It cannot be denied that at present the YES Movement is fractured. Similarly, there is no love lost between many of the supporters of the SNP and the Alba Party. The SNP itself is in the middle of a schism. There is a band of MPs, a few MSPs and a certain section of the membership that are at war with anyone that does not buy into The Stonewall/Queer Theory Doctrine. It has become so bitter and hateful that the attacks on Joanna Cherry have become common place and now in public for all voters to witness.
Out for Independence, the official LGBTQ+ wing of the SNP, broke ranks to call for Ms Cherry’s expulsion from the party.
The group tweeted: “Out for Independence calls for the removal of the SNP whip from Joanna Cherry MP and echoes @YSINational’s (Young Scots for Independence) calls for an independent investigation into transphobia in the party.”
The move was backed by SNP Students, which criticised Ms Cherry’s “direct opposition to the SNP’s stated policy on conversion therapy”, and referenced “a number of other actions and comments in recent months” that led to the call.
On Twitter, the group wrote: “It is clear by her actions and comments that not only does Ms Cherry oppose the party on a number of areas of policy, but she is content to undermine the party and the leadership in these areas.
This direct attack on Ms Cherry was sadly endorsed by several of the SNP MPs her so-called colleagues at Westminster.These nondescripts are not fit to tie Ms Cherry’s shoe laces, let alone demand she is removed from the party. It is them that should have the Whip withdrawn and come the next selection meeting they need rejected by the ordinary members.
This attack directly contravenes the SNP Constitution and rules. Those that penned this should, according to the rule book be hauled up in front of the conduct Committee and reprimanded if not expelled.
Sadly, as with all political parties involved in Westminster and Holyrood there are rules for some and no rules for others. Indeed two of the MPs that signed this direct abusive attack on Ms Cherry are Alyn Smith and Stewart MacDonald. Back in 2019 these two were very vociferous in their attacks on their own side using the pejorative term ‘cybernats’ when talking about on line abuse. Now here in 2021 they have actually joined in on line attacks on a much respected MP. They are not Cybernats this lot are Cyberbrats!
We all need to step up. This is allowing us to be portrayed in a certain way that’s damaging,” Mr Smith added he believes that when pro-independence social media users are abusive and insulting, all members of the Yes movement should “call them out and send them to Coventry. Make them persona non grata forever – off you pop, you aren’t one of us if that’s how you behave”. Time you took your own advice Mr Smith and off you pop, and take the other deadbeats with you!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48167413
Yet here we have these two and several other of their colleagues on social media demanding the expulsion of arguably their most talented and certainly their most popular MP with the general public.
Ms Cherry’s ‘crime?’ She tweeted this.
Now to most of the general public and me, this seems exceptionally sensible position to adopt.
Let me be clear before a pile on begins. I am not suggesting dysphoria does not exist. I am saying that many of those undiagnosed are actually struggling with their sexuality not trapped inside the wrong body. It is perfectly natural, and we all go through puberty, it is a confusing and stressful time for many. Being helped through this by a professional is not a crime. It is not transphobia, homophobic or any other kind of ism. It is good sense and best practice. Ms Cherry spoke wise words and if you asked the overwhelming majority of the public they would agree.
Sadly the Gender Fanatics in the SNP do not allow any deviation from their Stonewall dictated position. Anyone that doesn’t completely submit to their doctrine is a target for harassment, bullying and now it seems expulsion.
This could, of course, all be ended by a single statement from the Party Leader and First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Tragically, up until now she has remained silent as the attacks have intensified against Joanna Cherry or any other person that tries to speak up for women’s and children’s rights. From that we can only assume she approves of the bullying and abuse Ms Cherry receives daily.
This ideology has not only divided the SNP it has spilled into the wider and much larger YES Movement. Gender Politics has replaced Independence as the SNP raison d’etre. This as you can imagine has not played well with those that support Independence. That is why we now have three independence parties vying for the voters approval. The SNP, Alba and ISP. These latter two parties only came into being because of the inactions and actions of Sturgeon’s SNP. The action of eroding women’s rights and promoting Self-Identification. This is what brought the ISP into being. The inaction on Independence is why the Alba Party was founded.
