Times: “Isla Bryson is Sturgeon’s Poll Tax moment”

[SidewaysOtter]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a8cc04a2-a4a5-11ed-9d5c-69bd3c5b98b3?shareToken=0d217dc3eb76e6c335f8de48824ac0ef

Interesting that it would seem the SNP are realising that this is immensely unpopular amongst its voters and the general populace.

And it shines yet more light on Sturgeon’s ridiculous “Trans women are women except when it doesn’t suit my political ambitions they’re not” standpoint, as well as how women’s fears were dismissed only to be found entirely valid.

This is a bad day out for Sturgeon and co:

SNP insiders are painfully aware of the damage

“Gender recognition...could lose us popular Scotland too.”

Referring to the first minister’s “meltdown”, another sympathetic SNP source noted that Sturgeon is “obviously worried and anxious. Voters can’t understand why we are so wedded to this.”

Sturgeon’s approval rating has slipped into negative territory, from +7 to -4 since October.

A reversal on the independence question seems to have happened over past month, with support for secession down from 53 per cent to 47 per cent

Curtice said: “...it looks as though the battering the Scottish government has suffered in recent weeks, and especially on the issue of transgender prisoners, may also have taken its toll on SNP support.”

According to Alex Bell, a former senior policy adviser to Alex Salmond, a “constitutional crisis” has in a week become “a policy disaster”.

Can't do share tokens. Support for SNP falls.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snp-sturgeon-and-independence-fall-in-poll-after-isla-bryson-trans-prisoner-row-5j3pqr7s5

Here you go:

SNP, Sturgeon and independence fall in poll after Isla Bryson trans prisoner row

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5da98de6-a4aa-11ed-ab5a-a67b5932bebd?shareToken=1932ff59eacc5ed0fb509521267f34be

Alex massie covers loads in the Scotland section on this topic but this might be my favourite article to date.

Amazing isn't it, this issue that everyone patronised and sneered about saying it wasn't important. Well it turned out it was quite important. Who knew eh? Keep wondering what Starmer is making of it all.

Keep wondering what Starmer is making of it all.

Desperately wondering how to come down on the side of biological reality without it looking like a vote-grabbing u-turn or having the TRA wing of the party’s rage rain down on him like a thousand burning suns, I should imagine.

I’ve been a huge supporter of Nicola and the SNP for a long, LONG time….but this absolute travesty of a policy and their seeming determination to run roughshod over the rights of biological women have turned me right off. I’d imagine I’m not the only one. This is an absolute dealbreaker for me, and for the first time in my voting life, I’m not certain I’d give it to the SNP next time if they don’t turn this around.

It was a simple question: should a man convicted of raping two women be considered a woman simply because he has declared that he is one himself?

Simple, perhaps, but it caused Nicola Sturgeon real difficulties in the Scottish parliament: “I think that a rapist should be considered a rapist. That is what I think...I will not get into the individual circumstances of that particular individual’s claims to be a woman, because I do not have enough information about that.”

Stupid woman Nicola. Stupid!

That Sturgeon can't - or won't - answer the question shows how illogical and silly trans ideology is.

Referring to the first minister’s “meltdown”, another sympathetic SNP source noted that Sturgeon is “obviously worried and anxious. Voters can’t understand why we are so wedded to this.”

I wonder if the sympathetic SNP source knows why they are so wedded to this or if they are as baffled by it as the rest of us.

I wonder if the sympathetic SNP source knows why they are so wedded to this

I would guess at this being a Green Party policy so the SNP have to go with it to keep the Greens onside and therefore themselves in power.

Grabs popcorn to watch him sweat. Utterly magical. He’s snookered!

Good article. And yes, she's finished. It's going to be less like 'westminster always interferes' to sane voters than 'thank fuck the cavalry's arrived'.

Although still wittering on about 'well he's not really trans....' (so the policy's all right)

He's as trans as anyone else is. There is no proving any difference between a sincere rapist or an insincere rapist, the issue is not the sincerity of their inner life but the unalterable fact that they are all biologically men. And have no place in women's spaces. And that those running women's prisons are supposed to have the wellbeing and best interests of the women in mind and not sacrifice them on the altar of TQ+ ideology to men with special needs.

DFirst thought was -we told you so.

Second thought was -What will Labour do now?!
We eagerly await some sanity from them.

Before Covid and gender ideology I supported the SNP. However there is no way I'd ever vote for them now. Labour or the Greens would never get my vote either.

It genuinely baffles me that they thought that gender ideology could possibly work in legislation. I'm pleased the UK government have stepped in with some common sense.

I think NS hoped this intervention would rile the people of Scotland into demanding independence however speaking for myself and all of my friends/colleagues - we are delighted.

