Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

I am in the great state of Oregon for the Thanksgiving holiday - the l ast time I was here I helped to send a cowardly sexual predator to prison. Steven O. Ryan was sentenced to 33 years in prison after being convicted of rape and sexual abuse sexual at Yamhill County Court - he is currently languishing in Oregon's Snake River Penitentiary. America's criminal justice system takes sexual violence seriously.      

Nicola Sturgeon seems determined to destroy what's left of her tattered reputation with the news that she avoided paying any tax on her recent 'style makeover' by putting the £6,000 cost down as a company expense. Had Sturgeon paid the cost herself the £6,000 would have become part of the annual profits declared by her company (Nicola Sturgeon Limited) and liable for corporation tax in the normal way. 

Humza Yousaf seems to be following the lead of his old boss Nicola Sturgeon as he takes on two new jobs on top of his role as an SNP MSP - he already receives a full-time salary of £75,000 plus pension contributions from his employer. I assume Humza was paid a handsome 'golden goodbye' when he stood down as First Minister in May 2024 and will be due another lump sum payment when he finally leaves the Scottish Parliament next year. I'm afraid these 'golden goodbye' payments are an ill-disguised racket and a terrible waste of public money.  

Scotland's absentee MSPs are turning the Scottish Parliament into a laughing stock. Some well known faces including Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf are 'taking the piss' by turning up when they feel like it instead of treating their MSP role as a full-time job.   Meanwhile John Swinney looks the other way instead of dealing with the conduct of his two predecessors - read the full story visa the link below to the Sunday Times. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/holyrood-remote-voting-crisis-7fq9977xp  

Zack Polanski is a crank who says that a woman can have a penis - and that men should be able to compete in women's sport. Not surprisingly his fantasy-land view of economics fails to withstand serious scrutiny.   Every Green member must listen to this & ask do you really want to go into a General election with this fantasy-land economics that will result in Truss crash squared? Not even party policy. Polanski was owned. @RestIsPolitics pic.twitter.com/9PxQcnaYfn — Shahrar Ali (@ShahrarAli) November 29, 2025  

The criminal justice system describes this man as a woman in court and sent him to prison for just three and a half years for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. How is this reality denying behaviour and sentencing taking violence against women and girls seriously?

The National Library of Scotland has become a laughing stock over its reluctance to stand up to the out of control behaviour of trans activists. An 'open letter' making bogus claims of harassment and bigotry is the latest embarrassing development by trans zealots who would punish people for rejecting self-ID and the absurd notion that men can magically declare they have become women.  

What a dreadful load of old waffle from John Swinney who refuses to answer a straight question about the case for a 'grooming gang' inquiry in Scotland.  More foot-dragging nonsense.  Should Scotland have an inquiry into grooming gangs? Survivors told me they first want an independent rapid, 3 month audit to establish the scale of the issue, similar to Baroness Casey’s in England. This is what the FM told me today. Note: a Scottish Gov spokesperson swiftly… pic.twitter.com/syED9KPWHO — Peter A Smith (@PeterAdamSmith) November 27, 2025  

Brian Wilson is spot on with his criticism of SNP ministers - their ridiculous antics over the introduction of an NHS app harms patients and the quality of health care in Scotland.   

I reported this street graffiti problem to Glasgow City Council and received a response to say that the flags are in the process of being taken down. I also asked about what steps the Council is taking to stop this kind of anti-social behaviour from getting worse, but Im still waiting on an answer to this point. Edinburgh has a similar problem, but seems to on toip of things if recent media reports are accurate. More street graffiti in Glasgow has popped up over the weekend with the arrival of pro-Palestinian and/or pro-Hamas on public lampposts in parts of the west end. As everyone knows, graffiti always breeds more graffiti - just like violence begets more violence. So I must get in touch with Glasgow City Council and ask what the council is doing to take these eyesore flags down.  

