Gav Maclean
@gavmaclean.bsky.social
Small time sociologist.
He/him
He/him
If I survive in an academic career til retirement, the last few years I'm expecting will be quite productive. This is around the time I think I'll have "read enough" to write.
February 7, 2026 at 3:55 PM
If I survive in an academic career til retirement, the last few years I'm expecting will be quite productive. This is around the time I think I'll have "read enough" to write.
I don't get why they say Starmer is a man of integrity. There is just no evidence of this. Beyond hiring Mandelson, just look at his leadership campaign pledges!
February 7, 2026 at 12:33 PM
I don't get why they say Starmer is a man of integrity. There is just no evidence of this. Beyond hiring Mandelson, just look at his leadership campaign pledges!
everything about this post is violently cringe
February 7, 2026 at 11:49 AM
everything about this post is violently cringe
and he's done
New on FT website:
Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract.
www.ft.com/content/5bba...
Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract.
www.ft.com/content/5bba...
Starmer faces questions over visit to Palantir office alongside Mandelson
Former ambassador was also shareholder in lobbying group that counted US tech firm as a client
www.ft.com
February 7, 2026 at 11:43 AM
and he's done
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Sorry but *what*? How did I not know that George Osborne - the architect of British public sector austerity - was now OpenAI's head of "OpenAI for Countries" pushing AI for the public sector, education and skills, and doing so at Davos and on LinkedIn? www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/george-...
February 6, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Sorry but *what*? How did I not know that George Osborne - the architect of British public sector austerity - was now OpenAI's head of "OpenAI for Countries" pushing AI for the public sector, education and skills, and doing so at Davos and on LinkedIn? www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/george-...
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Finneas is better at political messaging than 99% of the Democratic consultants in DC.
February 6, 2026 at 8:44 PM
Finneas is better at political messaging than 99% of the Democratic consultants in DC.
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Mamdani: "I speak of Renee Good, whose final words to the man who murdered her were, 'I'm not mad at you.' I speak of Alex Pretti who died as he lived, caring for the stranger. ICE shot him bc he did something they could never fathom ... let us offer a new path: one of defiance through compassion."
February 6, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Mamdani: "I speak of Renee Good, whose final words to the man who murdered her were, 'I'm not mad at you.' I speak of Alex Pretti who died as he lived, caring for the stranger. ICE shot him bc he did something they could never fathom ... let us offer a new path: one of defiance through compassion."
A nice full circle moment to mark the final end of New Labour when a key architect of spin asks the press to lay off.
Suck it up.
Suck it up.
🚨 This evening, a notice was circulated from representatives of Peter Mandelson, via press regulator IPSO and the Press Association news wire, to all media across the UK
We believe it is strongly in the public interest to publish this memo. This is it in full 👇
We believe it is strongly in the public interest to publish this memo. This is it in full 👇
Peter Mandelson issues secret notice demanding press leave him alone – read in full
www.thenational.scot
February 6, 2026 at 8:12 PM
A nice full circle moment to mark the final end of New Labour when a key architect of spin asks the press to lay off.
Suck it up.
Suck it up.
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Picture 1: Two plain clothes police officers during a search of Peter Mandelson's home
Picture 2: Police search Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home
Picture 2: Police search Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home
February 6, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Picture 1: Two plain clothes police officers during a search of Peter Mandelson's home
Picture 2: Police search Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home
Picture 2: Police search Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home
I was just talking about the fetishism of commodities in today's lecture.
Tulips from Lincolnshire on sale in a cafe/deli around the corner from my office in London for... yes, **£50** a bunch 🌷🌷😬😲
February 6, 2026 at 12:14 PM
I was just talking about the fetishism of commodities in today's lecture.
I think @kermodemovie.bsky.social didn't enjoy it. I like his point about it being a heist movie. Seems like a disservice to other worst movies of the year if this is in contention.
Mark Kermode reviews Melania
YouTube video by Kermode and Mayo's Take
www.youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:33 AM
I think @kermodemovie.bsky.social didn't enjoy it. I like his point about it being a heist movie. Seems like a disservice to other worst movies of the year if this is in contention.
people think political leadership is all game of thrones when actually it's just about getting mini-podiums made up and letting the kids be cute.
