You’ve Got Males
On Sunday we told you about Mridul Wadhwa, a man who deceived his way into a job at a rape crisis centre and now wants to be an SNP MSP, in a seat where the party supposedly has an all-woman shortlist. The story was picked up today by the Times.
But Wadhwa isn’t the only man trying to muscle in on a woman-only shortlist.
The extremist transactivist “Out For Indy” group yesterday highlighted the candidacy of Sarah Fanet in Argyll and Bute, a constituency already plagued by the abominable horror of Rhiannon Spear trying to get selected.
(We’re still trying to work out why a privileged white cisgender straight person standing against a transwoman seemingly isn’t “transphobic”, since everything else is.)
Argyll and Bute (like Stirling, the seat Wadhwa is trying for) is also supposed to be an all-women shortlist, but Fanet too is a man, and lived as one until 2016.
These are two very different cases. Fanet has undergone sex reassignment surgery and hasn’t obtained access to vulnerable rape victims by deception. But all-women shortlists are meant to be for people who have the issues and life experiences of being women, and women aren’t simply men with their penises chopped off. They deal with things no man ever has to, no matter how much men delude themselves otherwise.
Wings doesn’t even agree with all-women shortlists. In a democracy where women are the majority and have the vote, there’s no justification for arbitrarily excluding half of the population from seeking election. Women are perfectly capable of joining political parties and standing as, or voting for, female candidates fair and square, just like men are. You don’t fix perceived discrimination by imposing actual discrimination against tens of thousands of people.
(There are around 25,000 adult men in the constituency, who have effectively been banished from democracy, like women who can play in golf clubs as resented guests but can never be members themselves. But if Fanet gets the nomination, women will have been excluded too. Everyone’s a loser.)
But cases like this serve to highlight the ridiculous, deranged position the current SNP has somehow managed to paint itself into. The voters of Argyll and Bute have, of their own free and democratic will, chosen male MSPs at every election since the Scottish Parliament was created, but now the only way a pro-independence male can have any hope of representing it is to put a dress on and have his genitalia surgically removed.
The party’s current stance combines sexual discrimination with the denial of scientific reality, like some sort of ridiculous black-mirror image of the way that Screaming Lord Sutch used to cavort around London with naked models in the service of the Monster Raving Loony Party, singing gleefully about Jack The Ripper.
The only difference is that the MRLP didn’t try to pretend they were sane, and nobody ever put them into power. Because not even Screaming Lord Sutch was so screaming mad that he thought men could turn into women.
Sarah Fanet , (is that surname French or just a spelling mistake?) just sums it up perfectly about not serving the people and pushing their own agenda. I don’t give a flying fuck about what they want, I want independance , an income and a roof over my head.
Anyway Stu, I thought it was an article about Sparks.
How did my party get captured by these weirdos? Where is independence in all of this?
The SNP have morphed into something I cannot recognise.
I will not, or cannot have anything to do with them.
Please, please, please someone give me something I can vote for.
WM win this one game set and match.
Why is a minority group , and I mean minority having such influence.
They represent about 0.5% of the population , but seem to account for 20% of the SNP representatives.
It’s a pity Scotland can’t exert such power with 10% of the UK population. The SNP are not representing the majority of the people who vote for them.
This is a dangerous road.
We shouldn’t be afraid to call out these people and stand up for what is right. What a ridiculous situation the SNP have created for themselves. If a feminist who stands up for women’s right to privacy tries to get selected, the NEC gets involved in a coup. Yet men can run in all women shortlists.
Disgusting. If someone told me about this ten years ago I would have thought they were taking the piss but nobody is laughing now. Eventually the public are going to have a backlash against this stuff and it won’t be pretty. And it won’t just be the independence movement that people are turned off of, but this among other things is going to drive voters to the right.
In the meantime we need to call out injustices such as this and not be afraid of the abuse we receive for it. Keep fighting the good fight smStu.
Transgenders are not going to be popular candidates for the vast majority of voters thats just an undeniable fact of life. Transgenders are a very small minority it would be madness for any to be made candidates in any election at any level.
The worst thing about these so called females.
Is their breathtaking arrogance , that we are not allowed to question their biological sex. They can be very aggressive , judging by the twitter wars with them.
As John Candy said:” Hostile & Aggressive , that’s borderline psychopath”.
I’m afraid there is only one person in the SNP that you can blame for all of this.
I’m sure you’ll work it out!
As a woman (not a ‘Woo’-Man!) – I abhor all women shortlist BS!
It’s demeaning! It’s implication is that women are not capable of fighting and winning on merit. It’s a patronising head pat and shove to the front that the ‘less good’ kids get during the school christmas play!
Labours poisonous leech has jumped ship and is sucking the life out of SNP.
The folk at the forefront of the push for obliterating actual women should all have their own specialist MH unit! The mass delusion is unbelievable. And those who are now SO terrified of being labelled ‘ist’ or ‘phobic’ are piling on and ‘being supportive’ just so the poison won’t get turned on them!.
It’s absolute fkin NONSENSE!
The fact a party of government has allowed it to progress this far is unreal. Where are all the stalwarts of Indy?
Where are the foot soldiers of SNP? It’s time they stood up and took their party back.
Rot set in when they let ANY twat join and stand cos they needed the revenue and the publicity (maybe party went from ‘fringe’ to kaboom too fast to screen properly. But that’s NO excuse for the failure to act since.
The folk hurting the very small percentage of genuine transgender folk the most are the vicious, attention seeking, misogynistic, hateful, overindulged wee toddleresque clique that are connected to their ex MEP.
I suspect substances are heavily involved as well…but that’s just my take on it.
Time folk in the party all stood together and told them to stfu or form their own party and get votes solely on their platforms.
SNP has always been and should always be the INDEPENDENCE party.
So much justified anger at what’s happening to the SNP. Is there a strategy by which we can get rid of sturgeon and the woke brigade?
Using terms like ‘people who menstruate’, ‘people with uteruses (uteri?)’, people with cervix (cervices?)’ are all exclusionary terms, excluding many natal women from the term ‘women’. After menopause when menstruation ceases, women do not cease to be women, hysterectomy, which can have severe detrimental psychological effects on natal women and their sense of identity, does not mean they are any less women, and it may be damaging to women thus affected. Similarly, removal of the cervix due to cervical cancer does not make a natal woman any less a woman.
I find it interesting that all the common attempts to distinguish real women from men pretending to be women are focussed solely on physical features and structures of young women, and are dismissive and exclusionary of older women. This seems to be yet another example of discrimination against women by a patriarchal society. As for the women with penises who insist that they menstruate, it reveals even more bias by them against women for the same reason – they only recognise young women as women and they accept the patriarchal stereotype of the term ‘women’.
MadCat – I am with you on that. What if on that shortlist there were 3 men more qualified for the job. Are we allowing talent to be pushed aside in the name of so called equality.
I absolutely want women to be in politics and my current hero is Jo Cherry. However surely the best candidate should always get the job.
Thank you Stu – this is the reason I resigned my SNP membership after the Aberdeen Conference as I was horrified at their behaviour. Booing Chris as he spoke to a Plan B motion, fisting pumping when Rhiannon beat Colette in the election and fawning all over Alyn Smith.
I will vote SNP 1 but my second vote goes to ISP.
“Sarah Fanet , (is that surname French or just a spelling mistake?)”
It’s French. He’s from France.
MadCatWumman says:
“As a woman (not a ‘Woo’-Man!)”
Indeed so. The word ‘woman’ is originally womb-man.
Cutting off the male member and having plastic surgery around a remodelled scrotum, does not a woman make. It does not involve receiving the defining organ of womanhood – the womb. The nurturer of life.
It is an abomination and a parody of womanhood.
The SNP has gone mad.
“Woo-man” is brilliant 😀
Ahh but, they are so much more WOMANY than wot we are, or could ever hope to be.
Rainmaker come away from that man, you know he’s gonna take away your promised land.
Good lady he just wants what you got, you know he’ll never stop until he’s taken the lot.
Going to stamp out your fire, he can change your desire, don’t you know he can make you forget you’re a man.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is a trick to make sure they don’t win the election and don’t have to come good on going for another Independence referendum.
“I’m beginning to wonder if this is a trick to make sure they don’t win the election and don’t have to come good on going for another Independence referendum.”
I doubt they’re that organised tbh. But the SNP’s dream outcome of this election would be to be a minority government again. Not only would they have an excuse for achieving nothing, but they could also blame everyone who’s criticised them.
“Going to stamp out your fire, he can change your desire, don’t you know he can make you forget you’re a man.”
You’re twisting our melons, man.
I don’t want to appear flippant, but if I put on a dress, does that mean I am a suitable candidate to replace Margaret Ferrier?
Sex / gender etc should not even be considered under the criteria for selection, as it has no bearing on your suitability for the role of a politician.
How is “Fanet” pronounced in french?
Daisy Walker says:
22 October, 2020 at 12:00 pm
“Ahh but, they are so much more WOMANY than wot we are, or could ever hope to be.”
Only if being WOMANY involves wearing tons of make up and flashing your boobs for all to see. I’m sure they would suggest that I’m really a man because I was never into any of this. Gimme jeans and a baggy jumper any day while I hide my post menopausal body from the world. As Maurice Chevalier once sang “I’m glad I’m not young anymore”. See – I like musicals – Maybe I’m really a gay man in a woman’s body? Who the hell knows ay more?
WoS has really let itself down here. Stu always preached the ‘headline is the lie’ but despite this, has managed to produce one of the funniest and most accurate headlines ever.
But it was a rotten movie.
I’m just checking my maps of the more remote parts of the ward before going out to deliver a supporters’ letter for the 2021 election campaign. I don’t know how much longer I can go on doing this.
Albert, that was the joke, im sure it must be Fanny, as it will be with a scientific T perhaps we should all challenge the (T)- trans agenda.
Personally, I give up. I’m losing track of the terminology about who is what if they have something or nothing and cover it with whatever garment.
Life was much simpler a few years ago.
Is this the imperative rationale for the SNP these days?
Been thinking this a while.
“ But the SNP’s dream outcome of this election would be to be a minority government again. Not only would they have an excuse for achieving nothing, but they could also blame everyone who’s criticised them.”
In essence a unionist party Masquerading in Indy clothing.
@Albert Herring,
I’ll give you one guess?
Stuart.
‘.. a constituency already plagued by the abominable horror of Rhiannon Spear trying to get selected.’
the Spear link directs back to this page (thankfully?)
One day they’ll run out of an Alphabet to describe the people the SNP are trying to push into seats….. Wish they would Stay at Home. Are they deliberately trying to lose seats or do they seriously think the electorate are up for the Alphabet Soup ?
Fanet and gaslighting come to mind for some reason.
Lothianlad says:
22 October, 2020 at 11:49 am
‘So much justified anger at what’s happening to the SNP. Is there a strategy by which we can get rid of sturgeon and the woke brigade?’
Play electoral chicken. Refuse them any votes for Holyrood.
The alternative can go 1 of 2 ways:
1 – they will lose anyway
2 – the will win and continue to basically do for independence what a Unionist party would do anyway. But if a Unionist party does actually continue the GRA/hate speech bullshit its on them and not on the indy supporting Scots.
It just takes some resolve. No leader required. Simply refuse as an individual to support them in any way while they continue under this leadership with these priorities.
Its all coming tumbling down anyway
Right now id actually go as far as voting for a Unionist party on both votes if they didn’t all make me want to puke and G.Galloway hadn’t been rolled up here to make some sort of message of unity. Im going to stop, its disgusting.
Should it be not be Sarah Non Fanet?
@Rev (12.08) –
If I had read that here say, a year ago, I would’ve joined the angry Conga line of WOS critics.
But, given what’s happened (should really say ‘become public knowledge’) since the start of this year? I could well believe it.
