Posts Tagged ‘Conservative Party’
How to Play Political Poker: The High Stakes of the Independence Debate
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, December 31st 2011
The Scottish constitutional debate will increasingly be the main, if not the only, debate in our national politics over the next year.
It is going to be a debate which not only has a Scottish interest, but for obvious reasons, a UK audience, alongside a wider European and international relevance.
It is crucial for many reasons that we conduct this debate in the best way possible. International attention, including the world’s media, will be on us. We have to rise above the schoolyard yah-boo politics of unionist versus nationalist, and aid a debate which engages with some of the serious issues.
Alex Salmond’s dominance over his Scottish political rivals, combined with his Scottish political awards, will continue to be one of the constants of our politics. But this isn’t going to be enough and the SNP will have to face some tough strategic dilemmas. Read the rest of this entry »
Which England Will Dare to Speak in Britain and Europe?
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, November 19th 2011
The European crisis has already told us many things; that the eurozone in its current form is not sustainable; that German leadership of the continent is going to become more pronounced; and that Greece, Italy and maybe one or two others are going to have decades of European-inflicted austerity.
Another factor is Britain’s continued role as the awkward, distant partner in Europe; a country which sees the European project as something it was hoodwinked into by its political classes and establishment. And not allowed a European vote for nearly forty years.
What we don’t explore beyond glib definitions is what kind of Britain and British identity are we articulating? Is it, as some claim, still the ‘mother of Parliaments’, the time-honoured defender of liberty, free speech and minorities? Or is it a City dominated deregulation utopia, a bastion of Anglo-Saxon hunter-gatherer capitalism only held back by the Euro-sclerosis of Brussels bureaucrats?
Recently the opinion pollster YouGov has undertaken a UK survey on peoples’ different national identities and perceptions on Britain and the European Union. They found a direct relationship between national identity and Euroscepticism. If you choose an ‘English’ identity as 63% of respondents do you are more likely to have a Euro-sceptic opinion, whereas if you identify as ‘British’ (19%), ‘Scottish’ (8%) or ‘Welsh’ (5%) you are more likely to be pro-European. Read the rest of this entry »
Fear and Loathing and the Power of Class in Modern Britain
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, October 8th 2011
Britain has changed dramatically since 1945. In most accounts of post-war Britain from populisers such as Andrew Marr – the confident tale told is of the forward march of the classless society.
There were the 1950s and ‘you’ve never had it so good’ affluence, the 1960s protest and music, the 1980s individualism and consumerism, and then the noughties and the property and credit card booms.
This is the BBC-Ladybird Book guide to modern Britain heard in phrases such as ‘we are all becoming classless’ and ‘everyone now is middle class’ which were cited by politicians in the boom.
The difficult times of recession, anger at bankers and global pessimism, has undermined this view. Despite this, mainstream politics operates on the assumption that the great British post-war project, of consumption, rising living standards for most, and one jolly long party can be kick-started. Out there in the real world, there is a palpable sense of foreboding and feeling this is delusional, and that the days of endless economic growth, rising incomes and prosperity may be gone for good. Read the rest of this entry »
Why we need to understand the Cameroon Conservatives
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, October 1st 2011
Why do so many people caricature Conservatism? This can be seen on the left, anti-Tory opinion, and of course, most of Scottish public life.
The Conservatives are reduced to a series of stereotypes: of being selfish, uncaring, just for the super rich, not understanding what it is like to live on modest means, unmoved by poverty, and wanting to turn back the clock to Dickensian Britain.
If these clichés were true the British Conservatives would be reduced to some impotent rump the size of the Scots Tories or Lib Dems. But they are not because they have always spoken for a large swathe of British society.
Well over a year into the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, not only are the Conservatives not as unpopular as people thought they might be and they themselves feared, but something else is happening. Despite the economic gloom and doom, which you think might lead to a revival of left thinking, so far the running has been made in ideas from the right. Read the rest of this entry »
The Changing Tory Story of Scotland and the Union
Gerry Hassan
The Scotsman, July 16th 2011
While the British media and political classes have obsessed over the mega-story of the crisis of the Murdoch empire and parallel state within a state, the constitutional debate about Scotland has quietly and yet profoundly moved on.
The Conservatives have a long and proud tradition in relation to the politics of the union. This doesn’t mean they haven’t made serious errors of judgement at points, whether in Ireland or post-war decolonisation.
Taking a wider view there has been a potent Tory account of Britain, of progress, then Empire and post-Empire, and a land getting supposedly better for everyone ‘managed’ by those who know best.
To be a Conservative unionist doesn’t make one anti-Scottish. Just as being a Labour unionist doesn’t. And there is more to Toryism than Mrs. Thatcher’s abrasive unionism. You could even argue that there was more to Thatcher than that, but you wouldn’t get far north of the border. Read the rest of this entry »
