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Original poster

Respect to Ash Regan for today in the Scottish Parliament.

92 replies

ArabellaScott · 03/02/2026 21:25

'The state has a duty to protect women and girls from sexual exploitation by abusive, dangerous men. If it does not act, I am afraid that all members will be complicit in that harm.
As I look around the chamber this evening, I see some MSPs sitting here who know that they should register an interest, but I am sure that they will not, for varying reasons. The vote on the bill is not a conscience vote, but I believe that it should be, as such votes have been for other members’ bills. I also see former colleagues and friends on the benches who I know back the bill and support the principle. I wonder whether they will have the courage to say so with their votes—I hope that they will.
Millicent Fawcett famously said, “Courage calls to courage”. The most courageous people in the Parliament today are the survivors of prostitution. They have called to us all. They have bared their deepest trauma and shame in the hope that we will listen to them and in the hope that we will save the next wee girls who are targeted to have their bodies accessed by entitled, abusive sex buyers. Will you finally heed their call to courage? Will you listen to and act for them? MSPs who hide behind the polished lies that are directly out of the sex trade handbook should be ashamed, frankly.
I want to address the point of harm. The only thing that would be harmed by my bill is the sex trade, and there is no excuse not to apply critical thinking and research to this debate, as other legislatures, even in the UK, have done and have told us about. They are watching this Parliament today.'

https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/recent-publication?meeting=20044&iob=201937

The Bill was voted down at Stage 1, by 64 to 54 votes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj2n7ylrgyo

*

https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/recent-publication?meeting=20044

OP posts:
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6
Christinapple · 05/02/2026 14:08

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GinaWhoLikesADrink · 05/02/2026 14:05

I watched Maggie Personperson speaking, and I wondered whether she's just thick. I don't know, but I do think she's incapable of independent thought. She is the Omnicause personified, and has adopted all the required opinions. I noticed she was wearing a rainbow lanyard, and was surprised not to see a keffiyeh too.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 05/02/2026 14:01

StellaAndCrow · 05/02/2026 13:29

WTF?
What the fuck did she even think she meant?

Cos it sounds like she means poor men could lose their jobs.

Show quote history

I think the 'working people' referred to are 'sex workers'. But she did also mention landlords, bizarrely.

OP posts:
StellaAndCrow · 05/02/2026 13:59

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:35

Maggie Chapman's contribution is worth recording:

'The Scottish Greens support workers—retail workers, hospitality workers, healthcare workers, care workers and, yes, sex workers, because sex work is work. It might not be work that one agrees with. It might not be work that one would ever do. One might never procure the services of a sex worker, but some people do that work. Many of them do it of their own free will. They find it meaningful and fulfilling work. It earns them a good living and puts food on their table.
...

Ruth Maguire

If prostitution is work like any other work, should we be offering it as work experience for young people? Should folk who are jobseekers have their benefits taken away if they refuse to do it?

Maggie Chapman

It is a different kind of work. Lots of types of work are not offered for work experience, to use the example that the member gives.'
...
Scotland for Decrim argues that only by fully removing punitive laws do sex workers gain “the power to choose when and how we work”, which is the power and the dignity of their labour that all workers should have.
Sex workers simply ask for that same treatment. As a Scottish Green, I believe deeply in harm reduction, social justice and bodily autonomy. Where sex work happens between consenting adults, I believe that the state should support them'

😜

Again, WTF?
"'The Scottish Greens support workers—retail workers, hospitality workers, healthcare workers, care workers and, yes, sex workers, because sex work is work. It might not be work that one agrees with. It might not be work that one would ever do. One might never procure the services of a sex worker, but some people do that work. Many of them do it of their own free will. They find it meaningful and fulfilling work. It earns them a good living and puts food on their table."

I mean, I know she's got an agenda, works actively against protections for women and vulnerable people, but does she really think this is a good argument?

StellaAndCrow · 05/02/2026 13:29

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:45

Maggie Chapman:

'Criminalisation is not a gift of protection. It is a threat to the rights of working people.'

WTF?
What the fuck did she even think she meant?

Cos it sounds like she means poor men could lose their jobs.

