I have been hoping that I could move away from having to bring to the attention of as many people as I can the state of the SNP Scottish Government and start to look at issues that are of wider interest to myself around politics and just when I think I can start to do that the SNP Scottish Government dig that hole that little bit deeper with another own goal that shows them up for what they have become, the new version of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party when it comes to secrecy, it appears that the results of the second consultation around the Gender Reform Act will now not allow the general public to view responses despite the consultation saying ‘We are now arranging for the consultation responses to be independently analysed. We will publish the analysis report in due course’.
We know that the Scottish Government, and in particular Shirley Anne Somerville, have made very little attempt to consult with concerned women over this debate, in fact they have point blank treated concerned women with a lack of respect. ForWomen noted on their website that ‘In the two months prior to the statement about the GRA in June 2019 Stonewall Scotland had meetings in Parliament with 22 different MSPs, including several with the Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.‘ Women’s groups were denied similar access or any input into the framework of the consultation, with Ms Somerville turning down our requests to meet until the end of February, three weeks before the end of the consultation period’.
Now I know that some out there will accuse me of being on a Wings like quest to bring down the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon but that could not be further from the truth. I would like nothing better to be expressing an opinion about how we are moving towards Indy2, how land reform is moving ahead and we are seeing Scotland reformed, how we are taking the fight to Westminster around social justice but I can’t because this New SNP Party are becoming one of the most secrative and least tolerant certainly since devolution came into being and are up there with the best the Tory Party have to offer.
Sorry the image isn’t clearer but basically what this says is that ‘ it is recommended that, despite the majority view put forward by individual consultation respondees, we should proceed with making the regulations and publishing the guidance to fully implement the act’ no debate, no finding common ground, no thought to the Equality Act 2020, you will do what we say wither you like it or not, I don’t care who is in power that is not good enough, that is undemocratic and I actually believe that people have a right to be heard, to be considered and if the majority don’t agree a policy does not go forward at that time until people do, and to do that you have to win the arguments.
We should all be concerned about the actions of the Scottish Government around their complete lack of respect for alternative women’s voices, but as we have seen with the delay in releasing the Covid Care Home information before the election, we have got to be concerned with the secrecy and the refusal of Nicola Sturgeon’s Government to be open and transparent, as well as, being happy to break the law on the Harassment Policy, the malicious persecution of the Rangers administrators that will cost US up to £100 million pounds, the vendetta against Mark Hurst, Alex Salmond, Craig Murray, the list gets longer by the day and the contempt that we are being shown is right out of the Boris Johnson playbook and it disgusts me to say the least.
People, and especially SNP members, need to wake up soon to the dictatorial behaviour of your leader that is slowly but surely turning Scotland into a mini Soviet Union for those of us who remember that nightmare. There is an SNP Conference coming up and I challenge SNP members to get independence on the debating floor, get a date for a referendum on the debating floor, find out how much Peter Murrell earns and who makes that decision regarding his salary and his conduct as CEO, go on try and my guess is you get no where and you slag Alba off, you have a go at the new media bloggers, we are not the problem here and if you don’t get involved we are going to lose it all and it won’t be people like me that have caused this, Sturgeon and her team have to go for the future of not just independence but devolution and any modicum of democracy left in Scotland, the Tory Market Bill is the least of our problems.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
Their obsession with the biology-denying lunacy of the GRA is utterly baffling to me. Show me a man that wants access to women’s private spaces and I’ll show you one that should be on a register somewhere.
