Latest news with #ScottishNationalparty
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Scottish ministers drop plans to outlaw misogyny and conversion practices
The Scottish government has dropped plans to outlaw misogyny and conversion practices before the next Holyrood election, arguing they are too legally complex to deliver in time. Ministers had long promised a bill to criminalise misogyny after Nicola Sturgeon, the then first minister, accepted recommendations from a working group led by the lawyer and human rights expert Helena Kennedy in 2022. Lady Kennedy said a standalone bill was essential because of the seriousness and complexity of the issue, which spanned sexual violence, hatred, gender-based threats of violence online and 'incel' culture. Jamie Hepburn, the minister for parliamentary business, said on Friday the Scottish government would instead insert anti-misogyny measures into Scotland's Hate Crime and Public Order Act via secondary legislation – an approach Kennedy said in 2022 failed to grasp the significance of the issue. Women's rights campaigners said this was 'devastating news' but Hepburn said the recent UK supreme court decision on the definition of woman had added to the legal challenges. 'This is a complex area of policy and law, and it would be necessary that any bill which brought misogyny into criminal law contained clear and unambiguous provisions in regard to the circumstances in which they apply,' he told MSPs. Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said those issues should have been resolved by now. 'At a time when women and girls are facing unprecedented levels of misogyny, it's unbelievable that the government is dropping this landmark bill.' Hepburn also confirmed the devolved government had scrapped its plans to ban conversion practices via stand-alone Scottish legislation, dropping another of Sturgeon's pledges when she struck a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Green party in 2021. Instead, the Scottish National party government has deferred to the UK government, and will work with UK ministers on agreeing Westminster-led legislation that would include Scottish measures. Kaukab Stewart, the equalities minister, said if those talks failed or were not trans-inclusive, then ministers in Edinburgh would consider introducing their own bill after next year's Holyrood elections. Both decisions signalled another significant shift by the Scottish government under John Swinney's leadership away from Sturgeon's rights-focused policy agenda, as the SNP drifts towards safer, centrist territory. Campaigners against conversion practices reacted furiously. 'This is the latest in a growing list of betrayals for LGBTQ+ Scots from this Scottish government. Scotland could have banned conversion therapy years ago,' said a spokesperson for End Conversion Therapy Scotland. 'LGBTQ+ rights are under attack right now, in a way we haven't seen since Thatcher's section 28 ban on 'promoting homosexuality'. Queer people are crying out for some solidarity from politicians. Instead, this news is a stab in the back.' Stewart said: 'Scotland remains absolute in our commitment to equality, the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, and ending conversion practices. 'These recent weeks have been challenging for our LGBTQI+ communities and we want you to know we stand with you and we will work tirelessly to ban conversion practices once and for all.' Kennedy argued that hate crime legislation was the wrong vehicle for misogyny criminalisation because women were not a minority group, which hate crime protections were designed for. 'Misogyny is so deeply rooted in our patriarchal ecosystem that it requires a more fundamental set of responses,' the working group report concluded. The police and courts needed much clearer legislation, centred on women, to guide them, it said.
