Scottish Review

We are not at war yet we are increasingly living in a warfare state Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 15th 2020 In the past week the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to be taken into hospital as a result of COVID-19, moved to intensive care with his life in the balance, and released after his condition improved on Easter Sunday. This has been a testing time for the UK government with the Prime Minister temporarily incapacitated, and for a period out of the picture, with Dominic Raab pushed into the limelight - as have been the internal workings of

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Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer and when was Britain’s Golden Age? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 8th 2020 Every society has a golden age – often mythical, but with some relationship to events and reality. In Britain, this is often continually referenced as World War Two, ‘the Blitz spirit’ and Dunkirk – all much in evidence in recent weeks in the face of coronavirus. Other stories are available but get less coverage and mileage. One is that of ‘the swinging sixties’ and the Beatles; another is the idea (floated by the New Economics Foundation) that 1976 was the

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Gordon Jackson, Trump and the Politics of an Aging Society Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 1st 2020 1. This weekend it was revealed that Gordon Jackson QC, Alex Salmond’s defence counsel, was filmed on the Edinburgh-Glasgow train talking in an indiscreet and unprofessional manner when his client’s trial was ongoing. Jackson did not paint his client in an edifying light, stating that he was ‘a sex pest’ who was ‘a nasty person to work for’, ‘a nightmare’ and ‘bully’ as well as ‘inappropriate, [an] arsehole, [and] stupid’. Even worse than this, Jackson – a longstanding figure in the Scottish legal

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Alex Salmond, Conspiracies and 21^st century disruptions Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 25th 2020 This does seem to be a moment and crisis when everything you once thought was solid has been upturned. With the Conservative Westminster Government seemingly embracing radical Corbynism – guaranteeing wages and jobs, talking of nationalising railways and more, along with massive changes to public life and behaviour – welcome to our very strange Lilliputian world. This induces in me a strange brew of different feelings. One is apprehension. Another is empathy, sympathy and solidarity with those suffering the most and for those people who have

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What do we do in a world without football? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 18th 2020 What do we do we in this strange world, facing so many unexpected challenges - including being without football? For some this will be a welcome respite but others will be bereft and lost in how they fill their time and understand life, but given the reach of the game across the globe this is no arcane and marginal matter. The temporary cancellation of all football matches – in England until April 4^th for now and in Scotland until further notice – raises huge

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We finally have to talk about the Dark Side of Scottish Men Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 11th 2020 Men in public life was always going to become a major subject of conversation in the first part of 2020 with the trial of Harvey Weinstein in New York, and that of former First Minister Alex Salmond in Edinburgh which began this week. Until recent decades Scotland has been a male-dominated society to the extent that it was often never talked about or even recognised as such. Men defined politics, business, the professions, institutional life and our culture – including

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David Steel, Cyril Smith and how the establishment still looks after its own Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 4th 2020 Last week, as Harvey Weinstein finally faced justice in America, the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse gave its verdict on David Steel. It damned him for his years of silence and inaction on the child sex abuse of Cyril Smith, Liberal, then Lib Dem, MP for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992; saying that Steel had ‘abdicated his responsibility’ and had not been motivated by ‘the lens of child protection but through the lens of political expediency’. The backstory

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Time to consider recall for MSPs in Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 19th 2020 Scotland likes to see itself as a modern parliamentary democracy with a new Parliament elected by proportional representation, a circular chamber that reflects its intended way of working, and a committee system designed to hold power to account. This is very much the view of official Scotland and of much of our political classes. It was the view of Labour and Lib Dems when they governed Scotland and it is the view of the incumbent SNP now. But in at least one critical respect there

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The End of an Era: The Imperial Era of the SNP Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 12th 2020 The SNP were once the bright promising future of Scotland but all such periods of political promise come to an end. It isn’t possible to permanently remain the new kids of the block with the passing of time. The resignation of Derek Mackay as Finance Secretary and his subsequent suspension from the SNP came like a bolt out of the blue – shocking everyone in his party, fellow parliamentarians and political opponents, and the media. The SNP stands dominant in Scottish

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Why the power of loss and not imagining the future aids populists and demagogues Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 5th 2020 The UK – and with it Scotland – have left the European Union after 47 years. In human terms, this is a substantial length of time - the equivalent of a lifelong adult marriage or relationship, but in that comparison the British political classes and large swathe of public opinion never fully committed themselves to the European project, making the eventual divorce unsurprising. This is a watershed moment for all of us – the 31^st of January 2020 being

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