Dear All
The scandal involving SNP Minister Derek Mackay highlights yet again, the problems of Holyrood as a failed parliament. The place is like a private club, it isn’t a place filled with the biggest and the best of Scotland. Salmond, Sturgeon, Mackay and Walker along with many others have killed that off entirely over the last pitiful 20 years. In operation and in practice in order to be a member of the private club, you need to tick the right boxes which include, are you rich, are you from a private school, are you Sein Fein complainant, are you lgbtq complainant, are you Muslim complainant, are you from Glasgow University; are you from a university.
In the past, I have blogged on the four main groups that dominate in the SNP. Sein Fein lite, lgbtq, Muslim and the rich, there are other sub groups also in the SNP but their influence is minimal hence you don’t see their ‘causes’ much in the press.
Of the four main groups that make up the SNP, the lgbtq is the strongest followed a distant second by the Muslim group in causes and alleged victimhood, Sein Fein trails in third and the rich, they don’t need causes, what they want gets discussed behind closed doors.
In the past, the SNP under Alex Salmond was front and centre with the ‘cause’ of Islamophobia especially when they were trying to get the Muslim vote in Scotland but particularly Glasgow. Pushed to the front, Humza Yousaf, then an SNP staffer who in some govt meetings was wearing another ‘hat’ for the Scottish Islamic Foundation, the SNP Govt under Salmond funded them to the tune of £200,000. An organization led and promoted by Humza Yousaf and his cousin, Osama Saeed to highlight Scotland would be one big happy family of diversity if only steered by SNP candidates.
That organization was a failure.
In the post Salmond era, Nicola Sturgeon took over the reins of the SNP, and the ‘panic’ stopped being about the Islamophobia problem and became all about homosexuality victimhood and the promotion of the lgbt lifestyle, in schools their agenda came by way of the curriculum. Let’s face, if a guy was talking about anal sex, ass rimming, arse licking, the joys of masturbation to kids; you would expect the police to lock the dirty bastards up. In Scotland, employ them as teachers, pay them a salary and they call it 'education' and give them immunity. Under Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP push the sexualisation of children charges forward because this is all about heterosexuals pushing for never-ending equality right?
Well, some people would say no, in a recent video, the current heterosexual SNP member to "front" the lgbtq agenda is John Swinney, after all Nicola can’t carry all the load right? Here is a video of John in action, who has all the happiness of a man holding a turd at arms length while engaing in a chat.
Doesn’t John Swinney look happy, a former SNP leader, a former SNP finance secretary in the autumn of his years promoting this shit. In this video when he starts to talk about how some parents don’t like this, he then realises what he has said and rapidly changes tact to something else. And when he speaks of organizations being in a dialogue with the SNP government; anyone want to list those which are seen as heterosexual organizations?
The truth is Swinney and the SNP govt are listening to lgbt organizations, and when he says he is under pressure from the parliament to deliver this to kids, you can help feeling contempt for this individual. His speech to the parents in this video is sheer fucking bullshit implying that the bulk of parents would accept this and there would be the "individual parents" which would disagree. I came across an interesting series of tweets by a guy on twitter which touches on what he thinks is going on in Scotland. This guy nails it when he says for too long any criticism of its deepening obsession with LGBTQ issues has been denounced as homophobic and any concern that's expressed about a failure to take seriously the safeguarding of children is dismissed as bigotry.
He opines that maybe Derek Mackay has inadvertently opened a little window into the shared culture of some top level Scottish politicians. Maybe we should ask how seriously do they really take the risks to 16 year olds and other children from some of their key policies. Scottish SNP Govt is currently consulting on the Gender Recognition Bill, perhaps the most carelessly researched piece of legislation proposed anywhere in the UK in decades where a child can simply pick their sex in the same way you can pick a bag of crisps at a supermarket.
This has led to female politicians speaking out about how there will be no safe spaces for women now. If someone born a man calls himself a woman, he can simply walk into a female changing area and if anyone interferes he can scream discrimination and probably get staff fired.
