Social Democracy

Lets Start the Debate over the Future of Scotland’s Social Democracy Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 29th 2012 A number of pantomime villains have crossed our screens of late with malicious intent on their mind, out to harm vulnerable people, make mischief and engage in duplicity. This is not the latest outing of J.R. Ewing in the return of hit TV series ‘Dallas’. Instead, I am talking about that other retro-outfit seemingly stuck in the 1970s – the Scottish Labour Party – and the dismissive response of many to Johann Lamont’s attack on the ‘something for nothing’ culture of

Continue Reading Lets Start the Debate over the Future of Scotland’s Social Democracy

After Cleggmania: Sorry Seems To Be The Easiest Word Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 22nd 2012 Is there a future for the Lib Dems? Is there one for Nick Clegg after Cleggmania and after he has become the nation’s favourite whipping boy? Nick Clegg’s mea culpa this week certainly marks a watershed of some kind coming as it does nearly half way through this Parliament and coalition. It is an attempt by Clegg and the Lib Dems to ‘move on’: a textbook move from the Blair guide on how to do to politics. Clegg’s apology isn’t actually an apology

Continue Reading After Cleggmania: Sorry Seems to Be the Easiest Word

The Language and Philosophy of Our Politics is the Problem Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 8th 2012 The British party conference season just began this week with the gathering of the Greens (of England and Wales) with their new leader, Natalie Bennett. This has become increasingly not just an age of economic crisis, but one of how politics is done and articulated across the West, from Scotland and the UK to the wider world. People are anxious, concerned, worried about money, bills, household debts, the future of their children and grandchildren and more. They crucially in large numbers don’t

Continue Reading The Language and Philosophy of Our Politics is the Problem

Debating the Future of Labour: A Conversation with Polly Toynbee Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, August 28th 2012 The Edinburgh of Scotland’s late summer is awash not just with rainstorms but a plethora of festivals and happenings: the International Festival, the Fringe, the Book Festival, Television Festival, and even a Festival of Politics in the Scottish Parliament. If all this sounds like an expression of the Scots ‘democratic intellect’ or a modern day ‘Enlightenment’ city, while conversations, deliberations and cultural happenings cover a multitude of concerns, there is usually an absence of connection to the host city and anything seriously

Continue Reading Debating the Future of Labour: A Conversation with Polly Toynbee

Scotland, nationalism and the left A conversation between Douglas Alexander and Gerry Hassan Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Summer 2012 Douglas to Gerry Before we get to where we’re going, I think it makes sense to be clear where we come from … My mother worked as a doctor in the NHS. My father was a Minister in the Church of Scotland. Both of them were inspired by their Christian beliefs to engage in the common life of the community. My first home was ‘Community House’ in Clyde Street, Glasgow: the mainland base of the Iona Community. We

Continue Reading Scotland, nationalism and the left: A conversation between Douglas Alexander and Gerry Hassan

Is Scotland Really the Social Democratic Country It Proclaims? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, August 18th 2012 There is a widespread assumption across most if not all of Scotland that this is a land of the centre-left; that we don’t vote Tory, didn’t buy into Thatcherism, and that we are all the children of social democracy. Leaving aside the Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys on Scots/English differences (which show there aren’t that big differences), there is a prevalent belief that centre-left, left and collectivist values percolate through and define our society. Some voices on the left believe that they speak for

Continue Reading Is Scotland Really the Social Democratic Country It Prociaims?

The Scotland of Equality and Fairness: If We Want It We Have To Will It Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 28th 2012 The Scottish Government announcement on same sex marriage brought forth responses for and against, but one of the most common among supporters was to see it as proof of our progressive characteristics. ‘Well done Scotland showing you are progressive’ and ‘Scotland – compassionate and inclusive’ were just two of many similar comments on the social media site twitter. This was Scotland as ‘a beacon for progressive opinion’ in Alex Salmond’s words – a tale many of us

Continue Reading The Scotland of Equality and Fairness: If We Want It We Have To Will It

Back to the Future for a Democratic Politics for Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, July 21st 2012 The untimely death of Bob McLean in the last week might seem news from another era, but it offers an insight into the current and future state of our politics. McLean was a passionate home rule supporter, campaigner and catalyst for cross-party co-operation for a Scottish Parliament, who played an important role in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Labour’s slow journey from an Assembly to a Parliament, as convenor of the pressure group Scottish Labour Action (SLA). His political and civic

Continue Reading Back to the Future for a Democratic Politics for Scotland

What has happened to Scottish Labour and how can it shape its future? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 23rd 2012 Scottish politics were once seemingly filled with certainty - we were Labour, socialist, collectivist, and didn’t like those nasty Tories. Reality was actually always different but there was a Labour vision of Scotland which many of us grew up with, knew its positive aspects, and which made us feel ennobled and liberated. That vision lifted hundreds of thousands of Scots out of poverty, widened opportunities and brightened countless lives via education, health, housing and numerous other public services. This

Continue Reading What has happened to Scottish Labour and how can it shape its future?

The Scotland of Sixty Years Ago and What It Says About Us Today Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, June 2nd 2012 The impending Diamond Jubilee unsurprisingly evokes questions about the current mood of Scotland and Britain. There are constant references to the past world of 1952, the Scotland and Britain of 60 years ago, but facts and figures do not fully convey what it was like to live back then. Perhaps going back to the archives of ‘The Scotsman’ for the month of May 1952 might help. On first impressions, so much has changed. The paper of 60 years is

Continue Reading The Scotland of Sixty Years Ago and What It Says About Us Today