Latest news with #MhairiBlack
The Herald Scotland
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Mhairi Black typified much of what is wrong with today's politicians
Mhairi Black's resignation, reported exclusively by The Herald, was different. She took a general broadside at multiple issues she disagreed with but a Geoffrey Howe or a Robin Cook evisceration it was not. Like much of the promise a young(er) Mhairi Black showed, the final departure failed to deliver and was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a general 'so what' from so many. Read More: Predictably there was no hiding from the LGB and TQ quagmire issues that have now become synonymous with the SNP. Indeed, there is more than a hint of irony that one of the main reasons cited by Ms Black for walking was what she sees as the SNP's roll-back on trans rights – something I'm certain her fellow resignee Joanna Cherry would have spat her tea out at on reading. In more ways than either would care to admit, Black shares a trait with her long-time political honourable 'friend.' Whilst Ms Cherry's resignation from the SNP was on the cards for some time as a result of her deplorable treatment within the party, it's fair to say Ms Black's loyalty to the party that gave her a profile and made her a kind of household name was on equally shaky ground once the ideology of the campaigner met the reality of pragmatic politics. Her reported threat to publicly resign on the eve of the 2023 Hamilton West by-election in a bid to secure a nomination for one of her advisors to succeed her would have seen any serious party hoofing her unceremoniously onto the political streets. A fervent critic of the toxic Westminster culture, she seemingly had little hesitation in deploying some of its grubbiest tactics when the ends worked in her favour. To be fair, and whilst there was little doubt that Ms Black was and indeed remains a skilled and passionate orator, I was always slightly sceptical about the 'future leader' tag that was applied to her within a matter of months of making a name for herself within the party ranks. Her election in 2015, whilst monumental both in terms of her tender years, and that she defeated the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander was not in reality that remarkable when set against the political hurricane that all but obliterated Labour of the Scottish electoral map. To plagiarise the well hackneyed phrase – you could have put a yellow rosette on a monkey … (and in many cases they did). Black was a mere 20 years of age when elected and typified much of what is wrong with many of the public servants of today. They come from an ideological and puritanical world for they have never had to be pragmatic – as all the hard yards have been done by those who care little about being in the limelight. The need to continue to build consensus in the way the 20 / 30 / 40-year campaigners and activists on whose backs they rode to victory on was something they were never going to do. There were new days, new beginnings, where a gospel was to be preached. If you didn't agree there was no need to debate – dissent was heresy pure and simple – besides there were plenty in the echo chamber who agreed. The enlightened were not only the voices that were listed to, they were the only voices listed to. Black was not so much an uncompromising politician but a no compromise politician. She was a very public example of the kind of thinking and ideology that had slowly but systematically infected many of our public services and institutions. We are seeing one of the very worst examples of that playing out in all its gory and unedifying details at the employment tribunal brought by Sandie Peggie against NHS Fife and its transgender doctor Beth Upton. Where I agree with Mhairi Black that Scotland should proudly grow its reputation on the world stage, you'd be hard pushed to find many headlines you'd want to boast about since 2014. Whether we like it or not most of them come down to a dogmatism and hostility dressed as piety that Black and so many like her have championed. Edinburgh Rape Crisis, Isla Bryson, Amy George, Gender Self ID, the failed attempts to criminalise 'offensive' words, the continual dog's breakfast over how to record the sex of rapists, and the basins full of word soup spouted out by standing armies of what are increasingly turning out to be idiots - to avoid answering the 'what is a woman' question, are quite legacy for the no debaters. I have thought that each of these examples, egregious in their own right, would have been enough to stir the potential for moments of reflection but that is not the way of the modern 'progressive' world. As we are seeing what was a successfully cowed public mood beginning to shift, the willingness of the sane people who had for too long been holding their wheest, to say 'enough of this madness' has grown from muttering in living rooms to choirs of voices being quiet no more. Mhairi Black and countless like her wanted to change Scotland and there is little doubt they have done so. The trouble for them is they don't like what the fruit of their labour has produced. Absent a willingness to change course – or dare I say it seek to persuade that their vision is a better one it's time to get out of the way and leave the hard work of campaigning to others. Who knows - after another 30 years of folk undoing the damage that's been done - that might be time to come out from the shadows once more. Calum Steele is a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, and former general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations. He remains an advisor to both
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN DAISLEY: The out-of-touch political dreamers who've now been handed a rude awakening by reality
