Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

When I was taught religious education at a Catholic school - many years ago now - I was told that the His Holiness the Pope spoke directly to God. Now all the other Cardinals, Monsignors and Priests - and whatnot - were and are also very holy and all 'good men' - except the ones who abused young boys and others in their care - or played a part in later in covering-up these terrible incidents, of course. But now that we're going to have two Popes - one retired (Emeritus Pope) and one about to be 'selected' by the conclave of Cardinals - I have a question. Will there in future be one Papal hotline to God or two - to take account of the new and different circumstances in 2013? I favour two because the Catholic Church is in such a mess these days - that I think you could fairly say that two heads would be better than one. Although on the other hand if every Cardinal was able to 'phone a friend' in times of need...

Here's another devastating extract from Private Eye's analysis of the Francis Report into Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. Lest we forget "If you only have time to read one Francis report, make it his first independent inquiry, published in February 2010. The stories behind the harm are staggering. An old man forced to stay on a commode for 55 minutes wearing only a pyjama top; a woman whose legs were 'red raw' because of the effect of her uncleaned faeces; piles of soiled sheets and vomit bowls left at the end of beds, a woman arrived at 10am to find her 96-year old  mother-in-law 'completely naked ... and covered with faeces ....It was in her hair, her nails, her hands and on all the cot sides.....it was literally everywhere and it was dried.' Another woamn who found her mother with faces under her nails asked for them to be cut, but was told that it was 'not in the nurses' remit to cut patients' nails. The care was so bad that as many ...

The Mayor of London - Boris Johnson - is a colourful character who knows how to deliver a good insult. Yesterday Boris described members of the London Assembly - to whom he reports as Mayor - as “great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies” - which in plain language means spineless jellyfish, I think. The Mayor's ire was raised because Assembly members voted to bypass their opportunity to question Boris about his budget - which prompted the following comment to the Labour member - Jeanette Arnold - who was in the Chair: “Are you saying they’re abdicating their duty to scrutinise me? Are you saying they haven’t the guts to put questions to me? Great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies. That’s it. They don’t want to ask me any questions.” Now the reason the Chair and some other Members wanted to move swiftly on to next business without questioning the Mayor - is that they hoped to take advantage of his deputy's absence. But the Mayor's...

Much has been said and written this past week - to mark the 10th anniversary of the beginning of war in Iraq - but I enjoyed the following piece by David Aaronovitch in The Times. To my mind he's spot on about the many Westminster politicians who have now re-written history - and carefully positioned themselves as if they were opponents of the decision to invade Iraq. The only politician whom I remember acting with any principle on the subject was Labour's Robin Cook who - while recognising it was a finely balanced decision - nonetheless resigned his position as Labour's Foreign Secretary. Not a 'cheep' was heard out of all the other senior Labour figures including the party's present leader - Ed Miliband - who either voted to support the decision in the House of Commons or who were conveniently out of the country at the time. The decision to intervene in another country's internal affairs is always very difficult - an...

I'm no expert on South African law - but I suspect the term 'culpable homicide' has the same broad meaning the world over. To me it means that someone accused of culpable homicide has caused another person's death - but has done so without malice or intent. Now this a sensible aspect of the law although it is subject to abuse - since it is quite common for criminals to argue to argue that their actions were unintentional - that the deceased person  'ran on to the knife', for example. Or that they fought back against their and died in the struggle - so their death was 'accidental'. If the dead person was on their own - which is not unusual - then the accused person is often the only witness which can make it more difficult to secure a conviction - without other  evidence capable of undermining the 'accidental' version of events. Yet in the case of Oscar Pistorious - I fail to see how his defence lawyers managed to keep...

I see that Nadine ('Mad Nad') Dorries is in the news again - only this time she's complaining about the Parliamentary watchdog (IPSA) for launching an investigation into her expenses. Now I can't get too worked up about that I have to say - because IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) says it has reason to believe that she might have wrongly claimed travel and accommodation costs. Well either she did or she didn't - and one way or the other the truth will come out. But what did surprise me was the discovery that MPs who are the sole carer for a child under the age of 21 - who is in full-time education - are entitled to claim up to £2,425 extra in accommodation costs if they register the child as routinely staying at the home in question. Now why should MPs get extra help with accommodation costs just for having one of their children come stay - what sense does that make? I find it hard to believe that this is a genuine expense...