In some respects, you could laugh at how the SNP has got themselves into this position, it got there by weak leadership, it got here by identity politics. Identity politics has been embraced by the political class as the new ethos of ‘divide and conquer’. It is to stop ground swell support against them and also to target and label people as bigots. Identity politics is a vehicle used to suppress free speech but all the major parties and elected officials live in fear of being labeled and branded. Holyrood is such a political shithole; it is easy to see why people despise politicians.
Under the Gender Recognition Bill, its lofty aim is to sweep away clear definitions of biological sex (male and female, remember them?). They will be replaced with some meaningless spectrum of 'gender identities'. This will undermine women rights. It will also endanger children's mental health by promoting the notion they can be born in the wrong body. The SNP Govt says its GR Bill is informed by the idea "people know their own minds best". But do 16 year old school kids really know their minds well enough to change their legal sex? Surely one of the things that made Mackay's behaviour totally inexcusable was that he was using political status and authority to try to stupefy a child. Does a 16 year old boy with apparently a girlfriend really want the attention of a 42 year old homosexual that he doesn’t know or want to know?
In Derek Mackay’s mind, the answer seemed to be yes, hence 270 messages trying to get the little boy to engage with him, and for what purpose? Since the Mackay story broke, Derek Mackay is in hiding, no sign of him at Holyrood, even in the cesspool parliament; his stench is too much for them. In Holyrood, the condemnation is fast, the condemnation is thick and the condemnation is universal. In the political bubble, anything which tracks back to the parliament must be exercised to keep their mindset that they are noble, aloof and wise, considering weighty matters.
But that's exactly what the Scottish govt now proposes to do on a national scale. First, later this year it will introduce new lessons in schools, promoting the idea all kids have a 'gender identity'.
In the world of Holyrood, The SNP govt has taken advice almost exclusively from a tiny clique of LGBTQ lobby organizations. Stonewall, Equality Network, LGBT Youth & Scottish Trans Alliance form a magic circle of influence. Personnel are best buddies with leading politicians and by an amazing coincidence these organisations then obtain huge funding from the same administration their mates run which is a pattern that the SNP have adopted and kept from the Salmond era.
You even get lgbt personnel jumping from these organizations into jobs with the SNP.
The SNP was said to have the largest majority of lgbt elected members of any political party in the UK, but not a lot of research has been done if any on the number of lgbt members who are employed by the SNP or are the staffers of MPs and MSPs. Some people might opine that the equality drive is pushed by enlightened heterosexual politicians, but they just ‘front the campaign’ so that anyone who speaks out can then be labeled a bigot or worse.
In the SNP created atmosphere, it isn’t surprising about the rise of people like Derek Mackay in the ranks of the SNP under both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. The only surprise but then it’s not really a surprise is why so few people speak out. Mackay has effectively been branded rogue male, just in the same way that Bill Walker was branded rogue, someone to be shunned when the public gets to hear about what is going on. In effective, the calls for Mackay out are a sign of cauterize the wound, taking the line of least resistance. With the smoke not cleared, already other people are now freed up to call for voters to be allowed to throw out "unacceptable" MSPs like Derek Mackay without having to wait years for an election. Nicola Sturgeon has dived off to Europe, a typical response for her when scandal breaks in the SNP, Derek Mackay, her protégé is badly damaged goods; the parliament has turned on him. Why did Nicola Sturgeon give up so quick on Derek Mackay, opposition MSPs called what he did "grooming".
A recall petition isn’t anything new the Standards Committee looked at this idea in 2018 because of another SNP scandal involving childcare minister Mark McDonald. He had to quit his post after inappropriate texts to a party colleague, but the committee ultimately rejected it. There is a mechanism to get rid of MPs, there must now be a mechanism to get rid of MSPs and list MSPs, but Holyrood full of little people will be slow to act, instead we will see their fury enabled on Mackay as the rogue male. I think we should have a recall mechanism at Holyrood and also the list system needs to be abolished entirely and replaced by smaller constituencies. Each MSP should represent roughly two wards. Although having to fight for every seat might not make MSPs honourable, it would make it easier for removing them if a recall is necessary due to their conduct.
