Learning How to Hug a Tory and the Folklore of Anti-Toryism
Learning How to Hug a Tory and the Folklore of Anti-Toryism Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 13th 2010 It has been a strange old week. Controversial Tory-Lib Dem welfare reforms have been announced. Angry students have protested, some rioted and some taken direct action. The hoary old battle cries of ‘Tory cuts’ and ‘Tory scum’ have again filled the streets and airwaves. Much of this is fed by the potent, emotional and deep-rooted mindset of anti-Toryism. This has a long historical lineage, and was given a powerful fillip by the 1980s and anti-Thatcherism. However, the 1980s did not create this
Continue Reading Learning How to Hug a Tory and the Folklore of Anti-Toryism
The Humans Behind the Tea Party: the US as seen by the Hassans of Middle America
The Humans Behind the Tea Party: the US as seen by the Hassans of Middle America Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 6th 2010 America has always fascinated me – from its music, culture and sit-coms to its politics. At the same time I have become more bemused and mystified in recent years at the way American politics is portrayed and understood in this country. Our general perception of the US makes no attempt to understand large swathes of the country – both geographically – the bit in the middle people fly over but which millions live
Continue Reading The Humans Behind the Tea Party: the US as seen by the Hassans of Middle America
The Fog of War about Scotland’s Soul
The Fog of War about Scotland’s Soul Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 30th 2010 Scottish Labour gathers in Oban rather pleased and comfortable with itself. It is confident that it is going to win next year’s Scottish Parliament election and see a return to the natural order of things: itself in office, and those pesky Nationalists brushed off once and for all. At the same time, there is an element of uncertainty about what Scottish Labour stands for, what kind of vision it has, and what it wants power for beyond its own sake. Yet in one area: the party’s
What Do We Do About Forgotten Scotland?
What Do We Do About Forgotten Scotland? Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 23rd 2010 Most politics is not about the art of lying or spinning. It is about telling partial truths or half-truths which often conceal the wider reality. Examples include that the 1960s are the source of most of our problems, the start of the decline of authority and the left’s undermining of moral values. The alternative view is that the 1980s were where it all went wrong, the age of selfishness and Thatcherism. Then there is the account of Scotland as a rich, prosperous country with near-limitless potential,
The Coming Big Ideas in Scottish Politics
The Coming Big Ideas in Scottish Politics Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 16th 2010 Scottish politics is going through the motions at present. There is the excuse of waiting for the Comprehensive Spending Review. But a deeper malaise is at work. The political classes have run out of money and ideas, and devolution – that much trumpeted project – now seems shorn of vision and dynamism. Scotland is currently shaped by risk-averse conservatives in our political parties and institutions, and number crunching accountants earnestly lecturing us that we cannot afford things we once cherished and it is time to sell
The Long Hollowing Out of Scottish Labour
The Long Hollowing Out of Scottish Labour Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 9th 2010 The self-styled most sophisticated electorate in the world has spoken: the election of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet by Labour MPs. It has resulted in fewer Scots, no Welsh and lots more women. These are the first elections to Labour’s Shadow Cabinet since 1996 and show many changes since the days of Blair’s first Cabinet in 1997 which was stacked with talented Scots: Brown, Cook, Dewar, Robertson, Darling and Strang. The decline of Scottish Labour is marked from the onset of New Labour to today. In the 1994
The Slow Transformation of Gay Scotland
The Slow Revolution of Gay Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 2nd 2010 Scotland is a land of inclusiveness, faimess and kindness, a place which worries and cares about the disadvantaged, marginalised and those who face discrimination. This Scottish story of egalitarianism – ‘we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns’ – is well known and frequently told, but limited, partial and very flawed. It is also a very narrow notion of equality, focused on the economy, the workplace and class, and excluding numerous other aspects of Scottish life which don’t fit this picture – such as the hierarchical, conservative nature of much
Where Britain Stands After the Commonwealth
Where Britain Stands After the Commonwealth Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 30th 2010 The Commonwealth has been much in the news of late. Sadly this hasn’t been for good reasons but bad ones showing the ineptitude, dirt and squalor of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi which open within the next few days. This PR disaster has raised the spectre of what is the point of the Commonwealth Games – coming to Glasgow next time in 2014 – and more fundamentally, what is the point of the Commonwealth and would anyone miss it if we just quietly pulled the plug on
Continue Reading Where Britain Stands After the Commonwealth
Why Labour’s New Leader Needs to Play it Long in Opposition
Why Labour’s New Leader Needs to Play it Long in Opposition Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 25th 2010 Labour delegates gather in Manchester in much better heart than many expected a few months ago. The party is recovering in the polls, having drawn level with the Tories in one poll, and by next week ‘the Miliband momentum’ of David or Ed will have taken Labour into the lead for the first time since Gordon Brown failed to call the election he had been planning for in 2007. Many myths exist about Labour in opposition - with differing degrees of truth.
Continue Reading Why Labour’s New Leader Needs to Play it Long in Opposition
The Times are Changing Musicially
The Times are Changing Musically Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 18th 2010 Music connects emotions, transports us from the here and now to strange, bewitching lands, giving us heroes and heroines to follow. In times of change, music has played a major role. In the 1960s across the West, the Beatles, Stones and Hendrix created music for a generation of protest; in the late 1970s a divided Britain witnessed the insurrectionary sound of the Sex Pistols and the Clash; while the early 1980s saw a plethora of artists rage against Thatcher, from the Specials ‘Ghost Town’ to UB40’s ‘One in