The fundamental wing of the SNP have en masse decamped from the SNP into Alba. These are the people that were the most active in the SNP. The ones that delivered the leaflets, knocked the doors, manned the street stalls, raised the funds. Frustrated that after six election victories, six mandates and Brexit that the SNP had not moved a single inch from 2014 on Independence.They decided drastic action was required. This is why the Alba Party came into being.
Even then in May the Alba Party tried to reach out to their ex-comrades in the SNP to unite and form a super majority at Holyrood. Not only was this offer of unity rebuffed the SNP knowingly adopted a position of enabling a Unionist/Tory landslide victory on the Holyrood List rather than find common ground with another independence party. This has only increased the rancour and widened the divisions, within the movement.
We now have two distinct camps in the YES Movement. This is a very sad state of affairs. In 2014 the unity of purpose in the YES side led us to within a whisker of independence. However, from November 2014 onwards and for reasons not yet apparent to us all, Ms Sturgeon systematically destroyed that unity of purpose and has factionalised the movement.
We have certain individuals like the SNP President, Mike Russell suggesting that we need unity in the movement and that he will talk to all shades of opinion within the YES Movement, except of course, Alba, ISP or anyone that holds any alternative position to anything that the SNP deem policy. When anyone asks him why he won’t talk to Alba or ISP it usually ends up with a twitter blocking. Funny way to achieve unity!
This division is just one of the many reasons that if Westminster were to grant Ms Sturgeon her fabled Gold Standard Section 30 Referendum, we would lose! Divided movements or political parties never win. Mike Russell is correct we need unity, however neither he nor his Party Leader seem capable or willing to bring about that unity.
The Gender fanatics within the SNP it seems do not even want unity within their own party. This action against Ms Cherry only confirms to the non SNP in the YES Movement that Stonewall ideology is more important to the SNP than independence.
A reckoning is coming, it may be the Council elections next year. It is though more likely to be the UK General Election of 2024.The schism within the movement will result either in huge SNP losses and big gains for the Unionists or the SNP being replaced by other independence parties.
Should there be victories for the Unionists it will be played for all it is worth. A false narrative will be deployed suggesting that the Scottish people have abandoned independence and have returned to the bosom of Mother England’s Imperial tit! This is, of course, not the case. The Unionist vote has a ceiling, it will not be broken. Unionism has no growth, only decline. Tactical voting will be deployed to maximise their seats. Just like 2017 when Sturgeon fought the worst ever election campaign in SNP history our vote may well stay at home. It is more likely to split over SNP and Alba.
By 2024 when the UK General Election arrives the ALBA Brand will have had 4 years to gain recognition. The SNP infighting and purges will show the electorate a divided party. The public will also by that time be aware of the implications of self-identification and the danger posed to women in their previously safe spaces. The extent of the MAP influence in school sex education will also become common knowledge. These two factors alone are enough to damage the SNP massively. More delays on implementing a course towards independence will also harm them.
One has to hope that just like the UK General Election of 1918 when SF replaced and destroyed the IPP the same happens to the SNP replaced by a Party or Parties that once again put independence front and centre.
This division I highlight should not bring any great comfort to the Unionists. Their gains will be short lived. If 2014 Referendum and 2015 General Election taught us anything it is this, Scotland is never going back to unionism. It has nothing of worth to appeal to the people.
We have asked them time and again, ‘What is the positive case for the union?’ We have never received a reply. Nor has a single unionist ever been able to give a single credible answer to the question. ‘Name three things that can only be achieved by the British Union that cannot be achieved by an Independent Scotland.’
For their part, the English Imperialists and their little House-Jock helpers are too full of bile and hatred to capitalise on the divisions in the YES Movement. They think sticking the boot in will bring us to our senses and make us return to the back of the bus and silence.Guys, it is not going to happen!
Independence is a given, all that remains is the when and how.The Union is finished, we just need a route to our goal. At present much as it hurts to say it, we are now further away from independence than we were in Sept 19th, 2014.
Delivering newspapers to every home in Scotland or the SNP winning a few more Council seats in May won’t move us forward an inch. Expelling talents like Joanna Cherry will derail, not advance the cause. Putting men into women’s safe spaces will not gain us our independence, nor will it convince those elusive Soft No voters Sturgeon keeps using as a shield against independence action. We do need unity. We do need common purpose. In time that will come. The present leadership of the SNP either needs to dramatically change course or resign. The SNP was founded with one thing in mind, Independence, nothing else!
