Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

In an interview with @MiddleEastEye , I was asked what my message is to the people of Gaza. It's simple, I am so sorry we, the world, have let you down. We couldn't stop children from being killed in their thousands. A permanent stain on our collective conscience. #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/DmqpuScyay — Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) February 29, 2024 Humza Yousaf is not an international statesman and while I empathised with the public statements involving his family the situation in Gaza is more complicated than calling for a ceasefire - while ignoring the insidious role of Hamas in the ongoing crisis. The Hamas led mass murders, rapes and kidnappings on October 7 triggered the latest cycle of violence. Hamas refuses to release innocent Israeli hostages and rejects demands to end its terror tactics which is the only way a 'ceasefire' can work - a one-sided ceasefire is meaningless and ignores Israel's security demands. Hamas is a terrorist organisation which has s...

David Aaronovitch wrote an interesting Substack piece in which he lists his 'demands' for giving peace a chance in Gaza and the Middle East. Here are the headlines - for more details follow the link below. #HAMASOUT  #FREETHEHOSTAGES  #CEASEFIRENOW  #MASSIVEAIDNOW  #HAMASOUT  #TALKSNOW  #NETANYAHUOUT  #FASCISTSOUT    #ENDSETTLERVIOLENCE  #NEWPEACEPROCESSNOW  https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/my-gaza-demands? #HAMASOUT  Hamas as a military organisation must leave Gaza, upon whose people it has deliberately brought such death and destruction. #FREETHEHOSTAGES  Hamas and the other armed groups must take immediate steps to free all hostages taken on October 7th. #CEASEFIRENOW   Israel must immediately cease offensive military operations in Gaza and any operations that put civilian lives at serious risk. #MASSIVEAIDNOW  An international aid effort is needed to help the people of Gaza with their health, housing a...

The likes & reposts suggest he has clearly struck a chord 1. He can’t say “Jews” so he says “Israelis” rendering his point incoherent. 2. He is saying “immigrants & asylum seekers go home, & also great great grandchildren of asylum seekers”. Yet he thinks this a left position. pic.twitter.com/VfIhX5Ox7S — Daniel Finkelstein (@Dannythefink) February 28, 2024 Daniel Finkelstein lays bare the ugly truth behind the pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish slogan - "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" - which is about the destruction of Israel not peace and reconciliation.  Israel was created in 1948, at the end of World War Two and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, by a two-thirds majority vote at the United Nations. Some of Israel's neighbours, notably Egypt and Jordan, have come to terms with this reality while others including Iran and its terrorist proxies (Hamas, Helbollah and the Houthis) have not, but the clock is not now going to be turned back. Terrorism is...

  I have received an invitation to vote SNP in the upcoming Hillhead by-election - strangely the blurb in the leaflet was in the name of Alison Thewliss MP rather than the local council candidate, a chap named Malcolm McConnell. Bizarrely, the SNP claim a strong record of achievement locally - "despite the annual £30 million cost to Glasgow City Council of Labour's scandalous equal pay legacy." Now this is SNP spin and baloney, of course. Because Glasgow's equal pay claimants had to fight the SNP council every bit as hard as the old Labour led council to and 8,000 low paid workers had to strike for two-days in October 2018 before the council came to its senses. Even then not a single SNP councillor, MSP or MP supported the strike or came along to speak to the women who held a huge rally in George Square - right opposite the City Chambers. To add insult to injury the council's pay arrangements which the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, judged t...

  Iain Macwhirter hits the nail on the head with his withering assessment of the SNP and Scotland's public services. Chickens are finally coming home to roost after 16 years of the SNP ducking the hard choices on public spending.

Giant potholes on Glasgow's Napiershall Street which cars, buses and lorries carefully navigate their way around very carefully. Strangely, and courtesy of the SNP, Glasgow's councillors are in line to receive an eye watering 22% salary increase - while hard pressed council tax payers are being charged even more for fewer and poorer council services. Bumper 22% Pay Increase For Glasgow Councillors ( February 28, 2024 ) Scottish council tax payers face the prospect of paying more for fewer, poorer and dearer council services in 2024, y et the SNP is proposing a massive 22% pay increase for Scotland's councillors. Backbench councillors, ie those without additional council wide responsibilities, are currently paid a salary of £20,099 a year - which is assessed as a part-time (two-thirds of full-time) salary. But after a hasty salary review and with scant evidence to justify such a move Humza Yousaf is planning to award all backbench councillors a new salary of £24,581 - despit...

