Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Two SNP politicians had a seedy extramarital affair that broke Scotland's Covid lockdown rules https://t.co/tMfoFQOPV9 https://t.co/tMfoFQOPV9 — Scottish Express (@ScotExpress) November 29, 2023 Interesting post from the Scottish Express - I wonder where this might all lead?

Analysis: For Humza Yousaf's as SNP leader, when it rains, it pours, as Alex Salmond court case looms "After the Covid WhatsApp scandal, the Matheson affair, and the Salmond inquiry, the SNP brand is dipped neck-high in sleaze and scandal." https://t.co/t0WWgU9aD9 — Conor Matchett (@conor_matchett) November 25, 2023 Conor Matchett in The Scotsman   is spot on with his assessment of the Michael Matheson affair and its effect on Humza Yousaf's leadership. The Matheson affair has drained Mr Yousaf of authority. Every day he remains in post, that grip on power loosens, his enemies spot weakness, and rifts that rippled underneath the smooth exterior of the SNP during the Sturgeon years bubble up to the surface.   The game is up for the SNP - Matheson is doomed and so is Yousaf.

Private Eye, the UK's best and only fortnightly satirical magazine, pokes fun at the Prime Minister's decision to sack his home secretary, Suella Braverman. I do hope the Eye turns its attention to the ongoing political farce in Scotland where Humza Yousaf continues to defend the indefensible behaviour of his health minister - Michael 'Dead Man Walking' Matheson.  

Jim Spence summarises Scottish politics very well. Like the Tories at Westminster, the SNP show all the signs of an exhausted, incompetent government which is out of ideas, out of energy and increasingly out of time.

Here it is: 18 minutes of me calling out the bullshit of Britain's biggest shit-weasel - Owen Jones... pic.twitter.com/oAI9TmVlOx — leekern (@leekern13) November 29, 2023 Lee Kern gives Owen Jones the scorn he deserves as a vile, inhuman, apologist for Hamas - whose deaths squads revelled in the cold-blooded murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israelis on October 7.  

  Robert Crampton joined last Sunday's march in London in a show of solidarity with the UK's Jewish community. Noticeable by their absence were any Labour or trade union banners which is odd since the trigger for this latest crisis was a murderous terror attack on innocent Israeli civilians.  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/robert-crampton?page=1 I was on the march against antisemitism — there was one thing missing By Robert Crampton - The Times I went on the march against antisemitism on Sunday afternoon in London . So did (estimates vary) somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 other people. Let’s split the difference and call it 80,000. The Jewish population of England and Wales at the last census was 271,000. So, given that most of those marching were, unlike me, Jewish, then possibly a quarter of that number were present. Or, assuming (perhaps unfairly) that not many people travelled a long distance to attend, about half the Jews in London came. Which is a remarkable turn...

Robert Crampton's article on Hamas and its cold-blooded massacre of innocent Israelis on October 7 is a harrowing read, but more gruesome than the events of that day is the fact that Hamas and many Palestinians regard the men who committed these monstrous crimes as 'freedom fighters'. "The 43-minute film of the Hamas massacre is the worst thing I’ve seen "The close-up, uncensored footage of the cold-blooded murders that occurred in Israel on October 7 is extremely harrowing. Should you force yourself to watch it? "The savage decapitation of a young soldier’s body in a kibbutz. The heaped corpses of teenagers, the girls in their sparkly party gear, chests ripped open by large-calibre bullets, at the Nova festival in the desert.  "Two terrified little boys in their underpants, wailing their grief and fear in the instant aftermath of their dad’s death from a grenade blast. Badly injured youngsters, bleeding profusely, hauled out of a shelter, loaded onto a ...

Last night the Oakland City Council voted on a resolution to call for a ceasefire. A city council member tried to insert language condemning Hamas. This was the reaction… pic.twitter.com/r7aTb2mkrQ — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 28, 2023 There's a disturbing amount of Jew-hate and support for terrorism amongst supporters of the Palestinian cause. On October 7 2023 Hamas showed itself to be a medieval gang of murderers, rapists and kidnappers - not 'freedom fighters'.  