Grammarnut · 05/02/2026 11:35

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:41

And here is part of Michelle Thomson's contribution (warning, graphic)

'I accord respect to the women who are in the gallery today. The life that they live is thus. They are systematically raped, vaginally, anally and orally, multiple times a day. They are spat on, ejaculated on, urinated on and sometimes defecated on. They suffer repeated abrasions and injuries to their vagina and anus, often requiring medical treatment, are at a high risk of being slapped or punched and are 18 times more likely to be murdered. They are strangled, potentially until they are unconscious and often without even knowing that that is happening. They are verbally abused by the people who pay for access to their bodies and are at a high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and other serious infections. They lose most of their earnings to the pimp who is controlling them and become addicted to mind-numbing substances simply to endure the disassociation and develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Even if they escape, they struggle for the rest of their life to form trusting relationships with men. On the upside, they will learn that their most valued skill is performing, because their rapists require them to act as though they enjoy what is being done to them.
On that basis, who here would argue that that should be regularised? Who here would argue for the protection of abusers rather than of the women themselves, and who here would tell a constituent who cannot afford to put food in her mouth that the solution is to put male members in her mouth? No one.
We have privilege. The reality of prostitution will never permeate our lives, but it permeates the lives of the poor, the dispossessed, the trafficked, the vulnerable, the addicted, the homeless—the ones with no voice: exactly the people we are meant to speak for here. Is the extent of our collective ambition to make Scotland a better place that we will simply accept the entitlement of some men to demand the purchase of women?'

Totally agree with this brave speech. Who could in conscience vote to maintain that exploitation and protect the perpetrators?

Grammarnut · 05/02/2026 11:25

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 22:06

SNP: Kate Forbes
Labour: Mercedes Villalba, Jackie Baillie, Paul Sweeney, Pam Duncan-Glancy Con: Annie Wells, Alexander Burnett
Lib Dem: Jamie Greene, Beatrice Wishart
Ind: Colin Smyth

Did not vote.

Committed a sin of omission in not voting for the Bill.

RhannionKPSS · 05/02/2026 10:06

guinnessguzzler · 04/02/2026 22:14

Very disappointed to see Jackie Baillie in that list, I did think better of her. I'm beyond being disappointed by PDG.

As for Maggie Chapman, I honestly don't know how to respond. She is either entirely stupid or just, I don't even know tbh. Given the Greens support a universal basic income / citizen's income (or did at one point, who knows what they stand for now), wouldn't that be a better option for women who have no other option than prostitution? Does she honestly believe that this is a free and active choice for most of the women involved?

As I mentioned previously on this thread Jackie Baillie , deputy leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, has a daughter who is actively working to de criminalize prostitution, she is doing a PhD in that and is the political officer for Scotland for DECRIM, I think those facts had a bearing on her mother not voting at all!
DECRIM want a free for all for pimps and brothel keeping, the daughter was in the public gallery with the pole dancers and pimps on Tuesday evening during the debate.
Baillie is a snake , and this vote was a prefect example of words not deeds at Holyrood. Shame on all those who voted against this important bill and I’m grateful to those MSPs who made made the moral choice to support Ash, especially those who made upsetting but important speeches

guinnessguzzler · 05/02/2026 09:53

Well at least that way it will hopefully be difficult for them to get much done. Considering how much they fuck it up when they do try to do things, a Scottish Parliament that just doesn't do anything for a while would probably be good for everyone.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 05/02/2026 09:17

There are good and bad MSPs in almost every party. I'm in a safe SNP seat, so other parties hardly bother.

OP posts:
INeedAPensieve · 05/02/2026 09:07

ArabellaScott · 05/02/2026 08:24

I hope you get a decent choice, Weary.

Looking forward to seeing what oddbod Labour parachute into our constituency at the last minute.

My labour MP is pretty good, she spoke out about issues with Westminster and women's rights but I'll need to check who is standing for my area. Also looking forward to the canvassers coming and asking them why that speech by a fellow (brave) SNP colleague did not move all their colleagues to vote for the bill. And why. The real reason is petty spitefulness against Ash Regan but I want them to own it. Not that they will, whoever comes to my door will probably be mealy mouthed about it all but I'm going to make them squirm.

Seriestwo · 05/02/2026 08:42

I’m so disgusted by Holyrood I’d happily blow it up. I wouldn’t even need TNT, my rage would be enough.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 05/02/2026 08:24

I hope you get a decent choice, Weary.

