The Scotsman

The Problem with the ‘No’ Men Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 17th 2012 The debate on the future of Scotland’s constitutional status has many legitimate views: pro-union, pro-independence, and the middling Scotland sitting uneasily in-between. In the last two weeks, the tenor of part of the debate has begun to change. Alistair Darling, head of the ‘No’ camp, in the John P. Mackintosh lecture, one of Scottish Labour’s few post-war cerebral figures, has talked of independence as ‘the road to serfdom’. Darling stated that ‘an independent Scotland would rejoin the UK’ and continued, with a mindset of simplistic separatism, predicting

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A Different Creative Culture after Managerialism and Paternalism Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 10th 2012 The last few months have seen a gathering storm about Creative Scotland, the leading arts and culture organisation in the country. A letter signed by more than one hundred of our leading artists and cultural practitioners, signalled their concerns and called out for a change of direction. The breadth of opposition, ranging across generations, political views and art forms, uniting independence supporting James Kelman with pro-union advocates such as James MacMillan, cannot be easily ignored. But what is left unsaid is the wider context,

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Scotland’s Place in the World and the Problem with British Isolationism Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, November 3rd 2012 Europe has been in the headlines in the last two weeks. There was Salmond’s little legal controversy on EU matters, followed by David Cameron’s problems with his backbenchers on Europe, while some Labour politicians charged Ed Miliband with opportunism for siding with Tory Euro-sceptics. If it is possible to rise above Scots insularity and petty partisanship which we have seen in the last week, it would be helpful to note the wider European and international dimension in which the Scottish self-government

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Michael Marra and the Search for the Soul of Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 27th 2012 Scotland has had its moments in the last week: the drama of the SNP NATO vote, the revelations of the EU legal advice, and the tragic death of singer-songwriter Michael Marra. What if anything do politics, legal manoeuvrings and matters of life and death have in common? To take the last first, Michael Marra was a unique talent and voice, a gentle, unassuming man who spoke of his native Dundee, of Scotland and of the world in a quiet yet uncompromising manner which

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How the World of Eton Sees Scotland and Scottish Independence Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 20th 2012 The name of Eton resonates down through English tradition and privilege: from the Dave ‘n’ Boris show to the wider return of the old Etonians across public life. It has produced nineteen British Prime Ministers and a host of Scottish and British iconoclasts and radicals from Tam Dalyell and Neal Ascherson to John Maynard Keynes and George Orwell. Eton was an august setting for debating Scottish independence in the week of the Scottish and UK Government’s agreement. On the same day the

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An Open Letter to Alex Salmond Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 13th 2012 Dear Alex, Next week you will address the SNP Annual Conference, closer than ever to what you have strived all your political life for: Scottish independence. You need to give a speech like you have never done before. Here are some suggestions. 1. Stop using the same template to shape your speech. Some of us have noticed that you have a habit of giving a rather similar speech year-in, year-out. There is a reference to a cultural figure, usually the Makar, Edwin Morgan. Then there is

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How the Beatles Changed Britain and the World Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, October 6th 2012 It was fifty years ago yesterday that a popular revolution began in humble settings which had a seismic global impact that still affect the world today. This is the UK release on the Parlophone record label of the first ever single by the Beatles, ‘Love Me Do’. The Beatles changed so much: the image of Britain, music, culture, fashion, attitudes to class. They made Britain feel a better place and more dynamic, ‘swinging’ and ‘cool’ to people across the world. It is impossible to

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Lets Start the Debate over the Future of Scotland’s Social Democracy Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 29th 2012 A number of pantomime villains have crossed our screens of late with malicious intent on their mind, out to harm vulnerable people, make mischief and engage in duplicity. This is not the latest outing of J.R. Ewing in the return of hit TV series ‘Dallas’. Instead, I am talking about that other retro-outfit seemingly stuck in the 1970s – the Scottish Labour Party – and the dismissive response of many to Johann Lamont’s attack on the ‘something for nothing’ culture of

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After Cleggmania: Sorry Seems To Be The Easiest Word Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 22nd 2012 Is there a future for the Lib Dems? Is there one for Nick Clegg after Cleggmania and after he has become the nation’s favourite whipping boy? Nick Clegg’s mea culpa this week certainly marks a watershed of some kind coming as it does nearly half way through this Parliament and coalition. It is an attempt by Clegg and the Lib Dems to ‘move on’: a textbook move from the Blair guide on how to do to politics. Clegg’s apology isn’t actually an apology

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Scotland’s Democratic Revolution is Long Overdue Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 15th 2012 Scottish devolution was always going to produce centralisation, such as the Procurement Reform Bill along with single police and fire forces, and at the same time the rhetoric of change seen in the current Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill. It is over a year since the publication of the Christie Commission and as financial circumstances tighten, never has the time been more ripe for radical reform. One approach is already on offer: the English marketisation route beloved by Andrew Lansley when he was at health; an alternative

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