Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

A culture of secrecy and 'what's it got to do with you?' surrounds SNP politicians. But I think we should be told how Cllr Mhairi Hunter manages her Glasgow council job which is paid a full-time salary - while also drawing another public salary as Office Assistant for Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP MSP and Scotland's first minister.   Transparent and Accountable - Who's Kidding Who? ( February 26, 2022 ) SNP politicians are forever boasting about their support for openness and transparency. But when the chips are down the SNP are every bit as secretive, defensive and reluctant to be held accountable - just as Labour run Glasgow City Council were in 2011 and as the Westminster Tories are now. Take my perfectly reasonable requests to Nicola Sturgeon and her 'office assistant', Cllr Mhairi Hunter. I wrote to Nicola Sturgeon asking how she could justify using public money in this way when Cllr Hunter already had a well paid, full-time job as a senior councillor at SNP

🗣 “The public shouldn’t have to fight every step of the way to get answers from the SNP” says @AnasSarwar Take a look at Anas’s column here👇 https://t.co/O6f2d7zQQi — Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) April 28, 2022 Fair comment from Anas Sarwar - people shouldn't have to fight tooth and nail to get answers from SNP and the Scottish Government which is surrounded by a  culture of secrecy and 'what's it got to do with you?' attitude to perfectly reasonable questions.     SNP - Opposite of Open and Transparent ( April 27, 2022 ) Yet again the SNP is dragged kicking and screaming into releasing important information that belongs in the public domain - let's hope it doesn't get 'lost' in the days ahead. The information could and should be released immediately, but SNP ministers will delay doing so until after the Scottish council elections - even though Team Sturgeon has included Indyref2 in the SNP's local election manifesto. I'm sure the SNP wou

Nicola Sturgeon really needs to come clean and explain why SNP Ministers chose to ignore professional advice and continued to build two 'ghost ferries' without putting the normal safeguards in place to protect the public finances.  The evidence points to a politically driven decision and incompetence on an epic, reckless scale. SNP's Epic Failure ( April 03, 2022 ) Derek Mackay speaking at an SNP conference on behalf of the Scottish Government in 2015 - cheered to the echo by fellow ministers, of course. update If I'm not mistaken that's Glasgow Council's SNP leader, Cllr Susan Aitken, clapping enthusiastically behind Humza Yousaf who responds: "Well, that's a great announcement!"  

I see Sturgeon wants a UK wide enquiry on Covid care home policy. Funny that. — Brian Spabla (@BrianSpanner1) April 29, 2022 The SNP has made a real horse's ass of conducting the census which has been carried out smoothly since all the way back into the 19th century.  Firstly, by insisting on a separate Scottish census for no good reason - instead of taking part in last year's UK wide census. Secondly, by politicising the census with daft questions on trans issues which has got right up people's noses. The cost of this incompetence is now £30 million and rising - meanwhile the delay has compromised the integrity of the census data.     

I don't see how anyone can be threatened seriously with a fine for not returning their census form.  Because all people need to say is that they returned the paperwork - since there is no way of proving otherwise. The underlying problem is that Scottish Ministers have got people's backs up by politicising the census with daft questions about trans issues. And their insistence on holding a separate Scottish census has already cost the public purse an extra £20 million - plus another £10 million as a result of extending the deadline to the end of May rather than 1st May.

Without campaigning journalists, freedom of information (FOI) legislation and the independent Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) - SNP ministers would be even more arrogant and unaccountable than they are today.     SNP - Opposite of Open and Transparent ( April 27, 2022 ) Yet again the SNP is dragged kicking and screaming into releasing important information that belongs in the public domain - let's hope it doesn't get 'lost' in the days ahead. The information could and should be released immediately, but SNP ministers will delay doing so until after the Scottish council elections - even though Team Sturgeon has included Indyref2 in the SNP's local election manifesto. I'm sure the SNP would not have fought so hard against publication - if the release of ScotGov legal advice helped their cause.   

