Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Have you ever heard so much self-ID baloney from a public service in Scotland - in this case the Scottish Prisons Service (SPS). Why does the SPS give more weight to the feelings of men who self-ID as women - over the prisoners who actually are women? The SNP minister responsible for the Scottish Prison Service in 2014 was none other than 'Morocco Mike' Matheson who was duly followed by Humza Yousaf in 2018.  

There is absolutely no reason for male murderers to be housed in the female estate 👇 https://t.co/akraY82d1s — Dr Pam Gosal MBE MSP (@PamGosalMSP) May 21, 2025 A true statement from Pam Gosal MSP - the UK Supreme Court has restored sanity and common sense to the law. The same thing now needs too happen in the Scottish Prisons Service and in other public services where SNP ministers have been introducing self-ID and transgender baloney by the back door.   

While noisy pro-Palestinian supporters in the UK have little to say about the barbaric behaviour of Hamas or the fate of Jewish hostages in Gaza - Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, is more outspoken. 

Does anyone understand why men are getting their moobs out in protest at women accessing their single sex spaces in peace - how do the men's moobs advance their case?

🥀 Labour scrapped winter fuel payments, defended their cuts, and are only now partially changing course. 💷 @theSNP is bringing back the winter fuel payment in Scotland - and we will push Labour to make a full u-turn on their cruel cuts. 👇 Pensioners need this support now. pic.twitter.com/zP7inOWxyH — Graeme Dey (@GraemeDeyMSP) May 21, 2025 If the SNP believes the Winter Fuel Allowance is such a big deal, why do John Swinney & Co spend £200 million a year on free bus travel for under 22-year-olds - if pensioners are in much greater need? SNP spending choices don't make sense. 

In response to the RCN's letter, a spokesperson for the Trust said: "This is a complex and sensitive matter involving not only our internal policies and procedures but also wider national guidance and legislation." https://t.co/hjXJlv96yE — Darlington Nursing Union (@DarlingtonUnion) May 21, 2025 What a load of baloney from overpaid NHS bureaucrats in Darlington  - I wonder if the NHS trade unions support this nonsense? The single male involved could have been told to use the temporary changing facilities with the female nurses all staying where they were until the issue was resolved. Now this was the obvious, sensible move and in union parlance it's called maintaining the 'status quo' - so why did NHS managers and unions decide to behave differently?   It's blatantly discriminatory behaviour which makes NHS managers and the Darlington unions look vindictive? 

The young couple, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, murdered in cold-blood in Washington DC by a Jew-hating man wearing a red keffiyeh shouting 'Free Palestine'.  

To all the pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian protesters out there this is what 'globalising the intifada' really means: the cold-blooded murder or Jewish people because they're Jews. In other words the same mindset which drove the terrorist atrocities of October 7 in which heavily armed Palestinians murdered innocent and defenceless Israelis, many of them young people, even as they fled or begged for their lives.

Sonia Sodha in the Times calls on Keith Starmer to speak up for women and the law which the Labour leader has failed to do so far in his premiership. Sonia also points out that Britain's biggest union, Unison, is deliberately flouting the law and that its President recently accused the Darlington nurses of 'bigotry' for standing up for their rights to dignity and privacy at work  "Some organisations, like Britain’s biggest union, are  brazenly flouting it . Unison is allowing a male member who identifies as female to stand for election for its national council positions reserved for women.  "Last year its president accused a group of nurses from Darlington of “anti-trans bigotry” for standing up for their right to female-only changing rooms at work."

