White Horse Syndrome

Calton has read numerous comments recently which say that Nicola Sturgeon is only using trans people to pick a fight with Westminster. Now, Calton has no doubt that Sturgeon relishes any excuse for a barney, and indeed could probably start a fight in an empty room, but he isn't convinced that she's being quite so cynical over the trans issue. If you read her comments, watch her video plea to trans people leaving the SNP, listen to her on TV, she really does seem to believe in the trans cause. She definitely seems to believe that transwomen are women and are also the most stigmatised minority in Scotland today. In short, she has been captured by trans ideology. There may be personal reasons behind this but there may also be another reason - white horse syndrome.

With her dreams of leading Scotland into independence, Boudicca-style, disappearing into the distance once again, Nicola may be seeing herself, in an appropriate gender role-reversal, as a knight on a white charger, rescuing transwomen in distress and decapitating, or at least silencing, a few Terfs along the way. Never mind that, instead of killing dragons, she's let loose a couple of the monsters called Misogyny and Violence in Scotland. Or that, instead of tilting her lance at Westminster, she's taken aim instead at Scottish women. It's her legacy that's at stake, not independence or the good of the Scottish people.

Fortunately it looks like the anger of older Scottish women may well drag her off her high horse.

A View from the Terf

Calton attended the demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament organised by the Glasgow Cabbie a couple of days ago to protest against Nicola Sturgeon in general and her sordid sex education and the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in particular. It was very well attended, unlike the counter-protest, with a variety of protesters from different backgrounds there. Calton has invited one of them to do a guest post:

"I am a sixty-something Scotswoman. When I was wee, girls became nurses when they grew up and boys became doctors. By the time I left high school I had acceptances from three Scottish universities to study medicine. I decided to study maths and physics instead and was one of a growing number of young women to do so. In the 80s engineering was the last bastion of male-only studies at university. So I became a software engineer upon graduating, working for a large electronics company in Scotland. I had to put up with manspreading, mansplaining and pornographic pictures everywhere I looked. I was never paid as much as men doing the same job, which affects my pension today. It was a really sexist, misogynistic environment but it was nothing compared to the misogyny I see today coming from the Scottish Parliament, under a female First Minister, and I never felt unsafe in the ladies toilets!

In the last three decades of the 20th century women's rights were improving. There was still a gender pay gap and some way to go but we felt we were making progress. We had our first female Prime Minister, pornography gradually disappeared from the workplace and women were no longer told they could only do certain jobs. Now we are going backwards fast under a female First Minister who claims to be a "feminist to her fingertips" but doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word. Young boys are being taught at school that porn is fine - go ahead and have fun with it. Young girls are being admitted to hospital with serious anal injuries after experimenting with a type of sex promoted in school sex education which I hadn't even heard of at their age. A primary school teacher caught two kids trying to have sex in the gender neutral toilets after sex education. This isn't progress and it's damaging kids, girls in particular.

I never used to think of myself as a feminist but I do now - a TERF and proud of it. Nicola Sturgeon doesn't know what a man is but I do and they shouldn't be in women's prisons, women's refuges, women's toilets or any other space reserved for WOMEN. That's why I attended Glasgow Cabbie's demonstration - to say SHAME ON STURGEON and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

WOMEN WON'T WHEESHT - for the sake of the children."

Nationalism - The Same Everywhere

It is quite something when Scotland's First Minister and the leader of the Scottish National Party condemns the leader of Russia for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, given that she is constantly agitating for the destruction of the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom. Certainly Putin's means should be condemned and Calton has no hestitation in doing so but is an aggressor from outwith the borders necessarily worse than one from within? As long as she continues to eschew violence Sturgeon has the moral superiority over Putin but in other ways they are very similar.

Both of them are harking back to an earlier period in the histories of their countries and wish to return to it. Putin wants to revive the Russian Empire and Sturgeon wants Scotland to be independent again. (Independent and bankrupt, just like it was in 1707.) Both of them have an enemy which they are fixated on - NATO and Westminster. They surround themselves with yes-men and don't like criticism. They seem to think they are above the law. And both of them are very reluctant to give up the reins of power.

'Nationalist' seems to be a dirty word with SNP members these days but a nationalist is what Nicola Sturgeon is - by her own admission on many SNP conference video clips. So is Vladimir Putin which just goes to show that nationalism is the same the world over.

How to Start a Bank Run

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going down a very dangerous path with his threat to freeze the bank accounts of protesters. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the banking system of the western world relies on trust. There are no vaults of gold bars to back our currencies. We deposit our money in the bank because we trust that we will be able to get it back out as and when we need it. When that trust evaporates we get what's known as a run on the bank. In the past that has always happened because trust in the particular bank has failed, as in the run on Northern Rock. Investors in that institution started to get worried that their deposits were not secure and so they queued round the block to get them out. Banks never have enough ready cash to pay out in that situation and so the UK Government had to step in. Otherwise Northern Rock would have gone under, taking people's deposits with it.

