Scottish Family Party manifesto

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cerrmndgnv9o

https://scottishfamily.org/manifesto

'Teaching children that they can choose their gender is extremely harmful. Steering children and young people towards puberty-blocking drugs and sex reassignment surgery is grossly irresponsible, given that a clear majority of children will naturally outgrow gender confusion. Parents should be free to overrule interventions by government agents when guiding their children on such matters. Parents are best placed to understand their children and have primary responsibility for their care and wellbeing.
Abortion and abortifacients should not be available to under 16s without parents being informed beforehand.'

'Domestic abuse law should not cover vaguely defined “psychological abuse”. It is too imprecise and open to spurious application. For example, laws relating to making a person “dependent on another person” or “feel ... humiliated or degraded” could be interpreted to cover behaviours far short of “abuse” and risk bringing the threat of legal sanction into more superficial relationship conflicts. Such laws are also vulnerable to exploitation for vindictive reasons. There should be no gender-based assumption of blame, but a balanced assessment of the facts.'

'The SFP does not support the use of NHS resources for any fertility-related treatment apart from for a man and woman in a long-term stable relationship. There must be an intention of a child being brought up by a mother and father.'

'The “harm reduction” approach to sex education is also harmful. Evidence based sex and relationships education that includes the presentation of moral perspectives should be implemented instead. Young people need to be aware of the statistical correlations between multiple sexual partners, types of relationship, physical health, mental health, relational stability, marriage, cohabitation, various sexual practices, sex at a young age, sexual promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. Armed with the full range of relevant facts, young people will be better equipped to make decisions.
The Scottish Government’s official sex education resources are grossly indecent, positively promoting pornography and masturbation, presenting as valid some disturbing and dangerous sexual practices, and endorsing illegal under-age sex. The tone is often trivialising and the content is too explicit at younger ages. We would require schools to publish all relationship, sexual health and parenthood resources used, so that parents could see for themselves what is being taught and, if they wish, withdraw their children from these classes (which would remain a right in law).
The moral arguments and emotional consequences relating to abortion should be discussed, instead of the current presentation of abortion as the obvious solution to unwanted pregnancy.
Natural family planning techniques should be discussed alongside other contraception methods in sex education.
We oppose the LGBT Inclusive Education programme that mandates the indoctrination of schoolchildren into a radical ideology of sexuality. Civility and tolerance should be shown to all, and bullying in school and criminal activity targeting LGBT people should be dealt with vigorously. However, promoting a certain philosophy of sex and relationships and denying alternative views is not necessary to combat bullying.
The insertion of LGBT content across the entire curriculum is intended to deprive parents of the option of withdrawing their child from it.
The drive to normalise and endorse any and every sexual relationship and family form begins at the nursery stage and continues unabated. For example, we disagree with the message that procreation just requires a sperm, egg and uterus, with no regard to the source of each element. We believe instead in the ideal of a mother and father having and rearing their own children.
Pupils are inducted into LGBT activism from primary school, as familiar campaigning symbols and slogans are presented in lessons.
The philosophy of gender fluidity is dangerous to young people, leading to confusion and unhelpful experimentation.
Parents should have a strong voice in determining how these issues are approached in schools. Indoctrination into the fashionable philosophy of gender is not appropriate and will lead more children down a difficult road that could seriously undermine their wellbeing for the rest of their lives.
The dangers of indebtedness should be elucidated clearly to school pupils. The assumption that personal consumer debt is routine and unavoidable should be challenged and the moral implications of lending and borrowing discussed.
On all these issues, young people should be made aware of arguments from different perspectives.'

'We affirm the value of human life in the womb. Abortion as a means of birth control is morally unjustifiable. Ultimately, we would like to see the law reflect this, but immediate steps could include offering independent counselling to those considering an abortion, reducing the current 24 week limit for abortions and preventing abortion on grounds of disability after 24 weeks. We would ensure that young people are presented with the facts about abortion and the possible emotional consequences when the subject is discussed in schools. No organisation which provides abortions should be entitled to charitable status. We would seek to involve potential fathers in the decision-making process.
We would invest in support for women facing unwanted pregnancy, helping them to establish a strong network of support and encouraging alternatives such as fostering or adoption.'

'The 2010 Equality Act mandates “positive action,” stating that a candidate can be selected for a job because of their race, sex etc in order to meet statistical targets. This is unjust and discriminatory and should be repealed.
The Equalities Act also makes harassment based on protected characteristics an offence. This is unnecessary. The law should apply equally to all. This provision actually makes some employers reluctant to employ applicants with certain “protected characteristics,” fearing that they will use their special protection to raise complaints and manipulate.'

'Gender equality

Feminists in the past fought some grave injustices in the UK, as they do in many other countries today. However, much contemporary ‘gender equality’ campaigning in Scotland is misguided.

