Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The latest twist in America's presidential election involves the disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner who shot to fame after sending a 15-year-old girl images of himself in his underpants. Now I wrote about this at the time, but the story has moved on since because Huma Abedin (a senior aide to Hillary Clinton) is now legally separated from Mr Weiner and his wiener, presumably pending a divorce if she has any sense. The electoral twist has come about because the FBI has decided to review emails found on a computer belonging to Mr Weiner which relate to Hillary Clinton in some way, albeit without saying whether said emails have any significance or not. Donald Trump has seized on the issue, understandably, in a desperate attempt to bolster his flagging presidential campaign, so the heat is on the FBI to put the whole issue to bed one way or the other.   What a Knob (9 June 2011) The biggest story in America at the mom...

Civil war seems  to have broken out in Lanarkshire Labour Party after a number of long-serving councillors say they intend to stand as 'independents' in the May 2017 council elections, after being deselected by the Labour  hierarchy in Scotland. Now I don't know any of these individuals, but I can't recall any of them speaking up on behalf of their local constituents during the long fight for equal pay in North Lanarkshire.  So I, for one, won't be shedding any tears no matter what way this latest bout of Labour in-fighting pans out.   http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14831053.Axed_Labour_veterans_stand_against_party/ Axed Labour veterans stand against party Axed Labour veterans stand against party By  Gerry Braiden  - The Herald A LEADING Labour councillor has reversed his decision to retire and announced he will instead stand against the party he represented for over a quarter of a century. Tom Curley, a former Provost of North Lanarkshire ...

A friend sent me the following poem about Underwear by the American writer, painter and liberal activist Lawrence  Ferlinghetti. Which just goes to show that some people have the talent to make even the most mundane subject matter come alive.    Underwear Related Poem Content Details BY  LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI I didn’t get much sleep last night  thinking about underwear  Have you ever stopped to consider    underwear in the abstract    When you really dig into it  some shocking problems are raised    Underwear is something    we all have to deal with    Everyone wears  some kind of underwear  The Pope wears underwear I hope  The Governor of Louisiana    wears underwear  I saw him on TV  He must have had tight underwear  He squirmed a lot  Underwear can really ge...

I never had the Unite boss Len McCluskey down as a comedian, but I may need to reassess things after reading an article in last week's Sunday Time. According to  the  newspaper's deputy political editor, McCluskey 'joked about hitting Eagle' after the Labour MP announced her decision to challenge the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.   http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/union-chief-joked-about-hitting-eagle-686jp2jzp Union chief ‘joked about hitting Eagle’ By James Lyons - The Sunday Times Eagle: victim of ‘toxic’ abuseANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, joked to Angela Eagle about hitting her after she challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the party leadership, it was claimed this weekend. Eagle’s twin sister Maria later confronted McCluskey, a staunch ally of the hard-left Labour leader, after hearing what had happened, according to one witness. McCluskey told Maria, who is also a Labour MP: “It’s a joke, it’s a joke,”, a...

I came across this interesting 'ruling' from an Islamic Q and A website on the question of women riding bicycles in Western countries - see the following ink for further details:  https://islamqa.info/en/152058 Now I don't really get all this camel business or why women should 'cover up' even when they are riding a bike or motorcycle while men are nowhere to be seen. No doubt protesters around the globe are in the process or organising 'Wear What You Want' an 'Ride What You Want' demonstrations as I write, as they did recently in  response  to the 'burkini row in France.        Islam Question and Answer General Supervisor: Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid Wed 19 DhH 1437 - 21 September 2016   -  Principles of Fiqh  »  Jurisprudence and Islamic Rulings  »  Customs and traditions  »  Clothing, adornment and images  » ...