Nicola Sturgeon names MSP who bested Alex Salmond regularly
Recounting the opening day in 1999, she said:'Donald Dewar's speech that day was one for the ages. No account of that day would be complete without it being quoted at length.
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'For a man not known for his soaring rhetoric, he had staked his claim as the author of one of the finest speeches in Scottish history.'
Sturgeon recalled, Dewar, 'who had become a 'father of the nation' figure, died "tragically' in 2000.
She said it 'shocked the body politic and the nation to the core.'
Before his untimely death, she hinted that Scotland's first First Minister played a part in Alex Salmond deciding to quit as leader of the SNP and return to Westminster.
In the early days of Holyrood, Sturgeon said the SNP leader Alex Salmond was 'not firing on all cylinders'.
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For a politician who she said thrived on the 'cut and thrust' of debate at Westminster, he was having difficulty adapting to the Scottish Parliament.
She said: 'He was being regularly bested in debate by Donald Dewar, which rankled deeply with him.
'The cocksure confidence that was his trademark had gone and we all noticed.'
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Nicola Sturgeon: Gender opponents said they wanted me ‘raped in toilet'
Nicola Sturgeon has said opponents of her self-ID gender policy have laughed at her miscarriage and said they want her to be 'raped in a toilet' on social media. The former first minister accused self-professed feminists of having 'vilified' her this week, as she released her memoir, despite them claiming to stand up for women's rights. She was forced to deny claims she was responsible for a free speech row over whether critics of her gender policy were being censored, saying she 'does not believe' in cancel culture. The row erupted after an Edinburgh Fringe arts venue indicated that Kate Forbes, the deputy first minister, would not be invited to speak at future events because of her views on trans rights. Summerhall Arts issued an apology to performers for its 'oversight' in allowing Ms Forbes, a devout Christian, to be interviewed on stage last week. Several artists at the venue are performing shows with gay or transgender themes, and some set up a 'safe room' because they claimed to have been 'terrified' while the 5ft 2in-tall politician was in the building, the Daily Mail reported. It also emerged that the National Library of Scotland (NLS) had removed a gender-critical book from an exhibition after staff complained. The library removed The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, a collection of essays by feminists, including JK Rowling, about their fight against Ms Sturgeon's gender self-ID laws. The book was selected to be included in an exhibition celebrating the library's centenary but was removed following complaints that it was 'hate speech'. However, it was still available to read in the library. Stephen Kerr, a Scottish Tory MSP, wrote to Angus Robertson, the Scottish culture secretary, arguing that public bodies that fail to protect freedom of speech should have their funding withheld. In his letter, Mr Kerr asked Mr Robertson to 'seek full and transparent explanations' from Summerhall Arts and NLS about their conduct and to make a 'clear public statement ... that freedom of speech and expression are non-negotiable where public funding is concerned.' He urged the culture secretary to 'require that future funding arrangements include explicit, enforceable commitments to uphold these freedoms in practice, and that breaches will have consequences'. Ms Sturgeon's controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed Scots to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration, with no medical diagnosis. The legislation was passed at Holyrood, with Ms Sturgeon arguing that some of its opponents were transphobic, 'deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well'. However, it was vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women's safe spaces. 'Toxic' trans debate In a sold-out interview with broadcaster Kirsty Wark at Edinburgh Book Festival, Ms Sturgeon described the debate around trans issues as 'toxic on both sides'. Highlighting comments made on social media this week, she said: 'There are people who call themselves feminists, standing up for women's rights, saying things about me such as when I described my miscarriage experience the other day 'I haven't laughed as much in years', accusing me of making it up, people saying they hope I am raped in a toilet.' The former SNP leader has recounted the miscarriage she had aged 40 in 2010 as part of events and interviews to publicise her memoir in recent days. She said she was 'heartbroken' about the loss. In the book, named Frankly, she admitted that she 'should have hit the pause button' on the controversial legislation to allow trans people to self-identify. Reflecting on the row over the policy in her interview with Ms Wark, Ms Sturgeon insisted that not all opponents of gender reform are either transphobic or homophobic, but claimed the issue of trans rights 'has been hijacked and weaponised by people that are transphobic and homophobic'. She said she was 'worried' that if she paused the gender reforms at Holyrood, this would have seen her 'give in to that', but admitted that that 'might have been wrong'. 'I don't believe in cancel culture' Asked if her change of heart on the bill merited an apology to the people who say they were 'vilified' for wanting it paused, Ms Sturgeon said: 'People on both sides of this debate are vilified. 