Scottish council tax payers face the prospect of paying more for fewer, poorer and dearer council services in 2024, y et the SNP is proposing a massive 22% pay increase for local councillors. Backbench councillors, ie those without additional council wide responsibilities, are currently paid a salary of £20,099 a year - which is assessed as a part-time (two-thirds of full-time) salary. But after a hasty salary review and with scant evidence to justify such a move Humza Yousaf is planning to award all backbench councillors a new salary of £24,581 - despite the fact that many of these councillors also have other jobs. I imagine this will not impress hard-pressed council tax payers or indeed other council employees who are being offered far less generous pay increases.   The new pay package will cost council tax payers an extra £5,407,028 a year and is being justified on the basis that a big pay rise is needed to attract more women, disabled and younger people into standing for e...

Fergus Ewing has lost an appeal against a week long suspension from the SNP. https://t.co/redFVo7klo 👇 Full story — The Herald Politics (@HeraldPols) February 27, 2024 Fergus Ewing is being punished by the SNP for saying that the wackadoodle Green minister Lorna Slater should have been sacked for gross incompetence over her disastrous deposit return scheme (DRS).  “My view is people in Scotland absolutely do not want MSPs who must always blindly follow the party line. ‘A ‘nest of fearties’ is what they do not want,’ the poet Edwin Morgan wrote. They do not want MSPs to be mere ciphers or rubber stamps of leadership dictation. If my constituents wanted a doormat, they would have gone to B&Q.” I agree.

Scottish council tax payers face the prospect of paying more for fewer, poorer and dearer council services in 2024, y et the SNP is proposing a massive 22% pay increase for Scotland's councillors. Backbench councillors, ie those without additional council wide responsibilities, are currently paid a salary of £20,099 a year - which is assessed as a part-time (two-thirds of full-time) salary. But after a hasty salary review and with scant evidence to justify such a move Humza Yousaf is planning to award all backbench councillors a new salary of £24,581 - despite the fact that many of these councillors also have other jobs. I imagine this will not impress hard-pressed council tax payers or indeed other council employees who are being offered far less generous pay increases.   The new pay package will cost council tax payers an extra £5,407,028 a year and is being justified on the basis that a big pay rise is needed to attract more women, disabled and younger people into standing ...

Neil Mackay: SNP has broken social contract between government and people ➡ https://t.co/kDWNF8DWgh pic.twitter.com/pJkaC61RwO — The Herald (@heraldscotland) February 27, 2024 Neil Mackay calls out the hateful rhetoric of Humza Yousaf who as First Minister is becoming an increasingly divisive, dangerous figure in Scottish politics "Yousaf has posted images of a newspaper front page portraying Labour politicians, including Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar, as 'traitors'.  "It wasn’t clever for the Press and Journal to publish that front page. It was even more stupid of the First Minister to amplify such language in a divided nation."  

Massive aid convoy drives through Gaza, hijacked by Hamas terrorists. One of the terrorists on top of a truck fires live ammunition at desperate civilians. pic.twitter.com/4cszpjYt2J — Oli London (@OliLondonTV) December 13, 2023 More damaging footage of Hamas hijacking relief supplies intended for Gaza civilians. In reality, these 'freedom fighters' are really just murderous, thieving gangsters.

pic.twitter.com/WEnObda1tc — Ph.Gritti (@Philipp27960841) February 27, 2024 Humanitarian aid intended relieve hungry Gazans and their families is being sold on the streets of the Hamas controlled territory - could this have anything to do with the terrorists and their kidnapping, hijacking thugs?

