A Guest Post by Denise Findlay.
There is a pattern of strong, feminist, left-leaning women leaving the SNP and joining Alba. This has caused some confusion for our sisters in other parts of the UK. They have been fed a diet of MSM inaccuracies and smears, so they do not understand the true situation. How can you join a party led by Alex Salmond they ask the answer is very simple; first he is an innocent man cleared of all offences by a female judge and a majority female jury and second his party offers us, our only hope of preserving women’s rights in Scotland. So, of course we support Alex Salmond and Alba. And, we ask every person who values women and girls to join us and give your list vote to Alba.
Up until the Alba Party launched the situation in Scotland was dire, we were heading for an SNP or worse a SNP-Green government which would mean the end of sex-based rights and the threat of jail for anyone that complained.
Now we have hope, hope that we can turn back the tide of these anti-women polices.
The Hate Crimes Bill has passed in Holyrood.It did not protect women from hate but it did produce a chilling effect on women’s freedom of expression, our ability to state biological fact and to defend women as a sex class. Freedom of expression is not freedom to offend. It is freedom to make your argument, without freedom of expression there is no democracy.
The Gender Recognition Act (GRA) Self-ID reform will impact women’s rights. Women’s rights are necessarily exclusive in that they do not include men so if the sex-class woman is broadened to include men this removes sex-based rights. The Government response to women’s legitimate concerns was a promise to ‘persuade’ better and the Hate Crimes Bill.They couldn’t win the argument,so they are making the argument a crime.
This gender ideology in our schools confronts teenagers with regressive 1950s sex stereotype and has led to a remarkable increase in children wishing to transition to the opposite sex. This involves experimental puberty blocker treatment which was recently outlawed in England but is still available in Scotland.
Scottish Government Gender Balance on Public Boards was challenged in court by ‘For Women Scotland’ a grassroots women’s campaign group. The case was lost, and women were redefined as a name on a utility bill. The case was crowdfunded by ordinary Scottish women but was opposed not just by the Scottish Government but also by Government funded bodies with unlimited tax payer’s cash. An SNP MP confirmed that a public board with 50% men and 50% men self-id-ing as women would be considered balanced.
The same SNP MP claimed that girls were targeted for FGM not because they were female but because they were ‘perceived’ to be female.
SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon has allowed a hostile environment for gender critical women within the SNP flourish unchecked, to the extent that even when one of her most capable MPs received a rape threat from an SNP member the leader said nothing.
Recently the Women’s Convener Caroline McAllistair organised a heartfelt letter to the SNP leader asking her to respect women’s rights and stamp out the toxic culture within the SNP. Sadly, many women, who signed the letter by giving their names to Caroline, asked to remain anonymous in fear of a backlash. The letter received a curt response from an SNP spokesperson.
For all these reasons and more women were not inclined to vote for the SNP. A campaign of spoiling the constituency vote was actively considered, with the constituency ballot papers being spoiled with stickers and feminist slogans.
The launch of the Alba Party changed the dynamic. Alba’s founders Cynthia Guthrie and Eva Comrie were strong advocates for women, and Chris McEleny had signed the SNP women’s pledge. The SNP Equalities Convener and the SNP Women’s Convener, Lynne Anderson and Caroline McAllistair both long term feminists and advocates for the rights of women and children, joined Alba as candidates. And Alba quickly became home for women so alienated and marginalised by SNP culture and policies.
So, how do we vote now?
Is it safe to use our constituency vote for the SNP? Well, it is safer, and we can look at the polls and as long as Alba looks to take a good percentage of the list vote then it is safe to vote SNP for independence. The Alba MSPs will protect the rights of women and girls. They will be able to work cross party and as there are enough SNP MSPs selected who prioritise these rights they will ensure dangerous legislation will not pass. And most importantly none of this will be able to be done in the shadows. If Nicola Sturgeon tries to remove our rights by stealth, the Alba MSPs will make sure she is held to account in the full glare of publicity.