'I've been vilified and received some awful abuse, nothing like the abuse trans people are getting right now.' Pressed later for her response to the free speech rows, Ms Sturgeon said: 'I don't believe in cancel culture and I don't agree with that.' She also refused to take responsibility for the decision made by Summerhall Arts. The Fringe venue was awarded £608,302 of public money from Scottish Government quango Creative Scotland in January. In his letter to the culture secretary, Mr Kerr asked for an audit to be conducted to ascertain how much public money had been given to organisations that have restricted freedom of expression. Mr Robertson told the Herald that the Scottish Government was fully committed to freedom of speech in the arts but added: 'For very good reasons, funding to our major cultural and festival events takes place at arm's length.' The Summerhall venue said: 'This event was booked as a series of long-form interviews prior to the guest list being confirmed. 'Summerhall Arts' primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of the artists and performers we work with, and going forward we will be developing robust, proactive inclusion and wellbeing policies that would prevent this oversight in our bookings process happening again.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
JK Rowling blasts Sturgeon memoirs as a 'shameless denial of reality and hard facts' in scathing review
They have long been locked in a bitter war of words over the gender debate. Now author JK Rowling has penned a scathing review of Nicola Sturgeon 's hotly anticipated memoirs on the day it was officially launched. The Harry Potter author, who famously wore a t-shirt labelling the former first minister a 'destroyer of women's rights', posted the expletive-riddled assessment of 'Frankly' on her website last night. Ms Rowling tore into the former First Minister's 'stubborn' attachment to her controversial gender reform legislation, her inability to face up to her failures in office and 'Trumpian' accounts of political events. The women's right campaigner wrote: 'She remains stubbornly wedded to her belief that it is possible to let some men into women's spaces on the men's say so, without letting any man who fancies it come inside. 'She denies there are any risks to a policy of gender self-identification. She can't imagine any male predator capitalising on such policies, in spite of the fact that it has, demonstrably, happened many times. 'She is flat out Trumpian in her shameless denial of reality and hard facts.' 'While Sturgeon is focused on making sure no hurty sexist words penetrate hers, she's entirely dismissive of the harms done in actual physical spaces, where she expected nurse Sandie Peggie to deal with a heavy menstrual flood in front of a cosplaying man, and vulnerable female prisoners to accept being incarcerated with trans-identified male sex offenders. 'The First Minister, with her police protection, her carefully monitored official residence and her chauffeured car just couldn't see what these bigots were making a fuss about.' The best-selling author said it was only when the double rapist Isla Bryson burst into the news that the FM was lost of words. Ms Rowling said: 'The First Minister, whose composure and articulacy under fire had, for years, been her most potent political asset, made herself look – and forgive me for employing a PR term here – a complete f******. 'Of course, the blame for her looking like a complete f****** lies with others. Nobody had warned her about Bryson, you see.' 'If you're prepared to accept the foundational falsehood that some men are women, you'll inevitably find yourself panicking like a pheasant caught in headlights one day.' Ms Rowling also addressed claims Sturgeon made in her book about the vile abuse the politician had received. The best-selling author said: 'Eleven years ago, when she and I found ourselves on opposite sides of a different public debate, I didn't hold her accountable for all the threats I received from nationalists, nor for the porn her supporters circulated, with my face pasted onto a naked actress's body. 'As the gender wars have raged, I have not accused her of emboldening the kind of 'activist' whose threats against me have twice necessitated police action.' 'Notwithstanding all the ruminating on sexism and misogyny Sturgeon does in Frankly, always as it affects her personally, she is unshakeable in her belief that if men put on dresses and call themselves women they can only be doing so with innocent motives. 'Sturgeon hasn't been remotely humbled by the Supreme Court ruling that proved her government was forcing a misinterpretation of the UK-wide Equality Act on Scotland, one that robbed women of many single sex spaces and of their very existence as a definable class with rights protected in law.' And Ms Rowling, who reveals that her doctor husband once ran a methadone clinic for drug addicts, hit out at what the ex FM fails to even mention in the memoir. Ms Rowling said: 'The mysteriously vanished government WhatsApp messages from the pandemic, the tanking educational outcomes, the CalMac Ferry disaster, the disappearance of a half a million pounds of her own supporters' money that was supposedly ringfenced for a new independence referendum: you'll search in vain for candid accounts of these in Frankly; indeed, most aren't mentioned at all. 'Perhaps the most disgraceful omission – and I'll admit to a personal interest here, because I'm married to a doctor who used to run a methadone clinic, so saw the national scandal up close – is the fact that Scotland continues to lead the whole of Europe in drug deaths.' And she compares the MSP to Bella Swan in the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. Ms Rowling wrote: 'The heroine of Twilight, a shy, awkward, bookish girl, moves to a small, rainswept town called Forks to live with her single father. 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Scotsman
an hour ago
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Labour didn't create North Sea energy jobs crisis but we're spending hundreds of millions of pounds to fix it