Yesterday, Keith Brown was quizzed on the Ferguson Marine ferry deal- telling @C4Ciaran “that document, the one that signed it off, if it ever existed, is not now available” @ScotTories asked how something could be signed off if it never existed? Nicola Sturgeon’s response⬇️ pic.twitter.com/t7Fb2vLi41 — Alan Zycinski (@AlanJZycinski) April 29, 2022 How can an email and formal record of an important decision simply disappear from the Scottish Government's digital records system? More to the point, what were Scottish Ministers reasons for deciding to ignore professional advice from CMAL on having proper safeguards in place to protect the public finances over Scotland's 'ghost ferries'?  

If a 4yr old boy has 2 pairs of shoes & one pair fits him but the other pair hurt his ankles all day, if 'given the choice' on what shoes he wants to wear he'll always choose the pair that don't hurt him. https://t.co/nQCoQbGZ2u — Biology Rules Ok (@OkBiology) April 29, 2022 An interesting discussion on the bizarre practice of dressing children in pants which flatten their genitals - child abuse plain and simple.   God Above - Tucking Panties For Toddlers! ( April 24, 2022 ) More and more people are finding the courage to speak out against trans madness and what comes down to the terrible abuse of children - see post below "God Above - Tucking Panties for Toddlers!" God Above - Tucking Panties For Toddlers! ( March 14, 2022 ) As regular readers know, the culture war surrounding aspects of the sex versus gender debate has been imported from America where all this 'queer theory' (there is no such thing as sex) business first began. And just to show h

Eh? Glasgow SNP leader Susan Aitken insists 'the world likes what they see' in city as she defends her record https://t.co/8OfvoMEDIV — Jim Quirk (@TheOtherSuspect) April 29, 2022 Visitors are always well received in Glasgow, but that doesn’t stop Glaswegians from complaining that their city has become something of a midden in recent years!    

The truth about Glasgows Rubbish! VOTE❌AITKEN OUT #BintheSNP pic.twitter.com/p4lDsSD80p — GLASGOW Needs YOU (@SaveGlasgowNow) April 27, 2022 Glasgow's recycling efforts have broken down and much of the city's rubbish has been going straight into landfill according to this report. Predictably, it's someone else's fault according to the Council who declined to put anyone up for interview and issued a mealy mouthed statement instead.

You couldn't make this up! Piece by @ewansomerville . ⬇️ https://t.co/gK08lwLl8n pic.twitter.com/OI3s5GovbS — Debbie Hayton 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 (@DebbieHayton) April 28, 2022 Scotland's Napier University is supposed to be a place of education and learning - yet midwifery students were taught that men could become pregnant and given advice on how to catheterise 'birthing people' with penises.  Now this is sheer madness and it all stems from folk trying to turn reality on its head - including SNP ministers who were persuaded by Stonewall to erase the word 'mother' from the Scottish Government's maternity policy. “I know there’s real issues in Scotland with the SNP and the Gender Recognition Act. There’s nothing to suggest that students questioning this feel supported to do so.” Report on the awful student midwife course @EdinburghNapier #WomenWontWheesht https://t.co/lhViCiUD6f — For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) April 28, 2022  

The final bill for repaying the debt of Glasgow Labour’s equal pay scandal will be well in excess of *£1billion* - the single biggest cut Glasgow faces. The SNP’s action to resolve this injustice is the right thing to do - but we are all paying for Labour’s shameful legacy. pic.twitter.com/tYyqRstoIl — Glasgow SNP Group (@SNPforGlasgow) April 28, 2022 The SNP are trying to claim the credit, but the people who really deserve praise are Glasgow's women claimants who fought the City Council under both SNP and Labour administrations for over 10 years. In fact one of the first things the new SNP council did in 2017 was to try to overturn the decision of the Court of Session that Glasgow's pay arrangements were discriminatory and 'unfit for purpose'.     Thankfully, the SNP's challenge failed in December 2017 which forced the City Council to negotiate a settlement although only after a two-day strike in October 2018 - the first of its kind in Glasgow's history. Even n

Nicola Sturgeon really needs to come clean and explain why SNP Ministers chose to ignore professional advice and continued to build two 'ghost ferries' without putting the normal safeguards in place to protect the public finances. The evidence points to a politically driven decision and incompetence on an epic, reckless scale. SNP's Epic Failure ( April 03, 2022 ) Derek Mackay speaking at an SNP conference on behalf of the Scottish Government in 2015 - cheered to the echo by fellow ministers, of course. update If I'm not mistaken that's Glasgow Council's SNP leader, Cllr Susan Aitken, clapping enthusiastically behind Humza Yousaf who responds: "Well, that's a great announcement!"  