Ten years and a few months ago, I was dispatched to Paisley to try to interview Mhairi Black. I say 'try to' because everywhere we went someone would interrupt to tell the 20 year-old they were voting for her. It's not easy grilling a candidate on currency options for an independent Scotland when every few minutes a passing stranger suddenly downs their Tesco bags and asks for a selfie. This was the eve of the 2015 general election and the SNP was poised to sweep Labour from its west-central heartlands. Nicola Sturgeon was selling out the Hydro. Black was about to become the youngest MP since the Great Reform Act. I still had hair. It was another Scotland. A decade on, Black says she's done with the SNP and is no longer a member. She pinpoints 'capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular' as her reason for leaving, though adds: 'I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well'. Much as I don't share Black's views on gender or Gaza – or a great deal else, for that matter – I respect them. They're sincerely held. If you're going to hate anyone in politics, don't hate the ones who disagree with you on principle, hate the ones prepared to agree with you on any principle just to get ahead. Unfortunately her principles are far removed from those of the median voter, who remains baffled by the notion that someone can 'identify' into a different sex and even more baffled as to how this became a priority for politicians across the land. Many feel strongly about the deaths in Gaza but for most voters it is nowhere near the top of their concerns, which are dominated by their family, then their social circles, then their neighbourhood, then their country. Idealists who make a virtue of empathising more with those on the other side of the world get very angry about this. They even invented a term for it, 'hierarchy of death', which seems superfluous when we already had a term for it: human nature. For the SNP to have clung onto Black's membership subs, it would have had to return to a subject (trans rights) which has caused it no end of internal division and political misery, and adopt an even more strident stance on Israel's military response to the Palestinians' October 7 invasion and murder, rape and abduction of its citizens. The SNP is a political party, not a moral philosophy seminar. It exists to win elections and, in theory, achieve Scottish independence. What votes would it win by taking Black's advice? What votes is it at risk of losing by not? The former Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP comes close to identifying the problem herself, when she says: 'If anything, I'm probably a bit more Left-wing than I have been. I don't think I have changed all that much. I feel like the party needs to change a lot more.' The SNP does have to change, but not in the direction Black wants. The Nationalists and most other parties have spent the past decade or so breenging off on a tangent about trans rights, systemic racism, Donald Trump and the rest. A correction was long overdue. This agenda lacked popular consent and stoked resentment among both those who opposed it fiercely and those who protested over so much time and effort being frittered away. The Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland has helped immeasurably. Party leaders and policy-makers were able to point to the ruling and pass responsibility onto the justices. They weren't backsliding, the court was clarifying the law. For John Swinney, this has been a blessed opportunity to ditch positions he went along with at the time, I've no doubt against his better judgment, but which he knows have gravely damaged his party's standing with the public. A man with more gumption would have stood up and said something when it mattered, but if Swinney isn't much of a leader – and he certainly isn't – nor is he alone in that category. During the initial consultation stage for reforming the Gender Recognition Act, a senior politician in one party admitted to me that they didn't understand the issue, or why it was a priority, but they'd be voting for it because they had been told to. Politics is the trade of dreamers and cynics and while Mhairi Black might be wrong about everything at least she's sincere about it. She isn't the only dreamer to be rudely awakened lately by political reality. Maggie Chapman has found herself dumped as the Greens' lead candidate in North East Scotland, replaced by Guy Ingerson, ex oil-and-gas worker turned Net Zero enthusiast. According to a pet theory of mine, that makes it unlikely that Chapman will be re-elected next May. The theory: a person's likelihood to vote for the Scottish Greens correlates with their proximity to a Pret A Manger. Edinburgh and Glasgow, home to 11 and six branches of the posh sandwich chain respectively, just so happen to be the Greens' best and second-best performing areas on the regional lists. Aberdeen, with just two, lags far behind in Green support. Whether or not my theory holds water (or overpriced coffee), Chapman's Holyrood career appears to be over after years of headline-grabbing pronouncements. Her principles also deserve respect. Not because they're sincerely held but because we should remain open to ideas from other planets. When the landmark ruling was handed down in For Women Scotland, Chapman attended a rally to denounce the 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred coming from the Supreme Court'. She once told an interviewer that allowing eight year olds to change their legal sex was something that 'in principle we should be exploring'. Following the October 7 attack on Israel, she shared a tweet saying the murderous rampage was not terrorism but 'decolonisation'. Yes, her views are deranged, but the more pertinent question is how these came to be the views of someone elected to make sure Scots can see a doctor, find a good school for their children, and not get mugged at knifepoint. The answer is that ideologues like Chapman are not interested in all that boring, quotidian stuff that fixates middle-class taxpayers. Simply ghastly people, those bourgeois types, with their petrol-guzzling cars, their authoritarian demands for more police on the streets, and their grasping fixation with ambition and acquisition. Don't they know there are more important issues in the world? There are far too many in Holyrood or keen to get there who think like this. For them, life is just one long university debating society match, in which enlightened elites like them exchange barbs and bon mots over affairs of state. The little people might fret about bills and savings and leaving an inheritance for their children, but they are above such vulgar materialism. They are here to change the world, you know. In my observation, those most keen to change the world tend to have the least experience of it. They make terrible politicians because they quickly find out the world doesn't work the way they want and they resent the voters for that. If the voters set the agenda in politics, Mhairi Black and Maggie Chapman wouldn't be the only ones in our insular, self-righteous governing class that would be stampeding for the exit. Democracy is still the most radical idea of all. Maybe one day we'll give it a try.