Latest news with #IslaBryson
The Sun
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Sun
JK Rowling brands Nicola Sturgeon a ‘complete f**kwit' in scathing review of her memoir
JK Rowling branded Nicola Sturgeon a f***wit over her gender ID views in a scathing review of her memoir. The former First Minister's memoir, Frankly, was launched today and is packed full of personal admissions and bombshells from some of the most infamous moments in her political career. 3 3 3 Harry Potter author JK penned her own review of the book which included a foul-mouthed feedback about Ms Sturgeon's time in office. Ms Rowling - a vocal critic of Ms Sturgeon over her gender self-ID bid - delivered a furious takedown of Ms Sturgeon over the scandal of male-bodied trans double-rapist Isla Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, being sent to Cornton Vale prison in January 2023. Ms Sturgeon famously refused to say Bryson was male or female in a car-crash press conference, which came weeks before she quit as First Minister. The author wrote in her review: 'Bryson, a convicted double rapist, had decided he was a woman and would rather be incarcerated with the sex against which he'd already committed the most male of crimes. 'When asked on television whether bald, blonde wig-wearing Bryson was a man or a woman, 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***wit.' Ms Rowling said Ms Sturgeon had made out that the 'the blame for her looking like a complete f***wit lies with others.' Raising another high-profile Scottish case, she said: 'Nobody had warned her about Bryson, you see. "She apparently had no idea that the very thing feminists had warned her was likely to happen, and had already happened – trans-identified man Katie Dolotowski had already sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl in a public bathroom, and served his time in a women's prison in Scotland – would happen again. 'She explains in Frankly that she was worried about the impact it would have on trans people if she denied Bryson was a woman. 'Therein lies the problem in the smallest of nutshells. 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, because to admit that even a single man who says he's a woman isn't means the whole edifice of gender self-ID collapses.' Five of the biggest BOMBSHELL moments from Nicola Sturgeon's new memoir Ms Rowling widened her criticism of the ex First Minister with a rundown on subjects not focused on in the memoir, called Frankly. Following praise for the book from commentators south of the border, Ms Rowling scornfully mentioned 'liberal London' types who also hailed her pandemic performance. Ms Rowling wrote: 'Her English fans can't be expected to know about every single cluster**** over which the supposedly competent Sturgeon presided, and they certainly won't find out about them from Frankly. '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.' Ms Rowling's review was titled "The Twilight of Nicola Sturgeon" and poked fun at Ms Sturgeon with a comparison between her and Bella Swan, the heroine of Twilight book and movie series. She says they are borth "shy, awkward, bookish girls" who move to "small, rainswept towns" - one called Forks, one Dreghorn in Ayrshire. Ms Rowling quotes a line saying "I don't yet realise it but in this moment the course of my life will be set. Everything that has gone before has been leading me here". And she adds: "These are Sturgeon's words, but they could just as easily be Bella Swan's, for both shy, insecure teenagers have dates with destiny. Nicola Sturgeon will one day become First Minister of Scotland. Bella Swan will join the ranks of the undead." Delivering the verdict on the book as a whole, Ms Rowling says: "And so to the three hundred thousand pound question: is Frankly a good read? "Honestly, only if you find Nicola Sturgeon so fascinating the dull details of her political decision-making intrigue you, and are prepared to accept all her special pleading. "The biggest impediment to enjoyment is that Sturgeon, like Bella Swan, has a complete void where a sense of humour should be. "Bella's best attempt at a witticism in Twilight is when she says, in answer to a query as to why she isn't tanned, 'my mother is half albino'. The only time Sturgeon makes what I think is supposed to be a joke is when she says of a teenage boyfriend, 'His nickname was Sparky (he wasn't an aspiring electrician).'" She adds that "most of the time, Frankly reads like a PR statement that's been through sixteen drafts" and says: "The best anecdote is on page 120, when Sean Connery teaches Sturgeon an acting trick to lower her voice. But if you're looking for a more scintillating read, I recommend The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht – especially if you want the real low down on the dystopian nightmare Sturgeon's gender beliefs have imposed on Scottish women." And poking fun at Ms Sturgeon's apparent modesty in passages of the book, Ms Rowling pointed to various boasts in Frankly. She wrote: "Sturgeon's alleged imposter syndrome and constant crises of confidence don't prevent her admitting to 'the raw talent I had for politics', or that 'I certainly wasn't lacking in ability', that 'far from being the weak link, I was seemingly the star attraction', 'it all added to the sense that I had the Midas touch' or that 'there is no doubt that I was a massive electoral asset.'"
