Latest news with #OuterHouse
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trans Scottish castle owner ‘expelled' from council
A transgender Scottish castle owner has branded the local community council a 'lynch mob' for orchestrating a campaign to remove them from the group. Samantha Kane, who styles themself as Lady Carbisdale after buying Carbisdale Castle near Ardgay in 2022, had been accused of acting 'like a football hooligan' in meetings, stamping their feet and behaving 'like a six-year-old'. Around 150 members of the Ardgay and District community council in Sutherland voted unanimously in favour of dissolving the council on Thursday night, before signing a petition for it to be reformed – without the castle owner. Kane is the only person in Britain to have changed gender three times. Born in Iraq as a man named Sam Hashimi, they had surgery in 1997 to become Samantha, before a second operation in 2004 and name change to Charles Kane, and then a third surgery to become Samantha again in 2018. Kane said: 'The meeting was pre-determined with the sole purpose of getting me out, which is discriminatory and undemocratic. 'I am petitioning the Outer House of the Court of Session to declare both the meeting, which decided to put the motion, and the public meeting last night, unlawful. 'It was predetermined by bias against me based on malice, hatred and discrimination. My human rights have also been infringed by being deprived of representing the area as a councillor. I was not even allowed to put my case to the public meeting. 'I have never seen such a lynch mob – all that was missing were the pitchforks. A lot of the so-called public were not from the area and thus not eligible to vote. I believe that only 30 of those present were eligible to vote – out of a population of 800.' The dissolution motion had been proposed by vice-chairman Robert Sawyer and seconded by chairman Les Waugh, with all of the councillors present except Kane in favour. Mr Waugh said the community council had received written and verbal complaints about the castle owner's behaviour at meetings. He previously said: 'Her behaviour at community council meetings has been appalling. She sometimes behaves like a six-year-old child who has been scolded, shouting at people, stamping her feet and banging her walking stick on the floor like a football hooligan. 'All we ever hear about is Samantha Kane and Carbisdale Castle and the community benefit from it is nil. 'She also bangs on about the Highlands not being ready for transgenders – that is b------. We have several transgender people in our community and several gay couples. Sexuality is nothing. We like nice people and she has not been very pleasant.' Mass resignations in February last year caused the council to collapse but failed to depose Kane, at the time the vice-chairperson, who was the only councillor not to resign. However, dissolution means a new council must now be elected. Kane, a trained engineer, barrister and business tycoon, said: 'Some of the behaviour I have been subjected to belongs to the Middle Ages. 'I have experienced such outright hate. No matter what I do, they are all set upon expelling me from the castle and the area.' Kane has recently put the castle on the market for £3.5m, claiming the rural area is 'not ready' for a transgender owner. Kane bought Carbisdale Castle in 2022 to fulfil the dream of becoming a 'princess in her own fairytale', and has since ploughed millions of pounds into restoring the dilapidated 118-year-old, 19-bedroom castle to its former glory. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Herald Scotland
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish Government spent £374k on gender court battle
This figure includes £148,925.00 in counsel fees, £7,552.00 in court fees, and £1,339.30 in miscellaneous costs. These costs came on top of the £216,182.50 reported during the initial judicial review, bringing the total spent to £373,998.80. READ MORE In a unanimous decision, the UK's highest court ruled that a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) does not change a person's sex for the purposes of the Equality Act. The justices concluded that the terms 'man' and 'woman' in the legislation refer to biological sex, not acquired gender. The legal dispute began in 2017, when the Scottish Government introduced the Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill, intended to boost female representation. The law was amended to include trans women—including those without a GRC—as 'women'. FWS challenged this, arguing that the definition conflicted with the Equality Act 2010, which reserves sex-based protections for biological women. After an initial defeat, FWS won on appeal in 2022, with judges ruling that biological sex could not be redefined. The Scottish Government subsequently updated its guidance to state that GRC holders change their legal sex. FWS launched a second challenge, maintaining that 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex. The Outer House and the Inner House both ruled in favour of the Scottish Ministers. However, the Supreme Court subsequently overturned this. In its FOI response, the Scottish Government said the final total is still being determined and will be published once confirmed. READ MORE Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister Tess White condemned the expenditure, calling it a 'needless and humiliating' use of public money. She said: 'It will rightly stick in the throat of taxpayers that they are picking up a huge legal tab for the SNP's needless and humiliating court defeat. 'John Swinney's party threw good money after bad in a doomed attempt to defend their reckless gender policy which betrayed women. 'They dug their heels in defending the indefensible to the highest court in the land, instead of accepting that gender self-ID was a dangerous fallacy that ignored the legal rights of women and girls. 'The Nationalists' desperation to pander to gender zealots inside and outside their party was shameful and pig-headed. 'Yet, even now, John Swinney will not apologise or issue a new directive to public sector bodies—which adopted self-ID wholesale—on their legal requirement to protect single-sex spaces. That negligence leaves the taxpayer wide open to huge compensation payouts.' The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
