Alba

[howard97A]

"Alba … appears to be a home for those who fear that gender self-identification for trans people poses a threat to women's rights."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56555096

I think this is good news. Am I being naïve?

It looks promising.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/19192899.alba-technical-fault-reveals-thousands-names-signed-party-events/

Bad start though - also Alex Salmond? Really?

also Alex Salmond? Really?

Indeed - I can think of far better heralds for women’s rights...

… Alex Salmond? Really?

Strange bedfellows

It would have to be neither

Women are toys or women don't exist

Bad start though

Oh. Yes it is. The times we live in...

I can't believe feminists are aligning themselves with the sex pest party. All Ladies Be Aware is what is stands for - don't get in a taxi with any of them if you don't want to be subject to 'sleepy cuddles'. Vom.

Alex Salmond, just no. There's no ground to be gained by alligning with men like that.

Not sure you can read much into SNP ruling group members siging up for an Alba event. Could be thinking of defecting but could also be wanting to find out what they are up to in order to counter it.

Under no circumstances will I align myself with Salmond. I don't know how any feminist could.

sex pest

That's not even "alleged", it's "acquitted on all counts". You do know that, right?

Not Scottish, but I've been monitoring it because I liked Wings when he was on Twitter defending women, and I've always liked Craig Murray since he was pissing Blair off.

Trying to dig into this stuff to me feels like trying to find JK Rowling's transphobia. And it's not even that there's lack of evidence - there was contradictory evidence for many of the accusations (over half, I think) that showed that they were pretty certainly false.

And maybe there is something there - but if there was, then like the Tavistock, they surely could have brought it to court!

Dunno - it's a totally different thing, but it just feels eerily parallel. Woke people casting out bogus accusations and having stitched-up organisations defending each other...

The goings-on since the trial and machinations to block evidence has been ridiculous.

You could try this video Craig Murray did recently, going through some of the accusations. He had a lot more reporting from the trial on his blog, covering the defence case the media was ignoring, but has now been forced to take it down. But this covers a lot of it.

www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/03/a-very-tough-video-to-make/

Maybe there are other reasons to dislike Salmond - I don't follow Scottish politics - but whatever you've picked up from this ridiculous trial doesn't seem to me to be one.

Under no circumstances will I align myself with Salmond. I don't know how any feminist could.

Because his party will defend women's single sex facilities, whereas hordes of self-proclaimed feminists in SNP/Greens/Labour won't?

That's not even "alleged", it's "acquitted on all counts". You do know that, right?

He was found not guilty of the criminal offences of sexual assault. But you can be a sex pest without reaching the level of criminality.

But you can be a sex pest without reaching the level of criminality.

Indeed, but if he was, then wouldn't there have been more "not reaching the level of criminality" incidents in the trial?

If you were trying to bring together a combined case against Salmond, wouldn't you try to find all those minor incidents and try to get them over the line, rather than make up outright false ones?

There seems to have been only 1 such incident among the 8/9(?) - Craig Murray goes into the detail of it in that video.

I hope GC Scots who want independence and oppose self-ID may now feel that they don’t have a dilemma - they can hold their nose and vote Alba.

Was going to vote ISP.

That is still a non Salmond GC option.

But I want GC representation in that parliament and ultimately I might need to be strategic. Hell, I was even considering Tory. If I can hold my nose to do that...

What I can not do is vote SNP, Green, Labour or Libdem

If you were trying to bring together a combined case against Salmond, wouldn't you try to find all those minor incidents and try to get them over the line, rather than make up outright false ones

100 minor incidents which don't mean the criminal line won't tip it over the line, 1000 won't either. Doesn't stop any single one of those incidents being in itself conduct which is unacceptable in a day to day situation of having to deal with Salmond.

@TheDuckSaysMoo

Under no circumstances will I align myself with Salmond. I don't know how any feminist could.

Joanna Cherry is a supporter of Salmond- she wanted him reinstated in the party.

If this is the case, then I think Keir Starmer will be watching very closely to see what happens with Alba in regards to the self-id thing - a good indicator of how the wind is blowing amongst the general public? Because we know Keir is too chicken to take a stand on it himself, but if he sees what people are voting for and against elsewhere then it might bring things into sharper focus for him somewhat?

Do you really think support for Salmond and Alba is going to be based on his support for women's rights and his opposition to self ID?

100 minor incidents which don't mean the criminal line won't tip it over the line, 1000 won't either. Doesn't stop any single one of those incidents being in itself conduct which is unacceptable in a day to day situation of having to deal with Salmond.

Agreed. But if you had 100 or 1000, there would surely be the 4 worst ones, and wouldn't they be better to try to prosecute than 4 false ones? Unless all 100/1000 are well below criminal level.

And genuinely asking - are there any actual reports of such behaviour below the criminal level, apart from the 1 he's acknowledged and was in the trial? I've only followed the trial incidents. Is there even a trail of rumours predating this set of accusations? IIRC a number of female defence witnesses testified that they'd never heard anyone complain of anything while working for him.

I can see a lot of smoke, but I'm still looking for the fire.

It just smells like a set-up from the inner circles of the SNP, and everything that's managed to come up since the trial makes it even smellier. (To the point you've got David Davies having to use parliamentary privilege to put on the record evidence they're trying to stop people revealing! And the ludicrous selective conviction of Craig Murray himself!).

If there's smoke around Salmond there's dense smog around the Scottish government.

A more unlikely feminist icon would be hard to imagine, but I will be voting Alba unless there is a very major upset between now and polling day. Any party who has unequivocally pledged to protect women’s rights would get my vote right now. There’s a women’s event on their calendar which I have signed up to attend. Fingers crossed.

And yes to hoping that it will be popular. That is the single thing at the moment that I think that might open the eyes of other politicians who are currently undeclared. I am watching with interest.

And yes to hoping that it will be popular. That is the single thing at the moment that I think that might open the eyes of other politicians who are currently undeclared

I like to believe that politicians are underestimating how pissed off women are.

The issue is unfortunately it needs to scale to numbers of women who are aware - it doesn't matter how pissed off 1 woman is. :)

But having a party campaigning on it might well start a snowball.

Mind you, it doesn't need to be specifically "pro-women", it can be more generally "anti-woke" / "pro-civil liberty" or whatever. There's kind of a package of bad policy on that side, and everyone can choose their favourite bit they dislike.

Not relevant to the thread but...

FFS Alba was our favourite baby name for a girl due in august!