibited in civil society, the public sphere and public life. Scotland’s public sphere is one of the main ways we communicate, define ourselves, relate to others in public, and hold power and institutions to account - hence contributing to the democratic and political process. This contributes to an ‘independence of the Scottish mind’ – a distinctive outlook which has evolved and separated from

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Where and who are Scotland’s radicals today? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 30th 2021 Summer has arrived in Scotland and what passes for holidays in a pandemic  – schools formally off, the Scottish Parliament in recess, lots of staycationing, and maybe even Nicola Sturgeon feeling she is entitled to at least a short holiday. UK politics never seems short of crisis, incident and scandal. Boris Johnson’s haphazard but so far popular Premiership is proving ill-disposed to running a country facing the twin hits of Brexit and COVID-19. Beneath the noise, charge and counter-charge Scottish and UK politics and politicians are

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