Sunday, January 22, 2023

It's good that the SNP leadership have stated that they don't think "TERFs" should be put to death - but now we need to hear that they shouldn't be subjected to a civil death either

I said yesterday that it was puzzling that no matter how outrageous the actions of pro-GRR campaigners at rallies that SNP politicians attend, the SNP leadership never seem to feel shamed into explicitly condemning it or properly distancing themselves from it - because, after all, if there were anti-English placards at a pro-indy rally, seventeen days of collective national shame would probably be automatically announced.  In fairness I was proved wrong on this occasion - the SNP leadership did condemn yesterday's incident in Glasgow, although the suspicion must be that the change in tack only happened because of how politically damaging it all was.  The ultra-close proximity of SNP politicians to placards calling for women to be murdered, mutilated and cannibalised was what made the episode so unusual and dangerous.  If you crop the photos in a certain way, the hate-speech placards almost look like a "twibbon" that Kaukab Stewart or Kirsten Oswald have deliberately added to a beaming profile pic, ie. "I'm Kaukab Stewart and I think TERFs should be..."

And the fact that condemnation has occurred this time means that it's reasonable to pose a question of the SNP and Green leaderships: if you don't think "TERFs" should be put to death, why not?  That may seem a strange thing to ask, but we know that you think "TERFs" are bigots who are not fit for human company, and who should be ostracised and who nobody should ever share a political platform with.  We know that you think they shouldn't, in many cases, be allowed to have a career, because pressure is often put on employers to take draconian action against them.  We know from the sacking of Joanna Cherry two years ago that you don't think they're fit to serve on the SNP front bench.  We know from the incendiary words of Maggie Chapman and John Nicolson that you don't think they have any place in our parliament and should leave politics altogether - even though they represent the views of the vast majority of the general public.  You believe, in short, that they should suffer a 'civil death', and it's therefore perhaps unsurprising that some of your fellow travellers would expect you to have no problem with the idea that they should suffer an actual death.  If you genuinely do have a problem with calls for them to be murdered, it's high time you explained to some of the people who attended that rally yesterday why "TERFs" are in fact worthy of life and of personal safety.  And if you find those words don't come out easily, perhaps you should ask yourself why, because for anyone who truly believes in liberal democracy it should be the easiest thing in the world.  It needs to happen, because when the language of violence is normalised against a certain group, actual violence tends to follow sooner or later.

The reality is that there is an obvious tension in thinking a class of people are worthy of a civil death but not of an actual death.  Either you dehumanise people and regard them as vermin, or you don't - and if you don't, there's no good reason for subjecting them to a civil death either.  We can but hope that yesterday was a psychological watershed that will lead the SNP leadership to start acknowledging that "TERFs" hold views that can be strongly disagreed with but that are nevertheless legitimate to express in a democracy, and that they therefore have a place in parliament, on the SNP front bench, on political platforms, in the workplace, and indeed in absolutely every other walk of life.  Only then will some of the heat be taken out of this toxic debate, and the risk of violence will dissipate.

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34 comments:

  1. Very well said James. Just think if the SNP's own hate bill was presently live then my own MP Oswald could be prosecuted using their own hate bill. Strangely, they seem to think that this law only works in one direction.

    What a state - the party of government in Scotland having to clarify they don't want people decapitated using a guillotine or by any other method. This is no better than the Telegraph stating that they wanted Sturgeon to suffer the same fate as Mary Queen of Scots - behead her they said. Both disgusting.

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  2. I had to look-up what TERF means (i.e. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism) : like the vast majority of folk, don't actually gaf... maybe one day the Scottish Nicola Party will remember why it exists.

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  3. The Scottish Skier on WGD who selfIDs as a lot of things says that SNP voters voted for GRR in the last two elections. Well I voted for independence not all this crap. I am truly sick of these SNP/ WGD numpties claiming the majority in Scotland are for this bill because people vote SNP. We want Scottish independence - try and get this through your thick head. None of the leaflets that got pushed through my letterbox from the SNP mentioned this bill before or after the elections.

    Get on with HR23 and deliver independence this year and leave the cans alone for once.

