Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

My favourite singer/songwriter of all time - by a short head - is Van Morrison. Now Van Morrision's work has spanned several decades - as many people know. But Van the Man's unique and curious style hasn't just survived - his work has grown and thrived over the years - winning the Belfast musician many new admirers down the generations. I love the opening words to Celtic New Year - 'If I don't see you through the week, see you through the window' - an everyday tongue-in-cheek, banter-between-friends saying - which he casually weaves into the words of his song. The fact that some regimes around the world try to ban 'western' music is a real giveaway. Because it tells you that all you need to know about the repressive nature of the people running the show - they want things to stay exactly as they are - unquestioning and unchallenging - what they want are societies that are s...

A regular reader has been in touch to say a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New year in Gaelic - so here goes for all the Gaelic speakers out there: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! All the very best - to you and yours - for 2012!

As 2011 draws to a close I thought I would share with readers - some memorable quotes from the writer Christopher Hitchens - who died earlier this year. 'I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information.'  Hitch-22 "The four most overrated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics."  New Yorker magazine, 2006 "[George W Bush] is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things." Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC, 2000 "'Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age' was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed OUT of the Stone Age." Daily Mirror, November 2001 "The noble ...

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) did the nation a favour the other day - by turning the spotlight on poor teaching in Scotland's schools. The SPTC ruffled a few feathers by promoting the view that 'bad teachers and bad teaching' are largely responsible for poor academic attainment amongst Scottish pupils - not bad parents. In support of their argument the SPTC highlighted a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A report which revealed that the biggest differences in attainment in Scottish schools are within schools - not between schools. Now this chimes with my own personal experience. Not that long ago one of my children was put into a particular class - and reported back to me that the  teacher was very poor - compared to others in the school. And sure enough after a few phone calls to teachers at the school I could speak to candidly - it became clear that t...

I like the French - as a general rule - even if sometimes they are unbearably rude, particularly the jumped-up denizens you sometimes come across in parts of Paris. So I was disappointed to read that a prestigious online French magazine - Terrafemina - has voted for the wife of Dominic Strauuss-Khan - Anne Sinclair - as their 'woman of the year'. Apparently a majority of Terrafemina's readers chose DSK's wife - over other possible candidates. Because of the "tenacity and unwavering support" and the "loyalty and courage" - Anne Sinclair showed towards her husband. The magazine said that Anne Sinclair was - "both a heroine and a kind of anti-heroine for women in France. Women look at the problems they face in their own lives and seem to identify with her." Pass the sick bag was my first reaction - because this intelligent, wealthy woman has put up with her husband's sexual shenanigans and bad behaviour for years. So why she sh...

The news that Westminster's coalition government is likely to follow Scotland's lead - by introducing a minimum price for alcohol is to be welcomed. Alex Salmond must be chuckling to himself because the three opposition parties in Scotland - Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems - all ganged up to resist this measure in the last Scottish Parliament. Now two of them are on board it seems - as far as the rest of the UK is concerned anyway. So it will be interesting to see what happens now in Scotland. Will Labour follow suit and admit that its knee-jerk opposition to a mimimum price on alcohol - was a really big mistake? If so, that would be welcome too - a sign that Labour in Scotland is finally turning its back on 'opposition for opposition's sake'. Punch and Judy politics has done immense damage to Labour in Scotland - its reputation and standing have plummeted in recent years - because the party's perceived interests ha...

I've been following the new coverage of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial - at the Old Bailey in London. As many people will know Stephen Lawrence - a young black man was fatally stabbed at a bus stop - in an unprovoked attack by a group of white youths in 1993. But what I don't follow or agree with is the logic of the judge's summing up - because it seems to me that the state of the law is terribly flawed - when it comes to the issue of 'intent'. The trial judge told the jury that the two accused could be found guilty if they were party to Mr Lawrence's killing - even if they did not strike the fatal blow. The judge went on to say that 'manslaughter' should only be considered - if the jury found the pair not guilty of murder. but first of all the jury had to consider whether the two defendants were present at the time of the attack - and participated in the attack on Stephen Lawrence. Fair enough - because if they weren't th...