🔺 NEW: Paul McLennan, the housing minister, said that he is still cautious when arriving home after dark after one late night call left his family in fear https://t.co/RLC8j2PCk2 — The Times and The Sunday Times Scotland (@timesscotland) February 26, 2024 An SNP minister (Paul McLennan) says he's anxious about arriving home late at night while his boss, Humza Yousaf, uses social media to smear rival politicians as 'traitors'. I wonder what could go wrong with this ugly, irresponsible behaviour from Scotland's First Minister - Humza should be ashamed of himself. According to industry experts Labour's plans risk 100,000 jobs. The SNP supports a windfall tax, but Labour's raid on the North East would cost jobs in order to pay for more nuclear power plants in England. Sarwar stands up for Starmer, while @theSNP will stand up for Scotland. https://t.co/EzR9Opnhb8 pic.twitter.com/YUl8xnOVCs — Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) February 23, 2024  

I enjoyed these Private Eye cartoons on the looming 2024 general election. If you ask me, it's time for change always bearing Mark Twain's great maxim in mind that politicians are like nappies - they must be changed often, and for the same reason. 

The trans lobby meets Monty Python with the laughable claim that a woman's clitoris is the same body part as a man's penis.  Is there no end to this madness? Women; not one single one of you told me our clits were meant to do this????? Or do we have to buy the Vulva Hose 3000 extension first?? I always forget to upgrade https://t.co/vqW1odXmVr — Lorelei 🌕🧙🏻‍♀️🕸🍄 (@hatpinwoman) February 27, 2024  

The SNP's last attempt to promote a husband and wife power couple didn't end too well. I suspect this latest nonsense with Humza and Nadia will end badly too!

First Minister campaigns with MSP despite 'concerns' over antisemitic remarks https://t.co/DmeX5yefeq — The Herald (@heraldscotland) February 26, 2024 Humza Yousaf out on the campaign trail with his SNP colleague John 'Bible Thumper' Mason.  I have a vote in this by-election and while I have yet to decide which party/candidate to support I definitely won't be voting for the SNP   Bible Thumper John ( February 23, 2024 ) Humza Yousaf has been urged to suspend an SNP MSP who said it was legitimate to criticise “the Jews” because of the Bible’s teachings.   John Mason is free to believe what he likes, so long as he doesn't try to impose his barmy religious views on the rest of us. Same goes for self-ID and the SNP' s support for the absurd notion that men can just magically declare themselves to be women.

Humza Yousaf has been urged to suspend an SNP MSP who said it was legitimate to criticise “the Jews” because of the Bible’s teachings.  John Mason is free to believe what he likes, so long as he doesn't try to impose his barmy religious views on the rest of us. Same goes for self-ID and the SNP' s support for the absurd notion that men can just magically declare themselves to be women.

Senior Hamas official: Nobody could have predicted that our invasion, massacre, rape, and taking children and grandparents as hostages would have sparked such a strong response from Israel. pic.twitter.com/mKB5LAp9gz — Daniel Rubenstein (@paulrubens) February 25, 2024 A. When its leaders lips start moving.  A senior Hamas official pontificates about international law after the mass murders, rapes and kidnappings committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Irony is not dead.  

141 days... pic.twitter.com/H8G9Cx8D2m — Bram ✡ (@RayMegah) February 24, 2024 Hamas has been holding these two young Israelis captive for over 140 days - they were kidnapped from inside Israel on October 7 and spirited away into Gaza. A ceasefire means a cessation of violence on both sides and for all hostages to be freed.

  I received a response to my FoI request about the mobile phones used by Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister - see post below dated February 23, 2024. Here's what the Scottish Government had to say:  "Response to your request" "The Scottish Government has no record of purchasing personal devices for Nicola Sturgeon or  contributing to their running costs." Now what does this mean? Because I didn't ask about 'personal devices' - I asked for information about the phone used by Scotland's First Minister during the Covid pandemic. Unless, of course, this means that Nicola Sturgeon was using a single phone for all Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, personal and SNP business. Surely not, as this would be truly bizarre, unprofessional and highly irregular.   SNP - Mobile Phone Malarkey ( February 23, 2024 ) I got so fed up listening to all the spin, lies and dissembling nonsense about the SNP ministers and their mobile phones that I decided to sub...