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mhairi Black: Being Me Again review – the former MP is a force of nature in this excellent documentary
Mhairi Black's maiden speech in the House of Commons 10 years ago remains a thing of beauty. We are only treated to a snippet of it in this excellent documentary about the former Scottish National party politician – the youngest MP elected to parliament since 1832 – but I recommend finding the whole thing on YouTube. Black, then just 20 years old, has the Commons in the palm of her hand, simultaneously charming her fellow MPs with her dry wit and laying bare the deprivation in her Paisley and Renfrewshire South constituency (among the horrors: a man who starved himself in order to afford his bus fare to the jobcentre, only to collapse on the way there). The documentary does, however, retain some of her best one-liners from that address. Among them, the fact that her MP status and changes to housing benefit meant that she was 'the only 20-year-old in the whole of the UK' that would be getting any government help with their housing. Black – if it wasn't clear already – is a force of nature, and someone we surely need in politics. And yet, her exit from Westminster is what this one-off film is all about. We zip between archive clips from her younger years as an IndyRef campaigner; the last days of her career as an MP (Black announced her intention to stand down at the next election in 2023, following through on that promise in 2024); and her post-politics life. There's also footage from last year's Edinburgh fringe show, Politics Isn't for Me, which saw her turn her tumultuous time in parliament into something approaching comedy, commanding the stage with what she calls her 'Britney mic' jutting out in front of her mouth (the Guardian described it as 'comedy therapy'). Being a young, gay woman in the Commons, we learn, took a profound toll on Black's mental health. She tells us as much – describing it as having had 'anxiety all the time' – but we can see it, too, the colour slowly draining from her face as her 20s march on. When we cut back to the present, she is calmer, happier; there is talk of regaining independence and control. The message here is clear: Black may have been allowed to roam the corridors of power, but it was never somewhere she had any real chance of thriving. From the start, the tabloids were digging up old social media posts about her love of alcopops and why 'maths is shite'. These were posted, unsurprisingly, when she was still at school. In any case, it was an 'archaic' place where she didn't fit in, and somewhere she felt isolated and even scared at points. She was left alone to deal with 'visceral' hate – trolls calling her a 'dyke', a 'dirty bitch', and telling her that she was too ugly to get raped – and even death threats, including one which she says the police described as 'imminent'. She drank too much, and lost weight from all the vomiting; her dad, Alan, says 'her spark' was missing. Her wife, Katie, explains that people began to brand Black as lazy when she was signed off work for three months between 2017 and 2018. While the couple don't go into too much detail about those critics here, it wasn't just the media any more: Black has previously gone on the record to say that her fellow MPs also cast aspersions on her character. Away from those tough times, we also see how determined, fierce and funny Black is, but not, ironically, during her onstage segments. It's in her Commons performances that these qualities shine through. When she describes the government as having been largely 'pished' during lockdown, then deputy speaker Dame Rosie Winterton asks her to mind her language. Without missing a beat, Black fires back a host of other options, complete with theatrical hand gestures: 'Inebriated? Intoxicated? Paralytic?' There's also a hilarious episode, where a tabloid claims that Black has called Rishi Sunak a 'dickhead' during PMQs. Black lip-reads back her own mutterings before deciding that wasn't what she said, but that it wouldn't exactly have been wrong if she had done. On top of this, we also see how she is managing her mental health and neurodiversity (she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in 2018, and is being tested for autism). Allowing yourself to be filmed reflecting on your enviable political career is one thing. That Black also let the cameras roll during moments of struggle and mental exhaustion is far more impressive. I'm not entirely sure that her future lies in standup, but then neither is Black. Instead, she's just really, really glad to be out of parliament, a new lightness radiating off her as the film ends. Her exit really is a loss to British politics. But my God, I've never seen someone look so happy to be walking the dog. Mhairi Black: Being Me Again aired on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Scotland's first minister holds ‘warm' meeting with Eric Trump in Edinburgh
Scotland's first minister hosted a 'warm' meeting with Donald Trump's son Eric in Edinburgh on Thursday, days after the US president's golf course at Turnberry was targeted by protesters. John Swinney met Eric Trump at his official residence, a listed Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh's New Town, for what both sides described as a routine business meeting that focused on the Trump family's golfing interests. Scottish officials suspect the US president will visit Scotland this summer to personally open a second championship course at his smaller golf resort in Aberdeenshire. That opening event, expected in June, was touched on during the meeting, but a presidential visit was not discussed. The meeting, which is Swinney's first with any member of the Trump family, comes after rising tensions between the UK and the White House over the Trump administration's stance on Ukraine and the punitive tariffs it has introduced, including on British steel and aluminium. The visit suggests Trump is keen to restore friendly links with Scotland, where he owns the Turnberry golfing resort in Ayrshire and a boutique hotel and golf course north of Aberdeen. Eric Trump, the organisation's executive vice-president, said: 'I'm delighted to say that it was a very warm and friendly meeting and this is the first time that a first minister has invited us to Bute House. 