I enjoyed this article by Dan Hodges - a Labour party member who is apparently unafraid to speak out about the performance of his party leader - Ed Miliband. Now I've never met or even spoken to Dan Hodges - but reportedly he has worked for the Labour Party and the GMB trade union in the past - and managed numerous independent political campaigns. Dan's billing is that he writes about Labour with tribal loyalty - and without reservation - clearly he's a very passionate fellow. But what I like even more is that Dan has an eye for the ridiculous - and a keen sense of humour. Ed Miliband's New Year message: has he been kidnapped by aliens who wiped 2011 from his memory? There's something familiar about those eyes...  I’ve got to be honest. When I first read Ed Miliband’s New Year’s message to the nation I was a little underwhelmed. To put it mildly. “Did somebody actually write this crap?” was my initial, uncharitable ...

Every time there's a proposal to push Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) forward an hour - to bring us into line with the rest of western Europe - there's a mad rush of 'shouty' people who swear that this will surely bring civilisation to an end . At least civilisation as we know and love it - in the UK. Despite the many advantages - including safer travel for school children and more business friendly hours for our trading with Europe - some of us, including many Scots, are against the idea tooth and nail. Some folks seem prepared to die in a ditch - just to keep things as they are. But after yesterday's news that the good people of Samoa are about to jump forwards in time by a whole day - I have to think that we Scots are a real namby pamby lot. At the moment Samoa - which sits on the international date line halfway between Australia and Hawaii - is 21 hours behind Australia. And according to the Samoan gove...

News finally came yesterday - that all of Scotland's 32 councils have agreed to accept the Scottish Government's proposals for a further one-year freeze on the council tax. Earlier this year some of the big Labour-run councils in the central belt - around Glasgow and Lanarkshire - raged against the government's proposals, but their campaign has finally ended with a whimper - not a big bang. Which just goes to show that local government in Scotland is not taken very seriously any longer - so what's the point of an organisation like COSLA you might ask? And I did just that back in April 2011 - during the Scottish Parliament elections. Seems to me that the world has moved on from the 1980s and 90s - when local councils in Scotland were seen as vital and relevant - as a defence against out-of-touch Tory ministers in Westminster. In those days people could see what local councils were doing - working and ca...

A number of readers have been in touch to ask where the 'We the Women'  picture came from - to accompany the post about women drivers - dated 27 December 2011. Well  it comes from people campaigning in Saudi Arabia - against the ban on women driving cars and other motor vehicles - public or private. According to the Saudi authorities it's against Islamic teaching that women should drive cars - never mind trains - it's against the law of the land. Any women caught doing so - by the religious police - are liable to be severely punished. But all hope is not lost - because people are fighting back - with courage, wit and humour. By arguing that it's ridiculous and even anti-Islamic - to suggest that God somehow proclaimed that women can't drive. 'We the Women' is their campaign slogan. And the campaigners think of all kinds of ways to illustrate how crazy it is - to ordain that women can use washing machines or mobile phone or computers - but ...

The run up to New Year is supposed to be a time of thoughtful reflection - for looking forwards and looking back - at what things went well or not so well - how to do better and achieve your goals in 2012. So I was disappointed to read today another negative attack from Labour leader - Ed Miliband - who seems to believe that simply calling the Prime Minister and the coalition government nasty names - will impress the voters. In his 2011 New Year's message the Labour leader predicted that his party's 'fightback' - would begin at the Scottish elections in May 2011 - yet the SNP were returned with an overall and unprecedented majority in the Holyrood Parliament. So it seems to me that Ed Miliband has much to be modest about - as we approach the end of 2011. And in that spirit I thought I'd share with readers this comment piece by Michael Settle - The Herald's UK political editor. The hidden message in the Ed Miliban...