The SNP are truly beyond saving. It’s time JC left and joined ALBA. What exactly is going through the minds of these young radicals? Ok, students and young people are revolting, it’s a phase, but this one has been manipulated way past healthy, and a minority cult has taken over like a cancer raging though the whole body of the SNP. Well done Nicla, ya did it..! The job of the British state is complete. What next, a leaflet with a free carrot in every pack. Oh YES, that’ll do nicely.
As i said on Wings Over Scotland some time back and recently on Grumpy Scottish Man sturgeons job for her london masters are to
1 Destroy Alex Salmond
2 Destroy the yes movement
3 Destroy the SNP
4 Destroy the Scottish economy and put Scots off of independence
5 Destroy the apetite for Scottish independence
We will never gain independence while sturgeon and her trans fanatics are in power. You only have to look at the way she displayed herself at COP26 a so called first minister running around like a groupie at a pop concert getting selfies 84 in number i hear. That is not how the first minister of my country should be acting, nothing but a total embarressment in front of the whole world she has no morals no dignity or self respect. She has even less respect for you and me. I hope the seeds she has sown will come back to haunt her at harvest time and she is were she should be now languishing in jail. We see you sturgeon, robertson, blacford, blackman, wishart and we will not forget your actions and inactions in the fight for INDEPENDENCE.
The Unionist have given a sigh of relief! They no longer have to express a positive case for the Union. The merely sit quiet now as the various factions of the YES movement throw rocks at each other.
If you listed every issue that the People of Scotland wished to debate e.g. Nuclear weapon removal, Nuclear Energy use, EU, EFTA, NATO, Ferries, Foreign Affairs, Taxation, Currency, Sex education in Schools, Religion, Child hunger, Welfare, Pensions, etc etc you would get a massive variation in opinion and suggested solutions.
The job of a leader is to point out that we currently have zero or minuscule input into these issues in the Union and Independence would give us the Right to decide.
If you set Sturgeons fixation with the TransCult to one side for the moment and substitute another. What if Sturgeon demanded WMD sites would be leased to the UK for 50 years OR she stated that rUK would remain in control of the grid and able to levy a charge on renewables OR that the Water in Scottish Lochs was a shared asset OR that the Monarchy would be retained in perpetuity in Scotland. What would the result be?
The Primary role of a leader is to maintain unity and have the focus on the primary task.
Ghandi wanted to hold “India” together. London engineered/promoted division.
Ireland requires no explanation here.
The Middle East, Malaysia, Africa – division,division,division
So why did Sturgeon decide to divide the YES movement? Why did she launch the attack on Alex Salmond? Why did she destroy democracy within her Party which makes a leadership challenge impossible? These are not the actions of a leader. These actions suggest quite different motivation.
I totally agree with you, Geoff. I’ve been convinced of Sturgeon’s loyalty to the Union since I discovered that Leslie Evans sat at her right hand. No more proof required.
I just cannot understand why so many SNP politicians are glued to her…….but I’m not including the “crofter” who is no more crofter than the Slipper or Smith. ( His little videos showed him up as a complete fraud. The real crofting fellow + working collie were visible away behind a gate in the background while your man was puffing towards the camera with an empty pail! ) When you think about it – what a collection!!
Then this should please you , how long though till we find out for sure he is just another Sturgeon stooge ? https://news.stv.tv/politics/new-top-civil-servant-for-scottish-government-announced?fbclid=IwAR3EhHdQgwDZtWOqRxnpyXQdOkQAl938SOkEmhjmTE8JvBgvK0zMJKrWAso&top
How much Scottish taxpayers dosh did Sturgeon stuff down Leslies knickers as a leaving present ?
“Why did she launch the attack on Alex Salmond ?”
Probably because Alex started it ? Its often said attack is the first line of defence, there is nothing like a previous lover scorned they say after all. He could have apologised but he didn’t so Elsie went for the Nuclear option.