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: Mhairi Black isn't consistent on Palestine
Once-prominent SNP MP Mhairi Black confuses reader 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... We learn that former SNP MP Mairi Black has left the party, citing differences of opinion with the party's stance over LGBTQ rights and Palestine. Both are important issues and few would deny that the current situation in Gaza is deeply tragic, but Black may also want to reflect on the persecution and violence experienced by those who do not identify as heterosexual in Palestine. Perhaps she is in denial of the reality that Hamas opposes the decriminalisation of same-sex acts across the territory, with the terrorist group seemingly also supporting flogging for acts of adultery. The conflict in the Middle East is significantly more multi-faceted than this, yet it surprises me that Black isn't more vocal on the shocking treatment of LGBTQ people in Gaza. Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire Having stepped down as an MP last year, Mhairi Black has now quit the SNP too, because she disagrees with policies on Palestine and LCBTQ+ matters (Picture: Steve Ullathorne) Inherit the wind Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad On the eve of President Trump's visit to Scotland our First Minister felt he had to talk about Gaza and allowing peaceful protests. Why? This is a holiday for Donald Trump and he ought to be putting out the red carpet, not tacitly encouraging protests. Does anyone ever see peaceful protests any more? Can no one see that Hamas could end the suffering in Gaza at a stroke? There was a time when politicians actually did what their election manifesto promises said. This is still true about Donald Trump, less so about John Swinney or his predecessors, and definitely not true about Keir Starmer. The silent majority in Scotland may well see our country's good reputation trashed by a few militant protestors. Mr Swinney could find he has unleashed a maelstrom. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Close Holyrood The Scottish Parliament has lost all sense of purpose. It was created by a consortium of Labour/Liberal politicians back in 1998, but it has been under SNP rule for the past 18 years. In 2007 the Nationalists formed a minority government, before going on to win the 2011 Holyrood election. But, as I am sure everyone is aware, the situation in Scotland since then has deteriorated noticeably in almost all devolved sectors. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So, unless by a sheer miracle John Swinney and his Ministers can pull the rabbit out of the hat, and make major changes in almost all sectors, the only rational way out of Scotland's dilemma is for Holyrood to be closed as a Scottish Parliament, and for Government of these Islands to return at the earliest opportunity to Westminster. Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife Drink to England Today, as I make my journey home from England after a month away, I reflect on the common bonds that make the UK a wonderful entity. A love of the outdoors, a love of guid beer, similar weather systems, beautiful countryside and amazing people. England does appear to be a bit more civil in its workings; for instance, one can purchase a bottle of wine when collecting one's newspaper at 7am, thus negating the need to return at 10am, doubling the carbon footprint, due to the draconian rules imposed on us Scots. Also, said bottle of wine is £3 cheaper than in Scotland due to the lack of the MUP tax imposed upon us. If, as we are told on a regular basis, we are under the imperial boot of Westminster, then bring it on I say, if only for the two examples given. And let's not forget, it was only this June that we were 'allowed' to have a beer or a glass of wine on the train – four years after Covid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It really makes me proud to live in such a progressive nation, where the only subjugation imposed is from the enlightened geniuses at Holyrood. Another reason giving powers to devolved 'governments' should not be allowed… as anyone will know, when people get the 'club blazer' power consumes the bearer, and they lose sight of what they are there for – to serve, not dominate. Ah well, it has been a great few weeks, now back to the daily gruel of the enlightenment! D Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders Powerless The article by Eric Knight is interesting, forward-looking yet pitched from a UK point of view (Perspective, 21 July). Scotland's future is definitely not about fossil fuels, 'but about reshaping the UK's energy future, unlocking enduring economic value, strengthening national security and creating skilled jobs across the country for generations to come', he concludes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad All very well, however, he fails to separate Scotland from the UK in his argument. For example, he claims each GW (gigawatt) of new offshore wind capacity adds £2-3 billion to the UK economy and supports many thousands of jobs. How much of this will benefit Scotland when Westminster is in control of energy policy? Additionally, each GW of electricity can power a million homes. Scotland's expensive energy bills are the result of the UK Government's outdated energy market – a system still determined by fossil fuels and not cheap renewables. Westminster control of the purse strings prevents Holyrood from setting up its own energy company for this green energy bonanza. If over £10bn can be found to instal five subsea electricity cables from Scotland to England, why is Scotland having monster pylons planted on its picturesque countryside? The current wholesale price of wind turbine electricity is 3.7p per kWh, yet we're paying 25p per kWh! Why are we paying unnecessarily high energy charges for our own renewable electricity? England needs these connectors to access our cheap, renewable wind power. