Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Nicola Sturgeon. Joined SNP at 16. Stood for parliament age 21. Did uni and then a few years as a 'lawyer'. Full time politician since. pic.twitter.com/9RyG1ICv3L — Brian Spilei (@BrianSpanner1) May 20, 2024 Nicola Sturgeon bemoans the fact the SNP is "too full of young people who have just come through the political ranks". Presumably she means people just like herself and Humza Yousaf, for example, who have little experience of life in the real world outside politics. Brian Spanner nails Sturgeon's hypocrisy.

🔴 Scottish Green general election candidate calls JK Rowling ‘torn-faced cow’ amid gender row https://t.co/3dfHauMUFT — The Scotsman (@TheScotsman) May 20, 2024 I'm sure JK Rowling wont be too devastated at being called juvenile names by the Green party trans activist who goes by the name of 'Sophie Molly'. But the reason Sophie behaves this way is that he's yet another angry man masquerading as a woman.     

Imagine writing a supposedly journalistic piece on such a controversial topic and side-stepping the important fact that the chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis, Mridul 'Reframe Your Trauma' Wadhwa, is a biological male - a man! Mridul is also a former SNP activist. Party Activism and Public Services ( September 15, 2021 ) Mridul Wadwha is a controversial figure and rightly so because this kind of political activism sits very uneasily with the responsible job of acting as chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis. More to follow, but I wonder what the board of ERC makes of this outrageous smearing of people in public.          Party Activism and Public Services ( August 16, 2021 )   I was blissfully unaware until last week that the chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis, Mridul Wadhwa (a trans woman and biological man), was a well known party activist and former parliamentary candidate in the SNP.      Rape Survivors and Female Only Spaces ( August 12, 2021 ) Josephine Bar

Excellent piece examining Wadhwa’s career in The Times Scotland - share token. Sturgeon trans ally’s answer to gender critical women: Fire the terfs https://t.co/9Ij3w2kY8N — Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) May 21, 2024 Interesting article from the Times on the meteoric rise of Mirdul Wadhwa, a former SNP election candidate to become a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Stirling, who reportedly enjoyed the backing of Nicola Sturgeon.  Wadhwa is a man who self-identifies as as a woman.

The Scottish Government is facing substantial claims for compensation after the collapse of its disastrous Deposit Return Scheme (DDS). £9 million of public money has already gone down the drain with private sector companies set to sue for their costs and losses - worth up to £300 million. Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie may no longer be ministers, but the SNP government is ultimately responsible for the DRS shambles - an independent inquiry is in the public interest.         

Paid a visit to our local public glass recycling point in Glasgow the other day - only to discover the single purple bin reserved for glass was full to overflowing and clearly hadn't been emptied for quite a while. What Glasgow needs is more and bigger recycling bins which are emptied on a regular basis, as they have in every little town/village in Spain, for example. What Glasgow doesn't need is the kind of ridiculously  expensive DRS (Deposit Return Scheme) dreamt up by the wackadoodle SNP/Green alliance. Scotland's Ruinous Green/SNP Alliance ( August 11, 2023 ) I visit Spain regularly and while there's an excellent system of recycling in place - for glass, paper, glass etc - there's no ruinous 'bottle return scheme' in place. Nothing like the one dreamed up by wackadoodle Green minister Lorna Slater with the full support of Humza Yousaf and the SNP.

  Josephine Bartosch tackles the controversy sparked by Edinburgh Rape Crisis which told service users (women survivors) to 'reframe your trauma' if they preferred to be supported by a woman - rather than a trans woman. "Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. And so, you know, it is not a discerning crime. But these spaces are also for you. But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices." What a vile way to treat victims of male sexual violence.     https://thecritic.co.uk/reframe-your-trauma/ “Reframe your trauma” Rape survivors are not “bigots” for wanting female-only spaces By  Josephine Bartosch  11 August, 2021 Amanda (not her real name) was sexually assaulted in 2005 by a former partner. She told me: “For a time, I was fearful of all men. I even struggled to spend time with the supportive men in

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 and other basic needs. #TALKSNOW  Publicly acknowledged multilatera

Izzat al-Rishek (political bureau of Hamas): "Israel will not receive the hostages alive, unless there is an honorable deal. If there is no deal - they will only receive corpses." You monster m'fer! We know that the three hostages recovered today were murdered on October 7th! pic.twitter.com/1ziawl22D7 — Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) May 17, 2024 Israel has a duty to rescue the citizens who were kidnapped by Hamas and spirited away into Gaza on October 7. Sadly, many were killed long ago although Hamas is now trying to extract a gruesome ransom for their bodies.   

Naama Levy. 19 years old. Taken hostage by Hamas. Obviously this video is all relentlessly awful start to finish, but one aspect that haunts me is the ankle cuts. Hamas slashed at her Achilles tendon to stop her running away from their assaults. https://t.co/r7GY0dZLOb — Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) May 18, 2024 The war is Gaza will not end while Hamas refuses to free all of the Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7. Hamas is even holding on to the bodies of dead hostages in the hope of extracting a ransom from desperate families and/or Israeli Government.  

The last annual report and published accounts from the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (2022-23) make very interesting reading. In that year  ERCC received donations worth £1,064,386 from the Scottish Government and £406,093 from the Tampon Tax Fund. Read more via the link below including the list of ERCC directors. https://www.ercc.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERCC-accounts-2022-2023.pdf Scottish Government £  26,456 £182,250 £  69,791 £380,000 £405,889 £1,064,386 Tampon Tax Fund £398,561 £  7,532 £406,093 ERCC Directors  Molly Little (Appointed 03 May 2023)  Gracie Lee (Appointed 03 May 2023)  Carolyn Fox-McKay (Appointed 01 June 2022)  Mairi Rosko (Appointed 01 June 2022)  Miren Ochoa Sagues (Appointed 06 April 2022)  Katie Horsburgh,  Niamh McCrossan and Fatime Krasniqi (Resigned 12 July 2023)  Elaine Cameron (Appointed 01 June 2022) (Resigned 26 April 2023)  Mairi Redman (Resigned 03 May 2023)  Sarah Russell (Resigned 01 February 2023)  Kathryn Dawson (Resigned 06 April 2022)  Ari

Holyrood summit hears from teens, parents and experts who claim children are pressured into swapping genders https://t.co/c288jRmMkc pic.twitter.com/sJsRWr0bZL — The Sunday Post (@Sunday_Post) May 19, 2024 The Sunday Post shines a light on the reality of 'gender affirming care'. Apparently no one from the Scottish Greens could be bothered to attend this important closed session in the Scottish Parliament. "A brave teenager left ­politicians in tears as she told how social workers persuaded her that she was “born in the wrong body” rather than treat her trauma over a horrific sexual assault when she was just five. "Despite never having ­spoken publicly about her escape from being sent down the nightmare medical transition route – which would have rendered her infertile and undergoing a double mastectomy – she begged MSPs to remove trans ideology from schools before others are harmed. "Just turned 17, Katherine told a special closed session at Holyrood, attended

Banger of a quote in the Times today from @MForstater . Really sums it up: "The centre employed a man who wishes he was a woman as CEO and allowed that to corrupt the whole purpose of the organisation". https://t.co/MUpTbQxkiA — Julie Bindel (@bindelj) May 20, 2024 Maya Forstater on victory for the worker in the Edinburgh rape centre gender row: "The centre employed a man who wishes he was a woman as CEO and allowed that to corrupt the whole purpose of the organisation".  

Breakfast of champions!