Men and women, on average, tend to have different priorities and interests. This diversity is positive and creative, not a problem to eliminate. We do not want to squeeze the sexes into uniformity, but to support men and women as they fulfil their own vision for their lives.

Gender imbalances in many areas of study and lines of work are not a problem to solve, but a natural manifestation of men and women freely following their own inclinations and ambitions.

Compared to women, men tend to work longer hours, are more willing to sacrifice job security for career advancement, do more dangerous jobs, and take fewer career breaks. Women often want to devote themselves more to family life. The “Gender Pay Gap” is by and large a reflection of the natural differences between men and women, and no government action is required to address it.

We do not support gender quotas in business, education or politics and would seek to repeal legislation that already discriminates in this way.

So-called “equal pay” claims, where women claim to have been underpaid for doing different work than men are unjust. Councils should not have to dissipate their limited resources following these unjust claims. Similarly, businesses should be secure from such opportunistic attacks.'

'Prostitution harms prostitutes, clients and their families, leads to coercion to meet demand and trivialises sex, eroding the proper respect with which sexual intimacy should be regarded. Buying sex should be criminalised. This deterrent would decrease the demand for sexual services and therefore reduce the number of people abused or damaged through prostitution. It would also protect potential clients from the harm to their own wellbeing and that of their family that can result from the use of prostitutes. Some prostitutes enter into this work through their own uncoerced choice and freely choose to continue in it, however many others are forced into it through human trafficking, debt and drug addiction. This is a great social evil that requires to be addressed by legislation.
It is illogical to make it illegal to buy something that is legal to sell, so selling sex should also be criminalised. While punishments might be appropriate in some cases, help to move women on from prostitution would be available.
Pornography undermines the wellbeing of our society. We support schemes to prevent children from accessing online pornography. Fact-based education and public information campaigns are needed to highlight the dangers of addiction, detriment to existing relationships, undermining future relationship prospects, guilt, and progression to more extreme and perverted forms, including child porn. Channel 4, a government agency, should refrain from producing semi-pornographic content.'

'Transgender “treatments” for under 16s should be stopped, and thereafter only offered where sound evidence justifies it and the patient is fully aware of the likely long-term outcomes.

We oppose the proposed Gender Recognition Act. Officially changing sex/ gender should not be possible merely at the request of an individual.
Even the current system of recognising gender change undermines the right of women to same sex spaces, makes a mockery of women’s sport, and communicates a harmful understanding of sex and gender.
So, we propose that there should be no provision to change gender legally. The only exception to this should be for intersex people, though we would allow those who have already changed gender to remain in their new legal gender.'

As I've done with other manifestos, tried to pull out sections that will be relevant/of interest to FWR and women in general.

What are your thoughts OP?

My thoughts are that it's far easier to copy and paste html than it is to do it from a pdf, but I will do my best to fix the formatting and share the SNP manifesto points shortly.

I would vote for them if I could. Alas, I can't.

They're not standing in my area but I wouldn't be voting for them in any case.

Thank you @ArabellaScott

Totally disagree with their stance on abortion. The stuff on LGBTQZ is correct.

I wonder if all the stuff about encouraging marriage by giving married couples tax breaks and marriage boxes and whatever applies to same-sex couples.

There seems to be a slight disagreement between the BBC summary and the SFP manifesto.

BBC: "The Scottish Family Party backs an ban on abortion except in situations where the woman's life is in danger."

SFP page is a bit more complex, and has several comments on abortion. It includes such gems as "Reducing abortion and increasing family sizes could also lead to a sustainable population level."

Basically they want women back in the kitchen producing babies for the good of the country. No thanks. I don't need to look at the rest of their policies, that would rule them out for me if they were standing locally.

At base this looks to me to be a party that is far too keen on controlling women, and compelling us to act according to their ideas of how women ought to act.

Restrict abortion, criminalise prostitution, etc. That latter one in particular sounds to me like punishing women, rather than trying to help them.

Morally (if not politically), they're more or less singing from the same hymn sheet as the DUP.

I won't be voting SNP but I won't be voting for this bunch of regressive, misogynist Calvinist nut jobs either.

Hang on though for the inevitable teaming "If you agree with SFP that sex is real, you must also be against women's bodily autonomy" bollocks.

It's good to be informed. I'd heard bits and pieces about this party before, but hadn't grasped their overall aims.

Not the stuff on LGB. Bigotry, pure and simple.

They take a firm stance on some items that I agree with but unless they have changed since the last election they are a definite ‘no’. Though if it were a choice between them and greens, it would be no contest - I would vote for them.

Mochudubh, I think Richard Lucas is Catholic, not Protestant.

Meh, same arse, different cheek.

Edited to add, not a pop at you @JudasButler1, I have no time for zealots of any persuasion.