Anyone know what Joanna Cherry's position is on Section 35?

[bellinisurge]

Big fan of JC. As an SNP MP this must be very difficult for her. Obviously she hates the GRR Bill in its current form. But she must be conflicted about the fact that the Scottish Government's stupidity has got it in this mess.
Any one know?

Does this help?

Joanna Cherry abstained in today's Common Vote re Section 35.

The SNP voted against the government. Labour in the most part abstained.

Votes are here:

votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1449#notrecorded

Nokes also abstained

Anyone know why Kemi Badenoch abstained? Is she against the government implementing Section 35 or does she have to remain impartial as Equalities Minister?

257 abstentions

Answering my own question, according to the Guardian this vote is meaningless...

"The government won the vote after the section 35 order debate (see 5.31pm) by 318 votes to 71 – a majority of 247. But the vote does not have any effect, because MPs were just voting on a motion about having had a debate."

Thank you. I really feel sympathy for her on this. The Labour abstentions are interesting. Their arses must be full of splinters from sitting on the fence. Again. As if they think we won't notice.

I'm not sure the vote is meaningless but perhaps it's symbolic. Having one might be used to show the government is committed to free speech, and later down the line if there's a motion against, having abstained will in itself be symbolic.

I see LOJ has appointed himself Enforcer-In-Chief:

twitter.com/owenjones84/status/1615449997578756136?s=46&t=0TXFOsdaPO7ObIDrJNgGgw

I admire her for being consistent in her beliefs but I don't think the problem can be fixed in Scotland and I don't think Westminster should leave it to Holyrood.

'I see LOJ has appointed himself Enforcer-In-Chief:

Looks like Stella has sinned

I think she's wrong on this. Scotgov could have had a decent, fair bill presented and passed. The fact they chose to do the opposite and bully through what they did means they're not trustworthy. They've no interest in fixing this at all. They had their chance, they blew it.

Totally get that she has conflicting principles here. She's independence "to her fingertips" to coin a phrase. Obviously she were prefer it not to have got to this point.
I'm happy to cut her some slack on this. She's a warrior

I think she is playing this exactly as she needs to.

Her messages need to be to her constituents - it's their vote she relies on.

Many of her voters will support this intervention, many will be annoyed.

Remember she is a Nationalist MP.

I actually read this as 'the Scottish Parliament got this wrong, the UK government has intervened, now its up to Scottish Parliament to sort it out.

You could make even take from this, that she doesn't necessarily support the Scottish government taking this to court - rather that they should be reviewing this bill and get it right.

Let's be clear, she has not criticised the UK government.

I've assumed that this is "back to the drawing board" for Scotgov.
Am I correct? The whole thing should be scrapped and started anew? The talk of it going to court makes me doubt that Scotgov will consider that until there's no other option ie court says no. I can't see that they'll give up. I agree that I don't think it's UKs problem to sort out but I just don't trust Scotgov. My faith in most scottish politicians has been utterly destroyed by this. Its all rather gloomy atm.