Remembering childhood holidays in Scotland and my first venture into politics
Remembering childhood holidays in Scotland and my first venture into politics Gerry Hassan July 20th 2016 Everybody’s first experiences of summer holidays are always likely to be special - tinged with evocative memories and memorable moments. My earliest recollection of a summer holiday was the sojourn from Dundee to Girvan in 1969, just before I went to primary school. This trip involved my dad’s light green coloured Volkswagen Beetle; the experience of which left me with a deep-seated affection for such cars. It was the only family holiday on which my maternal granny, Flo (who my mum never got on
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The Herald and Rangers FC: Noise annoys and listening for the Sounds of Silence
The Herald and Rangers FC: Noise annoys and listening for the Sounds of Silence Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 3rd 2016 A series of illuminating conflicts in the last week - the Graham Spiers sacking from ‘The Herald’ and the J.K. Rowling/Natalie McGarry argument on twitter - show something revealing about modern Scotland. Spiers sacking from the paper, along with Angela Haggerty’s from the ‘Sunday Herald’, brought up numerous issues. One immediate issue was where power lay in the newspaper group – with open disagreement emerging between ‘The Herald’ and ‘Sunday Herald’ editors. More fundamentally it touched upon the legacy
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The Last Days of the Old BBC Scotland
The Last Days of the Old BBC Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 20th 2016 These are turbulent times for the BBC. The patrician age of benign liberal paternalism and enlightened elites knowing what is best for us, unquestioned and unchallenged, have long since passed. We have now swung to the other end of the spectrum. Not a day seems to go by without the BBC being criticised from somewhere. The ‘Daily Mail’, ‘Daily Telegraph’ and Murdoch press conduct a never-ending war undermining the Beeb’s status - questioning the legitimacy of the licence fee and what they see as its
Whatever happened to the Scottish Tut?
Whatever happened to the Scottish Tut? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 13th 2016 Once upon a time there was a thing called the Scottish Tut. It defined many of our exchanges, stalked our land and policed the boundaries of permissible behaviour. It gave and took away acceptance; and once it was seemingly everywhere and now seems nowhere. Whatever happened to the once powerful tut, can we live without it, and should we lament its apparent demise? The Scottish Tut involves many different motivations, styles and gradations. It could be used to indicate someone seen as ‘getting above their station’
There is a Light That Never Goes Out: Ian Bell, Willie McIlvanney & the Power of the Word
There is a Light That Never Goes Out: Ian Bell, Willie McIlvanney and the Power of the Word Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 6th 2016 Scotland values words. It has always had a place in its heart for wordsmiths and for those who powerfully combine language with a sense of some higher calling – from religion, to morality, to various causes for a better world. In the weeks running up to Christmas, within a matter of days of each other, we lost two of our most celebrated public figures who expertly used words - William McIlvanney and Ian Bell. Sometimes,
The Sounds of Silence in Scotland
The Sounds of Silence in Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, August 23rd 2015 Scotland is a land of tolerance and friendliness. Glasgow is the friendly city, Scottish people chat to strangers, and we are, many think, more convivial than the English. Some believe this the product of tenement living. There are moments which jar with this. There was the Section 28/Clause 2A battle on ‘promoting’ homosexuality in schools more than a decade ago. There was the revelation of the Catholic Church’s systemic covering up of child sexual abuse in its ranks, for which it apologised this week in the McLellan
The SNP Ascendancy is changing Scotland and the SNP
The SNP Ascendancy is changing Scotland and the SNP Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, June 14th 2015 The Scottish sun is out, and summer is approaching. This is true not just of the weather but reflects the mood of the SNP, their popularity, and especially that of leader Nicola Sturgeon. In the last week a TNS opinion poll for next year’s Scottish Parliament election put the SNP on 60% and Labour 19% in the constituency vote - a historic all-time high and low respectively. This would give the SNP a second overall majority and more seats than it won in its
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Scotland’s Peaceful Revolution and the End of the Old Britain
Scotland’s Peaceful Revolution and the End of the Old Britain Gerry Hassan The Hindu, May 16th 2015 Britain feels and looks very different now from only a week ago. The general election threw up many surprises - the re-election of a majority Conservative Government, the scale of the Scottish National Party (SNP) landslide, and Scotland and England pointing in completely opposite political directions. The SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies, reducing the dominant Labour Party north of the border from 41 seats at the previous election to a single seat. A whole host of luminaries lost their seats including
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Scotland’s Football Revolution of Recent Years
Scotland’s Football Revolution of Recent Years Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 6th 2015 The last few years have seen the natural order of things disrupted in Scotland. The once dominant force in the land has been humbled, its traditional place and authority usurped by others, and a series of ineffective and incompetent leaders have promised salvation and then not delivered. This is the story of Glasgow Rangers, although there are similarities with the recent experience of Scottish Labour. And yet until the last six months or so of the indyref, the big news story of our country was not
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Scotland’s Quiet Revolution: How we changed and what it may mean
Scotland’s Quiet Revolution: How we changed and what it may mean Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, May 3rd 2015 What in the future will people say about the state of our nation today? They will say they saw a Scotland on the cusp of historic change, shifting from an older, predictable order to something new and potentially different. A SNP wave looks certain to wash over Scotland next Thursday, toppling most Labour and Lib Dem strongholds. Cameron has given up on the Scottish Tories - in the pursuit of undermining Scottish Labour and winning back soft English UKIP voters. Ed Miliband
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