Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The sun rises over Glasgow for the last time in this decade - and what a beautiful day it promises to be! Happy New Year when it comes.  

'Silent Sunlight' from the 1972 album released by Cat Stevens - Catch Bull at Four.   

Private Eye, the UK's best and only fortnightly satirical magazine, on the consequences of agreeing to a general election without ensuring that the voters had the final say over Brexit in a second, confirmatory referendum.     Boris Johnson's Elephant Trap (13/12/19) Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP gave Boris Johnson an early Christmas present by agreeing to his call for an early general election without insisting on a democratic People's Vote over the final terms of Brexit. The 'prize' for the SNP is a clean sweep of all seven Glasgow seats and a landslide victory across the rest of Scotland - courtesy of a discredited, unrepresentative First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system. But if you ask me, all of the opposition parties should be throughly ashamed of themselves for walking straight into Boris Johnson's FPTP elephant trap.                  On Your Marks....

As 2019 draws to a close Labour has some serious thinking to do over its woeful performance in the general election, but as ever Peter Brookes hit the nail on the head with this cartoon in The Times.    The Uncomfortable Truth (19/12/19) Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB To those saying that Corbyn was not the problem an opinion poll finding just broadcast on BBC2 218 13:14 - 18 Dec 2019 Twitter Ads information and privacy 181 people are talking about this The uncomfortable truth for Labour is that far too many voters regarded Jeremy Corbyn as useless and unfit for high office which is not that surprising since he was a mediocre backbench MP between 1983 and 2015 - before being elected, against all odds, as party leader. In 2020, we are told that Jeremy (aged 70) will retire to the backbenches again where he can continue to draw a handsome salary until the next gene...

Rangers emerged as deserved winners in Sunday's Old Firm derby match at Parkhead. But Celtic were made to look completely crazy off the field of play, as the Greetin' Brigade unveiled another of their home made banners - this one depicting Satan in a Rangers scarf. The Daily Record reported that the  banner contained the following invocation before the game got underway:   “Saint Michael, The Archangel. Defend Us In Battle”. According to scripture Saint Michael is the commander of the Army of God and chief enemy of Satan whom he ejected from Paradise. Now I'm all in favour of a bit of colour and   good natured   banter at football matches, but invoking this kind of religious symbolism at sporting events is juvenile and hugely embarrassing to boot. Because when all is said and done football is a  game, a hard fought yet 'sporting' contest at its best - not a battle between the forces of good and evil....