Gerry Hassan

@gerryhassan.bsky.social

1.9K followers 330 following 2.5K posts

Writer commentator academic. Books Editor, Bella Caledonia; Co-founder Kirkcudbright Fringe Festival; Co-editor, 'Britain Needs Change: The Politics of Hope & Labour's Challenge', pub. Nov. 28 2024.

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Gerry Hassan is a Scottish writer, commentator and academic. He currently holds an Honorary Professor title at Glasgow Caledonian University for Social Change, having previously worked at the University of Dundee and the University of the West of Scotland, where he completed his doctorate. He has also previously worked for the Institute for Public Policy Research and Demos where he led their Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020 programmes and OpenDemocracy. He has written for the Scottish and UK press, including The Spectator, The Scotsman, The Herald, Holyrood, Sunday Mail, The Guardian and The National (Scotland) on topics and issues related to the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland and Scottish Independence. .. more

Political science 50%

History 39%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 13h

50 years ago on 8 Feb 1976 'Taxi Driver' was released. Evocative of New York life & the city in the mid-1970s it is aided by a haunting soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann who died shortly afterwards. It was his final score & the film is dedicated to his memory.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 14h

Why are the Met Police not investigating ex-Prince Andrew as well as Peter Mandelson? From his decade as UK Trade Envoy there is enough evidence that he traded in giving away state secrets to Jeffrey Epstein & foreign powers & undermined the 'national interests' of the UK.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 17h

The myth of Morgan McSweeney as a political genius who won the 2024 election for Labour is just that. Labour had a 1.6% rise in their vote & actual fall of 561,928 votes. They won big because the Tories lost seven million votes. The only region/nation Lab saw a big rise was Scotland: 16.7%.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 17h

The top analysis of today's Labour news from Liz Truss. She believes that the "Labour Illuminati" & "the British deep state" will control post-Starmer Labour and crown first Rayner & then Streeting. And signs off with the observation: "There is no Labour Liz Truss."

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 17h

Japan's Sanae Takaichi has won a landslide election. She presents herself as a new broom & a break from past leaders with her love of heavy metal & motorbikes. But she is an ultra-conservative & leader of the Liberal Democratic Party who have dominated post-war Japanese politics.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

"A Labour leadership contest will mean instant financial crisis" says the Telegraph. Funny then that the Tories changed leaders four times in their 14 years in office. And Labour have twice before switched leaders while in government.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

www.telegraph.co.uk

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Mandelson has a very short memory when it is convenient. Or he is a habitual & shameless serial liar.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

"How we cover corruption in Britain": Mandelson at the height of the scandal around him & The Times.

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 1d

I had to check the date on this three times

‘At home with Peter Mandelson’ in Times magazine *today*

This is how we cover corruption in Britain? Seriously??

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

This is desperate end of game stuff from Starmer & his amateur Downing Street operation. A Labour Govt elected with a 174 majority 18 months pressing the self-destruction button? Is that all he & McSweeney have left apart from the line: 'don't worry the bond markets?'

John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.social · 1d

Will Keir Starmer use his nuclear option to try to head off a leadership challenge? www.independent.co.uk/voices/keir-...

Will Keir Starmer use his nuclear option to try to head off a leadership challenge?

The prime minister’s allies have hinted that he will call a general election, says John Rentoul

www.independent.co.uk

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Mandelson trying to present himself as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. WTF are @thetimes.com & Katy Balls doing colluding in such debased client journalism & at such an inappropriate time?

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Pauline Stafford, Gerry Hassan

John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.social · 1d

Will Keir Starmer use his nuclear option to try to head off a leadership challenge? www.independent.co.uk/voices/keir-...

Will Keir Starmer use his nuclear option to try to head off a leadership challenge?

The prime minister’s allies have hinted that he will call a general election, says John Rentoul

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by Molly Scott Cato, Stuart White, Gerry Hassan

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 1d

I had to check the date on this three times

‘At home with Peter Mandelson’ in Times magazine *today*

This is how we cover corruption in Britain? Seriously??

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

"If you're not in those files... you were a bit of a loser" says Victoria Hervey missing the entire point of the Epstein files & what Epstein was doing. Below: photo of Hervey with Nigel Farage.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

The attempt to rehabilitate the indefensible, disgraced Peter Mandelson is already in full swing aided by the Murdoch Times. Why? Because Mandelson has been an enabler, advocate & apologist for corporate elites & power.