I wrote about my lack of respect for John Swinney, who is the current front man for the pushing the lgbtq agenda through schools and onto kids. So, here is something to give you an idea why you should also have contempt for this ‘front man’.
How to teach anal sex 101 under the Scottish National Party, first get a banana, you might have to buy a pack out of Asda for about £1, second, buy a tub of Nutella, this is a paste like product, a brand of sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread. To teach, get the kids into a class room, form a circle. Explain that the tub itself represents a human male anus, unscrew the cap; place it to one side. Next take the banana peeled or unpeeled and turning the tub and banana sideways; thrust the banana deep into paste and then pull the banana out covered in hazelnut cocoa spread. In these lessons, the teaching of the act will be the main learning outcome and probably not the mentioning things like HIV, Aids and Genital warts. Maybe there will be some light background music to break the awkward silences in those lessons.
Finally, some people like the way I write, some people say I say a brutal truth, but in a political culture that values compliance over honesty, and cover up over protection, we should be asking why so few of our politicians speak out? They are speaking out now because the consensus is condemnation, and it’s seen to be okay, Mackay’s lgbt protected status has been revoked. Bear in mind however Holyrood is a second rate parliament filled with a majority of third rate politicians who appear to need a licence to speak out. It is like a high summer open sewer because identity politics have replaced the very thing that makes a parliament, integrity. I am in two minds, about whether Mackay should resign or not. I am curiously draw to the idea that a new front man is needed in Holyrood, someone who represents what is so very much wrong with this open sewer and those who inhabit it.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
A top post, George, apart from where you started proposing fixes to the unfixable (fourth from last paragraph). Your headline is the best and only fix: ‘… but is a better use of time not a referendum on whether Holyrood … should be closed permanently?’
ReplyDeleteYes. Close it down, bulldoze it flat, and give them all their P45s. We can put up a small sign in memoriam: ‘Here lies the grave of the SNP. Not missed. Not even once.’ Whither Holyrood, so withers the SNP. Take away Holyrood, and you take away any point to the SNP. Who will constituents vote for? Someone who will form the government or primary opposition at WM—at the very least someone who is a significant third voice.
‘Bear in mind however Holyrood is a second rate parliament filled with a majority of third rate politicians …’ Tim Luckhurst wrote against devolution repeatedly, and this 2002 article is a good one—still applicable today, just need to swap ‘SNP’ for where he wrote ‘Labour’.
‘Scotland reveals the principal flaws in devolved government. Here it has not delivered power to the electorate. It has consolidated the stranglehold of a parochial elite composed of … apparatchiks too incompetent even to win election to Westminster.
… even supporters have described the Scottish Executive as “a place where failed councillors go to die”.’ (Luckhurst, Tim. “England needs devolution like a hole in the head,” Independent, 10 May 2002)
You are right to question the motives of people pushing certain policies. Indeed, no matter the policy, you can usually find self-interest at heart of it, pure altruism being a rare quality. E.g. the MP promoting family-friendly policies such as an end to no-fault divorce, automatic custody of children to wife, crippling alimony, etc. likely does so as he realises the State hands his wife the legal equivalent of a Glock .44 with a mag full of hollowpoints; and however sure he is his wife will never unload it in his face—she has one and he doesn’t. So by advocating policies promoting stable marriages, he makes his own marriage a little securer. But his self-interest accords with many of our own, so we’re cool with it.
Step up the politician wanting to lower the age of consent, and similarly themed policies. ‘Oh, really? Now, why exactly do you want to do that? Altruistic? Aye, right.’
Anyway, let’s work on closing that turbulent assembly for good—hashtag #DevoRef2!
Good article, George. On gender recognition, even some of the diehards at Wings are against it. Nothing wrong with promoting tolerance, but to bring in dangerous legislation will cause untold problems.
ReplyDeleteNutella! Absolutely disgusting.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteNutella! Absolutely disgusting.
February 13, 2020 at 7:06 AM
Other brands are also available
Stafford1069