oD support open standards:

About Gerry Hassan

Gerry Hassan is a writer, policy analyst and researcher. His website is www.gerryhassan.com

Articles by Gerry Hassan

Monday 30th January

Scotland needs a One Question Referendum. It is that simple!

Gerry Hassan, 30 January 2012
The Scottish independence referendum may be more than a question of 'in' or 'out'. Would a third option - devo max - empower the people through more choice, or muddy the waters?
Wednesday 25th January

Historic day for the UK: Salmond consults Scotland but can't civilise Paxman

Gerry Hassan, 25 January 2012
Scotland's Prime Minister has launched a consultation with the people over the coming independence referendum. He seeks a calm, normal process but will Westminster let him have it? the tables are already turned as the nationalists are rational and the traditional Unionists become incoherent retro-romantics.
Wednesday 11th January

The beginning of the break-up of Britain?

Gerry Hassan, 11 January 2012
Scotland's independence referendum will be held in Autumn 2014. Whatever the people decide, Scotland and the UK will never be the same again.
Friday 6th January

The ‘three Scotlands’ and how to win an independence referendum

Gerry Hassan, 6 January 2012
Scottish identity, 'dual identity' or British identity: Scotland is being pulled three ways. Soon, the question will be put to the people. What are the politics of winning an independence vote?
Friday 16th December

The search for an alternative to trad Labour: the cul-de-sacs of Marxism Today and Tommy Sheridan

Gerry Hassan, 16 December 2011
Two apparently very different books, The Tommy Sheridan Story and Pearmain's The Politics of New Labour, both recount the search for left alternatives in Britain.
Monday 12th December

Scotland and the crisis of the British and European Unions: How do we democratise?

Gerry Hassan, 12 December 2011
How does the debate on Scottish independence fit into the wider economic crisis and the conflation of 'economics' with 'business'? Gerry Hassan considers what an independent Scotland might look like and how its democracy could function.
Sunday 13th November

The danger of a Westminster-led Scottish independence vote

Gerry Hassan, 13 November 2011
The referendum on Scottish independence is now inevitable, but will the UK Government initiate a poll?
Wednesday 9th November

The power of black and white Scotland

Gerry Hassan, 9 November 2011
The bitter hostility between Labour and SNP is also mirrored in cultural, religious, sporting and psychological oppositions. It would benefit politics and people to move beyond such monochrome divisions
Friday 28th October

The Twilight of the British State: Scottish Independence and the European Question

Gerry Hassan, 28 October 2011
Both the British union and the European Union are in crisis. With Europe set to integrate and the British state heading for collapse, could there soon be more similarities than differences between the two? And how will their fates be intertwined?
Sunday 23rd October

Can the Scottish Nationalists embrace post-nationalism, the only route to independence?

Gerry Hassan, 23 October 2011
Scotland's governing party looks forward to independence. But what does this mean in our time? A form of post-nationalist nationalism that embraces the world.
Monday 17th October

What do you do when democracy fails you? The crisis of Scottish Labour

Gerry Hassan, 17 October 2011
Scottish Labour has finally woken up, roused by a speech from the Shadow Foreign Secretary. The old Labour hymns are dead, he admitted - but when will the party find a new tune?
Wednesday 5th October

Wake up, lefties! It's time to engage with Conservative ideas

Gerry Hassan, 5 October 2011
The left must end their tribal Tory-bashing. The Conservative party today is thoughtful, and has ideas for post-crash Britain where the left are dragging their heels.
Thursday 29th September

The Purple Book and the new age of rainbow coalitions

Gerry Hassan, 29 September 2011
Urging a 'revising of New Labour', The Purple Book refuses to acknowledge the mistakes of the Blairite era. What it does show is that Britain is in a new age of 'colour politics', where flux and confusion reigns as we struggle to find an alternative to market fundamentalism.
Tuesday 13th September

Now is the time for a modern Scottish story

Gerry Hassan, 13 September 2011
Our modern lives fill us with remorse, anger and bewilderment. But in Scotland we have the chance to discover a national story for the 21st century that binds us together and gives our lives meaning
Sunday 4th September

A Different Pulse of Politics: It’s Time for a Radical SNP Vision for Scotland

Gerry Hassan, 4 September 2011
With its opponents in disarray the Scottish Nationalist Party has a glorious opportunity to take a fresh approach to governing and unlock a broad movement for self-government in Scotland. This is how it should begin.
Sunday 7th August

After the deluge: the meaning of ‘the public’ and the power of self-determination

Gerry Hassan, 7 August 2011
The recent Compass initiative on the lack of responsibility of Britain's elites is timely, but we need to have a much wider and more ambitious debate about the meaning of the public. Part of the answer can be found in developing the idea of self-determination -- something already under way in Scotland.
Monday 11th July

The Conservatives, the Union, Scotland and the British State

Gerry Hassan, 11 July 2011
The defence of the union in true Tory tradition has begun, with a speech by former Prime Minister John Major: conciliatory on the surface, while aiming at protecting the bastardised British state
Saturday 9th July

Murdochgate, the Cameron project and the Crisis of the British State

Gerry Hassan, 9 July 2011
The hacking scandal deepens an ongoing crisis of the British state and spells the end of the Prime Minister's attempt to mash one-nation conservatism and neo-liberalism.
Tuesday 5th July

The start of a pan-British debate on the union?

Gerry Hassan, 5 July 2011
Is a serious, pan-British debate starting on the future of the union and the rise of the SNP in Scotland? Yesterday's BBC Newsnight finally showed that the Westminster media bubble is capable of engaging with the national question
Sunday 3rd July

The Movement for a New Direction

Gerry Hassan, 3 July 2011
The nature of capitalism over the last three decades has led to the present crisis in the West. A counter-movement is developing across the world, but it is yet to find a name and develop a coherent alternative, a third contribution to openDemocracy's debate
Syndicate content