I hope this gender ideology nonsense is put to bed now. The fact that India Willoughby could sit on QT and declare that he is "a biological woman" with a straight face shows you how far this nonsense has been allowed to go.

The sunlight is spotlighting duplicity and dishonesty.

Sex is so fundamental and something voters understand, indeed take for granted. The fact that some politicians claim not to, for whatever reason, erodes the trust people have in them.

When the emperor is exposed for having no clothes, it seems so obvious.

Snort.

I would desperately love Labour to step up here but they're not going to.

It’s almost like members of Parliament would be more successful and popular if they actually listened to the electorate and followed the wishes of the majority, instead of trying to force their own personal views upon the rest of us.

Yes ignoring the quiet majority and misreading the room entirely. Labour I hope you start listening now.

Starmers name came up on a thread i was posting on the other day. Another poster was saying that they thought him to be intelligent as he had been DPP after all. I spent a while writing another post querying that and that also referenced a few other points/posters, only to see the post disappear into the ether, never to be seen again. I couldn't be bothered typing it all out again :-/ though at least it saved anyone having to read it, lol :D
However, what i wanted to say about starmer at the time, ran along the lines of...
Even though he had managed to become DPP, if he were truly intelligent, then in that capacity, surely he would have learned that there are many and varied ways of abusing children and that any abuse can and generally does lead to a lifetime of mental suffering and often, physical pain too.
Although blame for not prosecuting rape gangs may not have fallen at his feet, he must have realised over the last few months when the finger was being pointed at him, that the general public takes child abuse very seriously. Yet here he is, standing by without a word, while young kids are being given puberty blockers, having breasts bound, being pointed toward genital mutilation surgeries, etc., all of which, to the ordinary man on the street is child abuse and starmer says nowt! starmer does nowt! starmer is a nowt! A big fat, pathetic nowt! Not worthy of a single vote and certainly not worthy of mine!
We see him stand mute over the abuse that Rosie puts up with, that shouldn't be happening, without any support at all from starmer, despite him having been DPP and who should therefore be well aware of the damage abuse of that nature can cause. Still, cuprinol man just stands there! What a useless article he is and indeed, as i've said before, the biggest tool his dad ever made!

Sunday Times comment:

"...important though feelings are, they are not more important than rights. Women have the right to safety, and biological males do not have the right to enter women-only spaces. It really is no more complicated than that."

SNP trans fiasco highlights the dangers of groupthink

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8312c010-a4c4-11ed-9d5c-69bd3c5b98b3?shareToken=98695ac2111619f906a0997cf79ae109

I’m glad they’ve included this. It spells out just how cold blooded some of the thinking is.

The policy was developed in partnership with campaign groups such as the Scottish Trans Alliance. In 2018, James Morton, then a manager at the STA, recalled that: “We strategised that by working intensively with the Scottish Prison Service to support them to include trans women as women on a self-declaration basis within very challenging circumstances, we would be able to ensure that all other public services should be able to do likewise.” The “learning from our prison work has made it much easier to assist other Scottish public services, such as NHS wards and schools”.

Keep wondering what Starmer is making of it all.

This has been explained to Starmer in extremely simple language for many years. He is clearly not getting it or he would have dealt with the significant issues this is going to bring to bare on his party long before now. Starmer will be another politician whose head ends up on the chopping block for the gender identity cause and I suspect joe Biden will too. The genie is slowly coming out of the bottle.

I have kept reading about the voters putting the trans debate at the bottom of their list of issues. However, that was before they saw the reality of what single sex and self id really means. I imagine the political parties, all of them, will be having a big re-think because it's all a bit of a shambles. Lots of 'under the radar' stuff which I assume they think still might be ok, might now be a bit of a problem ...... you twazzox we are not idiots

Almost lost in the debate are transgender and transsexual people, who will no doubt be pained by headlines associating identity changes with rape and violence against women.

I think this is an important point because we are so often accused of conflating transpeople and sexual predators; we did not do this. The safeguards of the original GRA gave sexual predators far less room for manoeuvre. The TRA's said those safeguards were gatekeeping, well it looks like gatekeeping is important if you don't want bad faith actors to give your group a bad name.

You can hardly blame the general public for thinking the trans community has a problem with sexual predators if the campaigners for self ID have no workable solution to deal with the problem of gatecrasher's but instead keep telling us 'it never happens' when it's obvious to all it does happen and often. It makes the predators look like a feature not a bug.

Now we are in a situation where people (me included) would like to see the GRA repealed because it's not sufficient to protect women from predators and it is being used to erode the protections afforded women in the EA2010.