Back to the Future, Or Not: The Strange Rise of Scottish Labour
Back to the Future, Or Not: The Strange Rise of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 19th 2011 Scottish politics is away to change and not change – with according to the most recent TNS-BMRC poll – Scotland getting itself into a frenzy of excitement at the anticipation of Iain Gray’s Scottish Labour returning to office (1). The figures are worth highlighting: Labour is polling 49% of the constituency vote and 47% of the regional vote: enough to see it get an impressive 69 seats in the 129 seat Parliament and thus an overall majority. What is going on
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Time for Next Step on SNP’s Journey
Time for Next Step on SNP’s Journey Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 14th 2011 Scotland has experienced an interesting experiment. Four years of the first ever SNP administration, the first ever Scottish Government committed to independence. Now is surely an appropriate time to assess how much this has changed the SNP and Scotland and what the prospects for future change are? This has been a decent administration, one that in many areas has had or attempted to articulate the right instincts on a range of economic, social and cultural matters. It has felt like Scotland’s Government, our national and international
