Ten Years on from 2014: Making Sense of the Next Ten Years of Scotland
Ten Years on from 2014: Making Sense of the Next Ten Years of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 29 September 2024 The ten-year anniversary of Scotland’s indyref has come and gone relatively unmarked. For something which shook things up so much it was very quiet and understated, a low-key affair from every political persuasion, media and academia. This does not mean that the ten-year point is not significant. Rather it is a time to pause, to draw breath and reflect on what has passed, on the bigger context and forces changing Scotland and the UK, and what the future may
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Project: The Next SNP. Deadline: Post-2026 Election
Project: The Next SNP. Deadline: Post-2026 Election Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 25 August 2024 The SNP meets next weekend in Edinburgh in a state of transition which marks the end of one political era - that of SNP dominance - and the beginning of a new era. The SNP is experiencing a mix of emotions in having to navigate a very different political environment from the one that it has become used to since 2007. It has experienced election defeat, political turbulence - and a crisis of party, government and independence. The SNP used to have a positive narrative and
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Three Futures of Scotland: And how to shape the future by understanding the past
Three Futures of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 28 July 2024 Understand the present and shaping the future depends on understanding the past. Sometimes difficult through the noise, smog and smirr, but during disruption and change it is more necessary than ever. The major shifts experienced by Scotland over the past 25 years - the establishment of the Parliament following the emphatic victory for self-government in the 1997 referendum; the SNP’s coming to office in 2007; followed by the 2014 indyref bringing the idea of independence centrestage and into the mainstream, where it has remained since – are seismic. Yet
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Seventy Years of Hurt Never Stopped Us Dreaming: Scottish Football and the Need for Change
Seventy Years of Hurt Never Stopped Us Dreaming Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 30 June 2024 We all know the script. The Scottish men’s national team qualify for a major tournament. We raise our hopes. Once more they go out in the first round to deflation and dismay. All of this feels very familiar. We have been disappointed and hurt so often. The men’s national team have turned up for twelve major tournaments. Twelve major tournaments have seen us come home at the earliest opportunity. This story of underachievement and underperformance runs from the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland to last
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 Last Great British Story: The enduring story of the Beatles, how they changed Britain and what it means
The Last Great British Story: The enduring story of the Beatles Gerry Hassan Scottish National, 31 March 2024 One of the strange things about the Beatles phenomenon is that the further we are from the 1960s, the more fascinating, unique and important they become. Sixty years ago – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – produced new levels of excitement and exhilaration as “Beatlemania” reached a crescendo. The Beatles returned from their all-conquering trip to America – something no other British musical act had done before. “Can’t Buy Me Love” was released and topped the charts; in
The world comes to Glasgow: Time to Think and Act Big
The world comes to Glasgow: Time to Think and Act Big Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 31 October 2021 Glasgow can do big things. It has revelled in being an international host city – from the most memorable European Cup finals to European City of Culture 1990 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The city’s sense of swagger, ambition and constant reinvention has sustained it through good times and bad, and aided it through difficult periods such as post-war deindustrialisation and the Thatcher era. But alongside that, the city has been constantly battered by external forces and had huge change imposed on
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Keir Starmer, Labour and the Limits of Gordon Brown’s Britain
Keir Starmer, Labour and the Limits of Gordon Brown’s Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 3 October 2021 The state of Labour matters in UK politics - and to Scotland. Can it mount a serious challenge to Boris Johnson’s Tories, or does UK politics faces the bleak prospect of perpetual Tory Governments? Thus, the mood of Labour at its recent conference and after has consequences. The party gathering at Brighton was filled with drama, controversy - and heckling. In his lengthy keynote speech Starmer covered subjects including Scotland, the SNP, and the case for the union – citing Gordon Brown and
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The Twilight of Empire State Britain
The Twilight of Empire State Britain Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 22 August 2021 The UK’s reputation took another hit last week, as after the Brexit debacle and 150,000 dead from COVID-19 came the Afghanistan humiliation. The calamity and chaos in Kabul has united people in shock and fury at the incompetence and hubris of the present UK Government in a way those other disasters have not. It has provided defining accounts of a rotten, venal Tory class of entitlement timeservers such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab – and a government that only cares about its own self-preservation. It is
A new England is emerging – modern, hopeful and not about the past
A new England is emerging – modern, hopeful and not about the past Gerry Hassan Sunday National, July 11th 2021 England’s success in getting to the European Championship final today at Wembley is a major football moment – and a lot more. This is the first time England have ever reached the final of this tournament and only the second time they have ever reached a major competition final – the other being 1966 and victory over West Germany. Football has long provided a means by which people have found enjoyment, release, exhilaration and disappointment. But it is also
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