Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Readers continue to send in their thoughts on the settlement of equal pay claims in South Lanarkshire and from around the world, would you  believe, since some of them have moved abroad since the whole business started.  Congratulations to you and your team! Keep up the good work. S Great news..led strike back in 1971 for equal pay and we won.... K Well done Mark Irvine, great news! D Congratulations Mark! Delighted for you and the women J Congratulations, Mark! That's great news! T Good news Mark didn't realize its been that long. You must be relieved its concluded. Well done C Kind Words  (27 February 2007) Lots of readers have been in touch to share their thoughts about the equal pay settlement that A4ES has reached with South Lanarkshire Council - here are a few examples. Hi Mark, Just like to say congratulations to you on the news today, you and everyone else must be feeling well chuffed with the outcome today, I wonder if UNISON...

The Daily Record comes off the fence over equal pay with this leader opinion column on recent events in South Lanarkshire. No need for any further comment from me except perhaps to say how sad it is that 18 of our clients have died since Action 4 Equality Scotland started its campaign back in 2005.  Record View: Learn lessons of gender pay battle OPINION RECORD VIEW says if we want to build a fairer Scotland, then we need to start by paying women a fair wage for doing the same job as male colleagues. Jean McFarlane (centre) with fellow claimants Liz Liddell (left) and Linda Thompson (right) IT is an absolute scandal that the battle for equal pay for women is not won. Despite legislation more than 40 years ago, the gender pay gap in Britain costs working women an average of £5000 a year in lost wages. The gap is even bigger for women working part-time, who earn 35 per cent less an hour than men working full-time. In the private sector, the pay gap is 20 per c...

Here's how The Herald newspaper reported the equal pay settlement between Action 4 Equality Scotland and South Lanarkshire Council. Funny how the Scottish Information Commissioner and the Court of Session get mentioned, but not the UK Supreme Court - although t hat's the media for you.  Council settles equal pay dispute A COUNCIL has settled a long-running equal pay row involving more than 3000 people. By  Martin Williams Senior News Reporter Present and former female staff at South Lanarkshire Council had asserted they were earning less than men in comparable, but different, jobs. The multi-million pound settlement came seven months after a separate case in which the council was faced with a near £200,000 legal bill over a failed bid to block information about its pay scales. The Labour-run local authority threw out requests for information from equal pay campaigner Mark Irvine. When the Scottish Information Commissioner supported his case, the council app...

Sadly, you could write an entire blog site on the way the UK's criminal justice system operates and here's another example - this time about the manner in which courts respond to violence against women.  Now 18 months in prison seems a ridiculous sentence to me for someone who effectively kidnapped his victim, terrorised and attacked her, and denied his crime until three years later he was eventually found guilty in the High Court. And this was regarded as a 'serious assault' because Cullen abused his position of trust as his passenger was supposed to be in a safe place, heading home. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of the case is that a smiling Cullen gave a thumbs up to his wife as he left the court and was taken off to jail according to this report from the BBC.    Taxi driver Patrick Cullen jailed for sex attack Cullen claimed he had "consenting" sex with the terrified woman A taxi driver has been jailed for 18 months for sexually assaulting...

In my view the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is a dangerous demagogue and political charlatan so I'm not surprised that he's taken to calling his opponents 'fascists' and demanding that some of them be thrown in prison.  Here's an article from the Guardian which highlights why the protestors are taking to the streets in Venezuela and I have to say that none of them sound remotely like fascists to me - more like ordinary people saying they're fed up with the way their country is bring run.  But that's the whole point about demagogues and demagoguery - it's not about logic, reason or political debate - it's about propaganda, passion, emotion and demonising your political opponents.      Venezuela protests: demonstrators tell us why they're taking part We asked protesters in Venezuela why they have taken part in the anti-government demonstrations. Here is a selection of their views By  Philippa Law ,  James Walsh  and...