Scottish GC voters

Thanks Olly

Politics is hard.

Please don’t tip off Sturgeon and the SNP to anything that might warn them they are losing votes!
We need them to lose the election, in order to ensure Scotland’s future within the UK.
The thought of this corrupt, incompetent bunch running an independent country is horrific.
They can’t even organise an efficient vaccination campaign - we’re the slowest region in the whole UK and have had to be offered UK military assistance to speed it up.

I'd be up for this too, I just get the usual patronising guff from my MP Patrick Grady, I was thinking about emailing him over this but honestly don't have the energy.

Mundell's the one rumoured to have been meddling with the Salmond stuff?

Murrell! The Mundells are Conservatives.

I have a few friends within the SNP and they are largely cloth-eared about both this issue and also the threat to their reign by being so out of touch with general opinion. It is like a cult has taken over. It's like they don't want to hear any other views in case it changes their opinion.

I'm beginning to wonder if part of the reason for the "NoDebate" is not about shutting down Terfs, but because of a fear that they might be wrong and not want to hear it.

Absolutely no point in writing to Nicola Sturgeon. Anything GC will be weeded out before it gets to her.

(PS - proud TERF here, although don't believe there's anything radical about believing feminism is for women)

Interview with Andy Wightman

Quotes:

And when you talk about what it is to be a woman, I can’t imagine what that is, it’s not the same as being a man, but I don’t know what it is to be a woman, because I am not a woman, and I know this stuff matters a lot to a lot of people and it deserves to be taken seriously. It deserves to be the subject of mature debate.

...

Key people in the party have got some ideas about gender and sex that are not rooted in science and have moved to a space where sex doesn’t matter, and indeed, the minute you talk about it, you’re accused of being a bigot and a transphobe, which is, obviously, ridiculous.

...

[The vote] carried with it meaning and consequences for women who are daughters and mothers and sisters and victims, the like of which I can’t properly comprehend, and it seemed to be that the least I could do was to acknowledge that and agree. So that’s why, qualitatively, that was very different. Totally different.

Oooh good news 're Andy Wightman. He's an intelligent and courageous man - I'd admired his work on land reform and ownership before he joined the greens and since he's stood up for women s rights I'd vote form him in a heartbeat.

Here’s his letter.

He’s left the Greens because he voted in favour of the amendment to allow female rape victims to insist on a female forensic examiner, if that helps you decide at all.

I mean, I would' have voted for him as a Green because of the whole misogyny nonsense that goes on from that lot. But, if he actually comes out as GC, or at least says that he'll give consideration to women's legal rights, then Id vote for him

I see andy Whightman is considering standing in H+I as an indie.

I'd have voted for him if he stood in my area.

I'd be up for that. My constituency used to be a die hard labour seat but recently has been flipping between SNP and Labour.
There are quite a few local GC voters - we even got Joan McAlpine to come and chat to us.
I'd love a decent alternative!

God, sorry - I’ve posted on the wrong thread. Ignore me.

Wings has spotted something quite important about the stushie yesterday over releasing messages between Salmond’s accusers - Rape Crisis Scotland seem to have accidentally identified what they do for a living, creating a risk of jigsaw identification - the issue Craig Murray was in court for.

Also worth a read is Alex Salmond’s statement to the inquiry. Someone high up in the Scottish Government leaked the accusations to the Daily Record just as Salmond was trying to get an injunction to keep the allegations private. Now, there are arguments to make against injunctions but the proper place to make them would have been in front of the judge.

The whole thing stinks.

For anyone who wants to read the nitty gritty, I do recommend Wings over Scotland. The author can be very caustic but I've always found his information very accurate and informative.

NecessaryScene1 me too. In fact, I only learned that from this thread.

I've been involved in Scottish grass roots politics for years and also didn't realise this until last year when the Salmond stuff was in the news. I'm pro UK so didn't pay much attention to the SNP non MSP/MP hierarchy. It is wrong to have such a power block at the top though. They are always going to vote together and back each other up.

I guess all Scottish people just know that, so it's not mentioned much...

I don't think I was aware of this fact until a couple of months ago. Murrell isn't exactly weel kent.

I'm not Scottish, but I've been a long-time Craig Murray fan - he's one of the few non-GC folk I crowdfund - and I've recently started following Wings of Scotland, so I know a moderate bit about the SNP/ScotGov shenanigans.

But I only found out yesterday that this Murrell character neck-deep in the intrigue was Sturgeon's husband.

It's like I missed a crucial plot detail on page 24 of the novel. I guess all Scottish people just know that, so it's not mentioned much...

I find myself unable to tear myself away because every day there's some new jaw-dropping revelation. (A bit like following the whole GC battle).

Didn't manage to get into Game of Thrones. Seemed like it might have been a bit like this, but more dragony.

Nicola Sturgeon might pay attention to a coordinated campaign where lots of women and men who are SNP members or voters let her know that they will vote for someone else

The thing is that women/transpeople/anyone are just not what Sturgeon is focussed on. This is all internal gesturing, power play and power struggles. I expect right now Sturgeon and her husband Mundell are mostly focussed on the court cases that could see them both out of a job, by the sounds of it.

I am also extremely worried about the journalist threatened with 2 years contempt of court for reporting on the Salmond enquiry. The civil service being completely brazenly partisan instead of completely neutral, as it should be, and the mad mechanisms being used to manipulate, obfuscate and batter the political system into a shape that suits certain parties.

The scotgov stinks; I am actually almost hoping for a Westminster intervention. I wonder if that is possible.

So, actually I don't think pleas from voters, MPs or anyone is going to make much of a dent. This is politicians fighting for their professional lives, it's messy, complicated and really nothing to do with the electorate anymore.

Our govt is unstable and the whole situation is pretty disheartening.

Would it be worth getting in touch with SNP Women's Pledge to see if they can help with the letter writing campaign? Are they still going? I haven't seen anything from them for a while.

www.snpwomenspledge.com/

I guess Nicola Sturgeon might pay attention to a coordinated campaign where lots of women and men who are SNP members or voters let her know that they will vote for someone else.

I'm not a SNP member but happy to write something as well and pass on the info to others.

shorelinemaker you might be able to find like-minded SNP members via the women's pledge group I mentioned? Might make you feel less alone. And there's always here to rant about it all.

Maybe we can have two templates people could use - one for SNP members and one for those who aren't but who usually vote for them anyway?

I will await her unscripted video on twitter pleading with women not to leave the party and to "come home"....

Also up for this. Although I would never have voted SNP anyway because I don't support Scottish independence.

I'm up for this.

I will vote Tory if it gets the SNP out. I can't get past how they've betrayed women, I find it actually sickening.