Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

  After yet another week from hell and the collapse of his 'worth its weight in gold' alliance with the wacky Greens Humza Yousaf should do Scotland a favour and resign. He is an embarrassment as First Minister and the SNP are no longer fit to govern.  Resign Humza! ( April 21, 2024 )   After a 'week from hell' seems like the SNP is braced for more fallout from the ongoing police investigation into the party's finances. The best thing for Scotland now would be for Humza Yousaf to resign and have new elections to the Scottish Parliament - because the SNP have become a laughing stock are unfit to be in government.

One big bonus from the sudden collapse of the cosy SNP/Green alliance is that the ghastly Lorna Slater is out of a job which she shouldn't have had in the first place. Both Slater and Harvie were slotted in specially created non-jobs which never existed previously and Slater's general incompetence was quickly confirmed with her disastrous handling of Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme. Instead of accepting personal responsibility for the costly mess Slater blamed UK ministers, but she's now out on her ear and will no longer be ferried around the country - as a Green minister in a chauffeur-driven limousine. Slater's Incompetence Deserves The Sack ( September 27, 2023 ) Scottish Green minister Lorna Slater has a very highly paid £100,000 a year job especially created for her by the SNP. Yet Slater takes no responsibility for the total collapse of Scotland's deposit return scheme (DRS) with the loss of £9 million in funding from the Scottish government - and the pro

From 'worth its weight in gold' to 'comedy gold' is a fair description of how Humza Yousaf has handled the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and Greens. Scotland's hapless first minister came into office proclaiming the deal as the best thing since sliced bread - yet now he's been forced to ditched the deal after widespread ridicule and criticism within SNP ranks. How embarrassing - can Humza get any more incompetent and useless? 

  Canned Heat jumped into my head the other day - the bluesy American group  had a number of hits including 'Going Up The Country': "I'm going to some place "Where I've never been before"

“ “What I want to know,” says an exasperated SNP backbencher, “is how we’ve ended up with a leader being held to ransom by f***ing cranks.” ..announcement by..Greens that there is to be an emergency meeting next month..has provoked an already unhappy SNP” https://t.co/S45kgjeOiC — David Forrester (@dj_forrester) April 24, 2024 SNP backbenchers are getting mighty fed up with their party leaders.    

So I'm still waiting to hear from my constituency MSP, the SNP's Kaukab Stewart, in response to my letter about the new Hate Crime Act (see post below).  Now we pay MSPs a decent salary of £72,000 and they can access a further £157,000 a year to employ office staff who support them in their constituency/parliamentary work. So it seems reasonable to expect MSPs to respond quickly to queries and representations from local constituents, o r am I missing something? Scotland's Hate Crime Act ( April 16, 2024 ) I have sent the following letter to my Glasgow constituency MSP - the SNP's Kaukab Stewart. And also to the 7 other Glasgow 'list' MSPs - Anas Sarwar, Pauline McNeil, Pam Duncan-Glancy, Paul Sweeney, Annie Wells, Sandesh Gulhane and Patrick Harvie Dear Kaukab Stewart Scotland's Hate Crime Act I understand the Scottish Parliament will debate a motion on Wednesday to repeal the Hate Crime Act and  would urge you to support this motion for the following reason