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Costs of England's Sizewell-C nuclear plant are set to spiral – leaving Scots with still higher energy bills after Energy Security Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed the plant will cost £38bn, nearly double the previous estimate. Successive UK governments profess to have an interest in Scotland's welfare when the evidence is to the contrary. DW Lowden, Mannofield, Aberdeen Rural failure The article by Katrina Bussey (25 July) highlights a £38 million spend to link Paisley with Glasgow Airport, £23m to provide faster links between Ardrossan and Glasgow and a massive spend of £3m for work on the A75 that connects Belfast with Gretna. Once again it appears the SNP have failed to point out that the upgrades for Paisley and Ardrossan need only cover a distance of about 10 miles – the distance from Cairnryan and Gretna is over 100 miles! Why, then, did the Holyrood Transport Secretary not re-allocate the cash, with £61m going to the rural South and let Paisley and Ardrossan share the £3m? After all, the SNP have allocated £5 billion for the A9 and millions on rail links in the Borders, so why their lack of support for rural Galloway ? Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway Bit of everything Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It appears David Millar (Letters, 24 July) would prefer that the NHS in Scotland focus on reducing long waiting times for non-urgent procedures rather than focus resources on those in need of urgent treatment. While following NHS England in this regard may capture some headlines, the fact is that the NHS in Scotland outperforms the NHS in England and Wales across a range of vital statistics, even when not meeting ambitious targets, and most people in Scotland agree with prioritising urgent treatment over long waits (which the Scottish Government is also working to reduce through committing further funding). As for Mr Millar's list of SNP failures, perhaps by way of balance he should consider the Scottish Government's performance within the framework of UK Government devolution he seemingly supports. Not just in Scotland but across the UK low-level crimes are not being reported, while the prison services are compelled to release prisoners early. Mr Millar and other contributors to these pages appear obsessed with 'the ferries' but fail to acknowledge that the SNP Scottish Government delivered the Queensferry Crossing on time and under budget, while London's Crossrail floundered and HS2 is a continuing astronomical failure by comparison (with costs in the tens of billions of pounds and sky-rocketing). As for disruption in our schools, this is an issue with which both the UK and Scottish governments are wrestling, especially following Covid and the increasingly negative impact of social media on our youth. The cost of reaching out directly to businesses in other countries is not cheap but the costs are tiny relative to the foreign investment the Scottish Government has secured, as is evidenced by Scotland being rated higher than other parts of the UK for inward investment. Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian New excuse Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad How I long for the day when someone, anyone, in authority in the SNP will take responsibility for events over which they have full control and accept they got things wrong. Usually it is the all-consuming 'Westminster' that is the omnipresent devil, causing all the problems, conniving and conspiring to make the SNP look bad. Occasionally they feel obliged to change the focus – those in charge must know even their most sheep-like followers have breaking points. And so, with Westminster out of the equation, we learn that the Covid scandal, where virus-stricken old people were released into care homes to infect others, was really all the fault of the care homes. Well, they had to find someone. Apparently, the 'care homes should have known' how to treat them. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman
Glasgow Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
John Swinney voices ‘regret' after former MP Mhairi Black quits the SNP
Ms Black, who spent nine years as an MP, said the party's 'capitulation' on trans rights was part of the reason for her decision. She stressed she still supports Scottish independence but there have been 'too many times' when she did not agree with decisions made by the party. She told The Herald newspaper: 'Basically, for a long time, I've not agreed with quite a few decisions that have been made. 'There have just been too many times when I've thought, 'I don't agree with what you've done there' or the decision or strategy that has been arrived at.' Ms Black said she is 'still just as pro-independence, absolutely', but claimed the party's 'capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular' had been an issue for her. She added: 'I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well.' The former MP said: 'If anything, I'm probably a bit more left-wing than I have been. I don't think I have changed all that much. I feel like the party needs to change a lot more.' Mr Swinney however insisted the SNP will 'champion' LGBT rights under his leadership, adding the party is also using its 'international voice' to push the UK Government to take a more 'robust' stance on Palestine. SNP leader John Swinney wished the former MP well (Steve Welsh/PA) Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: 'I very much regret the decision that Mhairi Black has come to leave the Scottish National Party. 