Both votes Yes for an independence supermajority
I never really considered myself to be particularly feminist before. As a mother of a girl and a boy I always championed the rights of everyone, regardless of sex. That said, as a woman born born in the mid fifties, who grew up in the sixties and seventies, I welcomed the great strides my generation made towards equality, particularly for women in the workplace. As an example, when I graduated as a teacher, if you were a man in primary education you were almost guaranteed to be a headteacher within a fairly short time.
Anyway, suffice to say, the efforts of the woo woo wokies within the SNP made me realise that my rights, and those of every woman and female child, were being sacrificed on the bonfire of said wokies’ political ambitions and their adoption of fringe issues to further their own ambitions. I left the party.
Women are to be reduced to gestational parent, people who menstruate, chest feeders? Are women, like myself, who no longer menstruate, to be reduced to non people? Not on this particular WOMAN’S watch. Nor on the above champion of women’s rights, Denise Findlay. Thank God for women like you Denise. Our daughters and granddaughters will thank you and others who are prepared to become the modern day suffragettes.
Agree entirely Annie, we’re supposed to leave our children in a better place than we found it, not handicap them with less freedoms or reduced life chances.
Thank you Nelly. I’m ready to sign up for any action required.
Excellent article. Thank you Denise.
Thanks Denise. Unfortunately there are still some women, and indeed men, who think that the whole gender ideology debacle is just some sort of social media spat that isn’t actually happening anywhere in the real world. The same people accept the smearing of Alex Salmond as gospel yet are somehow deaf, dumb and blind to reality. I just don’t know how to get through to them.
I think the reason so many folk are able to smear Alex Salmond is that the eveidence of defence witnesses during his trial was never properly reported in the media, while the salacious prosecution stuff was on the front pages.
Meanwhile Craig Murray is facing possible jail for what he wrote while other journalists who revealed more about the complainants continue to write their bile. One example was on the front page of SoS which stated that Alex Salmond’s Alba party was intent on depriving the SNP of a majority.
Denise, thanks again for this clarity and humanity.
You are not alone in your fight for female rights. I cannot see how any reasonable person can stand by and watch the gender dangerous legislation being passed with anything other than horror.
Well… They have the Alba women to contend with now. And I for one, am right there with them.
All of this can be fixed… As quickly as any other tainted or unlawful process.
Respect.
The ALBA party philharmonic
Upon a distant hillside sees,
A saltire blawing in the breeze,
And on the breeze a storm is brewing,
A distant drumbeat thus ensuing,
A philharmonic this way comes,
An orchestra of pipes and drums,
And bringing with it in its wake,
A stir enough the ground to shake,
To shake awake a heart in slumber,
Without measure, without number,
With it bringing hope revived,
The ALBA party, has arrived….
Stirring stuff!
Brilliant, will steal that for posting EVERYWHERE..
Be my guest ;-D
Thanks for tidying up the format BTW.
An excellent piece Denise and thank you for it .Women’s rights have always been foremost in my political activism and this woke madness in the SNP just has to stop
I’m confused about something – When NS says she won’t work with Alba, is she saying that if the numbers were right, she would work with whatever Greens, Lib Dems and Labour MSPs there are? All 4 have pro self ID and devolutionist leaders. It’d be massively damaging for the SNP but that never stopped NS before now. If she tried that, is it likely that enough SNP MSPs would leave and join Alba to make it unworkable?
Ach I shoulda read the news about the leaders debate before commenting. Jeezus. Will it not sink the SNP?
If she does this she’s showing Yes voters that Alba members and voters were right – her indyref2 promises are a mirage.
After that what distinguishes the SNP from Labour and the Lib Dems? She’d be spelling out that the SNP is just another misogynist devo party that lies to Scotland.
And what will her refusal to work with AS look like as the stories seep out?
Thank you Denise. A great summary of where women are under the SNP.
I resigned my membership after the Hate Crime Bill passed through Holyrood.
I had already been writing to my MSP urging Women to be added to the list of protected characteristics. What a slap in the face to find that not only Women were excluded, but cross dressing men would be protected.
The FM can under no circumstances be described as a ‘Feminist’. I was someone who planned to spoil their vote. Got to admit I’m still undecided.
