Ruth Davidson

[fruitlovingmonkey]

In today's Times she is being touted as the next conservative leader. A quick google brought up a speech in which she praised Justine Greening's work on trans rights. Does anyone know more about her personal views on self ID, etc?
Is there any hope that she could turn out to be gender critical? I'm pinning all of my hopes on the Torys turning around.

[DJLippy]

Never trust a Tory when it comes to gay rights or women's rights. 86% of austerity cuts have fallen on women. I've never understood why gay people would join the Tory party. Lesbian is a double whammy. Then I saw what 'woke' brocalists are like...

[HollowTalk]

Ruth Davidson is gay.

[Winewinewinegin]

There is a big difference between people who are aware of and have had a chance to think through properly the kind of questions brought up by places like WPUK vs those who are not aware being pro-current proposals.

I am pretty sure she will be pro trans rights, as pretty much everyone currently involved in the debate is - it just depends how you define rights doesn't it?

I hope she gets a chance to talk to transwoman like Kristina Harrison and Debbie Hatton about how they see trans rights, and to women like WPUK, FairPlay etc as well as the TRA lobby view from Stonewall et al.

[TulipsInAJug]

I have a lot of time for Ruth Davidson. She'd make a great party leader. Let's get in touch with her and make her aware of the gender critical viewpoint.

[Ritzsaltedcrackers]

I think she could definitely be persuaded- she is an intelligent woman.

[DJLippy]

I think the issue is that most people support transxual rights and they think that the debate is about denying these people their rights. Trans as umbrella term is so expansive that when people say they support trans rights to use bathrooms what they're actually swaying is that transvestites can use women's bathrooms and if you have a problem with this you're a transphobe.

I am not sure how much Ruth Davidson has learned about these issues, I wouldn't think she's a natural rad fem even if she is a lesbian.

[Winewinewinegin]

She seems great.

[misscockerspaniel]

There has recently been a thread about how the Scottish Government wants to re-define "female". I am sure that someone said that all the Tories voted against. Can this be clarified?

[LassWiADelicateAir]

The Conservatives at Holyrood voted against the gender equality on public boards Bill because they do not support enforced all women short lists or preferential treatment for female applicants. I agree with them.

[iismum]

I'm be astonished if Ruth Davidson doesn't understand the bill fully - I think she's well informed and clued up. I also think she's an ambitious career politician and, whilst I wouldn't be surprised if she personally has her reservations about trans issues, I would be very surprised if she'd publicly push a line that is against the current zeitgeist and likely to damage her.

[TulipsInAJug]

I don't think it is 'the current zeitgeist'. I don't think that at all. Women haven't even been consulted (hence the petition), it hasn't reached wider consciousness. It's being pushed by an aggressive, fanatical minority, and being taken up by those who wish to be liberal/lefty/'on trend' /whatever, but it is not the zeitgeist.

[fruitlovingmonkey]

It seems to me if she hasn’t ‘come out’ in support of either side yet, this could be a major opportunity for gender critical feminists. If we could get her on side now she could become very influential in 2022.
I also believe the vast majority of the electorate will be gender critical when it is explained properly.

[ReappearingWoman]

Have a look at the Scottish parliament website for details of any committees she's on or attended meetings. I don't have time to link now but a lot of the LGBT committees have minutes of their meetings with attendees listed. I can't remember if Ruth was involved last time I checked but they've mentioned the GRA stuff/the consultation & you'll get a sense of what's gone on.

[kalinkafoxtrot45]

Rape clause apologist. There’s no way I’d vote for her in a million years.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

Perhaps a constituent could arrange to attend a surgery?

[LassWiADelicateAir]

You can view the parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill on the Scottish Parliament web-site. There were 2 Conservative MSPs on the lead committee which considered. They were luke warm from the outset and ultimately chose not to support it.

A labour MSP , Mary Fee , raised concerns about the Bill being trans exclusionary. Patrick Harvey was not on the committee but raised that point in Parliament (including in getting a nasty little dig about it might lead to a better type of politician than Theresa May)

I don't know, because I can't be bothered trawling through all the minutes, if the Conservative MSPs considered this point - probably not as they took the view the Bill was fundamentally wrong.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

She's frequently on Twitter... twitter.com/RuthDavidsonMSP

[SonicVersusGynaephobia]

Patrick Harvey was not on the committee but raised that point in Parliament (including in getting a nasty little dig about it might lead to a better type of politician than Theresa May)

Urgh. He's such a woman-hating, odious little twerp.

[LassWiADelicateAir]

To be clear in Parliament Patrick Harvey supported Mary Fee's point raised in committee.

[Ritzsaltedcrackers]

Patrick Harvie is a vile misogynist.

[nauticant]

"I also believe the vast majority of the electorate will be gender critical when it is explained properly."

You'd think so wouldn't you? But I'm surprised again and again by progressives being exposed to this issue and them going out of their way not to learn more, to keep themselves ignorant, in case they "catch transphobia".

[CharlieParley]

As a Scottish voter, I've been following Ruth with interest, quite liked her at first as she's very sympathetic and it certainly was a brilliant quirk of fate to have so many gay and lesbian party leaders at the same time, but she's disappointed over and over again. She seems perfectly happy to declare a position publicly one way and then turn completely the other way as soon as its expedient.

IMHO her reputation in the rest of the UK is wholly undeserved, but as barely anything she does is ever scrutinised, it's no surprise she's seen as a serious contender. Pops up to do interviews about Bakeoff but cannot be found when important political matters are afoot.

Having said that, this makes her no worse than any of the other politicians this country has been cursed with in recent years. As for the T question, she fully subscribes to TW=W but I would expect her to turn GC the very second she decides this serves her interests. May be worth pursuing for that alone.

[fruitlovingmonkey]

Interesting CharlieParley. I should have mentioned in the OP that I'm not Scottish and haven't really followed Scottish politics.
If she has a tendency to be a populist, that could work well as more people reach peak trans. I can see that a lot of people see the comparisons to gay rights/ "wrong side of history" argument and don't think too deeply. I just can't believe that the majority of people believe TW=W without any physical changes.

[Childrenofthestones]

"Never trust a Tory when it comes to gay rights or women's rights. 86% of austerity cuts have fallen on women."


Could this be because the majority of Government benefits go to women making it inevitable?

[LetsSplashMummy]

She's my MP and I think, although a good opposition leader, she lacks experience in being accountable for anything other than her ratings. She often makes comments on reinstating prescription charges, for example, using figures that are largely hospital inpatient prescriptions (so as practically relevant and accurate as the NHS brexit bus). If she presented an actual proposal that could be questioned, debated or criticised, I would respect her more - but she very carefully treads the "soundbite too general to argue against without sounding pedantic" line. I can see her saying "transwomen are women" very comfortably, especially if it is a popular sentiment with the electorate. Her main aim is to be elected, not any particular policy or values, and that's what she focuses on.

It is also worth noting that the Scottish government takes a lot of pride in being tolerant and modern. I think most Scottish politicians would shy away from anything that could be viewed as retrogressive, it would be braver and harder to stand against an expansion of trans-rights in the Scottish parliament than in Westminster where some people are openly anti-gay marriage or anti-abortion.

I also think it is worth noting that the speech she made about her disappointment over the DUP coalition was centred around gay rights and not a mention of their poor record on womens' rights, so I wouldn't be too quick to assume she'll have strong feminist views. I expect she thinks that being a woman hasn't held her back, so we just need to be more like her. I'd like to be proved wrong but she isn't a horse I'd back in this race.