The newspapers report that the son of the Reverend Jesse Jackson - Jesse Jackson Junior - has pled guilty to misusing (i.e. stealing) around $750,000 in campaign funds. Now that's a whole lotta money and it funded a luxurious lifestyle - which included the purchase of a gentleman's gold-plated Rolex watch worth $40,000 - would you believe. Amazing and hypocritical - in equal measure. Jesse Jackson Junior and his wife - Sandra Jackson - face the prospect of jail for their crime spree - plus stiff fines which are likely to run to hundreds of thousands of dollars. As I read the story I was reminded of the hit song from the 1960s by Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man - so here's a YouTube link.  http://youtu.be/dp4339EbVn8

I was struck by the reaction of Catholic worshippers to the news that Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been accused of 'inappropriate behaviour' towards four of his colleagues - three practising and one former priest.  Instead of saying something along the lines of - 'How terrible, I hope the church authorities investigate these allegations and report on their findings as quickly as possible'. All I heard from people coming out of Sunday mass were comments like - 'I don't believe a word of it, the Cardinal is such a good man'. Now I don't know the Cardinal personally. So I can't say whether he is a 'good man' or not - but what I do  know is that throughout human history 'good men' and 'good women' have sometimes done terrible things.  In fact the whole business reminded me of the Oscar Pistorious trial in South Africa - where Oscar's family queued up to tell the cameras that their golden boy would never hurt anyon...

I had a chuckle to myself when I found out that the head of the NHS in England and Wales - Sir David Nicholson - was once a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Once upon a time I found it quite incredible that there so many people with supposedly 'left-wing', progressive politics - were so desperate to accept a political 'honour' from the great and good - to become honorary members of the British establishment . I suppose I shouldn't really have been surprised because there is a long tradition of people in the labour movement turning their back on principle - before heading off to Buckingham Palace to accept a bauble from Her Majesty. Makes you wonder how progressive and 'left-wing' these folks really were in the first place - I suppose. And in Sir David's case I think we have the answer - but just look at the company he's in - including the former 'Sir' Fred Goodwin,...

I had a call the other day - an unsolicited call - from someone (a con man) who was out to perpetrate a computer scam - a nasty fraud. The chap - who said his name was Mack and that he was calling from Manchester - claimed that he was representing Windows and my internet service provider. And for a little while Mack sounded quite plausible - with ghastly tales of how my computer was sending out error signals to the main server. I insisted on getting a telephone number from the chap - as I grew increasingly suspicious about his call. I said that I would ring Mack back - which I did a short time later and found out that calls to the number were being screened by an automated answering service - which told its own story. The number involved was 0131 208 0347. I have since found out through a friend that this whole business is a well organised scam - perpetrated by people who are knowledgeable enough to sound convincing. But whose ...

Rangers Footbal Club is in the news again - after some its supporters insisted on signing offensive songs  at an away match in Berwick at the weekend. The club issued an apology after TV microphones picked up the offensive chants - and a spokesperson said: "The club is disappointed by certain outbursts of inappropriate singing by a section of the support at Berwick. Our fans have been excellent this season both home and away and we do not want to see this tarnished." The Rangers manager Ally McCoist added: "I didn't know anything about it until I came in after the game. Our supporters have been nothing short of sensational home and away this season. If they were a little bit out of order today, I apologise." Now I'm sure Rangers really are sorry for the conduct of a minority of their fans - because who would want to be associated with this kind of knuckle-dragging behaviour in modern day Scotland. But I think the use of words is important ...

BBC licence payers must be glad to learn that their 'TV tax' is being spent so wisely these days - bu the 'heid bummers' at Auntie Beeb. Witness this extract of a report from The Independent newspaper on the fall-out from the Jimmy Savile affair: "The BBC yesterday released documents relating to the review, conducted late last year by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News. Collectively they portrayed a BBC management that was obsessed with procedures and utterly incapable of getting to basic truths. The organisation's executives mistrusted their own journalists who had done the work on the ground and were desperate to cover their backs. The most scathing descriptions of the BBC's failures were put forward by the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman who described the episode as a “balls up” and the BBC's repeated failure to run the Savile story as “pathetic”. He was damning of the apparent determination of BBC management to make Mr Rippon the fal...

Scotland's top Catholic - Cardinal Keith O'Brien - is in a spot of bother following allegations about his behaviour towards three priests and a former priest. Apparently the Cardinal contests the allegations and is seeking legal advice - but other men involved  accuse him of  'inappropriate contact' - which is a rather strange use of the English language. The Cardinal is on record as condemning homosexuality - and has also been extremely vocal in his opposition to same sex marriage and gay adoption. So it will be interesting to see where all this leads - in the days ahead. In the meantime, I couldn't help wondering why Cardinal O'Brien had chosen the last few days to question whether the time has now come for Catholic Church - to abandon its insistence on a life of celibacy and bachelorhood for its clergy. 'Why not allow Catholic priests to get married, have children and lead 'normal' lives?' - is...

