The Coming Scottish Revolution and Tony Blair’s Memoirs
Gerry Hassan
Open Democracy, September 2nd 2010
Scottish politics have been in a sense of disbelief since the UK general election. The Con-Lib Dem coalition government is being slowly assessed by the main two parties north of the border, SNP and Labour.
We have an SNP administration under Alex Salmond – which has proven itself a decent, competent, relatively popular administration – which now seems to have run out of money and ideas. And a Scottish Labour Party under the uncharismatic Iain Gray which seems even more bereft of ideas, but which thinks it can win next year’s Scottish Parliament elections by posing as the more effective defender of Scottish interests against the coalition.
Scotland feels like a nation and political community waiting for something dramatic to happen. None of the parties north of the border really seem to be active agents in the climate of public spending cuts and coming age of austerity. Read the rest of this entry »
A Short List of Things I Love About Living in Modern Scotland
Gerry Hassan
August 26th 2010
Years ago – inspired by the ending of ‘Manhattan’ the film – I wrote a list of over twenty things that made feel glad to be alive. Woody at the end of the film – feeling down in the dumps – cites a load of things that make life worth living; I cant remember if like me he cited Frank’s voice, but I feel he did in spirit, and can still recall him mentioning Louis Armstrong and other jazz references.
That list got a great positive reaction – and I was humbled to know it even served its uses around the world – with a friend in Australia coaching a friend through a painful break up – using my list to aid them making up their own about life!
This is a shorter and less grandiose list. I love modern Scotland in lots of ways, and love living here. Of course, as in any relationship it drives me mad, and I know that we are imperfect as a nation and society in all sorts of ways. I constantly write about those sort of things, but here for a change of tone … is a short list of things I love about living in modern Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »
The Age of Radicalism after ‘the Left’
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, August 26th 2010
Scotland sees itself as a centre-left country. We haven’t voted for the Tories since the 1950s, didn’t like Mrs Thatcher and her ism, and are supposedly more comfortable with collectivism than individualism.
The Scottish left has a rich and proud history – standing against exploitation and discrimination, for social justice and democracy, and filled with struggles, battles and personalities. There have been negatives; the lack of original thinkers and ideas, alongside a profound insularity and conservatism (for all the professed internationalism).
Such negatives are often put down to the dominance of the Labour Party and a certain kind of labourism, but the wider trade union movement and numerous other centre-left institutions and parties have shown similar characteristics.
The only real exception to this was the Independent Labour Party which until the 1930s was a hothouse of ideas and activities – political and social. And the Communist Party at points provided political education and an emphasis on building broad campaigns which Labour didn’t. Both of these groups were small in number – but given the inert state of Labour for much of its history, had influence way beyond their size. Read the rest of this entry »
Why We Need an Alternative Festival of Politics!
Gerry Hassan
Bella Caledonia, August 23rd 2010
Scotland has many wonderful qualities and attributes which make me proud to live and work here, and feel passionate and hopeful about this nation. This includes lots of people that I feel honoured to know who push for and lead change, aid others, and challenge the closed minded nature of much of institutional Scotland.
Yet at the same time there is an increasing problem with how we do politics, public engagement and public conversation. And that brings me to the Festival of Politics (1) – run in and by the Scottish Parliament – now in its seventh year.
Seven years is long enough to take a measured, considered judgement of what it is, how it goes about it, and what it misses.
A good place to start is with the positive. The Festival of Politics is a good idea, bringing politics and ideas and political conversation in the Parliament – during the recess and in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. Read the rest of this entry »
Where Scotland Stands? The Strange State of the Scottish Left and the Cultural Assembly of a Nation
Gerry Hassan
Open Democracy, August 18th 2010
The left in Scotland is in not in a good state on any level, in terms of numbers on the ground, ideas, the wider environment and its general psyche. Clearly if we were talking about the old Stalin point of how many divisions the Pope has – the Scottish left have very little of an army remaining to call to arms. This sad state of affairs has dawned more upon me in recent years through a number of discussions, and the coming of the Parliament has made the threadbare prospectus of the left more obvious. While recently the significant discussion started by my Jimmy Reid essay posted on Facebook – illustrated some of the left’s worst characteristics (1).
Lets start with the Reid piece and work back. Jimmy Reid was an immense and fascinating character; of that no one can be in any doubt. The Upper Clyde Shipbuilders struggle was totemic and real, a major point of resistance to Heath, an attempt to build a new left in Scotland, and ultimately, an expression of that left’s failure.
I always had numerous problems with Reid’s politics and public persona. And part of this is autobiographical. When I was a young boy growing up in Dundee in a political household with a Communist father and feminist and community activist mother, the political voices I heard were Dundonian or from far away. Reid was my introduction to the West of Scotland political left man; until that point the only comparison I had was with Billy Connolly – who to a young pre-teenage boy making sense of the world – seemed a joy to watch. Read the rest of this entry »