Over 30 years ago, I was at a “night out”, for men who crossed dressed (don’t ask)
Heavily Pregnant with my first child, I was dressed in dungarees.
One of the cross dressers said “you must feel so un-feminine, sitting amongst all us women in our finery” this received nods of agreement and sympathy (for me) from his fellow transvestites. They truly believed that to be womanly and feminine, was as simple as putting on a dress and a pair of high heels…
NS, replying to Ciaran Jenkins of CH4, just said that she feels she should be held to a higher standard of accountability than front line health workers?
She’s flapping here. Badly.
‘I…me…I…my…positions like mine…I…my judgement…my priority…’ etc ad fuckin nauseum.
Roll on the day when she says ‘I quit.’
Morgatron @ 12.33pm Apparently, Mr Fanet now has a fanny and is Mme Fanet.
I have nothing against someone like her, who has had the surgery, but, her candidature still raises the Rev’s question about all-female short lists.
[…] Wings Over Scotland You’ve Got Males On Sunday we told you about Mridul Wadhwa, a man who deceived his way into a job at a […]
Will these ‘fanets’ never go away.
However I have some sympathy with blokes who have had the operations. I assume it must smart a bit. Its just that you can’t tell who are intact and who aren’t.
Asking “Are you hiding a c*ck in your frock ?” would just be rude.
Still I would much rather have miss fanet than the horror spears.
OK I give up ,
I surrender
If the current House Arrest conditions are not bad enough we have a once trusted honest political party changed beyond belief , People who don’t follow or get involved with any kind of politics have no idea of what is going on .
The management of the SNP know exactly what is happening because they are right at the heart of it and are making sure the electorate are not aware and never will be.
This is wilful Deception on a grand scale and considering this is aimed at more or less removing woman’s natural rights by Stealth it is never going to be forgotten or forgiven.
On a lighter note the postman has just delivered my wife’s invitation to join in the SNPs Christmas Draw , Now that’s really taking the Piss ,I don’t get any communication now because I binned my membership and told Mr Murrell why , I wonder if I will get a Christmas Card this year, oh dear heart broken now
If ever we needed a total clear out of this party it’s now I don’t recognise this party now I really don’t and I can’t fathom how stupid the path they are embarking on is ,it just doesn’t make sense
Jason Leitch today said that the new restrictions would bring the infection rate down. Well we were told that about the measures that have been constantly introduced and changed over the past few months, none of them seem to have made any difference and we were also told when nicola shut down the hospitality sector, not that they will admit this of course. But these new measures are definitely going to do it!… This nonsense never ends.
‘But the SNP’s dream outcome of this election would be to be a minority government again.’
This is how I’ve seen it for a while, the biggest fish in the westminster catch net, internal market bill to reduce workload.
All that prestige and payroll in exchange for a few powers here and there.
What is unattractive about that to a certain type of person?
I have just read blair paterson’s nonsense.
A great many furriners contribute and live in Scotland . They are welcome. As is Ms. Fanet. They should get to vote and stand as Scotland is their home.
I just don’t want transgenderwoowoo science-deniers in any positions of authority. I don’t really care where they are from.
I wonder if the SNP would let a transman stand on an all-woman shortlist?
Blair Paterson says:
22 October, 2020 at 12:55 pm
‘Nearly all these freaks who want to stand are foreign they do not belong here only true Scots born and bred here of Scottish parents should be allowed to stand to rule Scotland not interlopers go back to where their country and sort out its problems I for one do not want you here if I had my way I would deport the whole lot of you you contribute nothing but troble’
Im not sure where the line should be on this. I don’t want to devalue being Scottish but I don’t want to go full ‘Nazi’ either.
One thing I do know is that this would never happen the other way around. If we value Scotland as a nation then there has to be some sort of basic standard for influencing politics above simply being here.
You don’t need to put on a dress, you can just self-id as one without lifting or removing a finger (Or anything else).
IN their present state I cannot bring myself to support the SNP anymore. Once an activist helping to campaign, I never joined the party and I am thankful for that. They have lost sight of their mission.
I will not be voting SNP on my main vote as I have lost all faith in them under the current regime, but I will use the list vote for the ISP. I believe that my family will be doing the same, but I do not influence their vote.
Robert Graham says:
22 October, 2020 at 1:00 pm
“On a lighter note the postman has just delivered my wife’s invitation to join in the SNPs Christmas Draw ,”
Get your wife to apply to her local branch for a delegate pass in order to vote in the NEC elections at the conference and hopefully vote these idiots out.
Women only shortlists should not exist. They are positive discrimination hiding behind a veneer of good intentions, treating the symptoms not the disease. And of all the parties, the SNP have a very strong history of women working in the party: Annie Swan, May Thomson, Winnie Ewing, Margaret Ewing, Roseanna Cunningham, Margo MacDonald, Dorothy-Grace Elder, Fiona Hyslop, Tricia Marwick, Linda Fabiani, Kay Ullrich, Joan McAlpine, Maureen Watt and more.
The Rev is right to comment that Fanet (such an unfortunate name) and Wadhwa are very different cases. SF has made the life changing decision as an adult to put themself through this process and come out the other end. They moved to Lochaber to get away from the prejudice they were experiencing and has now lived there for several years. Other than the link to Out for Indy, what have they done to not be respected as a local candidate standing for their constituency? Is she any different from Sandra Macrae?
“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil”. Machiavelli
‘And it’s notably and unwittingly that heterosexual Trans-rights advocates of Trans ‘Self-ID’ legislation – many of whom genuinely believe they’re doing the right thing – are in fact themselves dividing their female demographic support…’
‘The #MeToo Truth of Nr5 #RampantSexism’ by #GaslightingGilligan; link to wp.me
And #ToryAnalytica militarisation is still *inevitable*. (You’re welcome).
@Rev
“the SNP’s dream outcome of this election would be to be a minority government again. Not only would they have an excuse for achieving nothing, but they could also blame everyone who’s criticised them.”
This is why we’re on a tightrope. If I don’t vote SNP, they’ll still win. If I campaign or promote to others not to vote SNP, they’ll win but by less and be in minority government, and hence no indyref and probably just more of the same (Greens propping them up). If they’re reliant on a proper indy party, does that help?
Any good news on the horizon?
I’m not really in favour of all-woman shortlists, or of all-anything shortlists, although I can see that, sometimes positive discrimination might be necessary to break through carapace prejudice. I think we need to choose our political representatives on talent alone, but to take action, perhaps, if the representation of one sex falls drastically to the point where it is barely represented at all. My own SNP MSP is a family man and an excellent constituency MSP who understands people’s problems, whether they are male or female people.
I really just don’t know how we have allowed things to get to this state of affairs, and, while I do empathize with genuine trans people and would never wish for them to be discriminated against, there seems to be a lot of hangers-on who seem to get excited about stepping all over women. We may be witnessing the actual projection into our mainstream, real-time society of misogynistic pornography, where parts of a generation of young men, in particular, are acting out their fantasies. What sexual fantasies people have in their heads is their business just so long as it hurts no one else. If they expect the rest of us to comply and collude in their fantasies, and against our will, that is a step too far, and, for too many men, women are either incidental or mere ciphers in that process, to be used and abused.
I watched a video of a young American trans woman, utterly stunningly beautiful, intelligent and likeable, explaining that she was a trans woman, not a woman, in a debate. Even though completely transitioned, and looking far more beautiful than most women could ever hope to look, yet there were little give-aways that this was not a woman, but a caricature of a woman. The moves and gestures had been studied minutely, and she would certainly have passed in the street, but, still, it was a performance of how a man would see a woman and I can understand how men could be fooled by that kind of performance into believing a transitioned woman is a natal woman, because men have no real knowledge of women, just as women have no real knowledge of men. I think she was a genuine trans woman, on the side of the sisterhood, and appalled at what has been taking place.
I think that this young trans woman was what most of us have in mind when we think of a trans woman, someone who knows they are not the sex they have transitioned into, but who are no threat to women. However, the door has been opened to others with, it would appear, a very different agenda and motives, and it is these people that the SNP has enabled to invade women’s spaces, and whom they would enable further to gain entry to all women’s spaces and rights without even an attempt to transition.
Wadhwa proves that there are men out there who will try to cheat and lie their way into women’s most intimate sex-based spaces. His actions are such a cruel and despicable attempt to defraud women of support by their own sex in what must be the most horrendous of circumstances, so if any of the ‘wokists’ in the SNP dare to try and suggest that this would never happen with GRA reform, tell them it already has – without the reform. We can only guess at Wadhwa’s motives, but we already have enough recorded information on supposed trans women who have crossed the line and hurt women and girls.
It is other hurt, too: taking away women’s prizes and places, such as the farcical situation of the Credit Suisse chap/chappess, who nabbed a women’s business prize on the day he was a ‘woman’ although there was also a men’s prize. Aye, right! Enough. Get this sorted, SNP. NOW. Or you will lose our votes. The EHRC does not require this all-out change to the 2004 GRA, so why the hell are you doing this? Make the 2010 Equality Act exemptions for women’s sex-based spaces and rights watertight. No more pre-empting the reform. Above all, TALK to WOMEN.
If nobody sets up a “FanetbyGaslight” Twitter account I’ll be disappointed. 🙂
I’ve no truck with feminism, but Sturgeon and her wokiest agenda, which as you sat excludes almost half of the population from standing in constituencies, which might actually want them is beyond the pale.
Sturgeon is reshaping the SNP into her own personal image of what she thinks it should look like, and its an ugly strange unwelcoming image that most folk would feel uncomfortable with being part of.
The membership really needs to get together and act, they’re losing their party right before their very eyes, and Scottish independence along with it. The latter though affect us all, and our children.
I there no one within the party prepared to challenge not only this but Sturgeon? Or is it a party full of cowards, more concerned about the gravy train, than the future of Scotland?
“Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
22 October, 2020 at 11:54 am
“Sarah Fanet , (is that surname French or just a spelling mistake?)”
It’s French. He’s from France.”
So, his name really is pronounced as Sarah Fanny.
They’re seriously taking the piss.
Here’s the thing about so called extreme liberalism.
It inadvertently damages sections of society, in order to allow minorities to do as they please. What I mean by that is abdicating your responsibility! If society lets everything go, then unintended consequences affect others.
So with Trans people you say as a liberal:” Let them do as they please”. If you don’t agree with me then you are a bigot. Then when a man dressed as a woman uses the same changing room as your daughter. We have inadvertently allowed a potential voyeur or molester free access to a woman’s private space.
Bad things happen , when good people do nothing.
I hate extreme liberalism to the core. The people who live by it , do not give a damn about the consequences of their free for all.
I have the same argument about independence with this lot. The democratic deficit highlighted by Brexit and forced on Scotland. Means extreme liberals can just say ” Uch well that’s what the majority voted for even if I personally disagree with Brexit” So they don’t stand up for what Scotland voted for their own actual beliefs.
All in the name of trying to appear all things to all men.
Never trust a man or woman with no opinions!
When Stu began the process of attacking the SNP, I initially thought that he might have been compromised. I couldn’t believe he was attacking the only party capable of bringing us independence. I could not reconcile the information presented with the party I have known and loved for much of my adult life.
At first I tried the cognitive dissonance approach. An absolute refusal to integrate the information presented. Then I wanted to shoot the messenger (not literally obviously) as I became increasingly doubtful about his intent and motives.
Then I thought back to everything he has contributed and sacrificed personally in our battle for independence and came to the realisation that, there has to be more than a grain of truth to what he was saying. I mean why would he lie when he always been straight about everything else and done so much to advance the cause for independence.
As much as it pains me, he has (as he so often has) been proved right and everything that he has been so vocal about regarding the wokerati and the corruption in the higher echelons of the SNP is starting to reveal itself. So apologies to you Stu for ever having doubted you.
