Nicola Sturgeon's political nous seems to have deserted her. Just a month ago she was heading for a majority in May and she's thrown it away. She can't even blame Alex Salmond because, although he has managed to put a smell on her which won't quite go away, the main reason voters are deserting her party in droves is her decision to promote trans rights over the rights of women. We are now in the ludicrous position in Scotland where a man walking down the street in women's clothes has more protection under the law than a woman, which provoked a twitter storm last night with a rash of tweets from former SNP voters now abandoning the party, and yet Sturgeon allowed the Justice Secretary to carry on with his Hate Crime Bill today without incorporating protection for women as advocated by Johann Lamont. Normally the First Minister is extremely sensitive to public reaction but, on this important, crucial topic, she ignored it. The delay to the vote on the bill was the ideal opportunity for the SNP to have a rethink overnight and they didn't take it. That is madness, eight weeks before an election.
Calton was already of the opinion that Nicola Sturgeon is not good for women and neither is her party, now being dubbed "New SNP". The passing of the Hate Crime Bill is now proving to be the turning point for others and support for the SNP is falling away. Calton won't shed any tears over that but he does wonder how Sturgeon could be so stupid? Perhaps Denise Findlay is right and Nicola just can't bear to lose. If that's the case, she'd better learn how to before May.
PS. And while we're on the subject of women, Ian Blackford's continued accusation that Joanna Cherry is not a "team player" (this time because she apparently asked why Patrick Grady wasn't sacked earlier from the SNP's front bench at Westminster over allegations of sexual harassment) just smacks of a man desperately casting around for a reason for demoting a competent woman who won't wheesht. Some are suggesting that Cherry should resign from the SNP and stand against Angus Robertson in Edinburgh Central. That would certainly make life interesting in Calton's constituency!
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