Now we have a situation in Canada where a politician is threatening to deny people access to their money. If banks comply with orders to freeze accounts it will have the same effect of damaging trust in the banks, even although the banks are not failing. People, not just in Canada but around the world, will look at what's going on and will start to wonder if they would be better withdrawing at least some of their cash from whichever bank it happens to be deposited with, just in case one day their account is frozen. They may not be planning to protest or do anything else which might merit Trudeau's negative attentions but the seed of doubt has been sown: maybe my money is not as safe as I thought it was. Who knows what the trigger for future invocations of emergency powers might be? They are only supposed to be invoked in extreme situations in Canada but Trudeau is driving a truck through that. More trust destroyed.

In the case of Northern Rock, UK politicians stepped in to save depositors' money (at the expense of shareholders) by nationalising the failing bank. Canada's leader is risking causing a run on healthy Canadian banks by his draconian actions. He may not care if Canadians lose their trust in him but if they lose their trust in the banking system it won't just be him who pays the price.

Shot Down in Flames

 Calton has never seen a newly elected government so beleagured by bad press right from the get-go as the current Scottish Government. Usually there is a honeymoon period but that seems to have been cancelled, just like many other wedding plans and honeymoon trips over the last two years. Sturgeon moved quickly to bolster her position by bringing in the Greens after being denied a majority yet again but it doesn't seem to have helped her popularity, or her temper. Regular watchers of First Minister's Questions will have noticed that, lacking real answers to the opposition questions, she plays the man, not the ball, particularly where Douglas Ross is concerned. The Tory Leader is youthful looking, leading Sturgeon to mock him for being infantile. Such ad hominem attacks are not very smart coming from a woman of a certain age who looks like Maw Broon and sounds like a fishwife but intelligence is not one of the First Minister's strengths. For proof of that one only has to listen to the recording of her speaking on the topic of doors and ventilation at today's FMQs: "If a door is hung in such as way that it is inhibiting the natural flow of air, then one of the options the local authority should have is to rectify that." (She means by chopping bits off the door rather than opening it.) Having been chased up this particular tree by Ross's "absurd" line of questioning, Sturgeon refused to come down, rather like the cat in Trumpton. Unfortunately the real life Fire Brigade has refused to come to her rescue, choosing instead to pour fuel on the flames of the controversy by raising issues of fire safety. If only those pesky firefighters were as compliant as Police Scotland ...

The Smell of Death

The stink of corruption and sleaze coming from the SNP has been rather overpowering recently but underneath it is the sickly smell of something far more worrying - the smell of death. Nicola Sturgeon seems to think that admitting to making a mistake which lead to the deaths of thousands of elderly care home residents will somehow act like febreze, dispelling all smells, but thousands of grieving relatives think otherwise and the promise of an inquiry is small comfort. Early Scottish Government guidance which said that it was advisable for covid cases in care homes not to be sent to hospital and the blanket issuing of Do Not Resuscitate notices or DNRs in care homes show a scant regard for human life, especially elderly, vulnerable human life, on the part of the SNP, and is in keeping with the hope expressed by numerous SNP supporters, including current Edinburgh Central candidate Angus Robertson, that the sooner the older generation die off, the sooner Scotland will be independent.

That desire to see the back of troublesome older people makes it all the more worrying to see that the SNP, in their current manifesto, are planning, if re-elected, to set up a citizen's assembly to look at legalising assisted dying. The Scottish Greens, who might help the SNP to form the next government, are already committed to introducing assisted suicide. At least they are being honest - the SNP are employing their old trick of only committing to some sort of consultation on a contentious topic before an election but their track record shows that their consultations always lead to the outcome they desire (same-sex marriage, the smacking ban being two examples of this).

At the other end of life, Nicola Sturgeon announced in September 2020 that expanded abortion access was a priority for the Scottish Government and the SNP currently does not seem to support the right of politicians of Northern Ireland to decide on abortion laws for the province, preferring to sit on their hands while Westminster imposes extremely liberal abortion laws on a devolved government against its wishes. This is total hypocrisy on the part of the SNP who would scream blue murder if Westminster tried the same tactic with Holyrood.

The Scottish Government has recently tried to say that saving lives has been their priority during the Covid pandemic. Calton thinks that they have actually become accustomed to a culture of death, whether it be in care homes due to covid, a back alley due to drugs or in the womb due to abortion because actions (or inaction) speak louder than words and the statistics speak for themselves.

Alba Trying to Square the Circle

It was high time that the SNP's dominant position on the independence side of Scottish politics was challenged and so Calton welcomes the entry of the Alba Party to the field. Quite a lot of women have done the same, judging from Alba's women's conference at the weekend, in spite of Nicola Sturgeon's attempts to smear Alba leader Alex Salmond as not safe around women. This is because Alba seems to provide a real alternative to Sturgeon's anti-female, woke, pro-trans policies. Their Equalities Policy has a series of statements about women's rights, including the right to safe spaces and women-only sport. So far, so good. However the self-same equalities policy goes on to say

ALBA acknowledges that no single protected characteristic is
more virtuous or more worthy of recognition and safeguarding
than another. They are all fundamentally important, each on
their own, and as a collective.