As a long standing member of the SNP and regular financial contributor I don’t know what to do at this stage. Do I stay in the party and continue to fund it hoping to effect some level of change from within or do I cut my losses and leave? I can no longer ethically support a party engaged in corruption at the highest level but if I leave, I am pretty much politically homeless.
It’s really encouraging to know that independence is within reach but equally, it’s also massively disheartening to think that I may well never see it in my lifetime and the people I trusted so absolutely to deliver it, have essentially betrayed me and everyone else that has supported them in the battle for Scotland’s independence. I am finding that very difficult to deal with.
What can we do to counter this and advance Scotland’s cause (politically speaking) on the road to independence? Does anyone have any suggestions for a way forward?
Asking on behalf of a nation.
Truly disgusting that it’s happening Stu.
Lots of great comments btl, especially Madcatwumman’s.
got my snp Christmas draw bumf today. Went straight in the bin, no point in sending it back with some helpful words they won’t listen anyway . Strange really as Im not and never have been a member Ive only ever been stupid enough to vote for them, sadly they are now a danger to women and that I will never vote for.
Positive discrimination is still discrimination. Nicola Sturgeon is the Valerie Solanas of world politics. She truly has no use for our sex whatsoever. And what women feel when looking at a misogynistic like Trump is what I feel like looking at her increasingly unhappy misandristic face. She’s a real creep.
Mist001 says:
22 October, 2020 at 1:47 pm
“Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
22 October, 2020 at 11:54 am
“Sarah Fanet , (is that surname French or just a spelling mistake?)”
It’s French. He’s from France.”
So, his name really is pronounced as Sarah Fanny.
They’re seriously taking the piss.”
Could have been worse. Could have taken the first name “Iva”
The SNP are discriminating against men. Well done for recognising this Stu.
As someone who believes in equality between the sexes, it is my view that selection of candidates should be based on “best person for the job”, never because of them being male, female or intersex.
The SNP under Sturgeon have become a party of colonial administrator discriminators.
In case yer wondering:
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
Well worth a read
And another glimpse of Scotland’s future
Women are being silenced for speaking out against gender-identity ideology.
link to archive.is
Top line trolling by somebody, Sturgeon or the Herald, or both.
link to archive.is
@William Wallace,
You mirror exactly my own feelings in this matter. What the devil do we do? In practical terms I have thought of rejoining the SNP to help change it from inside, but obviously the NEC are now bending the rules make it more difficult for members to have their previous influence.
Indy (laughs), is itself at risk if I do not help a majority at Holyrood who have that aim.
I think supporting Woke candidates will also further remove us from Indy because is not their ultimate goal. They want elected to promote further change to BE A etc.
It’s an enigma wrapped in a puzzle.
Colin Alexander
They are discriminating against men… and women, which is no easy feat and would be almost laughable if it wasn’t proposed by Scotland’s main independence party and party of government
Patently untrue Stu…..They don’t even need to chop their willies off….. 🙂 🙂 🙂
@Sharny Dubs
http://www.isp.scot
We are only standing on the List as far as the constituency goes you are on your own as are the rest of us. I voted TUSC last time since neither SSP or Greens stood in the constituency. They at least were in favour of us being allowed to hold another indyref if we wanted to.
When the candidates are finalised look carefully at their policies. I may have to spoil my ballot in the constituency. Anything writing on a ballot paper is read to the candidates. So state why you are not voting for any of the above if you have to spoil yours.
Giving the matter a little thought, I don’t think this is a problem exclusively created by the SNP, it’s just that they’re a bit more amateurish and naive than the others when it comes to policy.
I’ve stated here before numerous times that I believe there’s a gay mafia/cabal running politics in Scotland. It was just a short time ago that the leaders of all Scotlands political parties were gay.
Kezia Dugdale
Ruth Davidson
Patrick Harvie
Even Fluffy Mundell was gay and these are the ones we know about. What else is happening behind the scenes?
Of course, the obvious omission on that list of names is the happily heterosexual married couple, Mr and Mrs Murrell which makes them a kind of oddity.
My thoughts are who is promoting this gay agenda? Why are so many gay people promoted to power within the political arena in Scotland?
There’s something bigger at work here and it’s not just the SNPs doing.
Maybe someone sees an independent Scotland as being the North Atlantic equivalent of Fire Island or Key West!!
Or Scotland may well actually be the subject of an experiment. It wouldn’t be the first time that Scotland has been used as a guinea pig for the agenda of others.
The irony here of having to fight the SNP on this
By arguing they have overstepped their authority
And that this is a UK matter
How very 2020
Permission granted for judicial review of act’s definition of ‘woman’
link to archive.is
No, the SNP are not discriminating against men.
They are saying “we must have all-women shortlists”
Then they are saying, “anyone can be a woman”.
Then all these lunatic men are announcing that they are women and standing.
They are not discriminating against men, they are discriminating against both women and men in favour of a handful of nutcases linked to the dodgy, power-obsessed couple at the top of the party.
I’ve been doing research on this and the SNP are actually breaking the rules for an all woman’s shortlist.
Equality act 2010 section 104 paragraph 336
”
336.These arrangements can include single-sex shortlists for election candidates, but not shortlists restricted to people with other protected characteristics. With the exception of single-sex shortlists, arrangements made under this section must be a proportionate means of reducing under-representation.”
Single sexed short list. Not single gender.
Women faced with a job they don’t want to do get a man in to do it instead. That was how I eneded up foreman of a significantly majority female jury. So expecting women to vote for women to represent them ignores female psychology. Some may wish it were other but the size and strength differences make it a natural thing.
On Saturday in the charity shop my height will be in use getting stock down from a high shelf. Where I was employed to put it in the first place. In the supermarket it is not uncommon to be asked to reach things for people, usually older women. I don’t mind in the least. My Orang Utan arms should be good for something.
Nicola Surgeon took charge of a solid united party and turned it into nothing more than a joke, I’d say she doesn’t even want to win the election but we know how much she desires power so I doubt she wants that big majority that the polls predict, she’d have to act then and we know all she’s interested in is more powers, god willing this enquiry sees the end of her days in power because otherwise she’s going to get her one last term which is all she’s looking for.
I have always found women better communicators than men. They read nuance in a conversation better than we do.
I have found myself in a position where we were talking to other couples and I left feeling quite happy, only for the misdus to comment along the lines of ” I know what she was really saying”. It left me baffled till explained.
@Mist001
Gay people are more often childless than straight people. This leaves them more time to pursue things like politics. Also there’s a long history of gay rights activism which therefore breeds politicians like any activist movement does. I hear this Indy stuff has done so as well. Go figure.
William Wallace, change from within the party is now impossible in my opinion. We have passed the point of redemption I’m afraid.
Maybe you should join the thousands of us who are politically homeless, and will not vote for any party that denies biology and throws women and children under the bus to further their dangerous ideology?
I was until recently, going to vote SNP on the Constituency vote. But I can no longer bring myself to do that sadly. Neither will the other four voters in my household.
I wonder how my intention will be reflected across Scotland?
@Suzanne K,
I think the SNP have crossed the Rubicon. It is too late to redeem themselves especially as they persist in their course.
We need to find another home for representation .
Lorna Campbell @1:37pm
“I’m not really in favour of all-woman shortlists, or of all-anything shortlists, although I can see that, sometimes positive discrimination might be necessary to break through carapace prejudice.”
But positive discrimination is never going to break the carapace of prejudice. If anything it will simply reinforce it. Women-only is a clear message that women can’t make it unless the rules are bent in their favour.
What they should be doing is educating, training and polishing future candidates. Create as wide a base as possible and make sure everyone has the opportunity if they want it. Give them the resources they need then throw them out on the battlefield. Everyone will benefit. You’ll get a better pool of candidates who can hold their own and dish it out when needed. There are plenty of examples of strong candidates from disadvantages groups who made it regardless. How much better things could be if there was a system that encouraged participation and made sure the best were discovered and nutured to get them to rise to the top. In any field this would be a godsend.
However that takes lots of time, lots of money, lots and lots of money, and a vast amount of effort and it doesn’t happen quickly. However that looks like a lot of work so lets do a touch of light window-dressing and declare the problem solved. Except it won’t be. Nothing much will have changed.
Quick diversion back to the carapace thing which will distract my argument: When you do light window-dressing you don’t actually want to solve the problem because that would put you out of a job. Much better to pretend to solve it and, if possible, actually make it worse. Then your future will be filled with righteous indignation to the end of your days and you’ll have purpose in life. Not have much to show for all your efforts is not a problem – your virtue will remain untarnished.
Covid has highlighted just how hobbled Scotland is by an over-reliance on the ‘hospitality’ sector, in particular the tourist industry. The tourist industry has several failings, namely poorly paid, seasonal ‘jobs’, and a tendency for councils to allocate money towards things that benefit tourism, rather than the resident population (e.g. money can be found for yacht pontoons and decorative paving, while roads and building deteriorate). Too many politicians are too willing to sell-out their own constituents to the tourist industry.
Scotland needs a medium term programme/strategy to prune back on some aspects of tourism (e.g. cruise ships and bus tours) while simultaneously aiming for the propagation and growth of research and development facilities (in, say, tidal renewables, marine biology, tree-planting/land stabilising [for areas like the Rest and be Thankful]; so on and so forth). If we can attract tourists we can surely persuade people to live and work in areas currently over-dependent on tourism, and seek to ‘de-seasonalize’ the economy, where relevant, towards some useful ends; and to aim to transform minimum-wage seasonal jobs into full-time, better paying careers. We have to stop selling out to tourism when there can be better alternatives.
These are maybe the kind of things the SNP should be working towards: A bigger picture.
Muscleguy says:
22 October, 2020 at 2:14 pm
“Women faced with a job they don’t want to do get a man in to do it instead.”
That’s a bit of a generalisation. I accept that men are stronger, physically than women but, being brought up an independent woman who was encouraged not to let being a lassie get in the way of what I wanted to do, I seldom ask anyone for help – male or female.
Suzanne K says:
22 October, 2020 at 2:27 pm
“William Wallace, change from within the party is now impossible in my opinion”
I’m really banking on that not being the case but, if after the conference the make up of the NEC remains as it is I’ll definitely be chucking in the towel. I’ll vote for my local SNP candidate in the constituency because of who she is but they will not be getting my list vote I think there may be an AFI candidate standing who I can vote for instead.
Hey Stu, fancy adding a post to Parler button?
Say what you like about Shifty Blinkblink, but, for all her faults, you have to admire her re-assuring children regarding Christmas.
BawJaws would never do that, he doesn’t have the common touch.
Just ten and a half weeks until we are no longer protected by the umbrella of the EU Transition Agreement.
The surreal absurdity of the Sturgeon’s SNP running all women shortlists while demolishing the definition of what a woman is, is positively Kafkaesque. And while this circus show unravels, eaten from the inside by it’s own corruption, Scottish Independence is circling the drain.
Hogmanay this year is gonna be a blast. Thanks Nicola. Take a bow.
The General Teaching Council For Scotland (GTCS) is introducing new rules for Scottish teachers from August 2021.
Failure to perform as required by the GTCS means that teachers will be sacked and will not be allowed to teach in Scotland.
From August 2021, they will be required to commit to new ‘Professional Standards’ laid down by the GTCS, one of which is: –
‘Committing to social justice through fair, transparent, inclusive, and sustainable policies and practices in relation to protected characteristics, (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation) and intersectionality.’
Intersectionality anyone? No, me neither.
Apparently it was first coined by a feminist (ironically) scholar in 1989 but it has been misappropriated by the wokes. Under their definition, it appears to mean that anyone can use any combination of factors if they want to show they have been subject to discrimination.
This GTCS ‘Professional Standard’ is so vaguely-worded that if teachers don’t put the required effort into indoctrinating their pupils with any of the latest batshit rulings – they risk being out of a job.