The significant change will be that NS + SNP will no longer be able to scheme in the shadows. If they want this evil trans ideology esconsed in Scottish society they will have to do so in the ‘glare of publicity’.
A great post Denise, I just despair at how adults with kids, both fathers mothers even grandparents don’t see what is happening to today’s children.. Because they are the ones voting for a party that are bringing this in.. When ALBA get their leaflets & posters out, I hope they splash this on them. As many people, especially busy parents never look at POLITICS on social media.. We have to Get this out before the election.
Thank you everyone for the comments.
I am so relieved Alba came along and the women that are standing and have joined Alba are amazing. One of my friends in my local women’s group is also standing. So it’s our chance to stop the erosion of our rights.
We have to fight the way our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers fought for us. Future generations must not be denied the rights we women through generations have fought for.
Denise, you have done an absolute power of work in trying to fight for women’s rights in Scotland and for party democracy – but I must take issue with this statement in your fourth paragraph:-
`Freedom of expression is not freedom to offend. It is freedom to make your argument, without freedom of expression there is no democracy.`
I’m afraid that freedom of expression DOES give you the freedom to offend.
1) Causing offence is not a crime
2) Causing offence is subjective – sometimes it has no witnesses, and even where there are, people do collude for their own reasons to make false accusations. I am sure that, even those who have not been subjected to these sorts of behaviours, can now recognise that perfectly normal behaviour can be twisted by people into offensive behaviour, particularly where those people have the power to do so, either through status or social connections.
We cannot afford to be loose in our descriptions and definitions, but this has been the pattern in public life in Scotland for too long. It has enabled a whole tranche of egregious behaviours to become commonplace within public services and society at large. One thing that particularly annoys me is that few people even question the meaning of `transgender`, when it’s a word that had no presence or status in public life in Scotland (or, indeed, in most countries) until the past 3 years or so. Institutional and policy capture does not happen without a great deal of networking amongst those who perceive themselves to be the `great and good` in society.
SORRY – COCKED UP WITH FILLING IN THE PRO-FORMA!!
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Denise, you have done an absolute power of work in trying to fight for women’s rights in Scotland and for party democracy – but I must take issue with this statement in your fourth paragraph:- `Freedom of expression is not freedom to offend. It is freedom to make your argument, without freedom of expression there is no democracy.` I’m afraid that freedom of expression DOES give you the freedom to offend. 1) Causing offence is not a crime 2) Causing offence is subjective – sometimes it has no witnesses, and even where there are, people do collude for their own reasons to make false accusations. I am sure that, even those who have not been subjected to these sorts of behaviours, can now recognise that perfectly normal behaviour can be twisted by people into offensive behaviour, particularly where those people have the power to do so, either through status or social connections. We cannot afford to be loose in our descriptions and definitions, but this has been the pattern in public life in Scotland for too long. It has enabled a whole tranche of egregious behaviours to become commonplace within public services and society at large. One thing that particularly annoys me is that few people even question the meaning of `transgender`, when it’s a word that had no presence or status in public life in Scotland (or, indeed, in most countries) until the past 3 years or so. Institutional and policy capture does not happen without a great deal of networking amongst those who perceive themselves to be the `great and good` in society.
Fion I agree I should have explained it better… ‘not just about being able to speak your truth even if it offends someone’
Great post Denise, and well done for the tireless work you put in not only defending women’s rights, but our right to independence through any means, not just the duplicity of SNP’s “Must Be s30” route.
A lot’s already been written by clever folk here that I would just be duplicating, so i’ll just add the following.
If we are to properly function as a society, with real and truly equal women’s rights, then we we must educate boys about girls rights from a very young age. Legislation makes society’s wishes official, but at a ‘human’ level, we should educate boys into assuming girls are equal by default, not as an exception, or a privilege to be bestowed.
We will go through a transition where many present day adults will need to take a step out of their comfort zones, and embrace a women’s equality as a human right. It may be held as legal on paper, but we still have some way to go to hold that right as a default in our society. The gender woo-woo determination to crush women’s rights is just one example. Long held traditions and assumptions will need to be re-examined in the light of a new perspective for some, and that may be difficult, but it is necessary.