We are being taken for mugs pic.twitter.com/BGrAXwwVjA — Neil Findlay (@Neilsocialist) April 28, 2022 Has this highly paid loon, Keith Brown, ever heard of digital records - i.e. using laptops or tablets to take and keep minutes of important meetings or decisions? If not, we are clearly wasting a huge £100,000 plus salary on Scotland's justice minister.   The issue is why Team Sturgeon chose to ignore professional advice and carry on with a highly risky project which has wasted £250 million on two 'ghost ferries' that were supposed to cost the public purse £90 million.

Glasgow really ought to be running an imaginative, high-profile and well-resourced campaign to clean up the city's streets and public spaces. But guess what?  Cleaning up Glasgow is not a big SNP priority  in the council elections - whereas a campaign for Indyref2 is one of the SNP's key pledges.    

If this crater pothole gets any bigger, I suspect SNP led Glasgow City Council may be tempted to fill it with water and claim they've opened a new local swimming pool.  

This is the guy who had to stand up in parliament today and explain why he couldn't organise a census. But sure. https://t.co/FbFnp1choW — Brian Spabla (@BrianSpanner1) April 28, 2022 More grandiose claims from Scottish Ministers about Scotland becoming a world beater under their leadership. Meanwhile they can't even organise a census, fix the potholes or keep the streets clean.  Just Fix The Potholes! ( April 07, 2022 ) I don't drive much these days, but no one can deny the state of Glasgow's roads is truly terrible. As Iain Green's cartoon says, can the SNP just 'put a sock in it' and focus instead on bread and butter issues like fixing Glasgow's potholes and cleaning up the city? Because I'm pretty sure the poor state of Glasgow's roads and public spaces is not down to Maggie Thatcher or some dastardly plot at Westminster.  

I don't see how anyone can be threatened seriously with a fine for not returning their census form. Because all people need to say is that they returned the paperwork - since there is no way of proving otherwise. The underlying problem is that Scottish Ministers have got people's backs up by politicising the census with daft questions about trans issues. And their insistence on holding a separate Scottish census has already cost the public purse an extra £20 million - plus another £10 million as a result of extending the deadline to the end of May rather than 1st May.  

The latest scandal to hit SNP Ministers is the record number of people who have died in hospital while waiting to be discharged with a home care package. Team Sturgeon blames Covid but the figures were on the increase long before the pandemic so that really is a lame excuse. Seems that while SNP ministers accept responsibility there are never any consequences for failure.  Nicola Sturgeon has been criticised after she blamed the pandemic for the social care failings that led to hundreds of people dying as they waited to be discharged from hospital https://t.co/FotdfyljJM — The Times Scotland (@thetimesscot) April 29, 2022  

Here's an updated version of my post about 'Who's In Whose Pocket In Glasgow?' I think it's fair to say that The City Council's 'Register of Interests' is far from being a model of transparency - for a start councillors are not required to register their council salaries, full or part-time. Instead councillor salaries are shown as being paid, quarter by quarter, and the latest entries are for the 3rd quarter of 2021/22 - from which visitors to the GCC web site must extrapolate full annual amounts to gain a clear picture. The position in Glasgow is that lots of councillors have 2nd and sometimes 3rd jobs - even those who have full-time senior roles in the council who are paid full-time council salaries, upwards of £27,000+ a year. In effect this suggests the councillors involved enjoy earnings of over £40,000+ a year although it's difficult to be precise because there is generally no explanation of the salary or time commitment of their 2nd and 3rd jo