I don't have a vote in the forthcoming Eastleigh by-election - but if I did I think I would cast mine in favour of the Liberal Democrats. My reasoning is simple: it's effectively a two-horse race between the Lib Dems - who currently hold the seat - and the Tories, but as far as I can see the Tory candidate (Maria Hutchings) is  barking mad - politically speaking, of course. For example, Maria's a very different Tory to the Prime Minister - David Cameron - she is very anti-Europe and apparently would vote to withdraw from the EU altogether - if  an In/Out referendum were held today. Maria is also against same sex marriage - not the biggest political 'crime' in the world maybe - but it puts her in the unreformed and unreconstructed wing of the Tory Party - which made the Conservatives completely unelectable for many years - not long after John Major (the last Tory Prime Minister) won the 1992 general election. So a...

If you have £1.50 to spare this week - do yourself a favour and buy a copy of the latest Private Eye - because it has an outstanding analysis of the Mid Staffs Inquiry.  Here's an extract - with some more to follow later in the week: RETURN TO THE KILLING FIELDS A chronicle of deaths foretold Sir David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive who refuses to resign, once joked that Andrew Lansley's disastrous NHS reforms were "so big, you can see them from outer space". On that basis, the Mid Staffs scandal is so rotten you can smell it from outer space. When the Bristol heart scandal whistleblower Dr Steve Bolson was asked in 19998 how to avoid future disatsers in the NHS, he said simply: "Never lose sight of the patient."  Thirty-five babies died in Bristol due to substandard care over a four-year period, and the unit was dubbed "The Killing Fields" by stafff (as revealed in Eye 793). A decade and a half later, Robert Francis QC has foun...

I heard an interesting statistic the other day. Apparently HM Revenue & Customs wrote off around £5 billion in taxes last year - a figure  which represents around 1% of the £500 billion that HMRC manages to collect in a typical year. Not bad, I thought to myself - because these are effectively 'bad debts' where people have died or a company has gone into liquidation - debts which in one way or another cannot be recovered or are too expensive to recover.  But there's always room for improvement and no doubt the public finances could do with an extra £5 billion - i n which case more power to HMRC's elbow is all I can say. I also wondered how well other organisations do when it comes to collecting public money - Scotland's 32 local councils, for example. According to the Scottish Government in 2011-12 the total amount of Council Tax that should have been collected (excluding Counci...

I quite like the chap who's the 'head honcho' at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) at the moment - Stephen Hester. Because he strikes me as a decent bloke who has been handed something of a poisoned chalice - in having to dig RBS out of a hole not of his making. In other words he's having to come along and clear up someone else's mess. And it must stick in his throat somewhat that the people who were actually responsible for the mess - bankers and politicians - have long since buggered off.  Some have paid little if any price, others such as the former RBS boss - Fred Goodwin - have departed the scene with suitcases full of money - and film-star pensions to boot. Yet for all that I still can't see how Stephen Hester is entitled to a £780,000 bonus - only weeks after the RBS was fined £390m for its role in the global interest rate rigging scandal. Now I'm sure that if there was anything that Stephen Hester could have reas...

George Galloway is a terrible waste of talent - in  my opinion. To my mind he is a political narcissist who sees the world through a mirror - so when I saw this Peter Brookes cartoon in The Times the other I thought it summed up his character and politics prefectly. The latest attention-seeking incident came just the other night when George 'stormed out' of a pre-arranged debate in the Oxford Union on a motion that: "Israel should withdraw immediately from the (Palestinian) West Bank". The Cherwell, a popular web-based news forum in Oxford,  recounts the incident: Less than three minutes into Aslan-Levy’s speech against the motion, Galloway was made aware that his opponent was an Israeli citizen. “I have been misled,” Mr Galloway then commented, interrupting Aslan-Levy’s speech. “I don’t debate with Israelis”. He then left the room with his wife, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, and was escorted out of Christ Churc...

I read somewhere the other day that the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) is up in arms about Government plans to contract out - some functions of the probation service. Now the union may have a point in certain points of detail, but the main thrust of their objection was that - as a matter of principle - probation services must remain within the public sector because only in the public sector would they be 'safe'. Now I imagine that this kind of 'private bad, public good' mantra - doesn't sit too well  against the backdrop of the inquiry into Mid Staffs NHS Trust. Where up to 1200 elderly patients lost their lives unnecessarily as a result of poor standards of care - which in many cases amounted to deliberate abuse and neglect. Now I'm pretty sure that if these deaths had occurred in a private hospital or at a private care home - the solution for some people at least would be to nationalise the institutions involved...