Gerry Hassan
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gerryhassan.bsky.social
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%

A day of political surprises & turmoil. And what is the considered take of #BBC Political Editor Chris Mason? That Anas Sarwar's desperate move could spell the end days of Starmer when with in minutes its futility & weakness was revealed. The BBC have to do 'political analysis' better than this.

Which Labour leader will have to leave office first? Anas Sarwar or Keir Starmer?

The first ever inviting proposition from the Trump administration. On justice, accountability and the Epstein Files.

Scottish Labour: Hardly the politics of "Standing Up for Scotland." More accurately the politics of silence & cowardice.
As Scottish Labour grandees dine at 10 Downing Street, here's where things stand

MPs/MSPs calling for Starmer to go:
Sarwar
Lennon
Baillie
Leishman

Murray, Alexander, McNeill, Shanks, and McCluskey (all govt ministers) back PM

Not a peep from other 18 MSPs & 32 MPs

Not being American I have only a vague awareness of Kid Rock & fortunately know none of his music. What a stupid name for starters! Imagine if Little Jimmy Osmond had kept trading under that moniker into his old age.

The end of a rotten era in one area at least. Chris Wormald was a disastrous & 'steady as she goes' pro-establishment Downing Street choice when the UK political system needs shaken to the ground. Widely seen as such a bad choice by everyone apart from Starmer.

George Lansbury will be spinning in his grave with his bad luck at being the last Labour leader the party overthrew. This was in 1935: 91 years ago. One day the Labour Party & MPs will find the backbone to remove a failing leader. Will it be Keir Starmer?

Reposted by Gerry Hassan

As Scottish Labour grandees dine at 10 Downing Street, here's where things stand

MPs/MSPs calling for Starmer to go:
Sarwar
Lennon
Baillie
Leishman

Murray, Alexander, McNeill, Shanks, and McCluskey (all govt ministers) back PM

Not a peep from other 18 MSPs & 32 MPs
EXCL: Chris Wormald, the most senior civil servant in Downing Street, is negotiating his exit as part of a wider shakeup of Keir Starmer’s operation after dramatic day - @kiranstacey.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Top civil servant could become third key No 10 departure in days
Exclusive: Cabinet secretary Chris Wormald is expected to follow Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan out the door
www.theguardian.com

Historian @tessadunlop.bsky.social gets to the core of the Andrew M-W royal family scandal. The UK royals are still unaccountable & do not live in the modern age & UK. Bagehot's "light" is slowly destroying this secretive & rotten institution. #C4News

Starmer loyalist Labour MPs are a complete embarrassment. Sycophantic, clueless & clinging to a sinking ship. Being an MP should involve more than being a lickspittle to a crumbling leadership. #C4News

“There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?”

Wes Streeting hits the nail on the head in his extensive conversations with Peter Mandelson.
BREAKING: Wes Streeting publishes his private WhatsApp messages with Peter Mandelson in apparent attempt to draw a line under their friendship. They reveal:

:: He feared being “toast at the next election” in his Ilford North seat, adding: “There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?”.

Anas Sarwar has gone over the top too early & without cover. Starmer is toast & the only issue is timing. But Sarwar has made this move from a position of political weakness. It is likely that Sarwar will be gone after the May elections with Scot Lab searching for a new leader.

One of the big divisions in Scottish Labour will be between MSPs and MPs. Who are they standing up for? Standing for a politics of Labour's best values or standing for a failing PM whose authority is crumbling by the day?
BREAKING: Wes Streeting publishes his private WhatsApp messages with Peter Mandelson in apparent attempt to draw a line under their friendship. They reveal:

:: He feared being “toast at the next election” in his Ilford North seat, adding: “There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?”.

Is Anas Sarwar's call for Keir Starmer to resign an example of principled leadership or desperation? There is a case to be made that it is the latter: trying to divert blame for the shellacking Scot Lab are heading towards in the May elections to Starmer & Downing Street.

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.

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.

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%.

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."

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.

"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

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

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

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?'

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?
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
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??

"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.

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.
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.