Glasgow on the Edge
Glasgow on the Edge Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 28th 2021 Glasgow is a great city with a proud history, traditions, cultures and a rich record of invention, industry and radicalism. There are of course many different Glasgows within the city’s boundaries – and often reality jars with how the city likes to see and think of itself. One key example is the consistent conservatism and high-handed bureaucracy of Glasgow City Council in a city that prides itself on its commitment to radicalism. Too often though down the years the city’s municipalism has been characterised by the exact opposite
People Make Glasgow: Let’s live up to that phrase after the GSA fire
People Make Glasgow: Let’s live up to that phrase after the GSA fire Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 27th 2018 Glasgow is a proud and vibrant city. William McIlvanney, who must count as the sage of this city, beautifully described it when he wrote: Glasgow is a great city. Glasgow is in trouble. Glasgow is handsome. Glasgow is ugly. Glasgow is kind. Glasgow is cruel. Some people in Glasgow live full and enlightened lives. Some people in Glasgow live lives bleaker than anyone should live – and die deaths bleaker than anyone should die. These words were written in 1987,
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Does Glasgow have a chip on its shoulder?
Does Glasgow have a chip on the shoulder? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 1st 2016 Glasgow is not Scotland. For most of its history it has seen itself as bigger than the nation that hosts it - looking out to Transatlantic trade and commerce routes, and linked to the world through shipbuilding and human connections. Since the early 19th century Glasgow has seen itself as a ‘Big City’ - even though it is now half the size it was at its peak, in the mid-1950s. This bigness is about swagger, attitude (both good and bad), and having a sense of
Glasgow’s Success is Key to Scotland’s Success
Glasgow’s Success is Key to Scotland’s Success Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, May 29th 2016 Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest city. It may only contain 606,340 people in its council boundaries, but the Greater Glasgow conurbation is double that - at 1.2 million. Glasgow is one of the drivers of the Scottish economy and society: a place of great wealth, enterprise, jobs and culture. But it is also characterised by staggering degrees and levels of poverty, inequality and disadvantage. This isn’t anything remotely new and has been the case since the city experienced rapid industrialisation from the early 1800s, but it limits
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The Real Glasgow Effect on all of us
The Real Glasgow Effect on all of us Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, February 10th 2016 Glasgow is many things. It is a place, an idea and a story. Willie McIlvanney once captured this writing: ‘Glasgow is a great city. Glasgow is in trouble. Glasgow is handsome. Glasgow is ugly. Glasgow is kind. Glasgow is cruel.’ There is a Glasgow industry of books about the city - the biggest and most burgeoning concerning any UK city - London apart, which is over ten times its size. There are dry academic accounts and studious examinations. There are cultural tours. Then there is
What is the story of Scotland’s biggest city and who will tell it?
What is the story of Scotland’s biggest city and who will tell it? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, April 14th 2012 The forthcoming local elections are reduced in most of their coverage to their impact on UK and Scottish politics. Most attention is focused on the tragi-comedy and pantomime of Boris versus Ken, with even the plethora of local referendums on Mayors across some of England’s cities concerned with what happens to this or that Labour MP. The only other place that gets a serious look in is the battle for Glasgow, between Labour and SNP for control of
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Telling Glasgow’s Stories and the Culture of Miserablism
Telling Glasgow’s Stories and the Culture of Miserablism Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, February 15th 2011 Glasgow is a city rich with stories, myths and folklore. It has gone from being ‘the second city of Empire’ to branding itself as ‘the second city of shopping’ – statements which show the continuation of Glasgow swagger, ambition and belief – for all its undoubted problems. Glasgow has throughout this experienced constant change and adaptation, of coming to terms with decline and proclaiming renewal. Often this has involved a simple backstory of counterposing a caricature of ‘old Glasgow’, of traditional industries and an omnipotent
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