Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Brilliant from @AnasSarwar pic.twitter.com/K2DI9pGXhg — Huggy Bear (@Iainmackay8) June 30, 2022 The Labour leader is finding his voice just as Nicola Sturgeon is losing hers. Scottish Labour leader has accused Ms Sturgeon of focusing on the wrong priority, highlighting the “worst cancer waiting times on record" https://t.co/umdursZdzY — The Herald (@heraldscotland) June 30, 2022  

Since I wrote the original post in this series on councillors' pay - the salary of Glasgow City Council's leader, Cllr Susan Aitken, has jumped up to £58,719  Yes, a whopping increase of £5,152 or 9.4% - in the space of just one year. Yet a Glasgow council employee on the same salary scale as Cllr Aitken £53,567 will have seen their pay rise by just 1% - or a mere £536.  How can this be social justice and what kind of example does it set when other council workers are being offered so much less?    Glasgow Councillors - Meet Cllr Aitken ( May 03, 2022 ) I said I would revisit the issue of councillor salaries in Glasgow ahead local council elections, s o where better to start than with the SNP Leader, Cllr Susan Aitken. Cllr  Aitken declares a salary of £55, 817 on the council's Register of Interests unlike many of her SNP colleagues who fail to declare their council salaries on the register. I suspect this is because councillors are not keen for the wider public...

Could this overflowing Glasgow council bin possibly have anything to do with 'crap' which is strewn strewn all over a pavement on Great Western Road? Happy to share other people's photos if you send them to me by email and confirm the location - markirvine@compuserve.com

Any fool could tell you that overflowing rubbish bins just encourage the dumping of household rubbish. I mean, what else are people expected to do? When is Glasgow City Council going to wake up to the fact that some areas require more bins, bigger bins and/or more frequently emptied bins?      More Bins, Bigger Bins - More Frequently Emptied Bins ( April 03, 2022 ) I get around Glasgow mainly on foot these days and at least part of the solution to the unkempt state of the city is - more bins, bigger bins and/or more frequently emptied bins. As well as 'getting after' the fly-tippers, of course, though I have to admit in all these years I have never witnessed any fellow Glaswegian being fined for dropping litter or dumping rubbish.   To my mind the answer is staring Glasgow City Council in the face, but as yet they don't seem willing to listen.      

I don't believe Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP would be dumb enough to go into the next UK general election with a one line manifesto on independence. Because that would be taking Scottish voters for complete fools - one liners are for stand up comedians!  

  Wolfgang Petersen's 1983 movie tells the story of a young boy (Atreyu) who embarks on a magical adventure with the aid of some unbelievable characters to stop a malevolent force from engulfing the world of Fantasia.    Remind you of anything or anyone?    

Lorna Slater: The First Minister’s statement was not published before she spoke today. John Beattie: But you didn’t see it either? Lorna Slater: [silence] Alex Cole-Hamilton: Wow. 2/2 — Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP🔶🇺🇦 (@agcolehamilton) June 28, 2022 Comedy gold from Twitter which just confirms that the Greens are just useful voting fodder for Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. 

I'm sure there must be lots of Scottish comedians who find all this self-ID malarkey really funny.  But our best known comics seem to be SNP fans which makes them reluctant to poke some much needed fun at SNP ministers on  a wide range of topical issues. Scotland's ghost ferries and the great census fiasco spring to mind although my Top 10 would include the nonsense of men self-identifying as women - in sport, for example. So where is Scotland's answer to Ricky Gervais, Dave Chappelle and Bill Maher? Bill Maher - Breakthrough In Mainstream Media ( May 24, 2022 ) Bill Maher's scathing takedown of trans ideologues and queer theorists has been welcomed as a big breakthrough in mainstream media - and rightly so because far too many people have been tiptoeing around the issue for years.          Are All The Babies In The Wrong Bodies? ( May 23, 2022 ) Bill Maher pokes great fun at the queer theory ideologues leading the trans lobby into the abyss. Bill reca...

‘A group of women were asked to leave a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Parliament committee meeting on GRA after staging a protest..The group were wearing t-shirts emblazoned with 'Nicola Sturgeon - destroyer of women's rights' as they left the committee room’ #womenwontwheesht  💪  https://t.co/SX8yaAnZvC — Julie Scott 🍒 (@judgejules75)  June 28, 2022 Nicola Sturgeon's support for men being able to self-ID as women is an affront to common sense as well as women's rights to single sex spaces - in sport and in other walks of life. But for pointing this out via their T-shirts and a peaceful protest these women were required to leave the Scottish Parliament. Anyone for a referendum on self-ID?  After all £20 million has been set aside for an 'indyref' in October 2023 which is never going to take place.  

Trans people are getting attacked by so many people these days it must be soul destroying to try to just live your life never mind compete in sport Where’s the compassion I will always stand with trans people They are beautiful humans ❤️❤️❤️ — Neville Southall MBE (@NevilleSouthall) June 28, 2022 Judging by what I see on social media lots of trans activists are not 'beautiful humans', as former footballer Neville Southall MBE seems to think. In any event, the real issue is about male bodied competitors taking part in women’s sport where they have an obvious and unfair physical advantage. And football is a good example, as Nev ought to know!  

Apparently, this is *not* a parody. I can’t describe how f***ing offensive this is!! 😡🤬🤬🤬 pic.twitter.com/FELlLdz0iN — Claire Bear👁☘️🇮🇪 💚🤍💜🫀 (@claire88424030) June 28, 2022 Makes you wonder what these folks do for a living, if anything, as they seem to have plenty of time for making up sheer nonsense?   

Trans zealots hate humour, logic and reason - and here you have all three in a single great, hilarious video!  A real bicycle A trans bicycle  

Day 2 of the plan.... https://t.co/GvNkSWRt9V — Tom Gordon (@HTScotPol) June 29, 2022 Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are just making shit up now!

I asked Glasgow City Council (GCC) to explain the breakdown of salaries paid to senior elected councillors. Senior councillors are paid on a full-time basis - for example, the council leader Cllr Susan Aitken is paid a salary of £58,719. Backbench councillors are paid a part-time £19,571 salary equivalent to a 24 hour working week. Now this information ought to be readily and freely available, but here is GCC's response to my Freedom of Information (FoI) request. Response Notice that information is not held by the Council On inspecting our records, it would appear that the Council does not hold the information which you have requested. Neither does anyone else hold it on our behalf. Accordingly, we are unable to comply with your request, in terms of section 17(1)(b) of the Act. By way of advice and assistance we can advise that the Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) Scheme for councillors in Scotland came to an end in 2007. This was replaced by a Members Remunera...