Council Elections in Scotland

[MathSage]

I’d planned to vote Alba, as the only party publically supporting women as a sex, but then discovered they weren’t standing anyone in my council district. So at the weekend I emailed all the others standing for parties I had ever voted for in the past just in case there were any candidates who would personally affirm their support for women and girls.

So far I have one reply. It’s both acceptable and detailed. It’s from an SNP candidate who is willing to say a woman is an adult female and understands the Equality Act. I don’t have to spoil my ballot paper!

Here’s what I wrote to the candidates:

I will only vote for candidates who support women and girls’ rights on the basis of sex.

To help me decide whether I can vote for you, please would you answer the following questions:

How do you define what a woman is?

Do you understand that the Equality Act protects single-sex spaces and services? Do you understand that it is entirely lawful to exclude men – regardless of their “gender identity” – in order to ensure women’s privacy, safety and fairness. Examples are areas where women and girls are undressing, sleeping, accessing health & personal care services, hospital wards, prisons and sports.

Will you protect single-sex services in our community? Will you commit to ensuring that building regulations and planning decisions should be used to ensure single-sex toilets and changing rooms. Additionally will you commit to ensuring that funding decisions for women’s charities and refuges should not be conditional on including male-bodied people.

Will you protect the Equality Act characteristic of “sex” in council policies? Will you make sure the words WOMAN and SEX are used in council policies and data collection. Women are not a “gender identity” and do not want to be referred to as chest-feeders or menstruators. We need to collect accurate information on men and women for equality monitoring.

My vote will only go to candidates who #RespectMySex.

Interesting, an SNP member who isn't afraid to speak facts.

I've emailed all of my candidates to no reply whatsoever.

Two SNP candidates have now replied with detailed thoughtful acceptable responses.

I should have credited Forwomen Scotland for my questions. I paraphrased their text.

I’ll update as (if) I get responses

You should also ask if they will vote against the party to uphold this principle if whipped?

This is different from the party stance.

I am surprised she was able to say that.

But hopefully it means they may start doing the job they are actually elected to do instead of always prattling on about things like this and independence.

(Apologies, not my favourite party at the moment as my family are finding out at the moment just how shit all of the services are under the SNP).

I wouldn't vote even for a GC SNP councillor, unless I had seen them have a public profile with this stance, as it just be taken as justification by the Scottish Government that people agree with them.

The SNP does not tolerate dissent by party members, and is fully captured by trans ideology. Sturgeon has dismissed women’s concerns as “not valid”.
So either your candidate was lying to get your vote, or ignorant of their own party policy. Frankly neither possibility would surprise me with that useless shower.

Tory. Even when I was a Labour supporter in general elections I voted Tory in Council elections.

This. I wouldn't trust them at all. They all removed their pronouns from their twitter profiles a few weeks ago, all around the same time. That indicates to me they know self-id is a contentious issue and they've been told how to play it before voting.

Yeah I wouldn't trusty the SNP.

I've emailed all the candidates in my area. I got woman=adult human female and a belief in single sex spaces from all the independents, the tories and the independence for Scotland party.

Labour said they believed in safe spaces for women. When I asked if their definition of women included males they didn't reply. Lib Dems and greens didn't reply.

I basically told the SNP candidates to go fuck themselves over a local issue albeit more politely so no answer from them.

The independent candidates both were on my side in the local issue the SNP enraged me over so given they both are also GC they'll be getting my vote.

I hadn’t thought to ask about what they would do if the party exercised a whip LovelyRicePudding. It’s also hard to be confident about an answer about that kind of hypothetical situation. I’m not sure what I could ask that wouldn’t be covered by the general promise to stand up for women’s single sex spaces and services under the Equality Act.

In this case I actually know the first candidate who replied because he is a council representative on a voluntary body I’m involved with. The second one described a number of women’s initiatives she had been involved with. I wondered how different they were from Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis though.

It is also true that the candidates may have been told what to answer. Both answered “ Adult female” to the question “what is a woman”.

As other posters have pointed out, local services have suffered under the SNP - ferries being a particularly shocking example. We lost 11 libraries in Fife a couple of years ago. Many promised jobs have not materialised. The ScotWind leases are a dreadful example of failing to get funds that could have been spent on supporting local communities.

I am also conscious that under the SNP and Nicola “feminist to my fingertips” Sturgeon we have had appalling guidance to schools about trans children which neglected children’s best interests, particularly girls’. We have had the attempt to redefine “woman” in representation on public boards (I dug for Forwomen Scotland to oppose it). Now we have the proposed introduction of self-id.

Asking the candidates those questions will at least have raised consciousness amongst candidates of my feelings about sex and gender. That was part of my aim.