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,alex-salmond-urged-to-apologise-over-edinburgh-fringe-sex-joke_7542.htm
We have created a monster in our hunger for Independence. Sturgeon now has absolute control over Holyrood. The legislation over the next few years will be shaped by her opinion and view of the World.
Absolute Power corrupts absolutely !
Sadly true!
“We should not make it a criminal offence for therapists to try to help people with gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their own skin”?
That’s the comment they find offensive?
Why would that line of approach by a therapist be criminal activity? Why?
I would like whoever finds that objectionable to be questioned and asked to justify their position.
Great article but “The fundamental wing of the SNP have en masse decamped from the SNP into Alba.” I don’t fully agree with that, many have but many have not – yet. I am one and I know more than a few others in SNP branches who are reluctant to jump ship after decades in the SNP. Their loyalty is on the verge of extinction and I believe a further exodous is very likely but what the catalyst will be is not clear but distinct rumblings are becoming louder by the day.
What the SNP leadership need is a big fright and next May’s council elections may provide such an opportunity by voting other than SNP, which might bring some to their senses before the more important GE in 2023/2024. Forget a referendum as it will be lost – it has not been sold to those who need convincing to buy – 7 wasted years since 2014 – for many of us, a lifetime of endeavour “down the pan” – for what?
Alin,
It is difficult to leave after decades of loyalty. All I would say having eventually being pushed too far and leaving the Party is that the real loyalty should be to Scotland
The final straw(s) for me were rigged NEC for the TransCult. Rigged MSP selection lists,(Primarily to remove Joan McAlpine), dodgy audits and Rule changes to destroy democracy in the Party.
I walked the same path so I know at some point you have to realise you can’t recover the Party due to the manipulated internal rule changes.
I’m of the opinion that the gender debacle at the heart of the SNP is in aid of diverting attention away from Scottish independence, Sturgeon appear quite content with the SNP’s NEC being controlled by the genderwoowwo brigade, Sturgeon must also know that the GRA will divide not only the SNP party, but opinions in Scotland, thus damaging the indy cause, is that her intention, probably if you ask me.
As for Ms Cherry, the attacks continue even from within her own party, as they did on Joan McAlpine, and Sturgeon will do nothing to abate them, as you say it must suit her, maybe she fears Ms Cherry as a possible new leader of the party.
The likes of Alyn Smith, and Stewart McDonald are now deeply embedded in Westminster’s etiquette, they constantly do Westminster’s bidding in attacking Russia and China, Johnson doesn’t need a dog when he has these two to bark for him.
👏👏👏👍
I can’t recall who said it, but the fact is that we are living through an epidemic of narcissism in the West. The potential for widespread infection among our youth has been building for at least a generation. Narcissism centres the person in his or her own world, but also in the outer world, where other people are mere shadows to be commanded and threatened if they don’t do as the princes and princesses want. The truly appalling part of all this is that it is older people who created the epidemic, who lead it and who exploit it – both males and females. They are the narcissists par excellence. I won’t name names, but they exist in all walks of life: influential men, plus their handmaids-cum-aunts, whose egos are bigger than Mount Olympus; who are fawned over by media types and Big Tech with an eye to their lucrative jobs and Big Bucks; and who refuse to condemn the worst examples of the cruelty their followers practise on those who speak out against them.
Joanna Cherry is not stupid. Ergo, she knows what she will have to do if she wants to remain relevant and if she wants to continue in her political career: she must challenge Nicola Sturgeon by either moving over to ALBA (and she will take others with her if she does) or by signalling a challenge to the leadership. Both are risky moves career-wise, but she will soon be unable to remain in politics if she does nothing. The trans warriors and the SNP propaganda machine will see to that.
Denton’s, international lawyers, set out the trans strategy and the vicious cruelties and co-opting of youth and children that had to accompany the autogynephilic, middle-aged, middle-class white man persona in order to justify it all, so no one should be under any illusion that the trans lobby means business – literally – because the people who are really behind this (and it’s not Stonewall or the Scottish Trans Alliance, and so on, who are the mere foot soldiers while the generals are well in the rear out of sight) are all bastions of the new wave of predatory capitalism that is coming to an NHS and other public services, particularly single-sex female ones, near you.
Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Prosthetics, Big Medicine, Big Insurance, et al, all fund the trans movement across the West. The media has been hi-jacked and propaganda pours out like Goebbels’s propaganda machine on stilts. A woman like Joanna Cherry can make a sensible and rational comment on social media, and that corporation will close her down. A deranged trans warrior can threaten to kill women if they don’t agree that trans people are the most marginalised people to ever walk the Earth bar none, and he is lauded as a brave and stunning example of shining victimhood. That’s how narcissism works: many men who are corporate movers and shakers are narcissists themselves and/or psychopaths (many psychologists/psychiatrists agree that not all narcissists are psychopaths, but that all psychopaths are narcissists). They, too, are the very centre of their own universe and others exist to serve their needs and wants.
Anyone who actually believes (and I don’t believe that many do, even many trans identified men, know perfectly well that they are autogynephiles and fetishists and that their reasons for wanting access to women and children might not be entirely wholesome, but, hey, if listening to a woman pee turns you on, or the thought of a young teenager menstruating and changing her tampon gives you thrills of pleasure, what is there to worry about, folks?) that allowing trans identified males to enter women’s private spaces and single-sex rights is perfectly safe or respectful, or even just sane, you really need to have your one brain cell checked out pronto. The Scottish government’s initiative of putting tampon machines in male loos is not going to entice young women with beards into male toilets, not if they don’t want to put themselves at risk, and you are at risk at five foot nothing and have a vagina, and fools nobody with even a modicum of sense. Mind you…
Could it be that the SG actually wants women and young girls to be hurt in their female spaces, to be perved upon, and wants to entice trans identified females with vaginas and amputated breasts into male spaces? Well, they did allow a man who had lied in his CV to remain in his job at a rape crisis centre, then allowed him to be lauded and given a promotion, all the while as he listened, no doubt closely, to women’s testimony of their abuse in intimate detail. They, and the overall head of that government-funded facility, an auntie-cum-handmaid, actually lauded this individual’s bravery and stunning victimhood which he had overcome to ‘woman-face’ (no less gross than black facing) himself into a job that the law states quite categorically should never have been given to him. Grayson Perry, who has never claimed to be a woman, has given us huge insight into this kind of male behaviour: he wears a wide-fitting dress so that he can walk around free of blushes. Work it out for yourself.
The Scottish government is a disgrace to the SNP name and history, and the people who are in the positions they are in because people voted for them to govern and to bring in independence are being cheated and made fools of by this mob who never, from 19 September, 2014 onwards, had the slightest intention of bringing in independence. Trans issues were always their priority, and that should tell us a great deal about them and their devastating social engineering tendencies. What is it with politicians that they believe they have the right to interfere in the lives of others to the extent they do, and all in the name of virtue-signalling nonsense that will probably not affect them very much while causing untold harm to the people they are supposed to be representing?
So, the chief wallah for colonial administration has let it be publicly known she thinks the development of the Cambo oil field ought to be shelved. The truth is, of course, the chief wallah ‘s opinion is totally irrelevant as she hasn’t got a damn thing to do with the decision, one way or the other. Her transparently empty statement was for the sole benefit of her Green mudguard and her C.V., the one she’ll proffer when she goes for that big job at the U.N. or somewhere else equally as high-profile and lucrative. Failing that, I’m sure she’d be happy enough to end her days with the title, Baroness Dreghorn, or some such other title awarded for services to the British state.
Sturgeon has got to go.
I predict Sturgeon’s most ardent supporters are about to turn on her. She can’t fire Ms Cherry as she would lose even more decent members. And if she does nothing the unforgiving, unreasonable, incoherent genderwoowoo will leave and criticize her “transphobia” incessantly. They are spoiled brats and will behave in exactly as you would expect.
This is a monster of Sturgeon’s own creation.
The genderwoowoo are now on the back foot . The leader of stonewall has admitted that you can’t change sex. The sheer idiocy of the genderwoowoo is being exposed. Their imbecilic utterances will hopefully haunt them for ever. I know I will never forgive or forget the abject cowardice of my SNP MSP and MP.
And on a happier note, I’ve just been contacted and asked (they believed I am a member – I left a year ago) if I would deliver the national leaflet for the SNP. As a founder member of Alba – I declined.
The true membership numbers will do for her.