Child at the podium: “A woo woo woo.”
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
February 6, 2026 at 9:26 AM
people think political leadership is all game of thrones when actually it's just about getting mini-podiums made up and letting the kids be cute.
Given how modernity has worked out, maybe we should give this Antichrist guy a turn.
We live in a delusional rich man's fever dream.
Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune
The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.
fortune.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:59 AM
Given how modernity has worked out, maybe we should give this Antichrist guy a turn.
We need to retire the concept of a moral panic
February 5, 2026 at 10:17 PM
We need to retire the concept of a moral panic
release the McSweeney files. we need to know what he's got on Starmer.
February 5, 2026 at 9:04 PM
release the McSweeney files. we need to know what he's got on Starmer.
When I spoke to my careers advisor as a kid, I said to him that I don't want to work a career where success depends on me injecting my penis with acid.
‘Penis injection’ claims in Winter Olympics ski jumping investigated by Wada
Wada is to investigate claims ski jumpers are injecting acid into their penises to game the suit-measuring system
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:33 PM
When I spoke to my careers advisor as a kid, I said to him that I don't want to work a career where success depends on me injecting my penis with acid.
AEW's great because is not an ideological state apparatus of the Trump administration. ✊
Wow! What sounded like the entire AEW Dynamite audience in Las Vegas tonight chanted "Fuck ICE! Fuck ICE!" in unison before the main event
February 5, 2026 at 2:13 PM
AEW's great because is not an ideological state apparatus of the Trump administration. ✊
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Now tell me again how much it's okay that English Lit has collapsed at A-Level and in our universities.
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
#Pinks #ProudBlue
February 5, 2026 at 1:48 PM
Now tell me again how much it's okay that English Lit has collapsed at A-Level and in our universities.
genuinely seems a miracle to me that Starmer was ever paid to be a defence counsel
February 5, 2026 at 12:03 PM
genuinely seems a miracle to me that Starmer was ever paid to be a defence counsel
Reposted by Gav Maclean
"Keeping in mind that I already explained about employing the close personal friend of a notorious convicted sex trafficker, are there any questions?"
has someone told him not to smile when this is the fucking news headline
February 5, 2026 at 11:51 AM
"Keeping in mind that I already explained about employing the close personal friend of a notorious convicted sex trafficker, are there any questions?"
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Labour just needs to close its eyes, elect Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband as leader now, and hope for the best. No one is going to emerge from this broken government as a better alternative than them so you're only wasting valuable time until the inevitable happens
feels like Labour is stuck in the seventh circle of leadership contest hell, ie pingponging endlessly between 'he should go!' and 'but not be replaced by any of the people available in this actual life'
February 5, 2026 at 11:20 AM
Labour just needs to close its eyes, elect Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband as leader now, and hope for the best. No one is going to emerge from this broken government as a better alternative than them so you're only wasting valuable time until the inevitable happens
The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future can't even be arsed with the guy.
All Elon ever wanted was for people to think he was funny. He tried to buy that by buying Twitter. It didn't work. He made some half-arsed memes. That didn't work either. He went onstage with Dave Chapelle. People booed so much he had a breakdown.
Elon is sad because he isn't funny.
Elon is sad because he isn't funny.
February 5, 2026 at 10:38 AM
The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future can't even be arsed with the guy.
Reposted by Gav Maclean
Do they understand how mad they sound? As if anyone has ever decided to cross the Channel in a small boat because, if they make it, they might get to take a free taxi to a doctor's appointment?
"Pull factors" on steroids.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Pull factors" on steroids.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
February 5, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Do they understand how mad they sound? As if anyone has ever decided to cross the Channel in a small boat because, if they make it, they might get to take a free taxi to a doctor's appointment?
"Pull factors" on steroids.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Pull factors" on steroids.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Someone hopefully will write a good article by next year about Chomsky and Manufacturing Consent in the context of Chomsky himself being part of the elite-supportive system. It would save me riffing around it in my lectures.
February 5, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Someone hopefully will write a good article by next year about Chomsky and Manufacturing Consent in the context of Chomsky himself being part of the elite-supportive system. It would save me riffing around it in my lectures.