The New Flat Earthers: Barbarism Begins at Home
The New Flat Earthers: Barbarism Begins at Home Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, May 26th 2012 Once upon a time the world was filled with earnest left-wing revolutionaries confident that they were the future. They inhabited places like the Sorbonne, Berkeley and LSE campuses and thought they spoke for all humanity leading to a whole generation being caricatured as ‘Private Eye’ character ‘Dave Spart’, ‘television sit-com Citizen Smith’ and the propensity for endless ideological schisms seen in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’. All these stereotypes are now many decades old but they still carry some currency because they hit a
Continue Reading The New Flat Earthers: Barbarism Begins at Home
State of Interindependence: A Vision for Scottish Self-Determination
State of InterIndependence: A Vision for Scottish Self-Determination Gerry Hassan May 24th 2012 Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in the future And time future contained in the past. T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets (1936) This week the Scottish independence debate reaches new levels with the launch of the ‘Yes Scotland’ pro-independence campaign, the emergence of the shape of the pro-union campaign, and the spectre of Tony Blair hovering threateningly over Scottish politics. Scottish independence has long been viewed by the British political classes as eccentric and unworldly. The Economist’s ‘Bagehot’ column made a revealing
Continue Reading State of Interindependence: A Vision for Scottish Self-Determination
The Limits of Modernisation: Blair, Cameron and Salmond
The Limits of Modernisation: Blair, Cameron and Salmond Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, May 12th 2012 ‘Modernisation’ is one of the defining words of our time, along with ‘legacy’ and ‘journey’. It is a word used by Tony Blair, David Cameron and Alex Salmond. It is an in-word for those who feel they shape and define the age, change and the world. It has had an interesting trajectory; it was once bright, shiny, confident, swaggering with confidence, impatient with opposition, and believing the future was theirs for shaping. It became associated with Tony Blair and New Labour; modernisation was about
Continue Reading The Limits of Modernisation: Blair, Cameron and Salmond
The Beginnings of an Alternative Scotland
The Beginnings of an Alternative Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 28th 2012 What a week it has been - Murdoch, Trump, Rangers FC and of course the economy going into double dip recession. It is all-reminiscent of that last period of acute crisis, a failing, nervous political class and economic instability: the 1970s amplified by Dominic Sandbrook’s excellent current TV series on the decade. Scottish debate on the economy has for many years been shaped by two contradictory strands. The first has been the power of conventional economics, concerns over our relative economic growth rate compared to the
The Price of Scottish Independence: Scotland and the UK according to the Free Marketeers
The Price of Scottish Independence: Scotland and the UK according to the Free Marketeers Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, April 13th 2012 It is a sign of the times, and of its importance as an issue, that the global player which is ‘The Economist’ has Scottish independence as its cover and main feature this week, declaring, ‘It’ll cost you: The price of Scottish independence’. Their cover, leader, main UK article and a secondary piece, tell something about ‘The Economist’s’ view of Scottish independence, the UK and the world, each of which I will examine. ‘The Economist’ takes a dim view
The Comeback of ‘Gorgeous George’ and What It Says About British Politics
The Comeback of ‘Gorgeous George’ and What It Says About British Politics Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, March 30th 2012 A seismic shock has been delivered to the British body politic and its insular, complacent, steady as she goes assumptions. It is one with many levels, layers and complications: the return of George Galloway as the ‘Respect’ MP for Bradford West overturning a Labour majority of 5,763, winning by a margin of 10,140 over Labour, with an impressive 18,341 votes (55.9%), considerably more than the combined Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem vote of 12,402. Already the qualifiers are out, implying
Continue Reading The Comeback of ‘Gorgeous George’ and What It Says About British Politics
Dear Johann or Ken: A Seven-Step Recovery Plan for Scottish Labour
Dear Johann or Ken: A Seven-Step Recovery Plan for Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, December 17th 2011 Dear Johann (or, in the unlikely event, Ken), Congratulations on being elected Scottish Labour’s sixth leader in twelve years; that’s nearly as hot a seat as Hearts or Chelsea FC, those two tottering giants. Of course, I should be accurate, and acknowledge you as the first ‘official’ leader of all Scottish Labour; but I wouldn’t get too excited about presiding over your mighty empire now shrunken. Once the powerhouse of Scotland, Labour now holds Glasgow and North Lanarkshire at council
Continue Reading Dear Johann or Ken: A Seven-Step Recovery Plan for Scottish Labour
The Search for an Alternative to Trad Labour: The Cul-de-sacs of Marxism Today and Tommy Sheridan
The Search for an Alternative to Trad Labour: The Cul-de-sacs of Marxism Today and Tommy Sheridan Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, December 16th 2011 Andrew Pearmain, The Politics of New Labour: A Gramscian Analysis, Lawrence and Wishart £15.99. Alan McCombes, Downfall: The Tommy Sheridan Story, Birlinn £9.99. Stories which explain British politics and in particular Labour politics capture a phenomenally narrow strip of the political landscape. The classic accounts and influential books on British Labour have been of this kind. Life in the distant provinces of Scotland, Wales and the North of England exists either in a small walk
Fear and Loathing and the Power of Class in Modern Britain
Fear and Loathing and the Power of Class in Modern Britain Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 8th 2011 Britain has changed dramatically since 1945. In most accounts of post-war Britain from populisers such as Andrew Marr – the confident tale told is of the forward march of the classless society. There were the 1950s and ‘you’ve never had it so good’ affluence, the 1960s protest and music, the 1980s individualism and consumerism, and then the noughties and the property and credit card booms. This is the BBC-Ladybird Book guide to modern Britain heard in phrases such as ‘we are
Continue Reading Fear and Loathing and the Power of Class in Modern Britain
Why we need to understand the Cameroon Conservatives
Why we need to understand the Cameroon Conservatives Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 1st 2011 Why do so many people caricature Conservatism? This can be seen on the left, anti-Tory opinion, and of course, most of Scottish public life. The Conservatives are reduced to a series of stereotypes: of being selfish, uncaring, just for the super rich, not understanding what it is like to live on modest means, unmoved by poverty, and wanting to turn back the clock to Dickensian Britain. If these clichés were true the British Conservatives would be reduced to some impotent rump the size of
Continue Reading Why we need to understand the Cameroon Conservatives