Looking forward to seeing what oddbod Labour parachute into our constituency at the last minute.

OP posts:
WearyAuldWumman · 04/02/2026 23:14

WearyAuldWumman · 03/02/2026 23:03

I've just discovered that Neil Hanvey is standing in my constituency so I have someone I can vote for.

Damn. It's not confirmed. The list that I looked at was published more than a year ago.

It includes both Neale [sic - I got it wrong before] Hanvey and Eva Comrie. Both are excellent. Crossing everything that they're still both standing.

guinnessguzzler · 04/02/2026 22:14

Very disappointed to see Jackie Baillie in that list, I did think better of her. I'm beyond being disappointed by PDG.

As for Maggie Chapman, I honestly don't know how to respond. She is either entirely stupid or just, I don't even know tbh. Given the Greens support a universal basic income / citizen's income (or did at one point, who knows what they stand for now), wouldn't that be a better option for women who have no other option than prostitution? Does she honestly believe that this is a free and active choice for most of the women involved?

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 22:06

SNP: Kate Forbes
Labour: Mercedes Villalba, Jackie Baillie, Paul Sweeney, Pam Duncan-Glancy Con: Annie Wells, Alexander Burnett
Lib Dem: Jamie Greene, Beatrice Wishart
Ind: Colin Smyth

Did not vote.

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 22:05

Also, the ten MSPs who did not vote. They did not need to be there in person in order to vote. Ten votes would have swung it.

OP posts:
Grammarnut · 04/02/2026 22:04

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:45

Maggie Chapman:

'Criminalisation is not a gift of protection. It is a threat to the rights of working people.'

Another 'sex work is work' moron, I take it, since she voted against the Bill. Or does she mean the men who buy women to rape? Because that is who she is protecting, not the exploited women.
Prostitution and violence go together. There is no way to make it safe for the women being exploited but the Nordic Model does make buying sex less attractive and offers a way out of their exploitation for the prostituted women.

Back the sex and porn industry is not a good look, either.

Grammarnut · 04/02/2026 21:54

ArabellaScott · 03/02/2026 21:43

Against

Adam, George (Paisley) (SNP)
Adam, Karen (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP)
Adamson, Clare (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)
Allan, Alasdair (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
Arthur, Tom (Renfrewshire South) (SNP)
Beattie, Colin (Midlothian North and Musselburgh) (SNP)
Brown, Keith (Clackmannanshire and Dunblane) (SNP)
Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP)
Burgess, Ariane (Highlands and Islands) (Green)
Chapman, Maggie (North East Scotland) (Green)
Coffey, Willie (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP)
Cole-Hamilton, Alex (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
Constance, Angela (Almond Valley) (SNP)
Dey, Graeme (Angus South) (SNP)
Don-Innes, Natalie (Renfrewshire North and West) (SNP)
Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
Dornan, James (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP)
Dunbar, Jackie (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP)
Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
FitzPatrick, Joe (Dundee City West) (SNP)
Gilruth, Jenny (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP)
Gougeon, Mairi (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP)
Grahame, Christine (Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale) (SNP)
Gray, Neil (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)
Greer, Ross (West Scotland) (Green)
Harper, Emma (South Scotland) (SNP)
Harvie, Patrick (Glasgow) (Green)
Haughey, Clare (Rutherglen) (SNP)
Hepburn, Jamie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (SNP)
Hyslop, Fiona (Linlithgow) (SNP)
Kidd, Bill (Glasgow Anniesland) (SNP)
Lochhead, Richard (Moray) (SNP)
MacDonald, Gordon (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP)
MacGregor, Fulton (Coatbridge and Chryston) (SNP)
Mackay, Gillian (Central Scotland) (Green)
Mackay, Rona (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP)
Macpherson, Ben (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (SNP)
Martin, Gillian (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP)
Matheson, Michael (Falkirk West) (SNP)
McAllan, Màiri (Clydesdale) (SNP)
McArthur, Liam (Orkney Islands) (LD)
McKee, Ivan (Glasgow Provan) (SNP)
McLennan, Paul (East Lothian) (SNP)
McMillan, Stuart (Greenock and Inverclyde) (SNP)
McNair, Marie (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP)
Minto, Jenni (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)
Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Nicoll, Audrey (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP)
Rennie, Willie (North East Fife) (LD)
Robertson, Angus (Edinburgh Central) (SNP)
Robison, Shona (Dundee City East) (SNP)
Roddick, Emma (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Slater, Lorna (Lothian) (Green)
Somerville, Shirley-Anne (Dunfermline) (SNP)
Stevenson, Collette (East Kilbride) (SNP)
Stewart, Kaukab (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP)
Stewart, Kevin (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
Sturgeon, Nicola (Glasgow Southside) (SNP)
Swinney, John (Perthshire North) (SNP)
Todd, Maree (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP)
Torrance, David (Kirkcaldy) (SNP)
Tweed, Evelyn (Stirling) (SNP)
Yousaf, Humza (Glasgow Pollok) (SNP)