How cute is this - a young deer enjoying the sun in my daughter's garden?

Another spectacular sunrise over Mount Hood in Oregon  followed by a doe and her fawn making themselves right at home in my daughter's garden.

A Victoria’s Secret staff member tried her best to create boundaries because a man with blatantly no regard for boundaries wanted to indulge his fetish in public & now he’s complaining about it because he didn’t have an adequate audience for his pathetic fetish. pic.twitter.com/EkEe58YebW — Sall Grover (@salltweets) November 28, 2023 Well done to staff at Victoria's Secret who stood up to a ridiculous man - in support of women customers being able to use single sex dressing rooms without men trying to invade their private spaces. 

One of the most vicious misogynists on Twitter. How on earth is he a suitable spokesman @TescoIrl ? https://t.co/L0OHorX9XJ — Graham Linehan (@Glinner) November 28, 2023 In Ireland, a man dressed up as a woman (Panti Bliss) is apparently fronting up Tesco's 2023 Christmas campaign. How bizarre - seems like a throwback to Dick Emery who dressed up as 'Mandy' in a series of grotesque, unfunny comedy sketches from the 1960s .   Mandy, Mulvaney and Comic Grotesques ( April 08, 2023 ) Dylan Mulvaney and his ridiculous 'girlhood' act is about as funny and appropriate as Dick Emery playing 'Mandy' in 2023. In the 1960s the BBC described Emery's show as 'a vivid cast of comic grotesques'.    

At least four teams in a Sheffield women's football league are refusing to play against a club who fielded this player. Good for them 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/EofnSJwRgq — Jill Foster (@JournalistJill) November 20, 2023 No more balls in women's football please - one is enough.  So stand up for fair play and keep men out of women's sport including this chap (Francesca Needham) from the Sheffield Women's football league.  

Nadia el-Nakla interviewed by 'Middle East Eye' in Bute House, if you don't mind... In the FMs Official Residence, a Scottish government building, she criticises UK, US, Israel, UKGov, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and even being British... #ohdear #SheSeemsNice pic.twitter.com/VVDeoOHVvz — pantopolitics23 (@PantoPolitics22) November 25, 2023 I haven't seen the full interview, but have to say I've never heard Nadia El Nakla say a critical word about Hamas and the cold-blooded murder of innocent Israelis on October 7. Seems to me she is cynically using her position as Humza Yousaf's wife to promote a partisan and very one-sided view of the conflict in Gaza. And why is the First Minister's official residence, Bute House, being used for such a purpose? 

First we had the Blue Meanies who attempted to silence Pepperland - now we have the Green Meanies of whom former party leader Robin Harper says: “On the gender issue we have created this completely toxic environment where people can’t speak to each other anymore. What have we become when someone needs a police guard just to express a point of view." Well said Robin - the Greens provide a home for all kinds of bigots, cranks and weirdos these days.

Great song by Mary Chapin Carpenter from an astonishing soundtrack - featuring a whole host of famous names including Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Michelle Shocked, Tom Waits, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Suzanne Vega. Well worth a listen.

Humza Yousaf has enough on his plate without spending so much time defending the indefensible Michael Matheson. If he can’t find it in himself to sack his health secretary, Matheson should do the decent thing and resign. My @scotonsunday column: https://t.co/MQ1Pn0qsKB — euan mccolm (@euanmccolm) November 26, 2023 Michael Matheson is a 'dead man walking' as far as his SNP ministerial career goes, but the biggest loser in this long drawn out saga is Humza Yousaf. Euan McColm in Scotland on Sunday: "We’re three weeks into the scandal of Matheson’s expenses and it’s stubbornly refusing to go away. And the longer it drags on, the more damage it inflicts on Yousaf. "The First Minister has repeatedly tried to shut this issue down, insisting – time and again – that, as far as he was concerned, the matter was closed. It is just as well that Yousaf has been wrong every time he’s said that. After all, if the matter had been closed on the First Minister’s demand, we would never...

