Archive for the ‘Short Essays’ Category
The Second Big Debate
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, April 23rd 2010
The dynamics this week were very different: Clegg, the new favourite, Cameron, the previous frontrunner, and Brown, the supposed steady incumbent.
Nick Clegg had to navigate difficult terrain between being an ‘outsider’ and emphasising his experience, including drawing on his work for EU Commissioner Leon Brittan. When we got to Afghanistan and nuclear weapons, the temperature changed, and Brown told Clegg to ‘get real’ and Cameron said ‘I agree with Gordon’.
Brown was better than the previous week, avoiding mentioning no percentages or three point plans, and even cited the occasional human being. Cameron challenged Brown to withdraw ‘Labour lies’ in its leaflets alleging that the Tories would take away free bus passes from pensioners. Read the rest of this entry »
Who Benefits from Future Labour or Tory Governments?
Gerry Hassan
Fascinating figures from YouGov’s Sunday Times weekend poll – which as far as I can find are only available online and not in the newspaper version (at least north of the border) (1).
When voters were asked who they thought would most benefit from a Conservative Government they responded:
The rich 47%
Married couples 37%
Hardworking men and women 30%
The poor 11%
Single parents 8%
Immigrants 7% Read the rest of this entry »
A Tale of Two Labour Manifestos: ‘Choice’ and the Absence of England
Gerry Hassan
Open Democracy. April 12th 2010
The Labour manifesto has been launched finally today – the 25th British election manifesto according to BBC lunchtime news. It is a day of multiple Labour manifesto launches with the main British programme, and Scottish and Welsh versions, published.
I am going to focus my attention here on the British and Scottish editions, as these are the ones I am familiar with, so apologies to Welsh readers.
The British Labour manifesto, ‘A Future Fair For all’ (also the title of the Scottish and Welsh versions) has already won the battle of the pre-election slogans. The document itself is a strange mix, harking back in its images, colours and iconography, to a ‘brave new dawn’ and to the spirit of 1945 (as well as apparently the ‘New Jerusalem’ millennial hope of Labour in 1923 which had the theme, ‘Greet the Dawn’). George Eaton on the other hand in the ‘New Statesman’ thinks it draws from Maoist imagery (1).
Yet in content, this is a strange document with the sense of a transition from one age to another. In numerous places it makes the claim that we can no longer afford to continue ‘business as usual’, but its whole feel o is of a complacent Stanley Baldwinesque safety-first approach. Read the rest of this entry »
Go Brown To A Fourth Term: The Strange Story of Labour’s Comeback
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, March 27th 2010
As the Scottish Labour Party meets today in Glasgow, the party now finds itself in the surprising situation of an open, competitive election with everything to play for.
Labour has been through a lot these last few years: recession, a banking crisis, three attempted coups against the leader, cash for honours, the expenses crisis, and that’s without mentioning Iraq and Afghanistan.
Labour is short of members, resources and monies, and yet it is still standing. Is Gordon Brown really ‘the Comeback Kid’? This raises the question of what Labour stands for after all this? What is the essence of the party’s soul? And what would happen if the party managed against it all to win an historic fourth term?
Senior figures in the party still command the ability to order their depleted, exhausted forces to mount attacks and counter-attacks, and to push every sinew and part of themselves to rise to the task of mounting one more challenge against the Tories. Read the rest of this entry »
The Auld Enemies Still?
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, March 19th 2010
The Scotland-England relationship is one of the defining ways many Scots view the world. It ranges from football and rugby rivalry to history, politics, culture and identity.
At the weekend Scots rugby fans booed English players at Murrayfield, while we have grown accustomed to Scots football crowds booing the playing of ‘God Save the Queen’ for England at Hampden. And then there is the ‘Anyone But England’ phenomenon.
Why should Scotland define so much of its identity and sense of itself via what we think of England? This gives the power over who we are to someone else. Some argue that none of this really matters, and that it is all harmless fun about football and sport, but most of us know this is about much more, and tells us something uncomfortable about ourselves.
The ‘Anyone But England’ opinion uses a lot of false memory history syndrome. It dares to suggest that the English are the ones who have the problem from arrogant English football commentators, to the constant misunderstanding of ‘England’ as ‘Britain’, and 1966 and all that. Read the rest of this entry »