The NLS provided me with some notes/emails to explain the background to its decision to include and subsequently withdraw 'The Women Who Wouldn't Wheehst' from the library's centenary exhibition. I have highlighted some excerpts in bold, but what's truly astonishing is the paucity of the 'case' put forward by the mysterious LGBTQI staff network who objected to the book's inclusion and whose intervention had the book thrown out. Read the information and decide for yourself, but as far as I can see this amounted to a few unsubstantiated assertions about 'exclusion' and a threat to 'notify LGBT+ partners' - whatever that's supposed to mean. How senior NLS managers took this nonsense seriously beats me, but you do have to laugh at an anonymous gang of trans activists calling the contributors to TWWWW 'exclusionary' and that their well-informed opinions would cause 'severe harm to staff'. Here's a reminder of these ...

I submitted a second FoI request to the National Library of Scotland asking for any written submissions from the NLS LGBTQI+ staff in support of their call for 'The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht' to be excluded from the library's centenary exhibition. Turns out there is nothing - nada, zilch, diddly squat - beyond the   juvenile unsupported assertion about the book being 'exclusionary' made by anonymous trans activists.  So it seems this tiny, tinpot group who are accountable to no one, were able to persuade highly paid, senior NLS managers to ban a book with absolutely zero evidence to back their case.   Astonishing behaviour - and now I hear these same clowns are trying to get TWWWW banned again over some baloney claim about the book creating an 'unsafe environment for library staff!     Dear Mark,  Reference number: FOI 2025-2026 3001  Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) received by the Library o...

Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party would have you believe that this giant man (Jammie Booker) is female and should be allowed to compete in women's sport and freely enter women's single sex spaces. Polanski is a crank.

How could the organisers not have known that this giant man was masquerading as a woman? All the women competitors knew of course and if anyone was in any doubt a quick cheek swab test would have exposed the cheater for all the world to see!

The Scottish government is shamelessly promoting a baloney 'good news' story about Scotland's NHS waiting lists - when in reality the figures are being manipulated by SNP ministers. The Daily Record reports that one third of kids are routinely kicked off waiting lists for mental health treatment, for example. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8dym2qzg9z

SNP ministers plumb new levels of stupidity and mendacity with the news Angela Constance (John Swinney's justice secretary) says she 'accurately quoted' Professor Alexis Jay despite civil servants issuing a correction to the Scottish Parliament.

The Daily Record reports that John Swinney has agreed to meet a grooming gang victim who has called for SNP ministers to set up a Scottish inquiry into the issue. But will Swinney keep his promise (he says he has a lot on his plate these days) and why are SNP ministers dragging their feet on something so straightforward? https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/lack-national-review-grooming-gangs-36301031    

Susan Dalgety in the Edinburgh Evening News shares her thoughts on For Women Scotland and the shameful behaviour of John Swinney who has been dodging his commitment to meet with the group since their historic victory at the UK Supreme Court.  "In March this year, just before the Supreme Court ruling, Swinney pledged to organise an official meeting with FWS. Nearly nine months on, and he has still not kept his promise, saying he is “too busy” to sit down with Susan, Marion and Trina." "He wasn’t too busy last Thursday night when he spent a few hours at the awards dinner. And he had plenty of time to go to Hampden last week to cheer on Scotland." I was lucky enough to be with @ForWomenScot last Thursday when this remarkable trio of women won Public Campaign of the Year - women and girls across UK owe them everything. Me ✍️ in @edinburghpaper 💚🤍💜 https://t.co/oOaWGiGzGr — Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) November 24, 2025  

The Herald gives voice to Margaret Waterton who lost both her mother and her husband during the Covid pandemic - and feels let down by both Holyrood and Westminster. "The Scottish Government under Nicola Sturgeon had 'no real strategy other than monitoring the situation' in February 2020, while Professor Mark Woolhouse's attempts to raise the alarm to Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood were not engaged with properly and 'Covid-19 received insufficient or no attention in Scottish Cabinet meetings'." Herald link below: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25643385.sturgeon-johnson-criticised-response-covid-inquiry/