 There are also some waffle words about reforming the Gender Recognition process in a "respectful, sensitive and positive fashion". Which basically means that the Alba Party has no more idea than the SNP does about how to square women's rights with trans demands. That is because the circle cannot be squared. There is no solution that will keep everyone happy. Alba looks like it is coming down on the side of women, which is an improvement on the SNP, but it is still throwing a sop to the trans lobby and, in the process, potentially letting women down in the future. Until a political party is willing to grasp the nettle and recognise that people cannot change sex, women will continue to be threatened and undermined. Alba is a step in that direction but no-one should kid themselves on that Alba is the solution. Least of all women.

Envy is a Terrible Thing

Seeing photos this week of David Davis and Alex Salmond together in happier times reminded Calton of something we seem to have lost, in Scotland at any rate. Gone are the days when politicians of opposing parties knocked seven bells out of each other in the House and then met for a pint afterwards. Gone is respect and admiration and, in some instances, genuine friendship between political opponents. Gone is agreeing to disagree. Instead we have Nicola Sturgeon who quite clearly hates, loathes and despises the leaders of the other parties. There is no mutual respect or friendship there, which is why the lift sketch featuring Sturgeon and Davidson was so cringe-worthy. During an election debate Sturgeon didn't hesitate to drop Dugdale in it by revealing a private conversation on national TV. Political advantage trumps personal loyalty and general decency every time with Nicola. She doesn't even bother trying to conceal her dislike of Willie Rennie even although the two of them share common ground on the EU.

Most telling of all is the way in which the First Minister has not only dumped but tried to destroy her mentor Alex Salmond. Her reasons for doing this have never been very clear, especially if we are to believe that he was her friend, however the whole thing becomes more plausible if, in fact, the friendship was all on Salmond's side and Sturgeon was just using him as a stepping-stone to the top. A genuine friend would have been happy with his aquittal. Instead, Sturgeon keeps casting doubts on it even as she says she accepts it.

Nicola Sturgeon has lots of slavish followers but seems to have few friends, all of whom are in her own party. She is trying to rubbish the Westminster intervention by David Davis this week by characterising it as the "old boys club", knowing the friendship that exists between Davis and Salmond. Envy is a terrible thing. Sturgeon has also made a big mistake in trying to smear Davis. David Davis MP is a man of principle and a well-respected politician. Calling him "shifty" just makes her look bad, especially after her evasive answers to many of the questions put to her by the Parliamentary Committee recently. It was an ill-judged act of desperation from a woman who is losing the trust of the Scottish people. If recent polls are right and she fails to get a majority in May, she will have very few friends supporting her after the election and she will only have herself to blame.

More on Tactical Voting

Both votes SNP worked for them in 2011 but that doesn't mean the same strategy will work for the Scottish Conservatives in 2021, especially if, as is being reported today, they don't seem to be aiming to be the largest party in Holyrood - just the largest opposition party. Nothing like a bit of ambition eh guys?

On the other hand, voting for a smaller party on the list has not worked well since 2007 reduced the number of colours present in the Holyrood rainbow from 7 to 5. That doesn't mean it won't work now. Never has Calton seen such disenchantment and disillusionment with the ruling party that he is seeing right now. Even staunch, lifelong SNP supporters are talking about spoiling their constituency ballot and voting for one of the smaller independence parties on the list ballot. In addition, there has never been such a strong move towards tactical voting in order to oust an incumbent party in the lifetime of Holyrood as there is now. It is for those reasons that Calton thinks that Stephen Daisley (someone he has enormous respect for) is wrong when he says that a vote for All for Unity is a wasted vote.

George Galloway and All for Unity have galvanised the anti-SNP vote and The Majority has given them a voice (and a banner in the sky). The mood amongst unionists was changing even before the SNP started stumbling over the Fabiani Farce, the Hate Crime Bill and the recent allegations of sleaze. Now we have an open goal in front of us, the goalie is too busy fighting fires on various fronts to defend it, it's an opportunity undreamed of even a few weeks ago! Tactical voting in Glasgow Southside could see Anas Sarwar defeat Nicola Sturgeon! Jackie Baillie's crowdfunder was over-subscribed within days of launching. If Murdo Fraser puts some effort into his constituency instead of relying on the list vote we might see the back of John Swinney!

The All for Unity approach to getting rid of the SNP is two-pronged - tactical voting in the constituency and All for Unity on the list. It is clear that the main parties are not prepared to play ball as regards the former (although, to be fair, Douglas Ross did make a tentative offer which was rebuffed by Anas Sarwar) however voters are doing it for themselves. This means more seats for Labour and the Tories, which then means that giving them your list vote is less effective. Hence the second prong of A4U's attack.

Calton doesn't know if fortune favours the brave but it does seem to favour those who recognise an opportunity when they see one and grab it with both hands. George Galloway and his pals are doing just that and Calton sees no reason to revise what he has already said about tactical voting. Just do it! You know it makes sense.

The Turning Point

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!