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Nicola Sturgeon says transgender rapists ‘forfeit right to be gender of their choice'
Nicola Sturgeon says transgender rapists "probably forfeit the right to be the gender of their choice", as she conceded she 'should have been much more straightforward' on the issue of double rapist Isla Bryson's gender. Reforms which would have allowed transgender people to self-identify as their preferred gender were passed by Holyrood in 2022 but were blocked by Westminster the following year. Afterwards, Bryson was sent to a women's only jail after being convicted of raping two women, before being transferred to a male prison. In an interview with ITV News on Monday (11 August), the former SNP leader said that anyone who commits the 'most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice' before going on to admit 'that probably was not the best phrase to use'.
Spectator
3 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Is Nicola Sturgeon liberated or lost?
Nicola Sturgeon isn't someone for whom oversharing comes naturally. Throughout her career, she has regularly been labelled 'dour' or 'frosty' by both her opponents and those on her own side. As her profile grew through the 2010s, so did her popularity among the SNP's expanding membership – and in her first week of being party leader she mustered a 12,000-strong crowd with which to celebrate in Glasgow's Hydro. But she remained an introvert with a tight-knit circle of few friends. 'I can come alive on a stage in front of thousands of people, but put me at a dinner table with four people and I will struggle much, much more,' she told the Sunday Times. While so much has been written about Scotland's former first minister, there don't seem to be many people who really know her. It's unclear, also, whether she knows herself. Sturgeon's new memoir Frankly (which is out today) and the interviews that have accompanied it seem like an attempt to shrug off that reservedness. The events of the last two years – Sturgeon's gender bill; her impromptu resignation; the Operation Branchform police probe into SNP finances – have been dissected, judged and criticised relentlessly. Now Scotland's former leader is giving people the opportunity to see things from her point of view. Her critics say she is less offering insight, more rewriting history. Sturgeon's interview with ITV's Julie Etchingham sees elements of both. One of the controversies that, some suggest, prompted her resignation in February 2023 was the Gender Recognition Reform Bill – and the case of Isla Bryson. Sturgeon still struggles to call the sexual offender a man and pointedly sticks to 'they/them' pronouns. While she admits that she 'lost the dressing room' on the gender debate, calling it 'her failure', the former FM appears to regret her communication, rather than the substance of her argument. The closest Sturgeon gets to admitting she might have been wrong on the best way to protect trans people is when she says: 'We lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I am partly responsible for that… I should have said, okay, let's pause. Let's take a step back.' It is clear Sturgeon doesn't know how to square this particular circle – but that there is a vocal group of people she is conscious of upsetting. She hints at this briefly: 'Anything I say about Isla Bryson, in the wider world, will be immediately taken and transferred to every trans person. And if I sometimes still seem as if I'm struggling with how to define Isla Bryson, it's not out of any concern for Bryson, it's out of concern for how that then affects the wider trans community.' There are three moments when glimpses of real, unfiltered emotion are seen in the ITV interview. When the police arrived at her door with a search warrant over an embezzlement investigation, the former first minister left for her parents' house. She sounds unnerved as she tries to describe the day, saying she can't remember much except shock at photos that made her home look 'like a murder scene'. She describes her own arrest some months later as the worst day of her life. 'Do you stand by that you knew nothing?' Etchingham asks. 'If there had been any evidence that I had done anything that constituted a criminal offence, I wouldn't be sitting here right now having been cleared by the police,' Sturgeon replies, in a way that doesn't quite answer the question. Covid is an emotive issue for the woman who led Scotland through the pandemic. Sturgeon's daily press conferences and decision making saw her popularity – and that of independence – soar at the time, though she was later accused of having pursued her own public health strategy for political gain. With Etchingham, she discusses how she started going to therapy a few weeks after the Covid inquiry. Yet talking about how she felt when she sought help proves difficult for a woman who has over the last decade demonstrated an otherwise uncanny ability to hold herself together. Sturgeon admits she didn't tell her mum that she had gone to counselling – and makes a mental note on screen to explain this to her 'before she gets to this bit in the book'. And it was talk about Salmond's death that prompted something of another visceral reaction from his onetime protégée. The Salmond-Sturgeon fallout tore apart the 'Yes' movement, leaving a pair that had hoped to secure independence together at each other's throats. To ITV, Sturgeon says: 'Do I believe he behaved inappropriately – that's different to criminally inappropriately – on some occasions towards women? I believe that, and… instead of acknowledging that and showing contrition and apologising for that, he doubled down.' His death conjures up strange feelings. 'He died, and I hadn't spoken to him for years,' Sturgeon admits. 'I went through this period of I would still talk to him in my head. I would have vivid dreams that we were still on good terms. And then I'd have this feeling of such sadness when I remembered the reality, so I went through that process. I still missed him in some bizarre way. Even today, I still miss him in some way. The person that I used to know in the relationship I used to have.' Elsewhere, Sturgeon keeps her answers superficial. On preparing for the 2014 indyref, she said that while the SNP had been 'caught a bit off guard' and lacked positions that would 'withstand the full glare of scrutiny', the party turned things around with their white paper (which, she claims, Salmond never read). On issues of governance, she switches back into politician mode, shrugging: 'Do I wish I had done more? Of course I do.' An expression of distaste flickers across her face at the mention of the Reform surge in Scotland and on Nigel Farage she is scathing about his 'fragile ego' and 'bravado'. The interview swings between political events and personal travesties, with talk of her miscarriage a tender point. She's candid: 'I carry a sense of guilt that I miscarried a baby, because I had been conflicted about the pregnancy.' She jokes later, on a more light-hearted note, that getting a tattoo at 55 is a 'mid-life crisis alert'. Its infinity-arrow design, she divulges, symbolises strength, resilience and her continuing to move forward. Nicola Sturgeon has been a politician for so much of her life that you get the sense she doesn't know who she is outside of that. Her detractors will dismiss her memoir and these interviews as a blatant attempt to reshape a narrative that slipped out of her control in recent years. But it feels much less contrived than that. The former first minister has chosen to expose herself while still in a period of transition. 'I do feel a sense of liberation,' she smiles a little uncertainly at Etchingham as the interview wraps up. But she still seems lost, too.