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The clock is ticking for Scotland's energy sector. For too long, the story has been one of managed decline and strategic missteps, setting bold climate targets without aligning it with a necessary green industrial strategy, leaving proud communities exposed and uncertain. Securing a fair energy transition is a political and moral imperative. We now stand at a pivotal moment. The transition to renewable energy must avoid the economic devastation wrought by deindustrialisation, which continues to scar many corners of our nation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In Falkirk, the former mining villages of the Braes remain fiercely proud of their industrial heritage. The recent ceremony to grant the Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge Free Colliers of Falkirk the freedom of the town speaks volumes. The Pinkie March through the villages of Falkirk's Braes demonstrates the kind of working-class solidarity that should guide us through the challenges facing the North Sea energy sector | Scott Louden Scars left by lost industry How the Free Colliers came together to defend their rights and those of their communities, and now the 'Pinkie March' that takes place every first Saturday of August, show a legacy of working-class solidarity that should guide us through the challenges we face today. But the scars left by lost industry run deep across my area: fuel poverty, declining services, and acute long-term unemployment have plagued my constituency for too long. Comparisons with the announcement in 2023 that Petroineos was moving to close the Grangemouth oil refinery, and the non-existent action from the UK Tory government or Scottish Government prior to last year's election are neither exaggerated nor isolated. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Alongside the mounting uncertainty for North Sea oil and gas workers, these are symptoms of a wider failure – decades of delay, poor planning, and governments in Edinburgh and Westminster too often unwilling or unable to steer a course through change. Between 2013 and 2023, employment supported by the UK's oil and gas sector halved. This was not unforeseeable in a declining basin. And, as ever, it is the workers – not the shareholders – who have borne the brunt. There are, however, signs of a long-overdue shift. The UK Labour government has recognised the urgency of the energy transition. A £200 million commitment from the National Wealth Fund to Grangemouth and a training guarantee secured by trade unions for its skilled workforce marked a first step. So too do efforts to progress the Energy Skills Passport – a crucial bridge for oil and gas workers looking to move into renewables. Tens of thousands of jobs There is also a new determination for UK workers to benefit from the huge expansion of offshore wind. Scotland's wind resources are unmatched, with more than 50 wind farms already generating electricity for the National Grid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The UK now accounts for more than a fifth of global offshore wind capacity. That's not just a statistic – it is a foundation. With plans to increase capacity six-fold over the next 15 years, the potential returns are vast: tens of thousands of jobs and billions in investment, despite several political leaders on the right now declaring a war against clean energy jobs. Until now though, too many high-value roles in offshore wind, especially in manufacturing, have been created overseas, with the typical North Sea turbine currently containing more than three times as much material manufactured overseas as components made here in the UK. I've made on-shoring our manufacturing a key priority of my time in office, especially with 400 jobs and countless others in my constituency hanging in the balance in the bus manufacturing sector due to green subsidies flowing too generously abroad. Full-throttle commitment A £300 million commitment to support offshore wind supply chains in the UK will go some way to rectifying this. As will the expanded Clean Industry Bonus, with more than £500 million now allocated to reward offshore wind developers that target their investment in areas of the UK that need these jobs the most. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Welcome developments to be sure, but we are in circumstances that require a full-throttle commitment: we need a coherent, credible plan to deliver new industries, build robust domestic supply chains, create good jobs at scale, and transform industrial heartlands into hubs for green manufacturing – and fast. A fair transition for Scotland's energy workers is still possible, we must not give up on that. At its core must be a clear, comprehensive plan to create well-paid jobs in our towns and communities that are facing decline – a plan that prioritises Scotland's workers, supply chains, and communities. It must guarantee the replacement of jobs lost through the decline of oil and gas with quality employment in renewables. We also need robust, accessible support packages for workers and suppliers moving into the renewable economy. Cooperation not squabbling Falkirk's future is directly tied to what happens next at Grangemouth. My constituents are watching closely – it is an unavoidable truth that my constituents will deliver their verdict at the ballot box. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The current crisis was not of this government's making. But it is now ours to resolve. Many established clean energy technologies face critical skills shortages. We must develop clear pathways for workers to take up new roles, ensure training is free and accessible, and avoid placing costs on workers already navigating upheaval. It is encouraging to see a more constructive working relationship between Westminster and Holyrood. The political squabbling of the past – preoccupied with identity and process on the future for our energy sector – must give way to practical cooperation. But collaboration cannot end with a political photo call. The voices of workers, unions, and communities must not just be heard, they must lead.
