Nicola Sturgeon throws Joanna Cherry under the bus

[Whatdoyoudowhendemocracyfails]

twitter.com/nicolasturgeon/status/1354521063502336001?s=21

Personal statement condemning transphobia in response to the number of young members leaving and giving this as their reason.

@MissBarbary, if you hate the SNP and think anyone who supports the party is an idiot this probably isn’t the thread for you.

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

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

”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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

@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.

@Rosa2021

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.

Cherry objected to Philimore being thrown off Twitter for standing up for women's rights. People then dug up old tweets the latter made in the course of arguments/conversations/discussions which are accused of being anti-semitic (either directly or indirectly, I can't recall).

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

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"

For Women Scotland have released a response, seeing the statement more in the context of the reaction to the Scottish Government amendments to the Hate Crime bill so I apologise if my title is misleading.

forwomen.scot/27/01/2021/fws-statement-on-nicola-sturgeons-video/

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

I saw this - I didn’t realise that Nicola was actually part of the meeting!

Do we know exactly how this businesswoman was ejected - did they tell her or pretend technical difficulties? Presumably Nicola heard the question - have we any way of finding out if she decided to ignore it?

What I hope happened was that Nicola heard and noted the question and responded positively that she realises it is v important and specific measures are being looked at to address this. I fear this will not be the case ...

Does anyone know if there is a recording of this meeting anywhere - there may be if it is a public body. It would be interesting to see.

Saw that. Guessing she has taken the view that every vote counts in the imminent referendum and she'd rather grab the cult vote than explain why it's an unscientific cult.

Why aren't half the Corbynistas thrown off Twitter for their adoration of the antisemitic cult. Or does the magic phrase TWAW save you.

@Rosa2021

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.

The accusations of antisemitism are spurious (imo). And I don't think Cherry has soad anything about them. They're mad that she's supported SP's fundraiser in the past. Of course that gigantic shit David Paisley is leading the witch-hunt.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4147000-Sarah-Phillimore-suspended-from-twitter?msgid=104083067#104083067

@bellinisurge

Why aren't half the Corbynistas thrown off Twitter for their adoration of the antisemitic cult. Or does the magic phrase TWAW save you.

Answered your own question there I think! That's exactly it.

From what I saw Sarah was attempting to draw analogies about the culture of intolerance and the conditions it needs to thrive which of course in the 1930's onwards lead to the persecution of Jewish people.

I think the most she could be accused of is lacking sensitivity because Twitter is not a place of nuance or somewhere you can explore historical parallels with full context. I can understand it if some people felt her attempts were flippant and not respectful but it's not the same as anti-semitism in my opinion.

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. Nobody ever seems to pipe up in favour of women. They can't do it. Its as if they're physically incapable. Death & rape threats, fine. Women leaving LAbour, the SNP, the Greens, in droves, all fine.

A dozen TRAs say they're leaving and it's instant personally recorded 'unscripted'* messages from the FM? It's almost as if they know which demographic are on a hair-trigger of flipping from one party to another over a single issue, and which are more likely to stick with parties because of long-term thinking or a view of the bigger picture, isn't it?

Throwing yourself at the feet of such a fickle lot while blanking the massive bulk of your party's core voters is ... well, it's a novel tactic, I'll say that.

Surely it wasn't so much what NS said - which was reasonably enough - but what she didn't say. Context is everything, and it came across to me as an appeasement to the TRAs and a slap in the face for Joanna Cherry and all the women who have concerns about trans activism. Basically implies we're transphobes.

Who thinks the SNP is transphobic, anyway? It seems to be trans ahoy!

The SNP is a 'hub of transphobia' according to recently departed women's officer Teddy Hope.

@bourbonne

Who thinks the SNP is transphobic, anyway? It seems to be trans ahoy!

It's because they don't give them every single thing they want no matter how outlandish. The SNP have gone along with some pretty outlandish stuff but it's never enough and never will be.