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  4. But guys, c’mon, if we don’t have a new word for “Nazi” then how we gonna type?

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  5. In one of the pictures it looks like Thewliss has a young child with her. Now any sensible, decent, responsible politician upon seeing the nature of the placards would make themselves scarce asap. To stay there with a young child is just a disgrace.
    How many independence votes have they lost over this and it is still ongoing. Numpties think it is part of Sturgeons secret plan. If it is part of a secret plan it ain't to achieve independence.

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  6. I see that a bampot SNP councillor in Dundee was sharing a platform with another bampot the Greens Maggie Chapman and compared the fight for GRR with the Auschwitz concentration camp. I'm speculating here now but Chapman probably said there were a lot of non binary people killed by the Nazis and sex is non binary.
    How the hell did these looneytunes get in to the SNP. How many people did they drive away from independence.

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    1. How many have "UK puppets" like you driven away?

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    2. It's not just the Britnats in Westminster who are keeping Scotland imprisoned. Sturgeon has said there will be no illegal referendum. How can it be illegal in Scots law for Scots to be asked how they want to be governed. But that's what the independence leader tells us. That is a colony and that is acceptance of a colonial status.
      Sturgeon will now set it up with the same old blackmail that you must vote SNP or Greens in an election if you want independence. Instead you get crap like the GRR and Freeports.

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    3. Squeak squeak - whats that noise - oh it's the courageous mouse again.

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  7. Talk about sharing too much info. Skier as part of another one of his long diatribes on GRR, toilets and changing rooms claims he has been sexually groped - 8 times - by women but does not make clear if any were transwomen. Not sure if it was a boast or if he liked it or not or just another lie but this is the sort of crap road the SNP are taking us down. He also says he didn't raise a complaint.

    Meanwhile that other WGD doctor of sycophancy Dr Jim states that Nicola ( swoon swoon) is the greatest ever leader Scotland has ever produced. Robert the Bruce ya nicophant.

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    1. There's a sitcom crying out to be made about Skier, and his French wife, and his feminist mother, and the women who grope him, and his passion for unisex toilets. His life is a parable for every occasion. Essentially he's Jesus.

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    2. The perfect theme song:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOEO_fgG3-I

      It’s sublime up here, chaps!

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    3. chortle - he's not the Messiah, he's very naughty boy

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    4. Eh wasn't Robert the Bruce a bit of a posh English Jock liar and traitor who filled his pockets with English gold before and after Wallace

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  8. If a push towards independence, based on a future election campaign, actually happens what might it look like ? With so little that is positive left to say about the UK how will our opponents fight it ?
    Barring a miracle anti GRR tabloid hysteria will play a very large part. How will that play with an electorate who's attention to politics is low most of the time ?
    This is what the conquest of the SNP upper echelons by the GRR political sectarians condemns us to !

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  9. When I posted that WOS in my opinion is a mixture of the good, the bad and ugly. Well the bad and the ugly are on full display in Campbell's latest article the Grooming of Holyrood. You need a strong stomach to read/ see some what some of these violent perverts are up to - that is the ugly. The bad are the disgraceful politicians who are in bed with them (not literally I think but who knows) and promoting their disgusting ideas. These are politicians from the greens( party leader) SNP, Labour and Lib Dems ( party leader ). Standing in front of placards advocating violence is nothing compared with politicians promoting and befriending people who advocate violence for trans rights. In reality they are just violent thugs. I feel ashamed that I ever helped elect Ross Greer.

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  10. I've just been reading the below-the-line comments on Wings' latest posting "The Grooming of Holyrood". It makes for depressing reading - not just the visceral hatred of ALL transgender people, but the number of overt anti-independence voices, the misogynists masquerading as supporters of women's rights, the right-wing zealots, the branding of the SNP as both Marxists and Nazis. It's now like reading a Trump-supporting website. I've thought for a long time that Wings had been targeted by anti-independence plants and agents provocateurs. If you'd come to the site for the first time, you would find it hard to believe that this was a pro-independence site.
    Stuart has encouraged his supporters to believe that the worst, most obnoxious trans activists are typical of the entire body of transgender people. From my limited experience, transsexuals are among the quietest people in society, perhaps because of the prejudice and abuse that they face - and which is currently escalating. I can't help but see the hatred directed at this minority as eerily similar to the homophobia that was deliberately kindled by Margaret Thatcher's Clause 28 crusade. Regrettably, Stuart's site has now morphed into Wangs Over Scotland, and although I have no argument with his exposure of the repulsive extremists among trans activists, it appears that their mirror-image inhabit the Wings comments section. I strongly suspect that Governor-General Jack's invoking of Section 35 is designed primarily to keep open the GRA sore that afflicts the independence movement. We shouldn't fall into the trap of fighting internecine warfare over a minority within a minority. We shouldn't allow ourselves to become the Unionists' Useful Idiots.

