Alba

My apologgies about "exonerated" - I'm not a native English speaker and I had understood it to mean cleared of legal blame or guilt, which Salmond was. I understand sometimes the Scottish legal system uses different words in different ways and I may have made a mistake here. My point still stands: as far as the public knows, he is not guilty of a crime.

MissBarbary, thanks so much, but I didn't ask a how a feminist would vote because I thought you were one and wanted your personal advice, but because this is a board about feminism.

Mn is notorious for its anti Scottish independence stance, so no surprise there is little support for Alba here. Apparently once a man has been accused of a sex crime, he is forevermore a guilty sex pest regardless of what the courts find or what evidence there is.

That he didn't have a sexist bone in his body?
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sturgeon-rejects-sexist-jibe-about-salmond-8z359l5vh2m

In relation to Salmond being "exonerated" I find myself in the odd position of actually agreeing with what Sturgeon said about him.

I was interested to see that 2 women (one from Women's Pledge) had moved to the Alba party.

I would have doubts about Salmond, because he is obviously like other men in positions of power, more than happy to use it to behave "inappropriately" towards women.

But dont forget that the other side of this is, not specifically the SNP (or was it?) but Government officials who leaked the private testamonies of the women making the allegations. There is still a lot of anger over this. Yet again "women's issue" only being talked about when they can be weaponised to use against political opponents. I thought Nicola Sturgeon was really bad in her answers to questions about this. Everyone goes on about how wonderful it was she stuck it out for 8 hours. Well it was 8 hours because she would never answer a question directly. Right at the start she could have apologised to the women betrayed by the leak, and said there would be a review of procedures.

Has Alba actually said what their policies with regard to GRA and the hate crime bill are?

I believe they will be setting them out soon. Anecdotally though they believe women are adult human females. They're holding a women's conference at the start of April if you want to interrogate them properly

Just to be pedantically accurate.

'A jury found the former SNP leader not guilty on 12 of the sexual assault charges facing him, while another was found not proven.

A further charge of sexually assaulting a 10th woman had previously been dropped by prosecutors. '

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52004285

Salmond was exonerated

Er, no. He was found not guilty.

How is a party leader responsible for someone endorsing the party? I am sorry to say this, but you're being ridiculous. Once again: who do you suggest feminst vote for?

Sheridan has said he has joined the Ecksit party. Parties can and do vet applications for membership and can and do reject applications. If Salmond had any sense of decency he would reject Sheridan.

I don't vote for the most feministy party but if that is your concern- then go for Conservative.

I have no idea who to vote for. There’s a tiny number of candidates who I feel are supportive to my concerns, but no overall party. I don’t particularly have a view on Independence (I’d look at the arguments at the time of any referendum but am wedded to neither the union nor to independence), but I can’t stand Sturgeon and I can’t stand Salmond. If Alba managed to wipe out the Greens, I think that would be a good thing on balance as I think they are top of the vile party list. Otherwise I say bleaugh to all of them.

Has Alba actually said what their policies with regard to GRA and the hate crime bill are?
The blatant attempt to game the electoral system , and they openly say that, really pisses me off.

The fact is he has Tommy Sheridan in tow is hilarious. Alba is not a credible party that I would trust ever.

Indy would, of course, mean all laws are made by the Scottish Parliament. It would mean the Equality Act and single sex exemptions would no longer apply.

I mean, there's absolutely bloody nobody that I will be happy about voting for, it's going to be the least worst option.

Yes!

You're not being asked to "support" them, provide a character reference, or marry them.

You just have to chose the best / least-worst among alternatives.

Saying "X is icky" in isolation is not helpful - you have to say why Y is better than X.

Concrete facts that might make people regard a particular candidate as totally unsuitable as a person regardless of stated policies and are worth presenting, but I'm not seeing them.

And one side note - it's a parliamentary system with regional lists. You're not voting for Salmond unless you're voting Alba in the region he's standing in.

Mrsjayy: Please don't advocate holding noses to vote this nonsense Alex salmond and cronies don't give a flying fig about "women's rights". Don't be blindsided.

OK, and who in the Scottish Parliamentary elections DO give a flying fuck about women's rights, and have demonstrated that they do?

I would rather stick pins in my eye than vote for Alex salmond ! Do we really think him and his supporters care about women or just they are GC so that is good enough?

I'm not voting indy but if I was, Alba would get my vote. Policies, not personalities.

How many times have we heard that we should vote indy even if we hate NS or AS? People can be voted out. Womens rights won't be won back once they're given away.

So what alternative do you suggest, Mrsjayy?

Vote for the SNP, who wish to erase women from policy altogether?

Vote for Labour, who ditto?

Vote Green, who ditto?

The only alternative is the Tories. I'm also not convinced they give a fig about women's rights.

It's not like there is much choice, is there?

Please don't advocate holding noses to vote this nonsense Alex salmond and cronies don't give a flying fig about "women's rights". Don't be blindsided

I have problems with Salmond from his history as leader of the SNP, from decisions he made then. (Trump's golf course, for example).

I hear from a third party source that Salmond is not very woman friendly, but agree that this is not something I can verify and he was cleared of charges.

In the end, I am going to vote on the basis of policy, politics, and likelihood of protecting women's rights. That's it. It's not a personality contest.

I mean, there's absolutely bloody nobody that I will be happy about voting for, it's going to be the least worst option.

Such fine words- still can't get away from the fact the leader of this party is Alex Salmond.

Who I gather is the Scottish politics equivalent of JK Rowling, right?

Trying to get to the bottom of why he's Bad feels very similar.

She's anti-trans, cos I heard she wrote a thing, from some totally reliable sources; he's anti-women, cos I heard he did a thing, from some totally reliable sources.

MissBarbary: Such fine words- still can't get away from the fact the leader of this party is Alex Salmond.

Can you or anyone tell me what is wrong with Alex Salmond versus the leaders of any other political party standing candidates in the Scottish Parliamentary elections? Salmond was exonerated, and there doesn't seem to be much evidence that that was a mistake. It seems the SNP have had an absolute avalanche of sex pests, Conservatives and Labour have had too many, and the Greens' leader had a crazy misogynistic meltdown that's preserved forever in the official archives. Liberal Democrats have gone crazy discrediting women, claiming it's just one person responsible for all the criticisms of their misogyny using false names.

If someone here is genuinely a feminist in Scotland - who to vote for (not against), and why?

If you think that trans women are more of a threat than creepy men politicians then you should check out the news on politicians and sexual harassment and assaults vs trans women.

Could you please provide evidence for your statement? I haven't seen this statistical comparison. I've seen plenty of news stories and anecdotes regarding sexual assault and harassment committed by both groups. (although obviously not all politicians and not all transwomen etc.) I don't know who I'd feel safer with, but then I think it's rather important tnot to know that. It's important to trust your own body and intuitions in determining whether a person is safe rather than deciding in advance that some particular group of men is safe to be around.