We’ve had plenty to say already this week about the amendment that will be debated at Holyrood this afternoon. So instead we’re going to present you today with the case for each side, as made by two Scottish women on Twitter in the last few hours, and let you decide for yourselves whose argument is the more compelling.
First up, in favour of the amendment, is Scotsman writer Gina Davidson.
This site and other gender-critical voices are regularly accused of being “obsessed” with trans issues, even though the subject has been mentioned in fewer than 0.7% of Wings posts. But this week the SNP’s transgender faction – when it hasn’t been STILL raging about its battering in the NEC elections – has been swamping social media with organised complaints about a tiny prospective legislative change that they themselves insist doesn’t actually matter at all.
Rape Crisis Scotland, who are almost entirely dependent on the Scottish Government for funding, have chosen this evening to wade into the debate over the wording of a new law which is intended to lessen the trauma of people (nearly all women) who’ve been raped. We can only speculate as to whether they were pressured to do so, but the intervention seems likely only to pour petrol on the fire.
In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
Alert readers will recall the deranged open letter released by a group of transactivists last Friday, in a nakedly transparent attempt to influence the SNP’s NEC elections that weekend which backfired on them horribly (and amusingly) when the party’s members instead kicked out three-quarters of the committee’s woke faction and replaced them with feminists, socialists and above all advocates of actually achieving independence.
If you don’t have the time to read Alyn Smith’s astonishing response to the SNP NEC election results in today’s National, we’ve edited it down to 10 seconds for you.
We had, we think it’s only fair to say, extremely low expectations of Nicola Sturgeon’s keynote speech this afternoon to the SNP’s soporific, strangled 2020 non-conference. It seems that members felt the same, because 15 seconds before the speech began only 1,166 of them were logged in to watch it.
The speech she just delivered, though, limboed under those expectations in platform shoes and a stovepipe hat without even grazing the underside of the bar.
Robert Hughes on What Went On: “It’s a good gesture and fairplay to yr friend for doing that . The possible negative if many people did…” Nov 29, 10:45
Sven on What Went On: “Guess that means that we can expect to see Grahams disappear from Supermarket shelves and remain only on sale in…” Nov 29, 10:38
Chas on What Went On: “Off topic. I have a golfing pal who receives an old age pension. Last year he was awarded £500 for…” Nov 29, 10:32
shug on What Went On: “Of course the BBC is avoiding mention of the UK gender equality act in 2010 that kicked off all this…” Nov 29, 10:32
Mac on What Went On: “Where it really struck me was old footage of Scotland fans breaking the goalposts at Wembley… there is hardly a…” Nov 29, 10:21
Mac on What Went On: “The reason we have an obesity and diabetes epidemic is because in the 80’s at the behest of Big Food…” Nov 29, 10:05
Andy on What Went On: “Not even on the Scotland page of the BBC website. You have to know that it’s down in Scotland Politics.…” Nov 29, 09:53
Frank Gillougley on What Went On: “What went on? – about 2018 or so, androgynous adolescents started appearing as a phenomenom in Scottish secondary schools. From…” Nov 29, 09:47
SteepBrae on What Went On: “The service in St Giles is 11am but this is at 12.30. Maybe someone could verify it? The info is…” Nov 29, 09:36
Stevie on What Went On: “As soon as I see, or hear, or read about the thing called SNP, the first word that comes straight…” Nov 29, 09:24
ABruce on What Went On: “Irvine Welsh: ‘The long knives’- ” If you’re a gadge who feels trapped in a bird’s body, have the fucking…” Nov 29, 09:22
TURABDIN on What Went On: “There are biologically two sexes but as many «genders» as you might dream up. Good science is concerned with the…” Nov 29, 09:21
diabloandco on What Went On: “In a nutshell , thank you Robert Louis!” Nov 29, 08:22
diabloandco on What Went On: “I thought it was 11 a.m – am I wrong?” Nov 29, 08:19
diabloandco on What Went On: “Nothing is impossible with medical intervention (or so some would have us believe!) – and then there’s miracles!!” Nov 29, 08:18
Mark Beggan on What Went On: “Swinney will be severely beaten for expressing an opinion to the Media.” Nov 29, 08:15
diabloandco on What Went On: “Written by Pish Washout – what an excellent present!” Nov 29, 08:05
Brian Crawford Hill on What Went On: “I’m not sure to which KC you are referring. The irony perhaps, as the KC for the appellants mentioned, is…” Nov 29, 01:05
Robert Matthews on What Went On: “Will Alf Baird and James be attending? If not, why not?” Nov 29, 00:19
ben madigan on What Went On: “many years ago I worked with a urology surgeon who had created a “penis” for a woman who wanted to…” Nov 28, 23:47
Oneliner on What Went On: “Those from parties not based in and controlled by London/England. Some shuffling of desks and slippers may be required. House…” Nov 28, 23:47
Gregory Beekman on What Went On: “She walked up to me and she asked me to dance I asked her her name and in a dark…” Nov 28, 23:28
Mark Beggan on What Went On: “The less said about that’ the better.” Nov 28, 23:22
Robert Hughes on What Went On: “My partner was telling me about this ( I’m not on TwitX ) and that the Scottish dairy brand -…” Nov 28, 23:17
Ian Brotherhood on What Went On: “A stushie has erupted over whether or not fart suppressant being added to cattle feed is harmful to humans. I…” Nov 28, 22:28
crazycat on What Went On: “I think there are two strands of lunacy here. As you say, men cannot be pregnant. But people who swallow…” Nov 28, 22:08
znovak on What Went On: ““Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” It is…” Nov 28, 21:53
Craig P on What Went On: “The Scottish Government needs to take UEFA to court. Scotland clearly won the last Euros.” Nov 28, 21:50
Anthem on What Went On: “Exactly! There seems to be no law against their fraud, deceit and lies. How do we prosecute these people?” Nov 28, 21:40
Robert Matthews on What Went On: “Colonial Bingo – 0 ?” Nov 28, 21:39