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    1. Tridentitycrisis -

      1.you claim in your post that btl there is a "visceral hatred of ALL transgender people."

      2. You also claim that " Stuart has encouraged his supporters to believe that the worst, most obnoxious trans activists are typical of the entire body of transgender people."

      1. I looked for evidence of this earlier today and only found a pretty mild point of view by one poster Lorna Campbell who isn't keen on GRA as it is at present but far from " hatred". Perhaps you have evidence if so please advise.
      2. Again I saw no evidence of what you say in Campbell's post. Perhaps your judgement is based on reading other articles by Campbell that I have not read. Please advise.

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    2. "If you'd come to the site for the first time, you would find it hard to believe that this was a pro-independence site."

      There's no particular reason to make an effort to believe that anymore, because it's no longer true. Wings is not a pro-independence site. It's impossible to put an exact date on when it happened, the transition to unionism was gradual, but it's now complete.

      One of the commenters on Campbell's latest post says that there's no point in bothering with Alba, which is an irrelevance, and that the only solution on the gender issue is to oppose independence. That is essentially identical to the position Campbell set out on Twitter the other day. He wouldn't express it quite as bluntly as that, or not quite yet, but then he doesn't have to, because he's already expressed it less bluntly.

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    3. In a previous posting on Wings, I suggested that the grounds for enforcing Section 35 on the current GR Bill if applied to current transgender-certification legislation would also nullify that law, meaning that all transsexual rights would be in danger of being wiped away. To this, Lorna Campbell replied that might be a good thing. Over a lot of postings dating back several years, there is both overt and covert hostility, while the tone of Stuart's articles and the comments are difficult to interpret as anything but transphobic (and flirting with homophobia - calling Pink News Penis News is pretty tawdry stuff). If you trawl back through past articles there are many commentators calling transsexuals perverts, paedophiles and mentally ill. Apparently the entire Green Party is sexually deviant. I'm afraid I don't see the tone of criticism as 'mild'. It's not measured and respectful like Joanna Cherry's or Kenny MacAskill's reservations.
      Among the comments under "The Grooming of Holyrood" there is one from an anti-vaxxer, and in another from a short while ago, there was someone quoting Hitler approvingly on the 'Big Lie'. Sorry I can't recall exactly where.
      The Wings comments section is increasingly characterised by anger, barely concealed bigotry, pathological hatred of Nicola Sturgeon, conspiracy-theory peddling, intolerance of any dissenting views (see the attacks on Craig Murray for disagreeing on the GR issue), a cringe-making supplication towards Stuart, and a growing detachment from the independence cause unless it adheres strictly to the purity of the Wings vision. If you're not 100% with us, then you're against us.

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  11. HEADLINE in the Herald ; 'Nicola Sturgeon 'looking at all options' to challenge UK's GRR block'

    Of course, replace 'GRR' with IndyRef2 and you have a rocking independence party leader... but alas no, her priorities are : lesbians, gays, bisexuals, tran-sexuals, Queer and of course +...

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    1. What has she done that suggests she prioritises lesbians and gay people?

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    2. Keaton - more specifically she attends gay pride marches - not got a problem with that - but hasn't attended an independence march for 10 years.

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  12. Yesindyref2 ( also referred to as the Bathtub Admiral) posts on WGD something that gives me hope that the WGD numpties can see sense at times.