At the moment, primary schools are being inundated, some might say drenched, in gender fetishist propaganda. We do not want a generation of children growing up confused about their own sexuality, or sense of identity. Life’s tough enough as it is for bairns and teenagers, with all the conflicting messages they get from media and peers, without making it worse.
More importantly still, we do not want our kids forced, by peer pressure, or Big Pharma sponsored gender programmes, to be taking drugs by default, particularly puberty blockers, which remain uncertain as to their long term effects. There’s plenty of evidence that shows young boys in particular can feel confused about their sex during pre and post-puberty, only to re-align themselves nearer twenty years old as they gain more insight into life and the society they live in. This is evidence that is deliberately hidden or smothered in any self-ID gender debate, not only by the fetishists, but their masters, in the pharma industry.
Yes, the gender woo-woo wave that is washing over science is not just a social movement. It’s a marketing ploy to sell more drugs.
Big Pharma is attacking our children and young adults for profit, and it seems the current ScotGov is happy for this to continue.
The Alba Party seems to be our last resort to prevent this from destroying our Scottish society from within.
Question for you Denise.
Are you going to vote SNP1 ?
If you are, you do realise that despite what you say here, the SNP/Nicola Sturgeon will take that as a clear indicator that you support their policies and direction of travel ?
Despite your explanations here, your vote will enable the very policies you have spent years fighting against ?
And if the SNP win enough seats for a minority govt, and Alba have wiped out the Green list vote, then Sturgeon will most likely be quite happy to use Labour and the Lib Dems to support her domestic policies if that gives her a majority vote to pass domestic legislation, especially GRA.
In that scenario, the Alba party can shout all it likes, it will be completely ineffectual.
I think too many people are concentrating on independence. This is not a referendum, it is a government election. In this scenario, Independence is only one of many policy areas.
What a powerful piece Denise which which I’m sure will be linked to as a great explanation of how some things have gone wrong in Scotland. This subject is not easy for a layperson to explain. How can the “thinkers” in the SNP have decided that GRA was a healthy way for the party to go, do they not have women in their lives who are important to them? I’m glad there are women and men out there who see this for what it is, a gross injustice for the rights of women. Thank-you for the sake of my grand-daughter.
I don’t believe that there are any ‘thinkers’ left in the SNP, Sandra, not ones who are willing to ask the very difficult questions and not be afraid to hear the answers. Intellectualism is altogether despised these days, and even the worst forms of intellectualism can be balanced by the best forms. Most of us have no issues with trans people. We want them to have the same rights as the rest of us. What we do not want is for one vulnerable group to be displaced in order to make room for another. This has never happened before in the history of human rights.
For example, although women’s advent into the workplace meant, of necessity, fewer jobs for men, we never, ever expected men to actually give up everything – at least not those of us who are not extremists, the latter, to a great extent, being responsible for the rise of transgenderism, by refusing to acknowledge innate differences between the sexes. It should have been more of a repositioning and sharing the available space. The trans warriors want women to move out completely, however, even if they don’t say that. Also, women did not claim to BE men. They fought for equal rights as women, half the human race.
That the courts should come to the conclusion that having trans women in the place of natal women is not contrary to women’s human rights is quite incredible. Both men and women could have been expected to relinquish a few spaces, in ratio to their societal numbers, to trans PEOPLE, men and women, in ratio to their societal numbers; that would have been fair; but to suggest that trans women, particularly those who have not transitioned in the least, would be able to have an understanding of women’s needs and priorities greater than, or equal to, that of a woman, based on no evidence whatsoever, is laughable. Or it would be if this was remotely funny.
Gender has never been quantified except in terms of societal impositions and structures. It has no biological definition and no one has ever defined it as such except in terms of ‘feelings’ alone. No scientific real, proven evidence exists anywhere to underline those feelings. If you made a scientific study of a person with true body dysphoria, you would find that every cell in his/her body aligns with his/her born sex and can never change. If we are to believe that the seat of this is in the brain, again, the evidence is sparse and partial and depends on who is analyzing the data. Anyone who has ever studied the Nazis will know that you can, literally, get people to believe anything.
