Gerry Hassan
@gerryhassan.bsky.social
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.
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%
Exclusive: The BBC has issued an apology after one of its presenters failed to challenge a climate-sceptic lobbyist who runs a group that has received funding from fossil-fuel interests
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
BBC Apologises for Failing to Challenge 'Dark Money' Climate-Denial Lobbyist
EXCLUSIVE: BBC faces fresh allegations of bias after corporation admits interview with ‘Net Zero Watch’ lobbying chief Andrew Montford 'fell below usual standards'
bylinetimes.com
Every day the #BBC uncritically platform dark money funded right-wing voices. Examples include the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Taxpayers' Alliance & the ridiculous right-wing contrarians Spiked. Time to call time on media representation without knowing who pays the bills.
I'm remarkably relaxed about this. No I don't want my neighbours – Mail and Telegraph-reading berks – judging me. I'd rather have legal experts who've learned how to think.
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
David Lammy considers scrapping jury trials for all but the most serious cases
Senior lawyers criticise justice secretary’s radical plan, saying it could ‘destroy justice as we know it’
www.theguardian.com
We have to trust our neighbours and not peddle the myth that people are intrinsically stupid or easy to hoodwink. Otherwise that just plays into the populist right & authoritarians & is ultimately an argument against democracy.
Is British politics immune to US-style rightwing Christianity? We’re about to find out | Lamorna Ash
Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are increasingly espousing Christian ‘values’, and a wealthy US legal group is becoming influential – this could have dire consequences, says author Lamorna Ash
www.theguardian.com
Are UK politics going to be influenced by US-style right-wing Christianity? A politics of identity which at its core is anti-Christian. It is "a reminder that anti-trans, anti-queer and Islamophobic positions do not spring from nowhere." www.theguardian.com/world/commen...
Reposted by Steve Peers, James Connelly, Gerry Hassan
BBC Apologises for Failing to Challenge 'Dark Money' Climate-Denial Lobbyist
EXCLUSIVE: BBC faces fresh allegations of bias after corporation admits interview with ‘Net Zero Watch’ lobbying chief Andrew Montford 'fell below usual standards'
bylinetimes.com
Exclusive: The BBC has issued an apology after one of its presenters failed to challenge a climate-sceptic lobbyist who runs a group that has received funding from fossil-fuel interests
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
Reposted by Gerry Hassan
David Lammy considers scrapping jury trials for all but the most serious cases
Senior lawyers criticise justice secretary’s radical plan, saying it could ‘destroy justice as we know it’
www.theguardian.com
I'm remarkably relaxed about this. No I don't want my neighbours – Mail and Telegraph-reading berks – judging me. I'd rather have legal experts who've learned how to think.
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
Germany’s respected Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research finds that over 100,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by Israeli military action.
New podcast OUT NOW! To celebrate the centenary of Margaret Thatcher, we have done a dive into the economics of Thatcherism. So if you don't know much about the 'Iron Lady' or just want to hear a discussion about her life & legacy, then have a listen. #EconSky podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Does this address the mirage of Thatcherism transforming Britain for the better? There was no "economic miracle" for the UK in the 1980s: only the rich & powerful; economic growth pa was the same as the 1970s. The UK was kept afloat by North Sea oil, privatisation & an explosion of household debt.
"Let's see if we can fly the 'we were only being indirectly racist' as our defence. It has been floated by one of our eager younger supporters Nigel Farage."
Tory Simon Clarke claims "The UK has one of the most progressive taxation systems in the world". He cites that the top 1% of earners pay 29% of income tax which is a measure of income inequality. FACT: VAT is a regressive tax & UK authorities refuse to update property taxes since 1991. #PoliticsLive
Nathan Gill, Moscow's agent in Farage's parties & the pro-Putin populist right across the West. From Martyn Turner.
Robbie Gibb describes the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason as the "unsung hero of covering politics" and "absolutely first rate"
What a damning political epitaph.
Not surprising that Piers Morgan acts as an apologist for Trump's pro-Putin Russian authored plan on Ukraine. And a defeatist about Ukraine's prospects. #Newsnight
Despite being a Political Editor & then corporate PR for years Michael Prescott plays the idiot card:
“This was conceived as a private memo to 14 people,” Prescott explained ... “Six days after I sent the memo,” he said in a tone of shock, “there it was in the Telegraph!”
“This was conceived as a private memo to 14 people,” Prescott explained ... “Six days after I sent the memo,” he said in a tone of shock, “there it was in the Telegraph!”
