Change is coming to Scotland: Can Scottish Labour seize the opportunity?
Change is coming to Scotland: Can Scottish Labour seize the opportunity? Gerry Hassan Chartist, 10 June 2024 This is a change election; both in the UK and Scotland. A sense of wanting to punish the Tories after 14 years pervades the UK; and a similar, if less emphatic, desire can be felt in Scotland with regard to the SNP after their 17 years in office. Scottish politics are in flux. This is the end of the era of SNP’s effortless dominance under Salmond and Sturgeon. The SNP is in a crisis of leadership – both of party and of government.
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As Scotland goes to the polls caution and continuity – in Labour and the SNP
As Scotland goes to the polls caution and continuity are not enough – in Labour and the SNP Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 26 May 2024 The UK election on 5 July has huge consequences that could draw the curtains on fourteen Tory years - and see the election of a Labour Government under Keir Starmer. All expectations are that the Tories will lose badly, and Labour could win by a landslide. However the Tories won emphatically in 2019 and Labour need to gain 124 seats for a majority of one seat - something they have done twice in post-war times
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The Art of Growing Up: The SNP after Sturgeon, Independence and the Power of Light
The Art of Growing Up Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 14 May 2024 Sunday was the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament’s opening day in 1999; and the 30th of the tragic death of Labour leader John Smith - two totemic moments which changed political realities and with implications to this day. The Scottish Parliament opened with its most senior member, Winnie Ewing, declaring: ‘The Scottish Parliament, adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened’, an expression of a nationalist narrative. The political void left by John Smith’s death produced the election of Tony Blair
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Walls come tumbling down: The SNP crisis and the state of Scottish politics and independence
Walls come tumbling down Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 1 May 2024 The events of the past few days have caught many off-guard. Humza Yousaf‘s abrupt termination of the agreement with the Greens, their resultant fury and desire for revenge, with the inevitable resignation of Yousaf as it became obvious that he could not win a vote of confidence without paying a high price to Alba and Alex Salmond. All political parties, parliaments and political systems have crises. They are the life and blood of politics. They are revealing, tell us much about what the main players (whether parties or individuals)
Independence is not about process politics. It is about democracy
Independence is not about process politics. It is about democracy. Gerry Hassan The National, 21 June 2022 The air is thick with talk of referenda. How one is held, its status, who can initiate it and has to agree to it, and the timetable indicated by Nicola Sturgeon and Angus Robertson of October 2023. All of this is to be expected but what it misses is several-fold. This all concentrates on process rather than substance, misses the big picture here of democracy, and overlooks the nuances of public opinion. There is significant popular support for the principle of Scotland’s right
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What Scotland’s big independence debate is about and should be about
What Scotland’s big independence debate is about and should be about Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 15 June 2022 Nicola Sturgeon has fired the gun on Scotland’s independence debate, standing in Bute House yesterday with Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, launching the first of several papers on independence. This has brought forth the usual and predictable claims and counter-claims. SNP, Green and independence supporters are excited and hopeful; Labour, Tories and Lib Dems along with pro-union advocates of no party are filled with scorn and fury that anyone would want to progress independence in such times of upheaval and
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What independence has to do to win
What independence has to do to win Gerry Hassan The National, 14 June 2022 The Scottish Government will make an important announcement on independence today; one long awaited by independence supporters. It has long been apparent that the 2014 offer needs not just updating but completely revising and that serious, substantive work needs to be done. Fundamental to this is not just the usual suspects mentioned – currency, borders, finance, EU membership – but the issue of how independence embodies and champions democracy. The independence offer is often portrayed by its supporters as personifying democracy in principle – Scotland’s right
What is missing from Scottish politics, the SNP and independence and can we rectify it?
What is missing from Scottish politics, the SNP and independence and can we rectify it? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 16 February 2022 What are the main characteristics of Scottish politics? Fifteen years into SNP Government the party is still popular; the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has ratings any incumbent could only dream of having. Yet underneath this, things don’t quite seem right. There is a stillness across Scottish politics and public life. For a start there is no credible opposition to the SNP. The Tories under Douglas Ross just don’t cut it; while Labour under Anas Sarwar might have a
Singing for Scotland at Hampden, Murrayfield and Beyond
Singing for Scotland at Hampden, Murrayfield and Beyond Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 9 February 2022 The songs that we sing individually and collectively in our hearts, homes and at public occasions tell us something - about who we are, our relationships with each other, and the society and nation we live in. There are numerous different layers to this. There are the songs we sing and hum along to on the radio or on streaming devices; the golden oldies that remind us of favourite or not so favourite past moments; and then there are the collective songs we sing together
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The Alex Salmond Scandal and its Aftermath
The Alex Salmond Scandal and its Aftermath Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 9 September 2021 Break-Up: How Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon Went to War, David Clegg and Kieran Andrews, Biteback Publishing, £20. Scottish politics has been transfixed the past three years by the fallout between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon – the defining figures of the SNP over the past twenty years. This has been a saga like no other - of serious allegations made against Salmond, two court cases and judgements, a parliamentary inquiry and independent review, all of which have created huge political waves and turbulence which have