Yesterday I saw an ‘alternative’ news channel listing mortality stats for England. They were up to date and the presenter quoted the Office for National Statistics as the source.
I checked earlier for a Scottish equivalent but all I could find was data ending in 2017.
Does anyone know where we can access up to date official mortality figures, with breakdown of causes, specifically for Scotland? I really just want an unimpeachable source for the bare-arsed numbers covering heart disease, cancer, dementia, stroke, and, of course, the bug.
Denying the significance of the biological difference between the sexes, is probably the most dangerous policy platform ever inverted. It is counter to just about every tenet of liberal democracy and social justice. Though turning the clock back on women and children’s rights, is compatible with Brexit and Westminster’s disregard for international human rights law. ;(
Well its official now, we are now stuck in “five tier system” until a magical vaccine arrives to save the day, whenever that is.
Jason Leitch says having a normal Christmas is a “fiction” now. He is right in more ways than he knows considering how many people have lost their jobs and been pushed into poverty thanks to the Scottish governments near useless measures.
Sorry for the poor proof reading….is probably the most dangerous policy platform ever INVENTED.
link to womansplaceuk.org
Having your Bobbit removed means you can’t add to World population – thanks 😉
@ Ian Brotherhood 3:12pm
Have you tried the National Records of Scotland website? (nrscotland.gov.uk)
William Wallace @ 1.48 pm
“As a long standing member of the SNP and regular financial contributor I don’t know what to do at this stage. Do I stay in the party and continue to fund it hoping to effect some level of change from within or do I cut my losses and leave? I can no longer ethically support a party engaged in corruption at the highest level but if I leave, I am pretty much politically homeless.”
Like you I’m also a long time voter and member but please think seriously about giving up your membership . I and many others I know stopped our monthly donations and we now only pay the minimum amount required to keep our memberships , some of them are pensioners and now only pay the minimum £ 5 per year .
We need to think carefully about who we vote for in the candidates selections which if I’m not mistaken begin with ballot papers being sent out this week .
Let your branch secretary know that you want to be registered as a delegate to conference and use your voting rights as a delegate to vote in the elections for the candidates for the Executive, the NEC and other committees and that way we can change the party from within and vote out the careerists and hangers on that have taken over these positions .
Why should we let others take over our party when like yourself we’ve been supporting the party for years .
I’m still convinced that many that are members in the party now would have been in the Labour party if their vote hadn’t slumped after the 2014 referendum and we cannot allow them to have any more influence within the Snp .
Couldn’t agree more about there being no justification for women only shortlists.
Debarring have of the community on the grounds of their sex is quite wrong. That is discrimination.
There is no doubt however that biological bias and the fact that women have children can be an impediment to a career. That is an inescapable fact. But things can be done to assist in this regard. More flexible working, creche facilities and so on.
But banning men just because they are men – come on!
And then going loopy doo and in the case of Stirling allow a man in women’s clothing to stand in a women only restricted contest, one really does have to ask the question as to whether the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
People are people. All people are all due equal opportunities, equal fairness, and to do otherwise is outrageous. Quite why our SNP is so focussed on this trans – GRA – women only is truly incredible – especially when we live in a country where the arse is falling out of the economy, where people live in real deprivation, where our rights to travel and work freely are being removed – and we focus on trans – GRA – women only
And today it surfaces that in relation to our new ” Saudi Arabia Wind Bonanza ” that not one of the 598 turbie – jackets for the two current mega projects underway off the coast of Scotland is being fabricated in Scotland.
Maybe we should send all these TRA – GRA activists to Asia and let them get on with it there whilst Asia can send back all of the energy construction work.
Who needs jobs, who needs industry when you can be GRA!
And being frivolous about it, and not intending to send anyone off into a tizzy come hissy fit, do we not think we should ban names like Bobby or Fanny. Or what about Dick.
Or what about the cartoons. Elmer Fudd. Well isn’t that offensive too.
This is serious stuff. More important than jobs and the economy. Yours for Scotland. Vote SNP
@Helen Yates says:
22 October, 2020 at 2:21 pm
“Nicola Surgeon took charge of a solid united party and turned it into nothing more than a joke,”
I’ve never been a member of any party, but to me the SNP under Salmond as FM was a shining example of a disciplined organisation. That made them stand out and must have been a factor in the surge of popularity, independence notwithstanding.
@David Wardrope –
Thanks.
It had what I was looking for, and link is below.
The reason I’m posting this is because it is not shown on the ‘news where you are’. It’s never shown because there’s a danger people will interpret for themselves.
So I offer no comment on it, except to point out that the ‘big’ lockdown in Scotland started on March 23rd and restrictions were eased from May 29th.
Anyone remember that black and white drawing which some see as a beautiful glamorous young woman and others see as an old crone? Well, please bear that in mind when you look at this stuff and try to make your own mind up.
These are the ‘official’ figures and illustrative graphs, from the National Records of Scotland’s own website.
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
Can anyone help with this? In the clip below featuring Leslie Evans, at 12.28.40, she states that “the Scottish Government decided” to contact the police regarding “three” complaints.
When she says “Scottish Government” what is she referring to – Government as in Civil Service or Government as in Sturgeon/Cabinet?
link to scottishparliament.tv
It’s odd, of course, that only two complaints went on to become the basis for the Government investigation of Salmond when they seem to have deemed that three were significant enough to warrant bringing the police in.
“Woo-man”
Makes me want to rewatch So I Married an Axe Murderer where Mike Myers has a poem starting
“Woman…WOH MAN!”
and the classic HEID!! gags
Many asking about the correct pronunciation of ‘Fanet’
It is FA NEH NOT FA NAY (yes fluent French speaker before anyone asks!)
And on Valerie Solanas, who someone mentioned, the book, ‘I shot Andy Warhol’ published 1996 and includes the SCUM manifesto is an interesting read.
Sure most of you won’t be interested, but one quote from the author. Mary Harrron, in the foreword;
”The power of the ‘Manifesto’ isn’t just the attack on men but also the attack on the way women behave with men; it investigates the psychic damage done to both sexes”. (Page ‘ix’ 9)
Should the header for this astonishing story not be ‘You’ve got balls’?
@Abalha,
So she’s a posh Fa Neh. Eh?
This isn’t even a debate any more.
Its a polarised, extreme tribal argument where the middle/reasonable ground has been forgotten/lost.
I genuinely feel sorry for fully transitioned men, who now externally at least have all the physical attributes of a woman and live as such, who perhaps feel hijacked by a few deviant men who get their kicks putting on a wig and pair of stockings to get access to women’s spaces and who raise hell against anyone who says otherwise.
I’m also a bit disappointed at how intolerant some of the comments on this thread are against what appears to be *everyone* who is trans.
The Scottish Government proposal has done nothing to address the bounds of reasonableness and seems to be pandering to the extremists.
@Ian Brotherhood, 3.12
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
This is a quote from the above website
“As the number of deaths from all causes have returned to average levels and the weekly counts of deaths involving COVID-19 are low, NRS has stopped publishing a full report on a weekly basis.”
So that’s why COVID deaths are no longer announced.
@McHaggis 69.
Away and bile her heid. You know fine well what trans group We are talking about. No need to virtue signal to anybody here.
@willie, 4.07
that not one of the 598 turbie – jackets for the two current mega projects underway off the coast of Scotland is being fabricated in Scotland.
Who needs jobs, who needs industry when you can be GRA!
I follow Dick Winchester’s twitter feed and it is the same lack of action with hydrogen cell technology.
I too got the Christmas Draw tickets in the post which I tore up in a rage and put in the bin. Why should I contribute more to the SNP when my perfectly legitimate email to Peter Murrell about the NEC shenanigans went unacknowledged, let alone unanswered. This is contempt for the ordinary member and they have the gall to ask for more money from me.
I am retaining my membership so that I can register for the annual conference and do my best to rid the NEC of those who do not have Independence as their only priority. Also I’d like to communicate with others who are as unhappy as I am about the way the SNP is being subverted.
I also want to raise the issue of none of the orders for the wind farm projects being placed in Scotland. That is a scandal of the first magnitude.
So I will keep my membership for the moment and try to join with other like-minded people to get rid of the people who are destroying our chances of Independence.
The rainbow used to be a natural phenomenon bringing delight to the beholder it is now become a sign of everything contrived, contorted, false and unnatural.
The real thing fades. Hope that the synthetic ‘thing’ fades too and never to be seen again.
The idea of socially conservative Argyll and Bute being represented by a faux women is utterly surreal.
link to thecourier.co.uk
A very wise piece by Alex Bell former adviser to Alex Salmond. Incidentally mentions just how badly Sturgeon has actually handled covid.
@Grouser
I admire those with the stomach to stay: I’m not sure if I could have done it, although the Woko Haram take-over wasn’t the actual reason I left, it certainly would have propelled me to do so if it hadn’t been for “l’affaire Grousebeater”.
The real question people (both members and the broader movement) have to ask is whether meaningful change can be effected in time? The evidence of the past few years, the campaigns against gender critical voices, the abuse of prominent figures like McAlpine, Cherry etc., and the obvious impunity of abusive TRA extremists in the party, all suggest the answer is a resounding NO.
I have my doubts about the sincerity of *some* of those like Toni Giugliano suddenly calling for dialogue. Whilst he himself may not be on the extreme wing of the party on this issue, if you fly with the crows…..?
Some of the more self aware supporters of self-ID and woke ideology (or just those who lack the moral courage to stand up to the extremists?) may finally have realised that the extremists have over-reached themselves. Time will tell. I have little faith in the sincerity of their calls for dialogue I’m afraid.
-Willie re: the turbines-
That is really just typical. Is the bloody point of independence not so we can do a hell of a lot better than we do in the UK? We aren’t we using our natural resources to build up our own talents and economy? Foreign companies building and installing them means he only thing Scottish about them is the location. And as the seabed is I believe owned by the Crown then the only household in Scotland benefiting from them will be Balmoral Castle. Another excuse to posture. What a fucking wasted opportunity. What a fucking joke.
A transperson at Holyrood would be the ultimate whitey woke trophy especially if he or she is a person of color,
every city/country will need an elected transgender like having a tram system or a big wheel or a book festival or a cycle way,
on 1 October 2020 in Belgium, Petra De Sutter was sworn in, becoming Europe’s first transgender deputy prime minister and the most senior trans politician in Europe,
it`s not about the qualities of the transperson good or bad it makes no difference to whitey woke it`s all about making whitey woke feel good about themselves,
it`s always all about whitey woke,
they will dump transgender the minute some new cause becomes the woke vogue.
What happened, where is Independence in all this?
Can only agree with most of the above comments.
Thanks for another good article Rev,
I avoid the BBC but chanced to hear Sturgeon performing her covid show today. She was trying very hard to portray herself as the very honest leader taking very tough decisions and doing her best … hand wringing covers it plus a huge ego. Ian brotherhood @12:41 accurately describes her as flapping.
A couple of days ago @indyscotnews posted an archived article by Neil Mackay of the Herald headlined ‘The end of Nicola Sturgeon? Be careful what you wish for.’
It is best described as a ‘yes but no’ piece punting the possibility that Sturgeon may ‘just throw in the towel’ due to exhaustion – quote by her unamed oldest friend.
Mackay cites the ‘Salmond Saga’ as the reason, but the article is a confused self contradictory piece which attempts to praise Sturgeon’s ‘incredible series of political successes’ (? beats me too). He also claims that she is ‘intellectually and politically the centre of gravity’ for the yes movement (fiction).
He warns that if she resigns there is nobody to replace her which is patently untrue.
Mackay’s offerings are invariably nonsense so most likely he’s just filling column inches but the very fact that he covers the subject is perhaps an early sign of the MSM softening the public up for her departure.