“It is perfectly natural, and we all go through puberty, it is a confusing and stressful time for many. Being helped through this by a professional is not a crime. It is not transphobia, homophobic or any other kind of ism. It is good sense and best practice. Ms Cherry spoke wise words and if you asked the overwhelming majority of the public they would agree.”
Thats all very logical and true Roddy , there isn’t any sense getting your knob sliced off then changing your mind about it later on. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20191007/Hundreds-of-trans-people-regret-changing-their-gender-says-trans-activist.aspx
Not quite how I would have put it, but I get your point.
The numbers of men having any kind of surgery is very small. It is females – who don’t have knobs and wish they did, apparently – who get the surgery most of the time. Most of the trans identified males have neither surgery nor hormone treatment, so they are biological men who claim to be women without doing anything at all to alter their masculinity.
Trans identified females, on the other hand, because when you think about it, how could they do otherwise and survive in masculine circles, get their breasts removed and take testosterone which destroys their inner sexual organs. In other words, the transitioning of men is, “hey, I’m a woman” and the transitioning of women is, “chop everything off and destroy all traces of my femaleness”. Well, who’d a thunk it? Even after all that, they still don’t throw trans identified females – those with masculine muscles, beards, masculine voices and atrphied female sexual organs – into the lion’s den of male prison.
They don’t do that because they would last about two minutes before being sexually abused every which way. But, hey, men ladies who have raped and sexually abused females and children are perfectly safe in female prisons even whn they are still biological men with no hormone treatment at all.
The fact that over 95% of trans identified males do not get their knob sliced off, while over 95% of females do get surgery and hormone treatment is, wouldn’t you think, Arthur, suggestive of some dynamic going on here? Say, the dynamic of, “I’m keeping my d**k because it signifies that I’m a man while claiming to be a woman, and I need it to f**k females, straight and lesbian”. The contradiction right there. Most of these cross-dressing men will not admit that they are autogynephiles and get very, very angry when someone points out their duplicity.
This is what gets me: both women and children who identify as being trans are expected to undergo horrendous procedures and receive hormone treatment so that a bunch of trans identified males, who are just straight males with a kink or queer fetish, are validated by clinging to their, the women’s and children’s, experiences and co-opting them as their own, when their own are almost entirely sexual.
A Director of the DWP. A former operations director on the Universal Credit programme. That’s the new Permanent Secretary. FFS. Mibbe she could get him to tell her how to introduce the Scottish PIP replacement that her government have sent it back to DWP meaning disabled people in Scotland remain in DWP’s clutches years after its supposed devolution.
Sake.
Another of Whitehall’s finest sent in to run, or rather f-up the northern territory. Ain’t we the lucky ones.
Nobody gets “Sent in from WM ” its always the FM’s own choice of appointment. Leslie Evans worked on Sturgeons team for years before getting the Perm Sec job
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/nicola-sturgeon-appoints-leslie-evans-as-new-scottish-government-permanent-secretary
That is not actually correct. The FM is given a list of approved by London civil servants to choose from. From day one they are Unionist choices.
Not in the slightest bit true , think about it . Unionists wouldn’t choose an insider who already worked in Sturgeons existing Team for umpteen years already. Evans wasn’t a new addition to Sturgeons team all Sturgeon did was to promote Her , she did that because Sturgeon new already that Evans was a Republican and Nationalist just as Evans own Husband hasbeen a well known SNP Activist too.
Absolutely nothing wrong with being a Republican.
The Scottish Civil Service is, ultimately, under the control of Whitehall, Arthur. Evans was appointed in 2015. Evans was a ‘woke’ evangelist, like so many others appointed around that time. She might be a nationalist and a republican – although, somehow I doubt it – but these traits were, in any case, secondary to her ‘woke’ credentials. I can’t remember off-hand, but wasn’t she involved in local authority distribution of funding to various groups? She had been in Northern Ireland, I think, too.
We are getting got to the end of the year and still no news of Alex Salmond’s court case against Leslie Evans ; The Police investigation into the Daily Record leak and the missing £600k.
I’m beginning to get concerned.
No Alex Salmond Book either and all the talk of bringing Sturgeon down has also come to absolutely nought.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-claims-could-destroyed-24029543
Not even a rumour of legal threats either so i smell a rat.