'I wish it wasn't the case and I wish her well for all that lies ahead. 'The SNP is a party that is addressing the core considerations and concerns of the people of Scotland, around the eradication of child poverty, around ensuring we succeed in our journey to net zero, that we are able to improve the performance of the National Health Service, and we address the cost of living challenge that people face in our society. 'But we're also a party with an international voice, pressuring the United Kingdom Government to be more robust on the steps its take to ensure that the interests of the people of Palestine are addressed and the suffering of the people of Palestine is brought to an end. 'We are a party under my leadership that will champion the rights of all within our society, and making sure that we have the strongest possible position on LGBTQ rights in Scotland.' Mhairi Black was still a student when she was elected as an MP in 2015 (David Cheskin/PA) Ms Black was catapulted into the political limelight in 2015 when she was elected to Westminster at the age of just 20, becoming the youngest MP since 1832. She was elected as the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, ousting the former Labour cabinet secretary Douglas Alexander, as the SNP captured all but three of the seats in Scotland in the first general election since the independence vote in 2014. She became the SNP's deputy leader in the House of Commons when Stephen Flynn took over as group leader. However she stepped down as an MP at the 2024 election, blaming the 'toxic' environment at Westminster. She was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during her time at Westminster, saying previously the condition was picked up after she became unwell with 'burn-out' during her time as an MP. An SNP spokesperson said: 'The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland, united under John Swinney's vision of creating a better, fairer Scotland for everyone. 'After a year of disappointment and let-downs from the UK Labour Government, it's clear that real change will never come from Westminster and that independence is essential for a better future.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
John Swinney voices ‘regret' after former MP Mhairi Black quits the SNP
John Swinney has said he 'very much' regrets former SNP Westminster deputy leader Mhairi Black's decision to quit the party. Ms Black, who spent nine years as an MP, said the party's 'capitulation' on trans rights was part of the reason for her decision. She stressed she still supports Scottish independence but there have been 'too many times' when she did not agree with decisions made by the party. She told The Herald newspaper: 'Basically, for a long time, I've not agreed with quite a few decisions that have been made. 'There have just been too many times when I've thought, 'I don't agree with what you've done there' or the decision or strategy that has been arrived at.' Ms Black said she is 'still just as pro-independence, absolutely', but claimed the party's 'capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular' had been an issue for her. She added: 'I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well.' The former MP said: 'If anything, I'm probably a bit more left-wing than I have been. I don't think I have changed all that much. I feel like the party needs to change a lot more.' Mr Swinney however insisted the SNP will 'champion' LGBT rights under his leadership, adding the party is also using its 'international voice' to push the UK Government to take a more 'robust' stance on Palestine. Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: 'I very much regret the decision that Mhairi Black has come to leave the Scottish National Party. 'I wish it wasn't the case and I wish her well for all that lies ahead. 'The SNP is a party that is addressing the core considerations and concerns of the people of Scotland, around the eradication of child poverty, around ensuring we succeed in our journey to net zero, that we are able to improve the performance of the National Health Service, and we address the cost of living challenge that people face in our society. 'But we're also a party with an international voice, pressuring the United Kingdom Government to be more robust on the steps its take to ensure that the interests of the people of Palestine are addressed and the suffering of the people of Palestine is brought to an end. 'We are a party under my leadership that will champion the rights of all within our society, and making sure that we have the strongest possible position on LGBTQ rights in Scotland.' Ms Black was catapulted into the political limelight in 2015 when she was elected to Westminster at the age of just 20, becoming the youngest MP since 1832. She was elected as the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, ousting the former Labour cabinet secretary Douglas Alexander, as the SNP captured all but three of the seats in Scotland in the first general election since the independence vote in 2014. She became the SNP's deputy leader in the House of Commons when Stephen Flynn took over as group leader. However she stepped down as an MP at the 2024 election, blaming the 'toxic' environment at Westminster. She was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during her time at Westminster, saying previously the condition was picked up after she became unwell with 'burn-out' during her time as an MP. An SNP spokesperson said: 'The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland, united under John Swinney's vision of creating a better, fairer Scotland for everyone. 'After a year of disappointment and let-downs from the UK Labour Government, it's clear that real change will never come from Westminster and that independence is essential for a better future.'