She has for the past six years blocked independence in favour of building her own career so I will be delighted to see the back of her. A competent manager she may be but an independent thinker with strategic tactical skills she certainly is not. Whatever her reasons for her behaviour the SNP is a dead duck with her and Murrell in charge. I have never voted for any other party but will not vote SNP with this current lot in charge. So constituency vote nil, list vote ISP as things stand.
It seems obvious that odious Robertson has been lined up as favoured successor SNP leader. I don’t know enough to hazard a guess whether he could win that contest.
However I think Joanna Cherry for FM would beat him soundly.
If the SNP is to be saved, independent minded MSPs and MPs need to organise a challenge to Sturgeon and elect a new leader and FM who actually wants Scottish independence and is prepared to take radical action to get it. The status quo needs to be shaken up by a new combative energetic leader.
If the current SNP incumbents don’t understand that this is necessary and urgent, I see the unavoidable need for a new party of independence – and let the SNP die like new Labour.
They should realise that they can’t continue forever to take people for fools.
-bscotfree-
I’m quite convinced Robertson would bomb as SNP leader. Nothing to do with his views, but he just doesn’t have “it”. He’s basically an allegedly pro-Indy version of Murdo Fraser.
Now that’s what I call duper’s delight
-Scot Finlayson-
With many of these woke types minorities are like a pet. I am a straight white male- guilty as charged, eh?!- but throughout my life have met, worked with, become friends with and respected people of all colours and sexual preferences, and nobody brought up by my tough old maw could be a misogynist. To these woke sorts these people are just categories to be pitied rather than people to be respected.
Bob Mack says:
22 October, 2020 at 5:25 pm
The very fact you describe my post as ‘virtue signalling’ just confirms the point.
I’ll bile my heed when you get tae fuck, deal?
“For a very sad reason voting in Argyll and Bute is delayed until Nov 4th”.??
link to twitter.com
@ Grouser at 5.32: have you got onto the SNP Members for Independence facebook membership? There are now 714 of us on there and some Resolutions have been produced between us. I am hoping there are now 714 delegates ready to vote for reform at Conference.
Re’ Argyll and Bute delayed until Nov 4th”. I understand it is due to the convenor of the association dying suddenly earlier this month.
Folks, your party has now become the plaything of WokeyWeirdoes. The worst of the lot are the aggressive misogynists pretending to be women. I have experience with them, and they don’t do dialogue – it’s their way or the highway. So you either need to find a way to live with that, or get rid of them/reclaim your party (and they’ll accuse you of all sorts of horrors if you do). Good luck. You’ll need it.
@Willie
A different culture can do helping parents with young children attend parliament. The former speaker of the NZ Parliament Trevor Mallard on more than one occasion held, fed, comforted infants in the chamber while their parents spoke. That included the Prime Ministerial sprog.
Can you imagine the pearl clutching if that happened here? I was lucky, I was doing a PhD when my kids were small so I could do childcare at need, pick them up from the university child care etc. I could go back in in the evenings once the kids were in bed (bedtime stories were often my province).
McHaggis69@5:15pm.
This is not extremism by any means but a man who’s had cosmetic surgery(however extreme) and hormones is not, and never will be, a woman. By all means campaign for 3rd spaces but don’t try to foist these men on women’s spaces.
It’s perfectly obvious from looking at Sarahs mission statement what his political priorities are and it’s certainly not independence no doubt Mriduls is the same
I have always voted SNP and could never see myself voting any other way and I understand the importance of a huge SNP win in the constituency vote no matter how I feel about the candidate.
But I honestly cannot say with any certainty that could walk into a voting booth and vote for either of these men no matter how much I believe in independence
Is Russell just pandering to the masses knowing fine well nothings going to happen next year on the indy front. Russell won’t be held accountable as he’s standing down next year.
link to thenational.scot
@McHaggis69, (or maybe VAT 69)
I just got to eff. When you needing the big pot for your big heid? Ha ha.
For all the Indy supporters reading that are not SNP members and feel frustrated at the path chosen by, and the ongoing antics of, the Party that is the main supposed vehicle driving Scotland to the destination of being an independent country.
You can actually exert pressure because the Party holds canvas information on its supporters throughout Scotland.
Get in touch with your local constituency office and tell them to amend their Activate database and the reasons why you no longer wish to be identified as a supporter of the party.
“Could have taken the first name “Iva””
Indeed, or even “Ivor”.
Tinto Chiel I left a post for you on only Connect
How can a Government who cannot understand simple biology possibly have any credibility when pontificating on Covid. No wonder the whole strategy is an utter shambles.
A Person says:
22 October, 2020 at 6:07 pm
-bscotfree-
I’m quite convinced Robertson would bomb as SNP leader. Nothing to do with his views, but he just doesn’t have “it”. He’s basically an allegedly pro-Indy version of Murdo Fraser.
I don’t see it happening.
When the truth comes out about the conspiracy to smear Alex Salmond, I think there will be a lot more than one political career on the line.
Sturgeon grooming Angus Robertson for leadership is her own wishful thinking and on-going denial, in equal measure.
There is only one casualty in this skirmish with wokeness.
Independence.
Perhaps that is the Plan. I might not like it, but I doff my hat to whoever is behind it.
I have only ever voted SNP in any and all elections – growing up in a town from a Proclaimer song, I just couldn’t work out why everyone kept on voting Labour – yet here I am…apparently in the wrong, certainly ashamed to have voted for a Party intent on destroying hard won womens rights.
I will stop short of apologising to my unionist friends however (well, the males ones anyway), but when it comes to the HR elections, May 2021 – I think I will stay in and watch Netflix…….shit, I cant, I cancelled that because of Cuties……oh, well……maybe I will just stop in that day, wearing a facemask and a nappy, staring at a wall, feeling all safe and cuddly inside.
At least in Scotland you can compensate for having a mouth full of aching, rotten, crumbling teeth with a stylish tattoo…
Those dangled carrots won’t be so appetizing if the electorate hasnae any teeth to chomp them.
At bloody last.
link to archive.is
@ Hatuey
“When she says “Scottish Government” what is she referring to – Government as in Civil Service or Government as in Sturgeon/Cabinet?”
She was questioned at length to try and wring this info out of her, the best she could come up with was along the lines of; not her job; wisnae me; could have been anyone (which covers most of her answers). I assume civil service… But no ones knows yet I think. She shouldn’t have a job at all, she should be locked up in jail in my opinion. I can’t remember if Richards was questioned on it too now… I didn’t keep a clip of those questions anyway.
The next meeting of the Harassment and Complaints is this Tuesday 27 October 2020 at 10:15am and it will take evidence from ,
Judith MacKinnon, Head of People Advice, Scottish Government ,and
then from Barbara Allison, Director for Communications, Ministerial Support & Facilities, Scottish Government ,
Agenda and Public papers for the meeting ,
link to parliament.scot
And I see from this that Barbara Allison is retiring at the end of this year ,
link to archive.vn
@ronnie anderson: thanks. Have pure respondit, sir.
Breeks @ 7.34
I hope the truth does come out, and not just the MSM version. However, when it does I can’t see how it’s going to help independence. All the unionists who think Nicola is doing a good job and would vote for her will disappear when they realise what she has been involved with. I’m nearly 60 and thought after 2014 independence might happen in my lifetime but now I think I’ll be like my parents who both wanted independence but have both now passed. If anything is going to happen it has to happen soon or Scotland will be totally shafted by Westminster.
– A Person @6:07pm
Happy to hear you think he would bomb. An allegedly pro-indy Murdo Fraser is a fair if damning description!
– Breeks @7:34pm
If Robertson is closely associated with the wrong doing he should suffer when the full truth is revealed. I just hope the full truth is revealed sooner rather than later.
Maggie C @8.14. Thanks for keeping us up to speed with the committee info
“This is not extremism by any means but a man who’s had cosmetic surgery(however extreme) and hormones is not, and never will be, a woman.“
Absolutely. There are only two sexes in humans.
But you make my point.
All I ever seem to see on this subject is “fuck women” or “fuck trans” and virtually *nothing* about maybe trying to explore a 3rd way of sorting this.
I lay the blame at the door of the SNP for falling for what I see as an extreme solution.
Its also a hill the Rev chose to (twitter) die on and as strong as he believes he had to be, I miss his Twitter account.
Its a fucking mess and no-one seems to be talking about sorting it other than in terms of “fuck you, we’re right and you’re wrong”. A fucking mess,
Grey gull @ 8.18 pm
You’re welcome , hopefully the sooner we can start to get the truth from these people the better .
Then we can have a clear out of all the people within the Snp and Scottish Government who tried to put Alex Salmond into jail and get Independence back as a priority .
Scotia Future….it has a certain ring.
Breeks @7:34 pm
“Sturgeon grooming Angus Robertson for leadership….”
Sturgeon’s stable is so clatty by now I don’t think any grooming can take place.
McHaggis I suggested a third way – campaign for 3rd spaces. If transwomen are men (and they are) then they have no right to be in women’s spaces, end of.
But yes, I do think the SNP and SG have made a mess of this.
Maggie C@ 8.14 on Barbara Allison conveniently ..
retiring after forgetting about Lesley Evans’tweet’
From the Scottish Government site, on Barbara Allson:
‘is currently the ET Champion for LGBTI colleagues within Scottish Government and is widely recognised as a supporter and champion of diversity and inclusion’
Is a prerequisite for the higher echelons of the Scottish Government and the SNP to belong to a sexual minority? Why are people’s sexual preference seemingly a priority in their c.v. for these jobs?
How would it appear to put that ‘X’ is a supporter and champion for heterosexual members in a c.v.( sic)?
‘Diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ appear to be auto-antonyms, or double meanings, also known as ‘Janus’ words. The whole Scottish government edifice is facing both ways and it’s so rotten with these inverted individuals that it will eventually disappear up its own virtue signalling fundament….along with any chances of our Liberation.
All female shortlists? What a joke. There is no such thing as “positive” discrimination. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Surely excluding men is a human rights issue? Oh I forgot, single white males are fair game – no rights. Well with the GRA woMEN getting in on the act, it’s certainly come back to bite them in the ass now, eh?
I support Scottish independence but I will find it very difficult to vote for a party bringing out this discriminatory nonsense.
45 mins since the last comment?
Are ALL Wingers Celtic fans or what?!
😉
susanXX
There are third spaces here in Portgual, mainly in swimming pools. They’re intended for families so daughters going to the pool with dad are spared any embarrassment. They work really well but that obviously costs money. However I doubt the Woo-men would be happy with them since it denies them their real objective 😉 Still as solution it’s practical, is acceptable to all and the rules, written and otherwise, are well known and well understood.
Tinto Chiel I sure the rest of the wingers share your sentiments of getting together but i fear that will be along time in coming .
All the bestest to U & Yours
Ian Brotherhood @ 9.39 pm
The Football’s finished now so maybe more people might start posting again . LOL
Did you see my previous post @ 8.14 pm with the links to the Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
@MaggieC –
Yes, I did, thanks.
I meant to ask you yesterday whereabouts you found the committee’s latest letter to Alex Salmond. The page I have on permanent tab (*) doesn’t show it.
Doesn’t matter anyway, so long as some of us are keeping an eye on it all – the fireworks should start before too long!
🙂
* link to parliament.scot
Part of me would like to think that this is a cunning plan by the SNP to be able to form a minority government again. Not enough to push for indy but with enough support from the Greens, Labour and Libs to push through their gender woo-woo bill along with other changes. They can then lay the blame on other indy parties and ‘bigots’ for splitting the vote.
Unfortunately I think it’s the fact that they can’t see that they’re doing anything wrong. UK politics is too depressing so I’ve been watching the US recently. The stuff coming from the ‘left’ in politics and academia is no different from what we see from the new wave SNP. Anyone that strays from the approved line is shouted down. You must agree, or else. All pretty depressing and can’t see it getting any better with the rise of the bright young things in the SNP and Greens.