Robbie Gibb describes the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason as the "unsung hero of covering politics" and "absolutely first rate"
A memorable Kirkcudbright Fringe event with Archie Macpherson in conversation with Jonathan Northcroft. Covering from Lisbon 67 to Scotland's 74 & 78 World Cups, Alex Ferguson & psychology of football winners & Scotland's win against Denmark & much more. First photo: Jonathan, Archie & myself.
Another takeaway from the final result & Reform not winning is the reluctance of other party voters to support Reform & non-Reform voters to vote tactically to defeat Reform. Graph: @ballotbox.scot 2/2
Another wake-up call for the complacent Scottish political classes. The Stranraer and the Rhins by-election on Thursday past saw the Tories elected. But the bigger story was the Reform vote: 35.2%: the highest yet in Scotland, finishing top in 1st preferences. 1/2
There is definitely a problem in the Labour leadership. But wider Labour as well. This is true of all mainstream parties in the UK & indeed across the West. Labour, Tories, Reform, Lib Dems, Greens & SNP here are struggling to address big policy issues while engaging with intellectual ideas.
More seriously, Glasman needs to stop being given oxygen by journalists more interested in palace intrigue than serious ideas, because he hasn't got any left.
Coverage of our politics is becoming more and more like Kremlinology every week.
Coverage of our politics is becoming more and more like Kremlinology every week.
Technocracy: managed
Gender: wokeified
Identities: recognised
Average wages: down >£11k a year in real terms since 2008
Public services: decimated
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my working class is desecrated
Gender: wokeified
Identities: recognised
Average wages: down >£11k a year in real terms since 2008
Public services: decimated
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my working class is desecrated
Maurice Glasman's pronouncements and the profile and seriousness with which he is treated in the media underline the moral vacuousness and bankruptcy of ideas in Starmer's Labour. Where are the alternative ideas and thinkers? Something Labour used to have lots of. No longer.
Reposted by Gerry Hassan
Technocracy: managed
Gender: wokeified
Identities: recognised
Average wages: down >£11k a year in real terms since 2008
Public services: decimated
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my working class is desecrated
Gender: wokeified
Identities: recognised
Average wages: down >£11k a year in real terms since 2008
Public services: decimated
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my working class is desecrated
What is this word salad?
Tag yourself
Tag yourself
More seriously, Glasman needs to stop being given oxygen by journalists more interested in palace intrigue than serious ideas, because he hasn't got any left.
Coverage of our politics is becoming more and more like Kremlinology every week.
Coverage of our politics is becoming more and more like Kremlinology every week.
Rachel Johnson defends the actions & inactions of her brother Boris Johnson during COVID: "It's as though my brother was the Grim Reaper." This pathetic & repulsive comment was broadcast on LBC. And deserves the response below.
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
This is truly deranged from Lord Glasman of Blue Labour fame on the word 'progressive'. Lots of words have many meanings such as obviously 'labour'.
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
On the 35th anniversary of the fall of Thatcher a private poll for the Tories finds they would be reduced to 14 seats. A Tory insider said: "The direction of travel is just terrible. The party is heading for an extinction event. It is clearly not working for Kemi."
John Maxton, Labour MP for Glasgow Cathcart 1979-2001 has died. Cathcart wasn't only the sole Scottish Tory seat Labour won in 1979 it was the solitary Labour gain from the Tories across the entire UK. Teddy Taylor who lost Cathcart would have been Thatcher's Secretary of State of Scotland.
Is T.C. Smout Scotland's pre-eminent historian in the past 60 years? His 'A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830' broke new ground studying Scottish people & social conditions rather than kings, queens & elites. It was followed by 'A Century of the Scottish People 1830-1950.'
Former Brexit & Reform MEP Nathan Gill sentenced to 10.5 years on eight counts of bribery for taking Russian bribes. The "ultimate source" of the funds came from "a close friend of Vladimir Putin" noted Justice Cheema-Grubb. Little chance that Gill was "one bad apple" in Reform.
This looks like the last days of a dying, out of touch dictatorship of aging men. It is the Celtic Board at the club's AGM acting with their usual contempt towards supporters.
Former Farage ally, UKIP & Reform UK leader in Wales Nathan Gill is being sentenced today for accepting Russian bribes. Gill was close to Farage over a number of years & Farage has questions to answer about how much he knew & the conduct of other Reform MEPs & politicians.
The cringe fest sycophantic echo chamber that is X and grok on the question of the relative merits of Elon Musk and Jesus Christ.