Sunday National

The future of the Scottish Tories after Ruth Davidson Gerry Hassan Sunday National, September 1st 2019 One constituency consistently admired Ruth Davidson - the media. As in her eight years of Tory leadership, the same has been true of her resignation; with numerous plaudits, magnified by how the London media misunderstand and misread Scotland. One example was provided by BBC ‘Newsnight’s’ programme on Thursday evening when Ben Chu opened his Ruth Davidson film with the proclamation: ‘She was an election winner with a gold dust appeal to millennials’, which was completely wrong in both its assertions. In her period as

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Jeremy Corbyn’s Moment of Reckoning and the Fears of the British Establishment Gerry Hassan Sunday National, August 25th 2019 Next week another critical Brexit moment happens when Jeremy Corbyn calls together all the opposition parties at Westminster, to plan to win a vote of no confidence against Boris Johnson’s government to stop a No Deal Brexit. Jeremy Corby has offered to lead a temporary minority government that would aim to extend the Article 50 notice period, hold an election and referendum. This is high stake politics, with the nature of Brexit, the future of political parties and leaders, as

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Govanhill: Glasgow’s Southside is changing for the better Gerry Hassan Sunday National, August 11th 2019 Govanhill on Glasgow’s Southside is an area used to being noticed. But in the last week and a half it has been doing so on its own terms with the third Govanhill International Festival and Carnival including an annual parade through its streets. In recent years the area has attracted attention and headlines with right-wing papers waxing lyrically about ‘Govanhell’. Their concern for social issues and inner city poverty only emerging when Nicola Sturgeon, local MSP, became First Minister. Govanhill has always been about change

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The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Council Housing across Scotland and the UK Gerry Hassan Sunday National, August 4th 2019 Council housing once defined much of Scotland – geographically, culturally, and how people saw themselves and lived. In 1975 54% of Scottish homes were council owned; in England one-third of households then lived in local authority housing. This turned out to be the apex of council housing here and across the UK – with the council stock now forming a little over a quarter of homes in Scotland and significantly less in England. Today it is no longer the

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The Future of the Scottish Greens could decide the Future of Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, July 28th 2019 This is the summer of leadership contests. After the Lib Dems and Tories, next week sees the turn of the Scottish Greens. This might at first seem of less importance, but the outcome of this contest could play a significant role in the future of Scotland and hence the UK. The Scottish Greens are now a permanent feature on the political landscape. ‘Two decades of devolution have been good to the Scottish Greens’, says Lynn Bennie of Aberdeen University. ‘The

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Edinburgh: Inspiring Capital for Whom? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, July 21st 2019 The world – or rather a very narrow, self-selecting part of it – is preparing to head to Edinburgh for the annual carnival of festivals and the Fringe. These are good times for Edinburgh. It has experienced over two decades of sustained population growth – up from under 450,000 to 513,000, a rise of 14%. Unemployment is at a record low and across the city in sector after sector it feels like a boom town. This is, in the eyes of the official version of the city, a

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Linda McCartney: A Life, Love and Family in Photographs Gerry Hassan Sunday National, July 14th 2019 Linda McCartney is a name known to most people but many will relate to her through her thirty-year relationship and marriage to Paul McCartney, not being fully aware of her undoubted talent as a photographer. Now, and not before time, she is the object of an outstanding exhibition – the ‘Linda McCartney Retrospective’ at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and its UK premiere. It covers the arc of over thirty years of photographic work - from the mid-1960s to close to 1998 when she

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Is there any hope for Scottish Labour? And does it matter to the rest of us? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, June 2nd 2019 Scottish Labour once carried all before it. They were admired by some, feared by others. They couldn’t be ignored, were taken seriously and mattered. Today the party is not only struggling to be taken seriously by anyone, but has to fight for attention, battling to avoid the ignominy of being seen as irrelevant by most voters. Many will say ‘hell mend them, they deserve their fate’ but the collapse of this once powerful party has consequences well

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