@ronnie anderson –
‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ an aw that.
😉
All of this is down to Nicola Sturgeon. For the party to be so obsessed with this madness it has got to be down to either Sturgeon has a biological problem herself or she wants to make her party unelectable which would in turn scupper independence. There is though something going on and it certainly is not independence.
And again I ask, why are the rest of the MSP/MP`s so silent at this threat to independence.
Men have had advantages and some have abused their positions, so a rebalancing is required, but NOT a single sex list. It should require a minimum of 1 male or/and 1 female on every list. Anything else is an insult to a supposed democratic preselection process.
With a historical perspective, where women have been underrepresented – partly it’s an accident of biology. There are differences, the only one that really matters is the use of the thinking organ the brain. Women have in some cases 10% to 15% smaller brain capacities and in effect on average 2cm smaller craniums. These facts should not hold intelligent women back in some areas the woman can compute verbally etc up to 5 times faster than the average male.
Saying there are no differences and altering the sex at birth to the sex claimed is a fuzzy area that tries to defy logic. it’s not an arguement that can be decided without stomping on hard fought for rights. A new battleground for the sex zeitgeist chattering classes and dumbed down media is not a position I can be bothered entertaining.
— The real future of the species in sex terms is the woman’s choice from sperm banks; perfecting of fighting diseases and degenerative conditions with a long view to ending cancers and the Malthusian world capacity for humans estimated at close to 30 billion individuals ; when we currently have 7 billion plus. Most of these problems are never considered yet, and only if ever in an independent country… which has agents of the UK actively discrediting any non manageable ideas and independent-think-for-yourself-individuals.
Ian Brotherhood @ 10.05 pm
The letter to Alex Salmond was on the correspondence page right at the very bottom of the page ,
link to parliament.scot
And from this page they are now showing “ phase – 4 Scottish Ministerial Code ,
link to parliament.scot
So hopefully they’ll start to move to that part of the inquiry soon .
@MaggieC –
That’s great thanks, have saved it to favourites so I won’t have to go looking for it again.
😉
@Ian Brotherhood says:
22 October, 2020 at 9:39 pm
“45 mins since the last comment?
Are ALL Wingers Celtic fans or what?!”
New series of Mock the Week was on. Another comedy show 🙂
(runs for cover…)
There is no such thing as positive discrimination!
It’s incredibly wrong if 3 male candidates were superior prospects to a woman who gets the job.
People tend to give their vote to people they feel understands how they live and who have much in common with them. I’m afraid 90% of voters will never have met a Trans person.
You say Fanet
I say Fanny
You say Woman
I say One Man
Let’s call the whole thing off.
OT
What happens when the focus of the Scottish Government/SNP is on identity politics rather than industrial policy
link to sourcenews.scot
“The Scottish Government did not place any requirements on EDF Energy to source parts of the supply chain for NnG in Scotland. So when the French energy giant started planning where they wanted to get jackets for the turbines from, they looked at who the cheapest suppliers are worldwide. ”
In contrast, what happens when a government is focused on industrial policy (government in question is Norwegian)
link to fuelcellsworks.com
Ian Brotherhood aye wheres theres ah will um writing mine jist noo LoL but it hiz to be done but ah hope tae hing in there tae we all can meet again .
Take care Mr
A Person says
Ales Ball says Scotland has not done better than England but this if quite incorrect
Scotland has around 8% of the UK population. Lets call that 10% to make the arithmetic easy.
Deaths 7 day average Scotland 12.1 so England should have about 120. They actually have 150.5
Infection rate 7 day average Scotland 1225. England should have 12250 they actually have 19552
Alex Bell is big and ugly enough to know these figures so significant doubt must be attached to his position.
These figures are rough but for me I’d rather take my chances up here.
Indy ref 2 hasn’t even started yet, and Scotland in union have already started their lies.
” Covid proves Scotland couldn’t have provided the capital for the Furlough scheme”.
There are 27 independent nations ibn the EU. Many smaller than Scotland. All are dealing with Covid better than the UK.
The Furlough scheme is entirely funded by borrowed capital. Even if it was the UKs money. Scotland pays more than 10% of that.
Yet today we find out they are throwing more cash at England ,but have refused Scotland.
Our own money is being denied to us to help England.
At what point will journalists actually call out these lies.
Everything on the unionist side involves dishonesty.
‘ Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
22 October, 2020 at 11:54 am
“Sarah Fanet , (is that surname French or just a spelling mistake?)”
It’s French. He’s from France. ‘
Oh, dear god, please don’t say it’s pronounced Sarah ‘Fannay’? That’s just too much mockery!
Email from Leslie Mcinnes today giving me her CV for the forthcoming on line hustings.
I knew she was transport convener for Edinburgh but thought I would check her out on line.
Shock. Horror, Jings and Help Ma Bob. Two days ago, she says, she welcomed a large group of Sustrans delegates from all over the world.
Oh my god, what the hell are “Sustrans” , and now they are descending on Edinburgh in hordes from all over the world. What do they do? What are their sexual preferences? Should I lock up my wife or my Dalmatian dog?
Relief – they are delegates for “Sustainable Transport Systems” but these days anything with “trans” in it rings my alarm bells.
This is from the Women’s Pledge page on twitter ,
Here’s our #WomensPledge. Please read it. It seeks to protect women’s sex-based rights. If candidates are unwilling to support these rights then you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to support your candidates:
Link to their twitter page ,
link to mobile.twitter.com
And the link to their petition again , lets get some more signatures to it please ,
link to secure.avaaz.org
The Snp candidates in the 2019 Dec elections were sent an email not to sign the Women’s Pledge .
So it’s now up to us to take a stand and support the Women’s Pledge group , Men can sign the pledge as well as women if you want to protect your wives , daughters , mothers and all your female relatives .
,
Yaaass!
link to mobile.twitter.com
Turns out it’s an old story being retweeted.
Re-petitions above.
Never get these petitions. They never work for me. ALWAYS ask to share on facebook, twitter etc b4 accepting .
Last daft petition i sign .Now they’ve got my name and email- why o why do they do this shit? Is there not and electronic book or sumit?
Don’t do Faceshit and don’t do sqatter either. They can bog aff.
Big Jock.
Alex planning to sue. Would that it were true but that article was from August. Anything new. ?
O/T
Ronnie anderson says:
22 October, 2020 at 10:46 pm
Ian Brotherhood aye wheres theres ah will um writing mine jist noo LoL but it hiz to be done but ah hope tae hing in there tae we all can meet again .
Hing – Hing may refer to Asafoetida, a spice derived from the plant Ferula assa-foetida, know as Devil’s Dung !
“These are two very different cases. Fanet has undergone sex reassignment surgery”
I’m glad it is recognised that this is something very different. And in my view Fanet is fine on an all-wmoan shortlist because
“all-women shortlists are meant to be for people who have the issues and life experiences of being women”
seems about as strong an argument that the 2014 referendum meant to be a once in a generation event.
“Wings doesn’t even agree with all-women shortlists” So what is this about? All-woman shortlist exists because they happen to work better an ending discrimination than other methods, despite being seemingly discriminatory – incidentally the argument for women-only shortlist seems to me to be the very same argument in favour of keeping the sex-exemptions in the Equalities Act and against the GRA…
In fact the whole thrust of the argument against the GRA – that in needs to be recognised that there is a collision of fundamental rights, i.e. a grey area, which has to be looked at in every issue on the facts of the actual issues, and there cannot be black & white fundamentalism that states that everyone has a choice to choose under every circumstance.
But that works both ways, while sex is binary for maybe 99%, real trans people do exist and there is a grey area. This means (a) there needs to be a distinction between Fanets of this world and the pretend trans people and (b) what this grey area means may differ depending on the issues. (The latter may well lead to it being ok for Fanet to be considered part of an all-woman-shortlist but not participate in women’s Olympic events.)
I forgot to post this yesterday, It was an email from Lynsey Bruce at Aye Mail and he has stocks of PPE equipment .
“ On October 31st, the Zero VAT rating on PPE items including face masks and nitrile gloves comes to an end. Unless the UK government changes tack at the last minute, this will mean a 20% increase in the cost of PPE from November 1st.
We wanted to make you aware of this, and also to draw your attention to some price cuts we’ve been able to make on crucial PPE items including face masks, gloves, anti-viral wipes and face visors. “
So if you need any PPE face masks etc please order it from Lynsey please and help him out when he has done so much for Independence .
link to ayemail.scot
While your there you could also buy some Yes stickers and Badges .
-Breeks, bscotfree-
Remember the chosen one was Derek Mackay who has the charisma of a Morrison’s microwave meal.
The Women’s Pledge account has posted this list of candidates. This is who you vote for if you want rid of the Wokesters.
link to twitter.com
Argyll & Bute – Breege Smyth
Clydebank & Milngavie – Anne McTaggart
Dumbarton – Scott Laffert
Dumfriesshire – Joan McAlpine
Dunfermline – Rob Thompson
East Lothian – Stuart Currie, Paul McLennan
Eastwood – Qasim Hanif
Edinburgh Eastern – Ash Denham
Edinburgh Southern – Catriona MacDonald
Edinburgh Western – Ewan Hunter
Falkirk East – Michelle Thomson
Galloway & West Dumfries – Steve Norris
Glasgow Cathcart – Junaid Ashraf, James Dornan, Jennifer Layden
Glasgow Kelvin – Caroline Welsh
Greenock & Inverclyde – Christopher McEleny
Kirkcaldy – Roger Mullin
Midlothian South, Tweeddale & Lauderdale – Christine Grahame
North East Fife – Ross Cunningham
Perthshire South & Kinross-Shire – Jim Fairlie
Stirling – Sameeha Rehman
Uddingston & Bellshill – Lynne Anderson
Christian Schmidt, despite Faney’s reassignment surgery he still has no common life experiences with women that I can see. Please tell me where you disagree with this.
susanXX says:
22 October, 2020 at 11:57 pm
Christian Schmidt, despite Faney’s reassignment surgery he still has no common life experiences with women
As does the determinedly non political wing of the YES movement.
Just returned from Facebook pages where I received dogs abuse because I was against the SNP’s GRA . Well if thats the type thats voting SNP for Independence , then I want no part of them or the SNP… they have lost my vote.
But that works both ways, while sex is binary for maybe 99%
Nope, sex is binary for 100%, otherwise you would not have to recategorise men and women.
It only works one way, however you want to dress it up.
IanB… No lol
William Wallace, the poster, not the man.
I quoted you post mid afternoon and posted on my local SNP group page.
Chimes with a lot of my thoughts, I’m gonna, see how long the silence lasts. I’m pretty sure I know the ones who’ll be going ‘aw ffs,’ and maintaining an undignified silence.
We can’t duck this shit any longer.
Ps, Hi Stan, ya fud
Well said paul. Even intersex people are either males or females with DSDs. Chimeric DNA is vanishingly rare and has NOTHING to do with transgender ideology.
@ ROS 1.43pm you said
Is there no one within the party prepared to challenge not only this but Sturgeon? Or is it a party full of cowards, more concerned about the gravy train, than the future of Scotland?
———————————-
THIS really gets to the heart of the matter 5.2 million people in Scotland and NS is IGNORING the DEVASTATION that is being wrought on the people of Scotland with MUCH, MUCH more to come, and what is she concentrating on, NOT speaking out or addressing poverty and children starving, or families being threatened at losing their HOMES, NO she is more interested in favouring a TINY percentage of the electorate to create her own WOKE PARADISE
If ALL the MP’s, MSP’s who TRULY BELIEVE IN INDEPENDENCE do not stand up and do something about challenging and removing NS and this cancerous cabal then you ARE COMPLICIT in destroying the INDEPENDENCE DREAM and the FUTURE prospects of our and your children, grandchildren and future generations to come
ASK yourselves, is my cowardice justified in the continued abuse and denigration meted out on a daily basis to our people, when I can stop it by removing the obstacle of Nicola Sturgeon’s woke dictatorship and concentrate on winning independence for MY PEOPLE
REMEMBER, FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH ALL IT TAKES IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING, MAKE YOUR MIND UP TIME
One of the things I have really found weird in this whole arena is that the SNP have woman only seats yet by their own policies they undermine that intent as anyone can identify as a woman and thereby be eligible. Law of unintended consquences perhaps?