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Nicola Sturgeon makes shock Isla Bryson admission in another partial U-turn in new book
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted rapists like notorious criminal Isla Bryson should "probably" not be able to choose their own gender in another partial climbdown on her self-ID crusade. The ex First Minister's remarks come after she rejected opponents' pleas in 2022 to ban men who'd sexually assaulted women from being able to change the sex on their birth certificate simply by filling out a form. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Sign up 4 Nicola Sturgeon has opened up ahead of the release of her new book Credit: ITV News 4 The former First Minister admitted she made a mistake in how she handled the gender ID row Credit: ITV News 4 Ms Sturgeon finally conceded that trans double rapist Bryson is a 'biological male' Credit: PA 4 Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay slammed the ex-Nats chief's comments Credit: Alamy In a primetime ITV interview with Julie Etchingham, the ex-Nats chief also finally conceded that trans double rapist Bryson is a 'biological male' after years of dodging the question - but still referred to Bryson as 'they', not 'he'. Asked whether she believed Bryson was a woman, she said: 'Isla Bryson identified as a woman.' But she added: 'I think what I would say now is anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be, you know, the gender of their choice.' Told by Ms Etchingham that the phrase 'the gender of their choice' goes to 'the heart of' the issue of controversial gender self-ID laws passed by Holyrood but blocked by the UK Government, Ms Sturgeon seemed to backtrack and said 'that probably was not the best phrase to use.' She added: 'If you rape a woman then I think you probably, the debate about whether they should be called a woman or not probably…' Asked why she couldn't say Isla Bryson is a biological male, Ms Sturgeon said: 'They are a biological male. but that's about whether... It gets back into the self-ID thing. I should have been much more straightforward. I wasn't. "We'd lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I'm partly responsible for that.' Responding to her remarks, feminist campaigner and ex SNP MSP Joan McAlpine said: "Bryson was just as much of a male in 2023 as he is now. But Nicola Sturgeon couldn't bring herself to call him a man then. She still cannot. "She says he 'probably forfeits the right' to 'choose his gender'. She needs to take an anatomy class or look again at the photographs of him on this pink leggings. "The GRA legislation she championed allows any man to change his birth certificate on a whim, even if he has full male anatomy and is a rapist. Nicola Sturgeon reveals first look at 'midlife crisis' tattoo & says she still MISSES Alex Salmond "She rejected amendments to exclude sex offenders from the process - the only difference between then and now is she has a book to sell.' Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, whose attempts to block rapists getting gender recognition certificates were voted down by the SNP, slammed the ex-Nats chief's comments. He said: 'Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon must be delusional if she thinks the women of Scotland will swallow this drivel. 'She arrogantly ignored all warnings that gender self-ID would be a gift to male predators like Isla Bryson. And she ordered her SNP MSPs to vote down my attempts to block rapists and other sex criminals from being able to legally change their gender by self-declaration. 'Her absurd ideological belief in self-ID collapses with her belated mealy-mouthed admission that this rapist is a man, but she still can't bring herself to say sorry for all the pain and misery she has caused. 'Let's not forget that if it was not for Alister Jack's common-sense decision to block Sturgeon's dangerous law, every rapist in Scotland would be able to declare themselves as women with the full support of the state.' And SNP MSP Michelle Thomson who was a fierce critic of gender self-ID and also tabled parly amendments to pause the granting of gender recognition certificates to rapists, said Ms Sturgeon's comments came 'far too late'. She said: 'It's far too late to concede that rapists should not be able to self-identify into the gender of their choice. 'Had she stopped to consider or engage with concerns regarding women's existing rights she would not have forced the SNP group to vote against my amendment to temporarily pause the granting of GRC's to rapists." Ms Thomson added: 'Her decision made clear that their rights should trump those of the raped. 'This was not, and never will be, the actions of a feminist.' Alba Party leader Kenny MacAskill, whose sole MSP Ash Regan quit the SNP over the proposed law change, blasted Ms Sturgeon for 'staggering hypocrisy'. He added: 'She started it, she maintained it and it's damaged us all especially vulnerable and damaged women. 'To now be suggesting a change in policy when she drove it forward with gusto and rejected changes to mitigate the harm is laughable. "But change must come and the continuing legacy of her perverse policy must be redded out.'