    He says:- "As another wee thing, regardless of whether the infamous photo was sneakily staged or not, other demos have also had hate placards, so you'd have to be pretty stupid not to know that there would likely to be such placards at Glasgow.
    And there are extreme activists who really do need to be visited by the polis. Apart from being dangerous people, they do transgender people no favours, and the normal activist do themselves no favours by not condemning the extreme element amongst them.
    Same goes for Indy supporters of course."

    I would add:
    1. The crowd was small. You would have to be blind not to see the placards. More than one photo was taken. In independence marches in Glasgow/Edinburgh with 80-100k people it is impossible to see all placards but I have never seen any advocating violence.
    2. Contrast the stuff these violent trans activists have posted with the way others have been treated by the police eg Mark Hirst. So who is protecting them?
    3. I agree that these nutters pushing violence do other trans people a complete disservice.

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    1. It would great if you criticize the Tories as much as you criticize the SNP . Maybe that is too much to ask?

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  13. Relax everybody dinnae get upset. Independence WILL be delivered. Dr Jim tells us so.

    WGD numpty Dr Jim obviously believes Sturgeon is Scotland's very own Moses as he posts:- " Scotland will be independent, but only when Nicola Sturgeon has fully persuaded the rest of the civilised world to recognise the desire of the Scottish people. "

    oh well that's all right then. But wait a minute another WGD numpty Alex Clark says it is not for Sturgeon to deliver independence but that it is our job. Who to believe eh!

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    1. Riding to the rescue to clear up any doubt is Dr Skier with his Ski slope graph that is like a nice warm comforting blanket on a cold night to tell you that his Ski slope says Scotland will be independent if we just wait long enough. Who to believe eh.
      A mad liar Skier - a nicophant Jimbo - or your bog standard WGD numpty Clark.

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    2. Now I may be wrong but Skier's Ski slope graph seems to be less steep than when he first punted it as 'evidence' that if we do nothing then independence will just happen eventually. Less steep means longer to get to the promised land of independence being the settled will of the people of Scotland. If he keeps this up it will have transitioned from a Ski jump slope to a nursery slope. Skier the man who tells you so so much about his life but never mentions Skiing. Funny that.

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  14. I have to laugh at posters telling me to criticise the Tories more. There is nothing stopping them doing so. So why don't you - I’m not stopping you - is James not publishing your criticisms of the careless error of the Tory Chairman who just made a wee error in not paying millions in tax. Careless is knocking your drink over in the pub - not evading paying millions in tax. Oh I've just done it - see it's quite easy to criticise the Tories - get on with it.

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  15. Nicola Sturgeon has had 8 years to deliver independence. She wants more years to do so she claims. How many we do not know. But WGD nicophant Dr Jim wants to go back in time and claim that if Sturgeon had been FM in 2014 then yes would have won and she would have delivered independence. Dr Jim says:- " ...if she had been FM then maybe just maybe it might have turned out a little different."

    There is sycophancy and there is WGD sycophancy. WGD nicophancy reaches the parts no other can reach.

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    1. The laugh about Dr Jim's assertion is that the SNP previously removed all mention of Salmond in their history section on their website and punted the very idea that Sturgeon was responsible for everything to do with the 2014 referendum anyway. Soviet style rewriting of history by the SNP and delusional dreaming by Dr Jim.

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  16. WGD numpty Golfnut says: - " The Treaty of Union is indeed the only way out of this union. Treaties make domestic law, domestic law can't make Treaties only ratify them. As far as I'm concerned whomever is giving legal advice to the SNP needs sacked."

    A sign that more and more of the numpties are getting restless. Looks like Golfnut wants Sturgeons Lord Advocate sacked.

    It's a pity Golfnut subsequently goes on to post that HR23 cannot possibly happen but HR26 is ok. He says Westminster may repeal the Scotland act and close Holyrood but bizarrely offers no explanation as to why Westminster wouldn't do the same in 2026.

    So here we are 8 years in to Sturgeons leadership - multiple mandates unused, multiple referendum promises broken, a Holyrood referendum established as illegal by Sturgeon and people not having a clue as how to get independence. Any other walk of life she would be thanked for her service and shown the door but people think she is Scotland's greatest leader.

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  17. What has Independence for Scotland have to say about this. He is strangely absent!

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