Biden’s finished.
His statement re oil is his end.
The bookies better be up early to slash the odds on Trump.
Ahundredthidiot-
You may be right.
Not picked up on by the mainstream media who of course prefer to focus on the Punch and Judy stuff. They can’t imagine anyone considering voting for Trump so won’t notice that Biden has just threatened to destroy millions of people’s jobs.
Trump is so horrible that I can’t stand to listen to him but Biden is part of the same elite that caused Trump’s rise. I would vote for Biden but there has to be someone better in America!
Joanna Cherry writing in today’s Nationbal
THE news that the Tories are war gaming a strategy to delay and then avoid a second independence referendum shouldn’t surprise anyone. However, Alberto Nardelli of Bloomberg is to be commended for another great scoop. The memo which fell into his hands is a document from a political consultancy firm that works closely with the Tory party (NB not the Tory Government) to look at tactics.
They have identified that, if the SNP win a majority in next May’s elections, continuing to dismiss calls for another independence vote outright could be “counterproductive”. Therefore, what they need to do is to look at ways to delay or avoid a second independence referendum.
Well, honestly, who knew? Nevertheless, it’s an important reminder that, whilst the SNP must secure a second vote for independence in circumstances which will meet with international approval and therefore the all-important international recognition, the strategy for doing so should not be one-dimensional.
It also gives an indication of how we might want to approach framing such a strategy. Whilst I commend those who have fought against inexplicable resistance to have a Plan B debated at the SNP conference, I also agree with those who caution against putting all one’s cards on the table, particularly when dealing with the current Tory Government at Westminster.
READ MORE: WATCH: Joanna Cherry takes Tories to task over failure to respect the law
We should not cede power to these people. They are devious and unprincipled. This does not mean we should ape their behaviour but nor should we predicate our entire strategy on the assumption that they will do the right thing when their past behaviour suggests quite the opposite.
As Pete Wishart found out this week, Michael Gove can be a dirty tackler. Ask the EU Brexit negotiation team if they think the British Government will play by the Queensberry rules in any negotiation with the Scottish Government? The answer is obvious.
We can’t run a campaign on a series of indignant remarks. The campaign to secure a second independence vote should of course seek to achieve the gold standard of a second referendum based on a Section 30 Order as that would be by far the easiest route. However, we need a strategy to fall back on when sleekit tactics of delay and avoidance are employed. Time is not on our side. Brexit has happened. The transition period will be a distant memory by the time the election comes. Our parliament is going to be hamstrung when the Internal Market Bill becomes an Act of Parliament and the longer we stay tethered to Brexit Britain the more we diverge from the EU’s standards and laws.
I am looking forward to what I hope will be a lively and stimulating debate at conference about the various options which might constitute a Plan B. However, I would suggest that the best outcome of this debate might be for the membership to mandate the newly elected NEC to set up a group to work on gaming a copper-bottomed strategy the precise details of which need not be advertised to the enemy.
READ MORE: Joanna Cherry calls on SNP delegates to sack NEC members with ‘vendettas’
Such a group would have to involve a wide cross section of the party from centre to left and not just comprise the usual suspects. If, as I suspect they will, conference delegates seize the chance to improve the governance of our party by electing an NEC which reflects the views of the membership and their desire for scrutiny and transparency, for which Roger Mullin has so ably argued, then it will be the perfect opportunity to make sure all the talents in our party are utilised.
Contrary to a column in another newspaper earlier this week, there is more than one brain behind the Yes movement and the SNP also has quite a few brains to offer. Whilst some might say that the article in question was designed to provoke and is therefore best ignored, the reaction to it has exposed that a centrist, “steady as she goes” approach to policy and strategy is not shared across the board in the movement or the party. This is important not just for the policy vision for an independent Scotland, but also for strategic planning.
SOME of the brains in the SNP who are not employed full time dealing with the Covid crisis would like nothing more than to contribute to the development of strategy but feel left out in the cold without an obvious avenue for such contributions to be meaningful. Wouldn’t it be great if these brains could be brought together to devise a strategy to be employed to deal with the inevitable Tory dirty tricks when yet another mandate is secured?
We need to move beyond the childish assumption that anyone who questions what is understood to be the leadership orthodoxy is disloyal or wants to replace the leader. Let’s also challenge the narrative which seeks to label us all as either Salmondites or Sturgeonites. Most of us actually have a mind of our own and what we all have in common is the desire for independence. We are on the verge of realising our dream and we need to work together to ensure that we do.
Equally, we must not let those who howl “no debate” on social media prevent us from getting our house in order for the struggle that lies ahead. A small but vocal group, many of whom are not even members of the SNP, seem to have got the impression that they have carte blanche to abuse and demonise anyone who disagrees with their views on gender self ID or Plan B. But guess what? It turns out most members of the SNP don’t like that approach and would prefer to have a civilised debate as we have done in the past over such controversial topics as Nato membership.
READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: Why taking Westminster to court over Brexit bill may be a win-win
At the Edinburgh Central SNP candidate hustings this week Marco Biagi argued: “The party is at its best when it is at its boldest.” It is a sentiment with which I wholly agree.
Nor need we worry about scaring the horses. Today’s bold gesture is tomorrow’s mundane reality. For example, when Alex Salmond renamed the Scottish Executive the Scottish Government, after the first SNP election victory in 2007, some commentators reacted as though he was storming the barricades. Now no-one apart from some Tories questions that nomenclature.
I have one final caveat. A lot of work has gone into organising online hustings for the selection of SNP candidates for next year’s election. However, I am not the only member who has been disappointed by the lack of opportunity for members to interact with the candidates or debate their answers. It’s a far cry from the lively hustings I went through to be selected as a candidate in 2015 and lessons must be learned for the conference format if we are to have a debate which will encourage fresh thinking to flourish.
Bravo Joanna Cherry , this is precisely the right message at , hopefully , the right time eg just prior to Conference . Are you paying attention at the back , front and , crucially , at the top ?
But, but, … If Scotland is a sovereign nation currently in a close union with other countries and that union ends why do we need to seek recognition from others. Surely we default back to our original independent status. Did the UK need to seek out recognition after Brexit? What happened in the case of Norway when it ended it’s relationship with Denmark?
I’m genuinely interested as it seems that nobody at the top seems to want to play the independence game without handing all the cards to Westminster.
JC is my MP and a damn fine one at that. She takes no shit from anyone.Surgeon included.She has so many qualities but I’m not sure she is leadership material.I see her more in an enforcer getting things done type of role.
Intetested to see where she lands when AS finally lights the fire.
Go Joanna!
If the SNP doesn’t back you 100%, and without compromise, then they are damned fools.
I was thinking about the motivation for allowing these guys to run in female only seats and the NEC forcing through this agenda. It struck me that it makes no sense other than to destroy support for the party. I reckon she will resign for health reasons before Brexit and before Alex submits his evidence to the enquiry but at a point where it will be too late to remove Scotland from the Union before D-day, probably in early December. That way she won’t have to face the music and will depart a hero – win win.
Is this also just about her ego and legacy where she knows support for the SNP will plummet due to these policies but it will appear on paper that this was though her departure. If this is the case she is some kind of evil mastermind.
Vladimir Putin today said:
`Genuine democracy & civil society cannot be imported, be a product of the activities of foreign ‘well-wishers’.
People in the countries where imported democracy schemes have been implemented were never asked for their opinion & their leaders are mere vassals.`
sums up Scotland ruled by a parliament in a foreign land.
In reply to Nell G at 0822
If this is the case she is some kind of evil mastermind.
Yip. It really is all about power, at all costs. Was she always so inclined, no clue but my experience of her actions fairly close-up in 2014, no doubt it was the power over a Yes vote, no question.
And on AWS it’s meant be when a male MSP stands down BUT there isn’t an AWS in Alex Neil’s seat, rules bent to let Neil Gray stand? Obviously an area with eh a proud history of division.
Scottish nationalism does not need the SNP, but plainly the SNP needs and is exploiting Scottish nationalism for fractional ends. Some radical political reassignment, restorative surgery to put the spunk back? The old party has been so underpowered of late.
The Cunninghame North shambles, latest instalment,
‘special measures’ now, was there talk of a death as well?
link to ardrossanherald.com
Abalha,
Thanks for the reply.
What did we do to deserve this monster? She has obviously been planning this for months. Angus Robertson is just being parachuted into Edinburgh as the chosen successor and the fall guy. You know what she does to “friends”.
At least with the woke weirdos, what you see is what you get…a bunch of mysoginistic, hate-filled, deviant and fetishistic weirdos. Is it a cult group think thing? Are they trans aliens?
Are Rhiannon Spear and Shirley-Anne Somerville two of Nicola Sturgeon’s “ special people” , chosen to cause untold harm to children’s’ development, health and wellbeing with their so called sex and relationship “ education”? Ms Somerville instructed her civil servants to write a letter to her
“ colleagues “ i.e. those lobbyists, Stonewall etc, funded by the Scottish Government with 3.5 million pounds from the public purse, to apologise that GRA changes were put on hold but that this wouldn’t stop them going ahead with their plan to introduce it in schools. Ms Spear boasted that they’d embedded it in the Curriculum for Excellence policy. They’d been advised not to tell parents because they won’t like it and hence the secrecy and manipulation behind the scenes.
Primary school children being taught that they are entitled to physical pleasure in all aspects of their bodies? Secondary school girls being taught that anal sex is ok, as long as they use plenty lube? Pornography as homework? None of this is age and stage appropriate and is tantamount to grooming, IMO, and makes me feel physically sick.
The Named Person shitshow was successfully challenged and fell by the wayside. It is guaranteed that, once parents and women cotton on to the even bigger shitstorm of the deviant, warped, disturbing and deliberate harm this will cause to our children, Nicola Sturgeon and her “ special people” will be toast. Pleased to see the challenge to the definition of woman and more than willing and eager to contribute to their fundraiser.
Things have a way of swimming up into the light. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve clawed your way up the ladder, the bodies never stay buried forever. Shit floats. Think on this SNP MPs and wannabe MSPs. Unless and until you’re prepared to break cover and have the courage to take a stand on this and everything else being highlighted by Stuart, you are complicit in your silence and you will never get my vote.
Well said Phydaux!
@Abalha
The mode of our achieving independence is not what the international community will look at. They want to see an agreed and orderly transition with WM. That is how we will be judged. The trick is not to UDI. Announce our intention to withdraw from the Treaty of Union, subject to a confirmatory referendum all under international law. That is not a UDI and a Yes in the referendum would simply require WM to enter talks so again it’s the satisfactory and agreed outcome of the talks that matter.
We won’t be requiring anyone to recognise us until after the Yes vote at the earliest but more likely after the talks conclude satisfactorily. The absence of recognition before that need not concern us.
This idea that anything other than an agreed S30 referendum would amount to UDI is simply wrong and politicking. Cherry and other SNP bods are trying to get Sturgeon to threaten a ‘Plan B’ scenario to pressure Johnson to concede a S30 in order for the process to be orderly. WM doesn’t need more disorder after Brexit.
So don’t mistake the politics for the reality of how we COULD become independent outwith a S30. Johnson needs ideally to understand that we can and will go there. The problem with Sturgeon is nobody believes she would. That is a problem. New FM or Sturgeon ditching the “legal S30” rhetoric would change the game.