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Rapists should ‘probably forfeit' right to self-identify as women, says Sturgeon
Rapists like Isla Bryson should 'probably forfeit' the right to self-identify as women Nicola Sturgeon has conceded, despite her controversial gender laws allowing them to do so. The former first minister said trans predator Bryson, who raped two women while living as a man, should probably not have the right to choose gender. In an interview with ITV News to promote the publication of her memoirs, she acknowledged that Bryson was a 'biological male' but referred to the rapist as 'they' rather than 'he'. Ms Sturgeon also said she was 'partly responsible' for 'all sense of rationality' having been lost in the debate over allowing trans people to self-identify their legal gender. Her controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed biological men to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration. An amendment tabled by Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, banning sex criminals from self-identifying as women was voted down by SNP and Green MSPs. The legislation was passed at Holyrood but was vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women's safe spaces. However, it emerged that swathes of Scotland's public sector, including the prison estate, had adopted self-identification all the same. Bryson was jailed in February 2023 after being convicted of raping two women, crimes which were committed while living as Adam Graham. However, there was public uproar when the predator was initially sent to a women's prison, in line with guidance at the time stating that criminals should be sent to the jail that matched their self-identified gender prior to their conviction. Asked by ITV News's Julie Etchingham about how she became 'unstuck' over the Bryson case, Ms Sturgeon said: 'Isla Bryson identified as a woman. I think what I would say now is anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice.' Ms Sturgeon admitted that this was 'not the best phrase to use', before being challenged to admit that Bryson was a biological male. 'They are a biological male, but that's about whether it gets back into the self ID thing. I should have been much more straightforward. I wasn't,' she said. 'We'd lost all sense of rationality in this debate, I'm partly responsible for that.' However Mr Findlay said: 'Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon must be delusional if she thinks the women of Scotland will swallow this drivel. 'She arrogantly ignored all warnings that gender self-ID would be a gift to male predators like Isla Bryson. And she ordered her SNP MSPs to vote down my attempts to block rapists and other sex criminals from being able to legally change their gender by self-declaration. 'Her absurd ideological belief in self-ID collapses with her belated mealy-mouthed admission that this rapist is a man, but she still can't bring herself to say sorry for all the pain and misery she has caused.' Ms Sturgeon, 55, also launched another attack on the late Alex Salmond, claiming he had not read the entire independence White Paper that was the Yes campaign's prospectus in the 2014 referendum. She said her mentor and predecessor as SNP leader and First Minister 'really didn't engage in the work of the drafting or the compilation of the White Paper at all'. 'I don't even know if he'd read bits of it. I knew I was going to have to sit him down and say, 'Look, you're going to have to read this, and you're going to have to tell me now if there are bits you want to change, because it has to be signed off,' she said. 'He told me he was going on a trade mission to China. I don't think I'd ever felt as much cold fury at him as I did in that moment. It just seemed to me like an abdication of responsibility.' Chris McEleny, the former general secretary of Mr Salmond's Alba Party, said: 'Her continued unfounded allegations against Alex are an attempt to deflect from the imposter syndrome she's always stated she had because, in the cold light of day, Alex took us closer to independence than we've ever been, whereas Nicola destroyed the independence movement and has few achievements to look back on in contrast to Salmond.' Ms Sturgeon also recalled having a 'panic attack' while overseeing the White Paper after feeling an 'overwhelming sense of impossibility' about getting it up to scratch. 'I was sobbing on the floor of my office at home and just my heart was racing,' she said. She also used the interview to disclose that she had got her first tattoo, saying: 'Midlife crisis alert! What it is, is known really only to me, but I'll give you a kind of sense of it. It's kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow, and I came up with the design myself. 'In summary, what it signifies to me is strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible. And it might not be my last one now that I've got the taste for it.'