Even German university professors were teaching eugenics, positing the ‘truth’ about the Ubermensch and the Untermensch (superior and inferior based on race and ethnicity, etc.). Did they actually believe it themselves? I really don’t think so, any more than the university professors who posited trans ideology, but it served a purpose, as does trans ideology, particularly to predatory capitalism: when you dehumanize people, you give yourself carte blanche to destroy them, sweep them out of the way, treat them differently, take away what is theirs, appropriate it to yourself: Lebensraum. The Great Confucius stated: “just as a back door is not a real door, a woman is not a real human being”.
Women and girls are being lined up for the Untermensch treatment in order to legitimize what is essentially a movement (trans ideology) for men – and their sexual preferences taken to the ultimate degree of so-called liberty to do as they like. Trans men are coming from a very different base, I think, and I believe that future study will show that to be the case, in many instances, albeit not, perhaps, all. They, too, want liberty – but from restrictions imposed on them by their SEX, AND their GENDER, a double whammy.
If women, and the men who support them, lose this war and trans ideology wins, that will be the final signal that our civilization is too weak to survive. Women are essential to our species’ survival, and not just because of reproduction, but as a balance to the competitive and predatory nature of masculinity – and trans ideology is nothing if not masculine in its essence. By all means, we have to give trans people room to live their lives, have jobs, rights, etc., but they cannot expect to take it all and keep it. It just doesn’t work like that. MOTHER Nature will intervene in the end.
Great piece, Denise, and thank you to BB for printing it.
Good article. I hope pressure is exerted on the SNP over the next few weeks, ideally to get changes of policy on these issues.
Sorry not Denise, but felt like answering.
I’d love it if we could get back to voting on other things. The majority want a vote on independence and voting in HR and GE elections is how we get that said.
The situation you describe can only be a brief victory for the SNP. If they collude with unionists this blatantly, acting directly against the wishes of the majority in Scotland who want a vote on independence, then they’ll destroy the SNP. The giant carrot mirage trick will never work again.
If they collude with unionists to block the route to independence, they’re telling their voters they are con merchants, and the SNP is just another devo party like Labour and the Lib Dems. What would distinguish the three parties? They’re all economically regressive and socially regressive – misogynistic, homophobic and anti working class. If you aren’t a TRA, then other than wilful naivety and tribalism, why would anyone who wants independence ever vote SNP again? Echoes of FF and FG in Ireland.
As the stories about NS and the inner circle of the SNP seep out, and as the realities of the HCB and self ID GRA sink in, the startling hypocrisy of NS blocking the route to independence by refusing to work with Alba will become obvious.
Sorry, above comment was meant to be a reply to tartanfever at 1.47pm
Kath,
Problem is, if the SNP manage to win a majority, which is essentially what the SNP1Alba2 strategy encourages, then it doesn’t matter what any of us say or do. It doesn’t matter how loud you shout, how many members leave the SNP or whatever, Sturgeon will have been voted in and will form the Government for the next five years. That is the gamble with this strategy.
After that it makes not one bit of difference how many list seats Alba get, they can do nothing to force the SNP to take any particular action. As a force they may have a loud bark, but no bite.
Even if there is an SNP minority govt they can still work on an issue to issue basis with any of the unionist parties, or with the Greens if they aren’t wiped out.
I believe Sturgeon will work with anyone except Alex Salmond she is that compromised. This is about survival for her, her husband and their friends – at any cost.
I also don’t think Denise is fairly pointing out the high risk involved with the strategy she describes.
Tartanfever,
Yes, I think she could do this too. It only works once, it’d destroy trust in the SNP. It might not even get her through to the next election.
If she has to cling on by any means and block routes to indy, and if there’s no way to remove the party leader, is it likely that more MSPs and MPs will move to Alba? Some will want to be in a party that delivers a vote on indy and not one blatantly colluding with unionists to block it. Some will be thinking of their prospects at the next election.
When AS says street protests might be needed, did he mean in order to pressure the SNP to work with Alba and call a plebiscite? looking for reasons to be cheerful.