Nicola Sturgeon throws Joanna Cherry under the bus

Apparently Sturgeon (FM) was at a meeting of the Scottish Government National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (yesterday?) when this happened:

LM: "This is astonishing. A businesswoman was thrown out of this morning's online meeting of the Scottish Government National Advisory Council on Women and Girls for asking questions about the provision of single sex spaces and impact assessments of policies affecting women and girls."

FW: "I expressed concerns from the business community about providing safe spaces for women as well as asking whether impact assessments had been conducted about introducing biological men and boys into women and girls prisons, sports, changing rooms, showers and toilets"

LF: "Is this the meeting the FM attended?"

HC: "The very one."

LF: "She was tweeting about it earlier"

JS: "FM attended the meeting of her self appointed coterie but couldn’t vote in the Lamont amendment vote? This amendment which gives female rape victims the right to ask for female forensic health care examiner? #GenderwangPriorities"

The first tweet above is a Quote Tweet and is protected so you won't see the first two tweets here:

archive.vn/nrsU6

On same incident, showing second tweet above:

archive.vn/oW6gS

Did Sturgeon fail to speak up at the meeting because she thought what happened was right and proper?

Is this the sort of thing she means when she talks about "transphobia"?

"(At the meeting of the Scottish Government National Advisory Council on Women and Girls) I expressed concerns from the business community about providing safe spaces for women as well as asking whether impact assessments had been conducted about introducing biological men and boys into women and girls prisons, sports, changing rooms, showers and toilets"

That's obviously not a case of Cherry supporting Philimore for allegedly anti-semitic tweets.

@Teentitansonloop totally. It’s not just SNP, every party in the UK is in essentially the same position. What I truly don’t understand is why it’s been so easy to throw women under the bus and why there’s so much support of this.

Jeeze it's the FAILURE of the SNP who have not mediated between 2 protected groups and left it to grass route orgs to speak up for women's rights. If theSNP
had drawn up proper policies we wouldn't have had to waste our time on the issue, never mind be accused of transphobia.

It's disturbing but tied in with the support by Cherry to the allegedly anti-Semitism tweets of Sarah Phillimore? I always try and fact check screenschots of tweets but couldn't on this occasion as SP had been booted off twitter.

I’ve never been an snp fan but was thinking of voting for them in the coming election because I liked surgeons handling of the pandemic and was warming to some of their policies and now I’m not so sure. I don’t feel any party represents me or has my back.

What sturgeon says on the face of it is entirely reasonable and fair. No one is wishing ill of trans people and no one wishes to deny them safety or safe spaces (at least not any I can see) however, the undertones to her message are strikingly clear and I do believe it’s aimed at discrediting cherry and women’s rights activists in the party because the youth had a strop and flounced.

I saw earlier that Cherry is the second most abused female politician on Twitter after Diane Abbot and the SNP leadership have done nothing to support her through this time. No videos have been made in support of women who have been verbally and physically abused at the hands of TRAs in their party. No apologies, nothing.

This is all a backlash from the minor amendment to the Hate Crime Bill where it was stated people would not be criminalised for saying there were only two sexes or discussing sex as a class (not exact wording). The TRA’s were up in arms at this after women celebrated a very small victory for common sense. This is The SNP’s official response. It’s a kick in the teeth for women’s rights advocates and for women in general.

I've given you my opinion- it's an attack on Cherry.

I'm intrigued at the idea of discussing the SNP and putting separatism to one side. It's their raison d'etre. They certainly don't exist for the good of Scotland.

I also think it is a calculated move to appeal to younger voters.

You have every right to post whatever you like but if people could temporarily put their opinions on independence to one side we could have a more useful discussion on what is going on in this faction fight.

[quote Whatdoyoudowhendemocracyfails]@MissBarbary, if you hate the SNP and think anyone who supports the party is an idiot this probably isn’t the thread for you.[/quote]
Really? I live in Scotland. What gives you the right to police who posts?

I'm delighted to see the SNP losing votes. Separatism is far more dangerous than anything transactivists could come up with.