SNP ministers have taken 10 years and spent £750 million on building two small Scottish ferries - one (Glen Rosa) is still not finished. Meanwhile China has taken just three years and spent a reported £216 million on the world's tallest bridge in Guizhou Province.   John Swinney has just rewarded all Scottish ministers with a £20,000 increase in their salaries, but not one SNP minister has been held to account for this terrible waste of public money on Scotland's hugely expensive 'slow boats' for the isles. Makes you think - r ead the full story via the link below to The Mirror!   https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/worlds-216m-new-tallest-bridge-35070466  

The Herald reports that SNP ministers have spent an eye-watering £750 million on building two ferries. The bill is enough to cover the total cost of the 13 similar ferries commissioned from a Turkish shipyard or to provide Scotland with 3,400 affordable homes in what SNP ministers have declared is a 'housing emergency'.   Not one SNP minister has been held accountable or sacked for presiding over what amounts to a national scandal. Read the full story via the link below. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25166146.public-cost-scots-ferry-fiasco-firm-hits-750m-amidst-overspends/

The Herald reports that police numbers in Scotland have fallen despite promises from SNP ministers to put an extra 1,000 officers 'on the beat'. Yet another example over-promising and under-delivering - read the full story via the link below to The Herald. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25178300.revealed-nation-loses-800-officers-since-formation-police-scotland/  

As the party of government Labour would look completely mad if it flouted the recent Supreme Court's ruling which affirmed biological sex as the foundation stone of UK equality law. The decision means that a woman is an adult human female and that 'trans women' are men. So it makes perfect sense to prevent men from contesting all-women  shortlists, attending women's conferences and becoming women's officers. What doesn't make sense is abandoning Labour's annual women's conference because of threats of disruption from bullying men and their allies. The party's job is to keep people safe and secure as it does at every other party gathering.    

I'm all in favour of football clubs like Celtic having to accept strict liability for what goes on inside their grounds, but I would add that it's Glasgow City Council's job to deal with anti-social behaviour on our streets. Football clubs can and should offer their supporters some kind of official event to celebrate on-field success, but the unofficial gathering in Trongate at the weekend was just another ugly display of public drunkenness. The football equivalent of a rave encouraged by anti-social groups like the Green Brigade and the  impact on residents and businesses in that part of the city has been horrendous which is what needs  dealt with by the Glasgow City Council and police. Celtic FC have not done nearly enough to discourage the 'ultras' from using the club as a platform for their ugly behaviour, but that's no excuse for letting politicians off the hook and allowing Glasgow City Council to point the finger of blame elsewhere.    

An astonishing 1 in 10 Americans believe the Earth is flat according to a survey conducted by the Carsey School of Public Policy in 2022. Doesn't make such nonsense true, of course, even for the 10% who believe the Earth really is flat - and not a round sphere spinning in space. Same goes for the small number of trans people who really do believe that men can self-ID and magically declare they are women. It's nonsense - flat-out, flat-Earth, anti-women nonsense.  

I wonder if Gary Lineker could tell that the 'rat' featured in this image is an antisemitic trope often used in Nazi propaganda.      

  I have just written to Unison's general secretary, Christina McAnea about the union's latest trans guidance which is a load of old baloney, in my opinion. Dear Christina Unison Guidance and Biological Sex I have just read Unison's updated 'trans, non-binary and gender diverse guidance' online and I was surprised to discover this is completely at odds with the recent Supreme Court ruling which affirmed that biological sex is the foundation stone of UK equality law. I note Unison is claiming this updated policy has been reviewed by 'legal experts' and wonder if you could explain who these experts are and share what advice they have provided because under UK law a woman is an adult human female and 'trans women' are men. I look forward to hearing from you and in the meantime here's a link and short extract from The Retail Bulletin (TRB) which summarises the position clearly and succinctly: "Last month the Supreme Court decided that sex in the...

Here's a letter I sent to all Glasgow councillors including the SNP council leader, Susan Aitken, back in August 2018. Cllr Aitken says she had no idea about the terms on which her outgoing chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, was leaving the council's employment which sounds completely ridiculous. Why would the  SNP be so uninterested and incurious given Glasgow's terrible track record on these hugely generous 'golden goodbyes' for senior officials?   All Glasgow Councillors and MSPs Weasel Words, Double Standards and Equal Pay I attach the latest post from my blog which explains the  background to a hugely generous 'golden goodbye' payment to a departing senior official (Lynn Brown) of Glasgow City Council. I am continuing to pursue the Freedom of Information aspects of this payment and I suspect the case will end up being referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), but there are also serious issues of probity and good governance involved...