The more talk we can generate about Plan B schemes the better.
Phydaux – spot on. Exactly this.
Hopefully shirley-anne somerville will not be re-selected.
To the fence-sitting MSPs – no amount of sophistry will save you. Speak out now for tomorrow will be too late.
That Herald article.
link to archive.is
A wee video on behalf of Marco Biagi’s campaign for selection. Quite clever using the woman from the 2014 “eat your cereal” video but when she says about Nicola, “She’s genuine, you know” I think, really??
link to facebook.com
BREAKING NEWS:
The NEC have stepped in and cancelled Cunnighame North’s hustings following last week’s announcement by leadership preferred Osama Saeed or Osama Butta announcement that he was suspending his campaign.
link to ardrossanherald.com
@susanXX: “despite Faney’s reassignment surgery he still has no common life experiences with women that I can see. Please tell me where you disagree with this.” Well if Faney has been living as a trans woman since 2016, I’d go for ‘little’ (or maybe ‘some’) and not none? And thus in this case I think it can be left to the members to decide what they think about it.
Muscleguy says:
23 October, 2020 at 10:02 am
@Abalha
The mode of our achieving independence is not what the international community will look at. They want to see an agreed and orderly transition with WM. That is how we will be judged. The trick is not to UDI…
I agree.
A UDI has connotations we neither need nor want.
Scotland as one signatory in a bilateral treaty between two constitutional equals, has a sovereign right to exit the Union and thereby end the Union, and nobody except Scotland (or England in it’s reciprocal capacity) can exercise that sovereign right.
Furthermore, if Scotland was to declare the Treaty of Union breached, citing Scotland’s unconstitutional Brexit subjugation, I don’t believe the UK / English Parliament under Queen Lizzie, would have any constitutional leg to stand on and formally object or dispute Scotland’s rights.
Thus Scotland neither requires England’s, or the International Community’s permission or consent to terminate the Union.
Because the Union would not then exist, I do not believe the International Community could simply continue to ‘recognise’ the UK, because the UK would not exist.
In my inexpert opinion, if the Union Treaty no longer exists, then the International Community would be obliged to recognise the separate Kingdoms of Scotland and England as they were before the Union.
It would be unlawful if they didn’t, and set a terrible precedent and rod for their own back if they did anything else.
The one caveat, which I confess to know little about, is why the Union survived the repeal of the Union by Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was the legitimate heir to Scotland’s throne, and his revokation of the Treaty should have stuck. But who was there to serve justice on the military Superpower of it’s day, the British Empire, which didn’t give a fk about anybody’s constitutional rights or sovereignty.
One more constitutional injustice suffered upon Scotland, but in the 18th Century, there was a cacophony of colonial injustice going on.
That was then. This is now. The concept of International law is more mature and orderly now… I think.
… And just to add.
UDI isn’t the only innappropriate terminology you hear banded about.
The demise of the UK Treaty of Union would NOT be an act of secession, Scotland would not be the seceding state, we would not be ‘separatists’ in the way Brexiteers were never described as separatists because they wanted to leave Europe.
Scottish Independence is not an act of creation, it is not the birth of a new Nation, but the end of Treaty which has an old nation shackled at the ankle.
Well said, phydaux. Sturgeon and Somerville go back a long time. Somerville joined the NEC of the YSN at the same time as Sturgeon took over from Robison as convener.
Its not possible to live as a woman. You either are one or you aren’t. How other people treat you has no effect on what you fundamentally are, your sexed body. It just means that sexism is still a thing. And largely transwomen simply don’t pass. So they are treated as transwomen – whether positively or negatively, that’s still going to be a male experience of sexism.
Its perhaps slightly more complex for transmen as testosterone is truly transformative, and while young enough, passing boyishness is very achievable for them. In that sense they may receive treatment similar to many men. They still aren’t male though, and the only type of living as a man they can aspire to is triggering sexist levers in society. That has nothing to do with biological sex.
All that said I 100% support their wishes to dress and present as they wish. Good luck to them. If it were possible to change sex, I wouldn’t care in the slightest that people wanted to. But its cruel to pretend its possible when its not, and wrong to expect others to pretend that it is possible, or that being born in the wrong body is a thing. You are your body.
It is a shame that the TRA organisations aren’t open to third, stigma free mixed sex spaces which they and their supporters and many others could all use. It seems to be the perfect solution for all.
I don’t really understand laws about treaties and such like, but there is one comment that had me thinking (I know, careful now).
“Furthermore, if Scotland was to declare the Treaty of Union breached, citing Scotland’s unconstitutional Brexit subjugation.”
Now I understand exactly what that means, but as the EU did not exist at the time of the Treaty of Union, would that not make the Brexit argument irrelevant, considering that the EU Referendum was held as a UK-wide vote, and that the Treaty of Union did not include anything about leaving the EU?
I’m not trying to start a war here, but trying to imagine how it might play out in court. I just worry that every time a valid legal argument is raised, it is overridden by other legislation.
Allium 11.40
The transactivists are not open to third category spaces because its not about the spaces
Its about who uses the spaces
They want into those spaces BECAUSE actual females use them
If actual females decided to stop using their current safe spaces
They wouldn’t be interested in them either
I still can’t understand this wonky woo-hoo gibberish that haunts the SNP and the Stonewall/Mermaid loonies.
Trans means transition from one starting point to an end point. To be a transwoman you have to start off as a biological male.
After vacating your womb/home for nine months, you don’t as a nought year old baby start up a discussion with the nurses and doctors as to what your sex is..!
They check whether you have a penis or a vulva, boy or girl, male or female.
One or the other of the only two possibilities as to your sex.
Gender has nothing to do with it. Gender is how you as a person, later in life, may wish to express your inner feelings, which may or may not diverge from your actuall sex.
If, in this case a biological man (Faneh) feels and wishes to be become a woman and is prepared to do everything, incl. the necessary surgery, then that has to be respected and supported.
Self-ID and then trying to muscle in on the domain of biological women is just deceit.
There is nothing wrong with UDI. It’s a phrase that describes a state declaring its independence, nothing more.
It’s not a description of a legal or illegal process. What is important is the legality or illegality of the process preceding the UDI.
In my opinion, Scotland resiling the Treaty of Union appears to me to be a legal and legitimate way of achieving independence.
Beaker, you ask an interesting question.
A core principle of the Treaty of Union was that All parts of the UK would be able to trade with other parts of the world on the same terms as any other part of the UK.
The Withdrawal Agreement – signed with the EU – but could just as easily be signed with America, or Mars… allows Northern Ireland to continue to trade with the EU on EU standards, but not rUK.
A fundamental breach of the Treaty of Union. The fact that (as a block) the EU is a relatively new trading partner – does not seem to me to be part of the argument.
The ‘it was a UK wide vote’ argument would have more oomph to it, if the vote in Scotland had been more mixed, but since every single part of Scotland voted to Remain, and since we have a reconvened parliament to represent us and negotiate our democratically expressed wishes (hence the reason Holyrood is in real danger) I would suggest that theme does not have too much going for it.
If the ToU had stated – all parts of the UK to trade on the same terms – with existing trading blocks only, and any new trading blocks set up, the different parts of the UK could negotiate their own trade deals separately – then your concern might have merit, but then with over 300 years of UKtogetherness – one would have to ask, where are the examples of that happening before? They do not appear to exist.
Hope the above makes sense. Kind regards.
-Daisy Walker-
Sounds a watertight case to me.
FFS, Nicola’s about to burst into ‘We’ll Meet Again’…
@Daisy Walker says:
23 October, 2020 at 12:22 pm
“Hope the above makes sense. Kind regards.”
It does! But I think I will leave the legal stuff to the QCs and stick to spreadsheets. 🙂
Stop the Scottish Government redefining “woman” to include men – a Crowdjustice fundraiser by “For Women Scotland”.
Lorna Campbell has posted the link on Ian Lawson’s blog today, along with her usual thoughtful analysis of the problem we are faced with.
So 5 levels, numbered 0 to 4. Was this system designed by computer scientists? It looks like we are preparing for eternal restrictions, where the Scottish Government has always been at war with Covid.
Somewhat tongue in cheek, but not entirely, unfortunately.
Latest post from Iain Lawson and it’s a guest post by Lorna Campbell .
* THE LEGAL FIGHT-BACK IN SCOTLAND BEGINS *
IAIN Lawson’s blog is full of information and facts on many topics, not least independence, and it has also shown support for Scottish women’s plight under the onslaught of the GRA Reform legislation that has been put to one side for now, but which is certain to make its appearance again after the 2021 Scottish election, especially if there is a large win for the SNP.
As most people who are avid blog followers know, but, as much of the wider population of Scotland does not appear to know, there is now a serious threat to women’s very existence from the proposed GRA reform and ‘hate crime’ legislation, which may seem as if they have been set aside, but that is actually far from the case, and a big win for the SNP, in 2021, will almost certainly see them revived with a vengeance
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
And a link to the FWS crowdfunding page .
link to crowdjustice.com
Regarding the posts on the treaty above, the treaty makes it clear that we’re an equal partner not a subordinate. England has acted in bad faith since day one in treating us like a colony. As Daisy said above, it doesn’t matter that the EU didn’t exist in 1707, the “breaches” are in the way we’re treated irrespective of whether it to do with the EU or any other entity.
England is just another signatory. They don’t have any right to remove us from the EU without our say-so. Any trade deal which allows Northern Ireland to trade on EU terms but not Scotland is a breach of Article 6; it wouldn’t matter who the other entity was, whether it was the EU or the USA. Nicola Sturgeon is being badly advised. If we went to the EJC, England wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. The English establishment know full well that they are acting ultra vires. They obviously can’t believe their luck that the Scottish Government have been somehow stymied.
@ Beaker
Any signatory party may withdraw from a treaty (ECJ 2018) when it is no longer in its national interest and/or when its alliance partner does not behave honorably (Hamilton & Herwig 2004).
A majority of Scotland’s sovereign national representatives, much as they agreed to the Treaty, may therefore lawfully end the Treaty.
Sarah @ 12.48 pm
Me @ 1.01 pm
Sorry I missed that you had mentioned Lorna Campbell’s post on Iain Lawson’s blog , I’ve put up the link to the FWS’s crowdfunding page so hopefully posting it here will help to raise awareness of their case .
At least they are standing up for our rights as women .
Yesterday (4.27) I posted this link:
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
It didn’t get much reaction here. I also tweeted the link and received a Direct Message from someone asking why I had posted it and what I thought it meant. I replied that it appeared to show that ‘lockdown’ exacerbates mortality.
What follows is the compiled replies. The author has given me permission to share this on condition that it remains anonymous. I haven’t altered the content in any way, nothing has been omitted.
Please read without prejudice:
Alf @1.08 – who would have thought that we’d eventually end up in this position with a majority of SNP parliamentarians who won’t act. The founders of the SNP would have loved to have been in this position, but they were obviously real leaders.
I was never a fan of Nicola’s leadership but I knew the day after the 2016 brexit vote when she went junketting off to the EU that she was being badly advised. That was the start of the ill-advised “stop brexit” for the UK nonsense. We should have gone down the legal route re the treaty after it became clear that England was going to force us out of europe like an English shire county.
@Ian Brotherhood
Yes. But David Icke.
Gotcha.
So Sturgeon said at her daily Covid briefing today that politicians shouldn’t criticise Civil service staff. Apparently not even if they cost the taxpayer over half a million pounds, as Leslie Evans has, not to mention what the real cost (must be millions) of the failed set up of Alex Salmond.
Meanwhile the other woke ran party the Greens are holding their conference today, Harvie’s aspirations reach the mighty heights of overtaking SLAB for third spot at Holyrood. With cherished dreams like that who needs independence.