Shame on every one of them.

Let's call them what they are, supporters, aiders and abetters of rape.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:45

Maggie Chapman:

'Criminalisation is not a gift of protection. It is a threat to the rights of working people.'

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:41

And here is part of Michelle Thomson's contribution (warning, graphic)

'I accord respect to the women who are in the gallery today. The life that they live is thus. They are systematically raped, vaginally, anally and orally, multiple times a day. They are spat on, ejaculated on, urinated on and sometimes defecated on. They suffer repeated abrasions and injuries to their vagina and anus, often requiring medical treatment, are at a high risk of being slapped or punched and are 18 times more likely to be murdered. They are strangled, potentially until they are unconscious and often without even knowing that that is happening. They are verbally abused by the people who pay for access to their bodies and are at a high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and other serious infections. They lose most of their earnings to the pimp who is controlling them and become addicted to mind-numbing substances simply to endure the disassociation and develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Even if they escape, they struggle for the rest of their life to form trusting relationships with men. On the upside, they will learn that their most valued skill is performing, because their rapists require them to act as though they enjoy what is being done to them.
On that basis, who here would argue that that should be regularised? Who here would argue for the protection of abusers rather than of the women themselves, and who here would tell a constituent who cannot afford to put food in her mouth that the solution is to put male members in her mouth? No one.
We have privilege. The reality of prostitution will never permeate our lives, but it permeates the lives of the poor, the dispossessed, the trafficked, the vulnerable, the addicted, the homeless—the ones with no voice: exactly the people we are meant to speak for here. Is the extent of our collective ambition to make Scotland a better place that we will simply accept the entitlement of some men to demand the purchase of women?'

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 04/02/2026 21:35

Maggie Chapman's contribution is worth recording:

'The Scottish Greens support workers—retail workers, hospitality workers, healthcare workers, care workers and, yes, sex workers, because sex work is work. It might not be work that one agrees with. It might not be work that one would ever do. One might never procure the services of a sex worker, but some people do that work. Many of them do it of their own free will. They find it meaningful and fulfilling work. It earns them a good living and puts food on their table.
...

Ruth Maguire

If prostitution is work like any other work, should we be offering it as work experience for young people? Should folk who are jobseekers have their benefits taken away if they refuse to do it?

Maggie Chapman

It is a different kind of work. Lots of types of work are not offered for work experience, to use the example that the member gives.'
...
Scotland for Decrim argues that only by fully removing punitive laws do sex workers gain “the power to choose when and how we work”, which is the power and the dignity of their labour that all workers should have.
Sex workers simply ask for that same treatment. As a Scottish Green, I believe deeply in harm reduction, social justice and bodily autonomy. Where sex work happens between consenting adults, I believe that the state should support them'

😜

OP posts:
HildegardP · 04/02/2026 19:57

RhannionKPSS · 04/02/2026 07:22

I noticed that Sturgeon voted against the bill , no surprise there, interesting to see Dame Jackie Bailie, deputy leader of Labour didn’t vote …could that be because her daughter is active in the De Crim movement I wonder….?

IDK if that's why JB didn't vote but on several issues I am tired of politicians putting indulgence of their own daft brats ahead of the common good.

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 04/02/2026 16:31

My thanks to her for trying, I too was cheered that 54 voted for, but I'm disgusted that 64 voted against, and the reasons they voted against is the worse part it of it all.
We don't have politics any more just tribalism.