Marina Purkiss @marina-purkiss.bsky.social · 2d

I deleted my post from before…

I thought it was fake

So I went to WH Smith and here it is

An unbelievable attempt to sanitise this man and normalise what’s he’s done.

Reposted by Leigh Sparks, Ian Butler, Gerry Hassan

Marina Purkiss @marina-purkiss.bsky.social · 2d

I deleted my post from before…

I thought it was fake

So I went to WH Smith and here it is

An unbelievable attempt to sanitise this man and normalise what’s he’s done.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

The role of Labour Together & Morgan McSweeney is forensically examined in 'The Fraud' by Paul Holden. It itemises their anti-Corbyn factional work & dodgy corporate funding. Labour Together were always a scandal waiting to explode & this book is vital reading. Pub by @orbooks.bsky.social

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

Peter Mandelson has sent a secret notice to all UK media demanding they leave him alone. He cited IPSO clauses to attempt to stop scrutiny of his long-standing relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Well done to @scotnational.bsky.social & @lauraewebster.bsky.social for publishing it.

Reposted by Stuart White

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

#BBC #Newsnight with Matt Chorley reduces the Mandelson scandal to political process. Typical insider class coverage of a story abt more: the debasement of power & its abuse by an entire cadre of politicians, advisers & courtiers. This is part of the UK's broken politics.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

Labour rules say that the party leader must be an MP; but if Labour really had the will to power that Tories have shown in the past they could suspend that given the dearth of talent in the PLP. Not saying this will happen; Labour conservatives down the years have been pedants to their rule book.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

Radical thought. You do not constitutionally need to be an MP to be PM. Alec Douglas-Home was PM & not an MP for 20 days in 1963. We are in different times politically. But if Labour treated the British constitutional settlement the way the Tories do … they could make Burnham the next Labour PM.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

The Joke isn't Funny Anymore: Peter Mandelson and corporate media.

Reposted by Leigh Sparks

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

Very funny and appropriate dig at the New Statesman cover focusing on Mandelson: "I had a mirthless laugh at the New Statesman’s cover this week, which characterised the Mandelson affair as 'the scandal of the century'. Guys, it’s not even the biggest scandal of the scandal."

Reposted by Leigh Sparks

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

Superb piece by Marina Hyde on why so much coverage of the Epstein scandal refuses to talk abt what it is really abt. Namely, powerful men who helped super-wealthy paedophile Jeffrey Epstein despite his sex trafficking, abuse & crimes against young women.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So the Epstein scandal is about politics? Silly me for thinking it’s about the mass abuse of women and girls | Marina Hyde

Obsessing over individual players and political chaos leaves less time to focus on the misogyny. And that’s for the best, isn’t it guys, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

www.theguardian.com

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

After 45 years of economic Thatcherism when are the British right ever going to step up & take responsibility for the state of Britain? They broke Britain. And still they continue offering more of the same failed economic medicine.
capx.co/dont-like-ke...

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

Labour Together, an influential Labour-aligned think-tank previously run by Morgan McSweeney, now Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, paid a public affairs company to identify the source of leaks to journalists about the group’s funding. Report in the FT. www.ft.com/content/dca0...

UK think-tank close to Labour paid firm to identify source of leaks to media

Labour Together, previously run by Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, commissioned APCO Worldwide

www.ft.com

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

What is the worst UK govt in the last 125 years?
1. Neville Chamberlain & appeasement;
2. Boris Johnston;
3. Liz Truss;
4. Anthony Eden & Suez
5. Tony Blair & Iraq;
All worse than the disastrous Keir Starmer.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

Labour Together, the internal party pressure group paid a PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into its undeclared funding. And Morgan McSweeney knew about it. Labour Together has always been a scandal waiting to explode. Full story: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists

Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

democracyforsale.substack.com

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

Mandy: The Keir Starmer Resignation Song. From The Crewkerne Gazette. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0seX...

“Mandy” - Keir Starmer ft Crewkerne Gazette

YouTube video by The Crewkerne Gazette

www.youtube.com

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

50% of respondents think Keir Starmer should resign as Prime Minister; 24% think he should stay. Labour supporters split: 37% wanting him to resign; 40% wanting him to stay. One little quirk is that Lib Dem voters marginally want Starmer to stay more than Labour voters. Via @yougov.co.uk

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 3d

'The British General Election of 2024' is the 22nd book in the Nuffield series. Have got every one of them. One factor missing from this volume is any reference to Peter Mandelson assisting Morgan McSweeney in vetting Labour candidates. Mandelson has not one entry in 775 pages.

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