SNP leadership campaign

[RoyalCorgi]

I thought it would be fun for the leadership campaign to have its own thread.

According to Wikipedia, the timetable for the election is:

"Nominations opened on 16 February, and will close on 24 February. Those nominated will then be put forward as options in a ballot of party members, which will open on 13 March, and close at noon on 27 March, with the result announced on the same day by the SNP's national secretary, Lorna Finn."

So quite a short campaign. I don't completely understand how the voting works - it's not first past the post, but a "type of single transferable vote", according to Wiki, which is clear as mud.

Kate Forbes seems to have lost some key supporters by saying she was opposed to same-sex marriage, which perhaps means some of them will transfer to Ash Regan. The only other candidate is our old chum Humza Yousaf, author of one of the most deranged and authoritarian pieces of legislation, the Hate Crime and Public OrderAct, to pass through a UK legislative body in the past 100 years.

Those of you in Scotland, how do you see this playing out?

But good news is that if Forbes gets first minister the greens will break alliance with SNP

I think yousaf will win. Which will be rubbish for Scotland as he is useless.

Been watching Kate Forbes getting grilled on the evening news! Getting more and more annoyed that Humza Yousef isn’t getting asked the same questions re gay marriage/conversion therapy! Especially in light of how he Weasley his way out of the vote!

At least Kate is being honest about her beliefs! Humza is just such a hypocrite and shouldn’t get an easy ride on this!

I don't think the members ever got a say in Self ID? Probably part of the coalition with the Greens?

For such a small party they seemed to have an awful lot of control.

So basically I don't know. It may be that a lot will be angry with Westminster for challenging it (even if they don't agree) and others relieved?

@Abccde Agree completely, until this year I thought independence was just around the corner and I now feel fairly confident it won't be possible for decades.

@littlbrowndog I came on to say the same; I think the coalition with Greens couldn't survive Forbes or Regan due to their position on trans issues so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I wonder if any Greens will reflect on their own views after all this?

Nah the Greens will self identify as always right and double down on self id! They seem to longer care about the environment only identity politics!

*No longer care about the environment !

Unfortunately, most SNP members with backbones have left the party due to a relentless centralisation of power to a small clique of Sturgron’s allies/pals and a general lack of democracy, with communication and auditing being destroyed by Sturgeon’s husband. All this as well as opposition to the GRA/self ID.

Therefore, the voting pool are bound to be mainly Sturgeonites who will vote Humza. If he becomes FM he will quickly destroy any remaining credibility the party has. If there was any kind of credible opposition the SNP would be goosed, but there isn’t, so it may limp along making a disastrous mess until there is.

This is really good, from Lucy Hunter Blackburn.

archive.is/J3bJb

Ach, bum.

Lucy Hunter Blackburn in the Spectator:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/nicola-sturgeons-gender-policy-failure/

A good tweet by Joanne Cherry -

'I’d like to see some elder statesperson in @theSNP step in & call the dogs off @_KateForbes. She was appointed a Cab Sec by the FM in full knowledge of her religious views with which I strongly disagree but this feeding frenzy is unseemly & bad for the party'

It won't happen though. The SNP have a vested interest in continuing the feeding frenzy.

She has a good point. What Forbes has said is that she personally would not have voted for same sex marriage. She also says that she would have had to allow a free vote/vote of conscience for her party if she had been Leader at the time. She cited Angela Merkel as a model (I'm waiting to hear Merkel branded as "far right" now!)

Forbes was elected as an MSP (constituency, not list) and appointed as a minister - her single vote as Leader/FM would carry no more weight than her vote did before. Consider the things Sturgeon whipped her MSPs to vote for, in many cases against both deeply held principles and common sense: Hate Crimes Bill with women artifically excluded, GRR without a no-convicted-rapists clause, and the weird tinkering on the Representation of Women on Boards Act to let anyone instantaneously count as a woman when the main point of 50/50 by 2020 was to compensate for structural inequalities and cultural prejudices that cumulatively sideline individual women over a lifetime.

I'm happy that individual people feel free to say that they find Forbes's lack of support for equal marriage a probIem. I also find it pretty hypocritical when it's someone who not only wouldn't denounce Sturgeon's opposition to same sex spaces and services but tolerated/enabled/normalised the silencing and threats against those who did.

Whoever wins, IMO, there should be less whipping and more free votes/votes of conscience.

Yes thousands of anti GRR left the party.

The ones that are left are hard Indy's who want it now so Regan would be the most appealing.

It feels very like the Truss situation.

Skye have just done a piece on the SNP leadership election. They showed the full length photo of Adam Graham in his leggings, followed by that shaven headed photo of him. A picture paints a thousands words...

I dont know who the Indian Council of Scotland and the Muslim Council of the UK are, but they are not fans of Humza at all....

wingsoverscotland.com/a-time-of-fear/

That Wings over Scotland post is really interesting - but it doesn't explain why the Muslim Council of the United Kingdom and the Indian Council of Scotland dislike him so much. The sentence 'We as a community do not feel safe with Humza Yousaf as the First Minister in Scotland" is very strongly-worded - what has he done to upset the Indian Council so much?

He accused a nursery of not enrolling his child because they were Muslim.

I believe the nursery was Indian owned.

I also believe that the legal action he initiated has now ceased, but obviously the damage is done.

There's a post below the article from a Craig Murray casting doubts on the authenticity of these particular organisations.

I don't know the veracity of his claims but I do want someone to ask Yousaf if twaw and if he supports gay marriage.

Jeremy Vine did exactly that on Radio 4 this morning.

He said he supports gay marriage, though he, as to be expected, equivocated on whether TWAW but when pressed claimed that, even though that polls show that between 62% And 75% of the Scottish population do not agree with the amendements to the GRR, that being on the side of "progressive politics" often meant you were having to encounter opposition. And yes he believes that 16 is a suitable age to change gender.

I'd rather an honest tolerant social conservative than a dictatorial liberal liar.

Same.

Same

I agree

He said he supports gay marriage, though he, as to be expected, equivocated on whether TWAW but when pressed claimed that, even though that polls show that between 62% And 75% of the Scottish population do not agree with the amendements to the GRR, that being on the side of "progressive politics" often meant you were having to encounter opposition. And yes he believes that 16 is a suitable age to change gender.

He did much the same on Today on Radio 4 this morning (before 8am):
He said he supports gay marriage.
He said violent transwomen prisoners should not be in women's prisons.
He said that 16 is a suitable age to change gender.

He was very confident in making these positions clear. It looks like he views strict adherence to Sturgeon's progressive projects is the path to the top job.

Yes, sorry I meant Justin Webb on the Today programme. I liked how he summed up Humza'a stance up as " So politics is more important to you than your faith"