Tony Benn famously posed five questions for people in positions of authority and influence to answer - how are they accountable and to whom? So let's apply these questions to the Green Brigade who have had a lot to say in recent days about fairness, transparency and other people's behaviour. 1) Who are the people who speak for Celtic's self-styled 'ultras'? 2) Why have these individuals remained faceless and nameless? 3) How do the 'ultras' make decisions?  4) To whom are the 'ultras' spokesmen accountable? 5) How do the 'ultras' select or appoint their leaders? 

BREAKING! Rod Stewart gives Green Brigade the middle finger as Celtic superfan drenched in boos by ultras https://t.co/SiA5oiiz2Y pic.twitter.com/8h8HXavB2q — Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) November 25, 2023 Fair play to Rod Stewart who gave the bampots from the Green Brigade the finger after being heckled and abused at Celtic Park. I'm afraid these intolerant buffoons have no right to judge other people's politics - Parkhead is not a playground for  jumped-up, juvenile Jeremy Corbyn supporters or for the devotees of any particular group or  cause.  

Humza Yousaf and Michael Matheson are turning Holyrood into a laughing stock - a 'pretendy' parliament run by a wee gang who have each other's backs no matter what the circumstances. If Matheson were a Conservative minister, Yousaf would be demanding he resign or be sacked - of course he would, no question. The system at Westminster provides for an 'independent ethics adviser' to advise on the conduct of ministers. Whereas in Scotland Humza Yousaf is both 'judge and jury' when it comes to the conduct of ministers which insults the intelligence of voters who know Matheson is bang to rights.  

Michael Matheson accepted free Celtic tickets despite having 'no interest in club': https://t.co/ALxhA0rfVO https://t.co/ALxhA0rfVO — Sunday Mail (@Sunday_Mail) November 26, 2023 After Michael Matheson told the world he has no interest in Celtic the Sunday Mail produces a photo of the beleaguered SNP minister at the 2017 Scottish League Cup Final in which Celtic beat Motherwell 2 - 0 What a hoot.

Well that doesn't sound at all UTTERLY CHILLING now does it huh? https://t.co/MpVgdxK6AQ — Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) November 27, 2023 Ireland has taken leave of its senses as po-faced senators consider a ridiculous new law which would have outlawed Father Ted and Life of Brian - along with poking fun at the Catholic Church. Irony is not dead!  

Labour MP Rosie Duffield ‘targeted in antisemitism row due to her trans views’. An investigation was launched after the MP for Canterbury liked a tweet by the comedy writer Graham Linehan ⬇️ https://t.co/dGyXq03mYg — The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 26, 2023 Imagine the complete stupidity of the Labour Party investigating one of its own MPs for liking a tweet by Graham Linehan. The Times report that Rosie Duffield came under attack by Labour's 'Corbynista' wing after liking the comedy writer's response to Eddie Izzard who tweeted: “I’m a trans superhero — but if I’d lived in Nazi Germany I’d have been murdered for it.” Linehan responded with: “Ah, yes, the Nazis, famously bigoted against straight white men with blonde hair.” Now that is funny and the fact that Labour sees fit to investigate one of its MPs who actively stood up to the bullying Corbyn rabble is ludicrous - outrageous, in fact. A cautionary tale for anyone thinking of voting Labour at th...

The best joke at this year's Edinburgh Fringe joke came from a politician - Fergus Ewing - rather than a comedian. 'When Nicola told me she wanted the SNP to be a big tent party I didn't think she meant in her front garden.' #bestjokeatthefringe2023  

Seems highly unlikely that Fergus Ewing will  tone down his criticism of the SNP leadership not least because he's been completely proved right over: Self-ID and men magically declaring themselves to be women Lorna Slater's ruinous Deposit Return Scheme Highly Protected Marine Areas Dualling the A9 Patrick Harvie's abandoned 'heat pump' scheme Humza Yousaf being a dud Bringing 'wine bar revolutionaries' into government