Where does that leave me in terms of voting?

The Scottish Greens, especially their leaders, have drunk a lot more KoolAid than the SNP as far as I can see. Their candidate hasn’t replied as yet. The Liberals are almost as bad.

Labour seem to have tied themselves in knots trying to be inoffensive. I have no reply from them.

The thing about the SNP is that it’s a hugely powerful force in Scotland and there are many in it who are gender critical. If I support people now who are gender critical and make it clear to them that that is why I will support them I can hope that they will promote those views.

Unless I hear from any other candidates, my alternatives are to vote for two local candidates who have replied to my question or to spoil my ballot paper by explaining why there is no one I can vote for who will #RespectMySex

Just adding to this.

I emailed all my candidates with a version of the email from the Respect My Sex campaign website.

So far I've had an excellent reply from the Conservatives saying unequivocally a woman is an adult human female and committing to single sex spaces. Scottish Libertarians (?) gave a good reply referencing biological fact, single sex spaces, child safeguarding etc. Looked them up and definitely won't be voting for them but at least they're GC. Greens reply was shocking as expected. Utterly failed to address any points I raised about women's rights and went on and on about trans people. Nothing yet from Labour, Lib Dems, SNP.

Nothing back yet from Alba but I know their position on this. Also did anyone else get one of these leaflets through the door from them? If you can't see the images it says on one side "Say no to self ID" and talks about single sex spaces, sports etc and the other side says "The Alba Party will stand up for Women's Rights" with quotes from Alba women. Whether you want to vote Alba or not I feel very encouraged by the idea of this dropping through lots of people's doors!

I wouldn’t trust the SNP/ Greens, Lib Dems or Labour to run a booze up in a brewery when it comes to the rights of women and children in Scotland or anything else like building ferries, emptying bins or being accountable for anything. A Parcel ‘O Rogues the lot of them.

I got the usual trans support thing from the Greens - no suggestion that rights should be balanced, just Trans rights are human rights bla, bla. Said she'd conferred with all the candidates for the area and they all agreed with the statement. Lo and behold one of them, who is trans, tweeted that the trans issue was not coming up and people were only interested in green issues 🙄

SNP candidate wanted to phone me and not answer my email. I insisted on an email response ( I was ill with Covid anyway) - she never got back. Scottish Family Party were the only ones to reply that they disagreed with the GRA. No answer to my email from Tory, Lib Dem or Labour candidates.

I'm furious about all this. Must be the Menopause 😡. I never get political about anything but this issue has really annoyed me, particularly women's sport and the implications for that.

Athas2 maybe the SNP person wanted to phone you because they agree with you but can't put it in writing? Just an optimistic thought 😀

I thought that too Malloo but at the end of the day I wanted to send a message that this was a real concern for women and I can't rely on the SNP more broadly on this issue. She probably is more GC but that's not the stance of her party.

I got one from an SNP msp before which guaranteed “single sex spaces” but very “inclusive” as to who would be allowed in them 🙄

I'm suspicious, @MathSage

A Green candidate told me that I was the only person to raise the issue, and why did I want to make life difficult for trans people rather than focus on other issues?

It was really quite an attack, and included telling me that the public support the GRA. The SNP and Greens are captured and will never get my vote.

Anyone but Nationalist for me. So no SNP, Green or Alba

I will go

1 Labour
2 Libdem
3 Tory

Stopping another bloody indyref is my top priority and I would also like a return to democracy and end of the one-party state.

I'm curious as to why a constitutional matter is your top priority in a local council election?

Because the separatist parties policies and candidatesvare just as demented at a local level as they are at a national level.

That still doesn't alter the fact that local councils and the make-up thereof are totally irrelevant when it comes to the question of whether there is another Indi referendum or not, so making that your top priority in a council election is nonsensical.

No, it’s not. Why would I vote for a party with which I strongly disagree, with a terrible track record of running things in Scotland?

And the Tories have listened to women and guaranteeing single sex spaces in council areas.

That's got nothing to do with my question.

I'm asking why someone would make 'stopping a 2nd indi ref' a top priority in an election that is purely about electing a local council and has no relevance to constitutional matters in any case.

Not electing pro-indi councillors because you disagree with policy on local matters, or because you think they are less than competent is perfectly reasonable. Not voting for them purely because you want to stop a 2nd ref is nonsensical, being that local councils and councillors have no control over that issue whatsoever.

I am fortunate in having two very good and experienced Conservative councillors standing for re-election in my area, and a younger Labour chap who has been active on local issues.
I wouldn’t touch the SNP and Greens with a barge pole - not just for their contempt towards women’s rights, but their obsession with tearing the UK apart.