Gerry Hassan

@gerryhassan.bsky.social

1.7K followers 320 following 2.1K 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%

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Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 10h

A bit of a simple reading. The BBC represents a British liberal democratic set of values of a Britain which is under fire, contested & in retreat. It is a take increasingly problematic & out of kilter with the bitterly divided UK of the present.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 11h

The pro-Trumpian British right-wing media. Actively siding with a US President who tried to overturn a US Presidential election. And where stating the truth for these Trumpian apologists is some sort of bias & crime.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 14h

After years of right-wing accusations of #BBC bias & the BBC trying to appease the right they still want more. Appeasement never works of bullies & hardline ideologues. One-third of public opinion think the BBC has a left-wing bias; one-fifth a right-wing bias.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 19h

Good to hear First Minister of Scotland @johnswinney.bsky.social say that the BBC controversy should entail right-wing placeman Robbie Gibb no longer being on the BBC Board of Directors. Gibb commissioned the Michael Prescott report & has long played a destabilsing role in the BBC.

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Steve Peers , and 8 more Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Steve Peers, Tim Bale, Paul Davies, Peter Holmes, Ben Rosamond, Mark Robinson, Nicolai von Ondarza, Judith Jesch, Gerry Hassan

Robert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 20h

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Peter Gatrell, Mary Corcoran , and 2 more Steve Peers, Peter Gatrell, Mary Corcoran, Ian Loader, Gerry Hassan

Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 22h

I’ve written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Donald Trump’s attack on the BBC.

The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 23h

I don't even follow your point.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 23h

That was not the point I am remotely making. Scottish indy is profoundly democratic. My argument was exploring the way the British liberal democratic values which the BBC embodies are now increasingly contested & challenged by right, left & Scottish independence.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

The BBC has to defend the values it embodies. The BBC has to make the case for representing British liberal democratic values in a fractured Britain where the essence of what it stands for is increasingly contested. Without the BBC making a case for what it stands for it will wither & die.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

The latest #BBC controversy is pat of a long culture war about the BBC & UK. The BBC is not a neutral organisation as some of its defenders think. It sits in an ideological space articulating British liberal democratic values. These are under attack from right, left, Scottish independenistas & more.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

There is a sustained, right-wing ideological campaign to undermine & ultimately destroy the BBC which the Telegraph is central to. Shouldn't you guys be dealing with this rather than getting hung up on technicalities? The right-wing onslaught is not abt facts or detail; it is an ideological crusade.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

The #BBC have been craven & caved to the right-wing propaganda machine today & for years. This is about the BBC, Trump & Trumpism in the US & UK. And note the lie from Trump that his 6 January speech attempting a coup was "perfect."

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

Why is it in the UK only #BBC Director-Generals & senior staff who resign & are held accountable when their organisation is in crisis? Only the BBC seems to be held accountable. Unlike banks; the post office scandal; NHS; Farage & Brexit where people can lie & nothing happens.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

Ex-Channel 5 head David Elstein says that "the idea there is a right-wing pile on the BBC is plain bonkers." Obviously he is living in a parallel universe not connected to the present-day #BBC and UK.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 1d

Why has @skynewsrss.bsky.social got right-wing shrill & Israeli state apologist Danny Cohen on punting his hard right ideological take as if he was someone neutral on the #BBC? Truly dire & partisan platforming by Sky News.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

The first year anniversary of Swally 'n' Scran being open in Kirkcudbright. To mark it they had a memorable musical evening with the voices and harmonies of the fabulous Solway Buoys who in their set of sea shanties included a special song to commemorate the fabulous fish restaurant.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

The cluelessness and arrogance of Boris Johnson on show yet again. Johnson had to resign as PM in disgrace after serial lying & he has the effrontery to think he can lecture anyone on public standards. And clueless of the Mail joining forces in their predictable anti-BBC tirade.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

For her principled anti-fascism which included translating the text of Mein Kampf into English rather than the sanitised German version she was deselected by her Tory association & narrowly lost a 1938 by-election despite Lab & Lib support.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

'Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl: A Rebel in Westminster' by Amy Gray is the story of one of Scotland's most impressive anti-fascists of the 30s. Kitty Atholl was Tory MP for Kinross & West Perthshire 1923-38 & opposed UK appeasement of the Nazis & supported the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

High living in Dundee, 1978. My dad, Eddie (centre) in our living room with to our left, my auntie Betty, my mum's best friend, and right, Frank who lived upstairs from us in Edzell Court.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

European life expectancy compared to the US. The UK's average life expectancy shows that UK citizens live the smallest number of years more than the US than every single other country in Western Europe. HT @simongerman600.bsky.social

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 2d

A friendly robin in my garden this morning in Kirkcudbright.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 4d

Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages by-election 1st prefs, SNP victory; Reform vote a Scottish high of 28.8%:
SNP: 1594 (42.5%, -5)
Reform: 1080 (28.8%, new)
Labour: 778 (20.7%, -19.6)
LDem: 99 (2.6%, +0.3)
Alba: 83 (2.2%, +0.9)
Conservative: 64 (1.7%, -4.8)
Sovereignty: 54 (1.4%, new)

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 4d

It shows the complete bankruptcy of UK politics & the left that neither Labour MP Anna Turley or TUC Paul Nowak mention privatisation as one of the factors contributing to the crisis of prisons. And it takes Tim Stanley of the right-wing Telegraph to mention the unmentionable. #bbcqt

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 4d

On the other hand 52% of the UK voted for Brexit based on a pile of lies & without any coherent plan from any of the Brexiteers.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 4d

It's the final of Celebrity Traitors tonight, and to mark the occasion we asked the public: how good are you at telling when someone is lying?

Very good: 7%
Fairly good: 55%
Fairly bad: 20%
Very bad: 3%

yougov.co.uk/topics/socie...

Reposted by Gerry Hassan

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 4d

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 5d

The usual tired, cliched bullshit bingo from The Sun's Harry Cole on the election of Zohran Mamdani. Of his seven points FIVE relate to the Israeli-Palestine conflict: so he is clearly struggling for material!

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 5d

Betty Brown: a proud, determined & principled woman who fought for 26 years against being financially ruined in the Post Office scandal. She has finally been compensated for her losses. When will heads role & senior Post Office & Fujitsu people face charges? #Newsnight

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 5d

Note for #BBC people. On the meaning of democratic socialism try in the US: Angela Davis, Michael Harrington; in the UK: Richard Tawney, GDH Cole, George Orwell, Bernard Crick, Hilary Wainwright & Sheila Rowbotham for starters.

Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 5d

The #BBC News website has clearly been living in the age of neoliberalism too long. Summarising the election of Zohran Mamdani it says he is "a democratic socialist which has no clear definition." Er, there is a world of literature & studies on what democratic socialism is.

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