Dave
It’s the fact they accused Gove of covering up the Tory polling and what are the SNP doing, they just don’t get it and I can’t stand them now. They don’t even care they hypocrites in the extreme like the unionists.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
The Gender Reform Act consultation isn’t the only thing the SNP will keep quiet about. It’ll soon be time for yet another annual set of GERS UK propaganda scary numbers, no doubt this time with a headline deficit of a truly ‘devastating’ scale (the lie that is, not the substance), and yet again the SNP will say next to nothing to expose how misleading it is. Others have but not the SNP. It’s not just about GERS not reflecting an independent Scotland, it’s about GERS being a blatant distortion of Scotland’s finances within the UK. It’s probably the UK’s key scary bs anti-independence headline and yet the SNP don’t take it apart. In last year’s GERS report, 40% of Scottish Public spending (£33billion) was controlled by ‘Other UK Government bodies’. Just imagine how much higher this will be this year when all those tory pals Covid related contract costs are heavily allocated to Scotland’s finances and still the SNP will probably just look the other way again. We’ll know soon enough if they do.
Ian
You are not wrong, I despise the SNP lies and hypocrisy as much as I used to despise Scottish Labour, Sturgeon is just worse. Truly awful First Minister and Government, failing all over the place, as deceitful as the unionists and yet gets an easy ride, sick of them now and their cult that refuse to open their eyes to what is being doe to Scotland by Sturgeon.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Despite the majority being against it, tough luck we are doing it anyway. After all we are not the ones that will be locked up in prison with convicted sex offenders abusing self id are we, we’ve security so we’ll never feel unsafe in public places. Suck it up buttercup. There’s a WiSpa coming to you in the near future. And if your 6 year old girl doesn’t like seeing LadyDick, then she should have shut her little eyes shouldn’t she, the trainee TERF. /sarcasm.
When Alex Salmond said vote SNP in the constituencies, I said nae chance. And thank God I didn’t vote for them, after decades of doing so because I can truly say that NONE of this is on me.
Panda
I think we can all accept that people have rights and that includes transgender people but that can’t be at the extol women’s rights and the refusal to even have a proper discussion with women and to release the results of the consultation stinks of fear and the fact that they didn’t get the result they wanted. The SNP are the establishment now.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
“Government for the people, by the people” – If only. Bloody dictators.
Wee Chid
Yip, government for the elite and vested interests now in Scotland.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Nicola is clearly scared of the trans mob. Her hostage video demonstrated that, as do all these actions.
So she has 3 options:
1. Find some courage and confront them. Regardless of the way they’ll no doubt turn on her. She’s relying on their backing, but they’re ALSO relying on her ‘acceptable face’ to sneak through their dangerous nonsense. Put that popularity to the test. Proper, public, U-turn and they can accept that or go.
2. Decide that she CAN’T stand up to them, and resign. Preferably citing a personal U-turn on gender recognition as the reason. Deprive them of the ‘acceptable face’. I doubt the public would be so lulled by Angus Robertson, his delightful wife, and the Comms skills of Shirley Anne, Humza Yusaf, Leeze, Rhiannon Spear…
3. Keep digging herself into this hole. But be aware WomenWontWheesht. And increasingly some men won’t either.
Our job is to make option 3 impossible.
Nicola is clearly scared of the trans mob. Her hostage video demonstrated that, as do all these actions.
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I totally disagree with that , looking at sturgeon’s actions and demeanor I would posit that she is an integral, willing and enthusiastic participant , I don’t consider that she is under any kind of threat from these deviants quite the reverse she sees herself as the Scottish Joan Of Arc or a female Moses leading her tribe to the promised land , the only problem is that the promised land is already occupied by REAL MALES and FEMALES and we are NOT giving it up to imposter fakes
People forget that there is a precedent for the madness of this GRA and Hate Crime pish.
In the late 50’s/early 60’s a large proportion of the country went temporarily crazy as the US inspired Billy Graham crusades swept through the country. It was only when the bold Rev Billy went a bit too loopy that the canny Scots decided ‘woa wait up here, that’s not what I signed up for’ and gradually common sense was restored.
I still believe that now as then the decent Scots will take back control of the narrative.
I hope you’re right Andy, but meantime how many women and children will be harmed or abused?
Once gone, the worry is the rights and safeguarding will never be returned. Will it be too late once people wake up?
If the Consultation showed the ‘majority’ is against Self ID why is Sturgeon so fixated?
Makes one wonder if the issue is ‘closer to home’.