Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

'Globalisation' gets a bad name, in some circles anyway, but one of its many unsung benefits is that the new-found ability to buy pumpkins in the global marketplace has freed the Scottish people from celebrating Halloween with the dreaded 'neep'. Now a 'neep' is a turnip and for readers too young to remember the dreaded days of making a Halloween lantern out of a turnip, here's a hilarious YouTube video from Scot Scran which captures the insanity of these bygone days rather brilliantly. If you ask me, this mollycoddled generation of younger Scots don't seem to realise - they've never had it so good!  

The Times cartoonist Peter Brookes captures the essential problem with the Trump presidency - the lights are on but no one's at home!    

Here's a handy photo that may help jog Donald Trump's memory about his foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, who sat with the now President at a 'round table' national security discussion back in March 2016.    

Donald Trump claims to have one of the 'great memories of all time', but can hardly remember a thing about his Foreign Affairs Policy Adviser, George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over his contact with Russia.  I suspect Republican Senator Bob Corker made the correct call recently when he described Trump as an "utterly untruthful president."      "Utterly Untruthful President" (25/10/17) So now even people on Donald Trump's own side agree that the President has great difficulty with the truth as senior Republican Senator Bob Corker concedes that: "He is purposely breaking down relationships we have around the world that had been useful to our nation." Quite an admission if you ask me, though I prefer to call a spade a spade by speaking more plainly by describing Trump for what he really is - an incorrigible liar.     http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41729586 Bob Corker says Trump '

I tweeted my post about the latest shenanigans inside the City Council to all Glasgow MSPs and MPs along with the following message. Would a reasonable person say that that there is a deliberate policy of obstruction at work inside Glasgow City Council? https:// action4equalityscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/glasgo w-equal-pay-update_31.html   …   So let's see what the city's politicians have to say for themselves. By the way readers can find a Twitter address for Glasgow MSPs and MPs quite easily by using Twitter's search function.      Glasgow - Equal Pay Update (31/10/17) Here's a letter I've just sent by email to the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Cllr Susan Aitken. Now it's an 'open secret' that many of Glasgow's senior officials and advisers would prefer to keep this battle going through the courts because they are responsible for the mess the City Council finds itself in today. So 'kicking the can' down the road a bit

I read this article in The Evening Times about making Glasgow City Council more 'open and transparent' - and said to myself: "God above! The City Council can't even get its act together to arrange an important meeting or provide crucial data on equal pay, so maybe it would be better if Glasgow learned  to walk before it started to run."      http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/15629559.Shake_up_set_to_make_Glasgow_City_Council__more_open_/ ? Shake-up set to make Glasgow City Council 'more open' By  Stewart Paterson @PatersonHT  - The Evening Times Susan Aitken A SHAKE-UP of how Glasgow City Council comes to decisions, to make it as open and transparent as possible, is being planned. The man charged with reviewing past decision of Labour run administrations, by new council leader Susan Aitken, has set out the remit of his Review of Governance. The council said it wants to be “world class” in openness and transparency allowing the public,