”Support women my first minister. Support us bring us home”

I’ve always admired her. She seemed more grounded than many other political leaders and she’s a woman, which is still a significant disadvantage in politics. I was imagining, this evening, how it would have gone if she’d been the one to defend women’s rights. How we would have rallied behind her. That would have been a defining moment in Scottish politics. Now there’s just a mess, which is going to end with everyone worse off.

Saw her message

Wish she sent the same message to the women in her party who suffer sexist slurs and misogyny

Support women my first minister. Support us bring us home

Its because of the new amendment to the hate crime bill allowing free speech on transgender issues

This comes at an interesting time in SNP politics and I found myself wondering, as I listened, whether she might be about to use this as an excuse to resign. Given Craig Murray’s revelations, this does look like quite a good dead cat, thrown on the table, as it were.

She'll not resign in a million years. I can see her sacking almost anyone else to keep her position, though.

As for her speech, it was all pretty reasonable, as far as I can see. Of course transphobia is wrong and trans people should be protected from abuse and threats. Naebody is debating that. I suppose the only shite bit of her speech is not being clear enough that gc feminist arguments and debate over women's rights are not transphobia.

I immediately thought it was a push at Joanna Cherry.

Wings over Scotland points out Scotgov haven't done any work on independence or much else because covid, but have plenty of time to work on gender

wingsoverscotland.com/how-the-time-flies/

This is the second time NS has spoken up to defend the TRAs in her party. She does not speak out in the same way to defend women in her party, particularly JC, who receive vile amounts of abuse from TRAs / MRAs.

I agree with other posters that this may well be a distraction technique. Craig Murray has published his submission to the court today. If it is shown that NS conspired to use fake rape accusations to get Salmond out of politics for good that is abhorrent in a lot of different ways.

I wondered that although she doesn't strike me as the resigning type.

No politician is the resigning type until the moment comes when they have to resign.

The number of responses thanking her and demanding she "sack" Cherry and McAlpine is staggering. Everyone in Scotland who actually believes in this pish must be on Twitter.

“I haven't been following closely but I understand there's a lot going on re cover ups or such like to do with Alex Salmond.”

The allegation made is that the case against Salmond was concocted by an inner circle in the party and that Nicola Sturgeon didn’t just know, but was at the centre of the plotting. So quite a big accusation. No idea if it’s true, but the timing of this move, so soon after the accusation, is interesting.

Thanks Any. It was odd phrasing though. How can we have debate if it's one sided though?

I don’t think she was talking about “no debate” being a cover for transphobia, though that was how I initially interpreted it too. She was saying, in effect, that if there was a debate, then those in that debate mustn’t use the it as a cover for using “transphobic” tropes.

Thank you Any I had though she was declaring #nodebate to be transphobic which made me I think you’re right & she had an odd flow to her —totally off the cuff — speech there.

Basically open debate is good so long as women aren’t actually allowed to make any arguments

Female prisoners locked up with abusive males don’t worry her a bit but people getting the sads & flouncing get a special wee message.

So powerless so so voiceless

This comes at an interesting time in SNP politics and I found myself wondering, as I listened, whether she might be about to use this as an excuse to resign. Given Craig Murray’s revelations, this does look like quite a good dead cat, thrown on the table, as it were.

I wondered that although she doesn't strike me as the resigning type. I haven't been following closely but I understand there's a lot going on re cover ups or such like to do with Alex Salmond.

Somebody else is probably better informed to guess whether her time as leader is nearly up.

I find it utterly depressing that anyone supports the SNP. I seriously question their intelligence.

”NS talked about no debate being a cover for transphobia.”

I don’t think she was talking about “no debate” being a cover for transphobia, though that was how I initially interpreted it too. She was saying, in effect, that if there was a debate, then those in that debate mustn’t use the it as a cover for using “transphobic” tropes. She’s implying that gender critical women are unable to debate because they’re so unreasonable.

This comes at an interesting time in SNP politics and I found myself wondering, as I listened, whether she might be about to use this as an excuse to resign. Given Craig Murray’s revelations, this does look like quite a good dead cat, thrown on the table, as it were.