'The first minister thanked me for the Trump Organization's ongoing colossal investment and commitment to Scotland. This is the first time that I've heard those words from the first minister and they were hugely appreciated.' Swinney's spokesperson insisted there was nothing unusual about the event. 'This is not a political meeting, it's a business meeting,' he said. 'We are trying to act as a responsible government would and treat business figures in the same way.' Until now, Donald Trump has had a chilly relationship with the Scottish government. He publicly fell out with the former first minister Alex Salmond over his backing for offshore windfarms near Trump's Aberdeenshire course. Keir Starmer presented Trump with an invitation for a second state visit from King Charles at the White House late last month, and suggested the king might meet Trump in Scotland to plan that event. Swinney has faced intense pressure from within the Scottish National party to condemn the proposal. Stephen Flynn, the SNP's Westminster leader, said on X that the prime minister 'better get back up off his knees and revoke that offer of a state visit'. Swinney has rejected those challenges, and told MSPs at Holyrood last week that the state visit should only be reconsidered if Trump continued to threaten and undermine Zelenskyy. Otherwise, he said, Starmer's offer of a second state visit was prudent given the seriousness of the crisis in Ukraine. Eric Trump is also expected to visit Turnberry, where pro-Palestinian activists heavily damaged parts of his golf course and sprayed pro-Gaza protests on the grass on Saturday.
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Nicola Sturgeon to stand down as MSP next year
Scotland's former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced she is standing down as an MSP. Sturgeon, who led the Scottish National party from 2014 until her shock resignation in 2023, said she would not seek re-election in 2026, telling her Glasgow Southside constituency party members: 'I have known in my heart for a while that the time is right for me to embrace different opportunities in a new chapter of my life.' In the letter, which she also posted on social media, Sturgeon – who has been a member of the Scottish parliament since its inception in 1999 – said she hoped the policies she had implemented as first minister – including the Scottish child payment, expanded early years education, investment in housing and new hospitals – had benefited people across Scotland. Sturgeon, who remains popular among many sections of the SNP, also addressed party members across the country in her social media post, telling them: 'I may be leaving parliament, but I will be by your side every step of the way as we complete our journey to independence.' She added that 'given the challenges facing the world today, it is more important than ever that progressive voices continue to speak up for fairness, equality and dignity for all'. Her decision was not unexpected: Sturgeon had evidently switched her focus away from Holyrood politics back to her constituency since she stepped down aftera gruelling run of challenges, including the Covid pandemic, the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government's handling of sexual assault allegations against her predecessor Alex Salmond, and the controversy around her flagship gender recognition reforms. She has made few political interventions in the intervening time, concentrating instead on writing her memoir, which is due for publication later this year, and her recent public appearances have been culturally inclined, attending book festivals and holding a series of in-conversation events with her friend, the crime novellist Val McDermid, to discuss their love of books with literary guests. Her jaunty social media posts show her enjoying the 'ordinary stuff that most people take for granted', which she referenced in her resignation speech as having become increasingly out of her reach. Earlier this year Sturgeon announced her divorce from her husband of 15 years, the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, who was arrested and charged last year over the alleged embezzlement of donations to the SNP. Sturgeon, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the party's finances, was also arrested by Police Scotland detectives in June 2023 and officially remains under investigation as part of Operation Branchform, but has not been charged. She leaves elected office as support for her party has rallied following July's catastrophic general election defeat – in which the SNP was reduced from 48 MPs in 2019 to nine as Labour swept the board across the country. The current first minister John Swinney has steadied the party in the runup to next May's Holyrood elections after a year of turmoil, which included the Branchform arrests as well as the resignation of Sturgeon's successor, Humza Yousaf, after the collapse of the governing partnership with the Scottish Greens. Now governing as a minority, Swinney has brought a tight focus to his premiership, prioritising the elimination of child poverty, improving public services and growing the economy. Along with Sturgeon, Holyrood faces a significant drain of experienced figures, with seasoned politicians of all parties, including a number of former and current cabinet secretaries, stepping down next May.
