Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

I have still to catch up with the latest edition of Private Eye, but I'm looking forward to reading what it has to say about the ongoing civil war inside the SNP.     Sturgeon has opened a real can of worms by trying to cash-in on her book.

Another victory for common sense as the World Boxing Council announces new sex, age, weight policies to protect the integrity of women's boxing - female athletes must now verify their sex before entering the ring. 🚨 Breaking: World Boxing unveils new SEX, age & weight policy—female athletes must verify sex before entering women’s ring. One year after the biggest women’s sports scandal in Olympic history, the new federation vows safe, fair fights for women. 🎉 https://t.co/cjpZ6P6Pb4 pic.twitter.com/De3AKJmc2i — ICONS (@icons_women) August 20, 2025      

So Nicola Sturgeon's attempts to rewrite history with her political memoir has opened up a real can of worms in the SNP.    It's astonishing how many former colleagues and friends inside her own party Sturgeon has managed to antagonise in recent days - and Geoff Aberdein, for example, doesn't pull his punches. I'm afraid Sturgeon's tawdry attempts to 'cash-in' with her new book have backfired badly.    Geoff Aberdein keeps his cool but he is bloody furious pic.twitter.com/3LMaxxnD8Y — Denise Findlay 💚🤍💜 (@gracebrod1e) August 20, 2025    

Even some of Nicola Sturgeon's biggest admirers seem to agree the former SNP leader and First Minister has royally screwed things up with her trans zealotry and support for the nonsense of self-ID.  

Irvine Welsh may be right about 'indy hopes', but Sturgeon damaged much more than independence with her absurd trans zealotry and support for self-ID. Countless women have been bullied and victimised for refusing to agree that men can self-ID and declare they have magically 'become women'. Or that young children can be 'born in the wrong body' and require puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and major surgery to address what is clearly a mental health problem. Yet Sturgeon and her SNP successors in government continue to promote this grotesque, hugely damaging ideology on public life and in Scotland's public services.

Nicola Sturgeon - the former SNP leader, First Minister of Scotland and current MSP for Glasgow Southside - supports this self-ID nonsense of course  How embarrassing and absurd! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/08/20/neo-nazi-changes-gender-serve-womens-prison/    

Now this made me laugh! I wonder if the lost tribe is claiming to be trans - because that would just take the biscuit? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 An African couple who claim they are part of a lost African tribe say they are facing persecution after setting up home in Scottish woodlands. The Kingdom of Kubala claims they have settled in a forest in Jedburgh to reclaim land that was stolen from their ancestors 400… pic.twitter.com/AKaKRblBNQ — 'Seeing is believing' (@dave24144975) August 19, 2025  

Trade unions across the UK have been strangely silent during the fight to defend the rights of women to single sex spaces - both at work and in the wider aspects of public life, eg women's sport.  But the unions are in the spotlight with the 157th Annual Congress of the TUC which is being held in Brighton from 7 to 10 September 2025. So I think I'll draft an Emergency Motion highlighting just how badly women workers have let down by the trade unions - women like the Darlington Nurses and Sandie Peggie left to fight bullying managers and rogue employers on their own without support from Unison and the RCN, for example.   What is the point of a trade union that doesn't provide members with advice and assistance when they are most in need?  No point, I say.  Interesting fact - I won the TUC Award for Youth in 1983 which was presented to me in Blackpool that year by the then TUC General Secretary, Len Murray -  I must see if there's a photo of my award I can sh...

While Nicola Sturgeon continues to embarrass the SNP with her ridiculous 'book tour' - the former First Minister's real legacy is staring Scots in the face. Record NHS waiting lists  Falling education standards Ministerial incompetence on a grand scale An SNP obsessed with self-ID and trans baloney

  Hamas is an Islamist terrorist group which rules through force and fear while hiding behind the civilian population of Gaza. Hamas started the latest violence with a carefully planned, barbaric attack on Israeli civilians on Oct 7 2023 - others were taken hostage and kidnapped back to Gaza. To pretend Hamas is a 'force for good' is a terrible insult to people's intelligence and a stain on the reputation of the United Nations.

My 889th column on Nicola Sturgeon. Frankly, my dear, Nicola Sturgeon gives a damn only about herself https://t.co/2tKYZYI9RT — Gillian (@GillianBowditch) August 17, 2025 Gillian Bowditch on Nicola Sturgeon is well worth a read - the former First Minister's attempts to rewrite her track record and political legacy are torn to shreds in splendid style. "All political autobiographies are revisionist but Sturgeon’s takes self-justification to a new level." "As a politician, she attracted the kind of drama more often associated with reality show starlets. Her husband was arrested and charged with embezzlement. She was arrested and questioned by the police. She had to go into hiding in a remote part of Scotland and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which required therapy." "Police discovered a massive motorhome in her mother-in-law’s driveway and confiscated it as evidence. They erected an evidence tent on her lawn. These are not part of the normal cut ...

Trade unions across the UK have been strangely silent during the fight to defend the rights of women to single sex spaces - both at work and in the many wider aspects of public life.  But the showpiece trade union event of the year is on the horizon - the 157th Annual Congress of the TUC is being held in Brighton from 7th to 10th September 2025. So I think I'll draft an Emergency Motion highlighting just how badly women workers like the Darlington Nurses and Sandie Peggie have been treated by their trade unions - left to fight rogue employers on their own without support from Unison and the RCN.   What is the point of a trade union that doesn't provide members with advice and assistance when they're most in need?  No point, I say.  Interesting fact - I won the TUC Award for Youth in 1983 which was presented to me in Blackpool that year by the then TUC General Secretary, Len Murray. I must see if there's a photo of my award I can share on the blog.

An employment tribunal in Norwich has decided that dumb banter and crude jokes shared amongst friends do not amount to harassment or a 'hate crime' - and cannot be used to sack someone from their job.  A wise decision. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/football-steward-sacked-for-crude-memes-about-sturgeon-wins-8000-500vbzftw?  

An American trans activist, Toby Tobin, tries to become a Scottish 'Lord' by acquiring a gimmick, a souvenir title, to avoid being identified as a female teacher in school.    People like Toby have no place teaching children.  https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/trans-teacher-buys-scottish-land-in-bid-to-be-called-lord-not-miss-3zszfk6d9?

The Good Law Project (GLP) says that trans rights are being 'ripped up'! I've asked them to explain which rights exactly, but so far there is no response. Meanwhile it's important to remember that GLP founder Jo Maugham insists that no one has a mandate to question  Supreme Court decisions.

Nicola Sturgeon's 'long goodbye' before she leaves Scotland for London made me think of this of the great dolphin scene from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. By the time she finally departs Sturgeon's 27 years in the Scottish Parliament will have made her a multi-millionaire! 

A bearded man says he was 'dehumanised' by Zara after being refused access to the women's changing room. Nicola Sturgeon and other trans zealots support this nonsense of course - they say that men who self-ID should be allowed to invade women's single sex spaces including changing areas, toilets, prisons, sporting competitions, hospitals and women-only clubs/societies etc etc.

London is a great city - I lived and worked in London during the 1980s when I moved there to take up a full-time post with the public services union NUPE, now part of Unison. I still return on a regular basis to visit friends and for other exciting purposes - for example the glorious day on which the UK Supreme Court restored sanity to the law by affirming that biological sex is the foundation stone of all equality laws in the UK. So here's a photo of a sunny Big Ben from Wednesday 16 June and one of Westminster Abbey lit up late at night on the way back to our hotel.  

The news that the former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is planning a new life for herself in London can only be met with a wry smile, but it's also a good excuse to share a great 1979 track from the punk rock band - The Clash