Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

  Scottish Ministers have been urging people to stay away from hospital A&E departments - unless their condition is life threatening! Yet for thousands descending on Glasgow for COP26 the message seems to be - 'BUSINESS AS USUAL'. I wonder if Scotland's health secretary and the first minister see this as a problem? 

Only one in five voters in Scotland believe that people who are born male but legally become female under gender recognition rules should be allowed to access female-only spaces, according to a Panelbase poll. Time for @NicolaSturgeon to wake up! https://t.co/U9wWgvOx3k — For Women Scotland (@ForwomenScot) October 31, 2021 The SNP and Greens are trying to ram their ideology on gender down people's throats, but the majority of Scots disagree. 

  By this time last year I had already had a flu jab, but 2021 is very different. The vaccine seems to be in short supply, even if you are prepared to pay privately, which is a scandal when the word is that flu is likely to be a bigger challenge than Covid this winter. Why the slow roll out Humza Yousaf? 

  I met a couple of American delegates from Washington DC in Finnieston last night - they are attending the COP26 climate change conference. The council refuse bins outside on Argyll Street were in a terrible state.

Glaswegians are renowned for their great sense of humour, but this is taking things way too far. 

Glasgow's Woodlands Road could do with a bit of a 'spruce up' as the COP26 climate change conference gets underway.  

Private Eye, the UK's best and only fortnightly satirical magazine, has a topical take on key workers and Halloween costumes.  Not all key workers get a Covid bonus and some are more equal than others, of course.      Covid, Bonuses and Essential Workers ( October 28, 2021 ) So rail workers are the latest group to benefit from a Covid bonus from Scottish Ministers - this time a payment of £300 which is more than the £250 paid to the police though less than the £500 paid to NHS and social care staff. But just who makes this stuff up - why £300 to rail workers and only £250 to the Police? And why nothing at all for the other essential workers, eg refuse workers and supermarket staff, or the soldiers who have stepped in to save the NHS from collapse? The rot set in, of course, when Nicola Sturgeon announced the original £500 bonus to an online SNP conference in November 2020 - without any scrutiny from MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.   Which is why we've ende...

Mirror, mirror on the wall -  who's the biggest poseur of them all?

So Scottish Ministers have put another £30 million on the table to suspend the planned strike action in Glasgow during COP26. It's a start and it just goes to show that money has been there all the while although it took the threat of industrial action for the Scottish Government to get involved . The lessons are clear in the ongoing fight for equal pay in Glasgow City Council. Scottish Ministers 'Splash the Cash' ( October 29, 2021 ) Great news for thousands of equal pay claimants in Glasgow! Scottish Ministers have stepped in to resolve a long running pay dispute even though the Scottish Government does not directly employ any of the workers involved.   The deal to call off a rail strike during COP26 has been brokered and funded by Scottish Ministers: "The Scottish Government said it was 'proud' to have brokered and funded the deal." The agreement provides for a 2.5% pay rise, improved conditions and a £300 COP26 payment to all staff . So if Scottish Min...

  Nicola Sturgeon takes time out to meet indigenous people from the Americas who have flown all the way to Glasgow for COP26. Yet she refused to meet Glasgow cleansing workers who were pushed to the brink of strike action in a dispute over their pay and conditions at work. "Nicola Sturgeon challenged to meet Glasgow refuse workers ahead of COP26 strike" "The First Minister was accused of "turning a blind eye" to the environment Glaswegians are living in every day." https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-challenged-meet-glasgow-25320297