Nicola Sturgeon didn't know her husband stole £400,000

[Imdunfer]

Really? She lived with this guy and didn't know? She had a camper van parked on the drive and didn't know he stole the money to buy it?

I don't buy it.

AIBU

And also questions about why resignations only happened after the journalist started asking questions. What about the years before that? How many people were involved in signing off dodgy figures in the 10 years before questions were raised?

Someone must have given the journalists the heads up

Yes, this is the issue, not whether she should have noticed what he was buying and how much it cost.

@RealFeminist
You've been quiet today Ol' Sturgz, has legal been on the phone 😅

Bollocks. She is another lying sack of shit. She should be in prison as well.

They didn't get married till 2010, though. Surely it wouldn't be necessary, by then, to marry for reasons of concealing one's sexuality.

That's what I've been saying. So many politicians are openly gay, including Ruth Davidson.

By that point they’d been pretending to be a couple for donkeys years so i assume that’s why the marriage.

I wouldn’t actually be surprised if one of the bigger rumours about him was circling around that time. There was one about him and and someone in the judiciary who would also have religious reasons for wanting their sexuality kept secret.

I’m not saying I agree with their reasons btw. I just think the assumption that a lavender marriage was somehow to protect her image isn’t the most likely option - if it was done to give some sort of protection to one of them I think it was more likely him.

Presumably it will all become clear as I can't see any reason for them to continue to hide their sexuality if that is what they have been doing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34910016

You should all watch this.

This is nothing to do with Nicola, Kezia or Ruth.

It's just a great documentary about being gay in Scotland.

And just to add, I actually think Nicola did love Peter.

Some people are more progressive than others. People still do lavender marriages, mostly for reasons of public image. Not everyone is the same, nor does everyone have an accepting family.

I'm certainly aware that the Scottish Government tried to argue that lesbians shouldn't have the right to exclude men from their associations, but I agree that the push back in Scotland was very strong and ultimately successful.

That reply has nothing to do with my post.

I was trying to share something that, in my opinion, is a fantastic documentary. It is so good that I highlighted it to my colleagues in Youth Learning to show to their LGBTQI group. Which they did. They, me or the documentary didn't single out a specific group like you have, And it has nothing to do with this obsession with one particular group.

It's a history of Scottish attitudes to anyone "different".

I can't understand why you made it about you tbh.

By 2000, young people were being openly gay - in my experience. However - as I've said elsewhere - by time I retired from my permanent post around 8 yrs ago, fewer girls were coming out as lesbians although boys were still coming out as gay.

Instead, I saw cases where girls temporarily came out as trans boys but later came out as lesbians - so maybe that suggests that it's harder for girls? I don't have any kind of study to back this up - it's just what I saw at work.

I have to say I do kind of understand it. Yes, by 2010 younger people coming up wouldn't / shouldn't need to hide their sexuality in most contexts but if you're already well known in a particular sphere, you might worry that coming out at that stage would not be well received and the focus would be on your previous 'deception'. Also, I seem to recall speculation that Ed Miliband only got married to support his Labour leadership bid (and the timeline seems to fit; he got engaged before becoming leader then married soon after). I think at the time the spin doctors thought the electorate wouldn't go for unmarried people, straight or otherwise, whether or not that was actually true. So it might not have been as straightforward as covering a particular sexuality but more to do with what was seen as desirable in a party leader ie straight and married. And yes people like Ruth Davidson were out there demonstrating it wasn't an issue but she is a lot younger than Murrell and even Sturgeon so it likely would have been easier for her to be out from early on in her career.

Saying that, I still find it most odd if it wasn't a genuine marriage that they continued once she became leader as that was surely much more problematic governance-wise. And I also wouldn't be at all surprised if there are worse things the marriage was designed to cover, I'm just saying I think given the timeline it's not ridiculous to think they might have thought the marriage would have supported them both to maintain high profile positions by avoiding speculation about their sexuality.

Your post was about being gay in Scotland and my post was about being gay in Scotland. My post related your post back to Scottish politics, which I think is relevant to the thread.

It's you that seems to be wanting to widen the discussion to Scottish attitudes to anyone "different".

I have no problem with that. I am not the thread police.

I think one factor in the decision for someone in the SNP to be wary of coming out back then is how much funding they were getting from Brian Souter.

He personally funded the Keep the Clause campaign in Scotland. He was also one of the SNP’s major donors.

Whilst NS backed the repeal ultimately she did give credence to his mailshot poll and say that the people of Scotland were wary of repealing and that it was a tricky/ difficult (I can’t remember which word she used) issue.

Suddenly outing yourself at 30 or 36 would inevitably attract questions about the other one, and questions about if that made them untrustworthy. Which given they’d spent years lining her up as the successor to Alex Salmond they were never going to risk.

It’s also quite interesting that Souter did indeed walk away from the SNP when NS became leader, then came back when HY took over.

I worked in a Scottish school. I wasn’t part of the school as I was EMA and WE coordinator for the council but my office was in the school. We had two trans children. Believe it or not, one was Muslim. They were a trans boy. See trying to get their EMA for them? It was extremely difficult because we could only award it on their birth certificate and both were adamant that their birth certificates were wrong. I had to get them both to come to me and explain that I wasn’t being difficult or anti trans, I was just trying to get them their £30 a week.

Eventually got there.

I, personally, can’t get my head around being trans. BUT, people used to not be able to get their heads round being gay.

After watching “it’s a sin” and seeing the way those poor young men were treated when they were dying, I will never treat a person like that.

Trans people are someone’s sons and daughters, so I will treat them with respect.

I recall having the reverse - I told a senior trans boy that they'd need to formalise their change of name in order to have their new name on their exam records. I was thinking of university and/or job applications.

They declined. After leaving school, they reverted to their original female identity...so I do wonder how much peer pressure had to do with being trans in the first place.

I can't think of one single trans boy who retained their trans identity after leaving school. As I've said before on other threads, I'm struck by the fact that girls stopped coming out as lesbians at school. Looking back, other pupils were more invested in their trans identity than the girls were themselves.

It does seem to me that there's more pressure on girls today to present themselves as an 'ultra feminine' stereotype - I'm talking about girls wearing full evening make-up to school with lash and nail extensions (a far cry from how things used to be).

I recall that when I worked in a certain school, some of the pupils were surprised that I was married to a man - this was based on the fact that I wore trouser suits and had short hair at the time.

I had been using 'Ms' as my title with my maiden name, but had switched to 'Mrs' and my married name after being in the school for a couple of years. My husband did a brief supply stint at the school, so the kids saw us arriving at work together.

Could Nic actually be back in the clinky?

I agree however must correct one point. The camper van was on his mother's drive so entirely possible (however unlikely) she didnt know about it if she never visited his mother. I dont see my grandmother so for all i know she could have the same...

😭 only because I love the updates.

Back in the cheetah enclosure (i.e. SNP @ HMP)

According to today's papers (reliability unconfirmed), she did visit, but claimed never to have seen the large vehicle parked outside.

Clearly never heard the phrase "when you're in a hole, stop digging".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpdp3d8792no

Nobody believes you, Nicola.