SNP leadership election (2023)

[danny la rouge]

Humza Yousaf and Ash Reagan confirmed

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-19/humza-yousaf-and-ash-regan-confirm-snp-leadership-bids

Shift to right will ‘destroy’ SNP warns Westminster deputy Mhairi Black​

Shift to right will ‘destroy’ SNP warns Westminster deputy Mhairi Black

As Kate Forbes emerges as frontrunner, the party's deputy Westminster leader cautioned against alienating 'swathes' of voters.

news.stv.tv

Kate Forbes is seen as the “front runner” currently, though Mhairi Black seems to be warning against that choice.

Really, none of them have much recognition out in the real world.

 

[danny la rouge]

Following the media approach has been interesting. SNP are facing repeated questioning about whether they’ll open voting in the election to people who left the party. I mean, why would they? Weird. But they’re being asked it again and again.

It would appear that the background is the assumption that many who left in recent times did so over gender recognition and that now that Sturgeon is going maybe they’d back a more gender critical candidate. But surely that’s not practically applicable? Only people who are members get a vote.

 

[Ĝasper]

What's the likelihood of televised leadership debates? We've seen this when PMs May and Johnson resigned, so we may see it with FM Sturgeon. On one hand, the media may not want to give Scottish news equal coverage. On the other, the media may also recognise the opportunity to portray the SNP as a divided house, in a worse state of repair than widely believed.

 

[geminisnake]

Kate Forbes is seen as the “front runner” currently, though Mhairi Black seems to be warning against that choice.

By who? The only folk I've seen mentioning her are the MSM, I've yet to see a 'real' person mention her at all. The bookies and the MSM are pushing her, why?

 

[danny la rouge]

By who?

Yes, by the media. (I don’t have any other source of information about the matter).

 

[steeplejack]

Doubt it'll be either of the currently declared candidates. Yousaf widely perceived to have done poorly in his current Health brief after doing OK as Justice Secretary. I had to google who "Ash Reagan" was and I like to think I know a bit about Scottish politics. It has been amusing this weekend to see nonentity MSPs putting out ponderous twitter-statements stating that now is not the time for them to put themselves forward for the leadership.

In any case the early favourite never wins, which is bad news for Manchurian candidate / religious weirdo / lobbyist crony Kate Forbes.

I wish Mhairi was right, to be honest. Given that the current centre ground in UK politics seems to be stopping just short of reintroducing transportation to the colonies and reinstituting workhouses I am not sure that she is.

 

[pogofish]

Humza Yousaf and Ash Reagan confirmed

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-19/humza-yousaf-and-ash-regan-confirm-snp-leadership-bids

​

That's my diary suddenly become a lot more interesting then..!

 

[danny la rouge]

I had to google who "Ash Reagan" was and I like to think I know a bit about Scottish politics.

Aye, she was news to me too.

 

[danny la rouge]

That's my diary suddenly become a lot more interesting then..!

Never thought you’d out yourself, Humza.

 

[pogofish]

As to why, my lips must remain sealed!

 

[Sue]

As to why, my lips must remain sealed!

Sure thing, Ash. Mum's the word.

 

[danny la rouge]

As to why, my lips must remain sealed!

Tease!

I think he lives in Dundee, so I’m guessing you’re the nearest person who knows what an XLR cable is.

 

[pogofish]

Not quite - but if nobody else can be found for that side of things, I'll handle that too!

 

[danny la rouge]

“Candidate Kate Forbes tells the BBC she would not have backed the controversial government gender recognition bill passed at Holyrood late last year”

BBC

Thereby surprising nobody.

 

[belboid]

and she has added she wouldn't have voted for same sex marriage either.

 

[Sue]

and she has added she wouldn't have voted for same sex marriage either.

She's a practicing Wee Free. They don't even sing hymns in their churches because hymns are evil or something so having a very traditional view on marriage and reproductive rights etc isn't exactly a surprise.

 

[belboid]

She's a practicing Wee Free. They don't even sing hymns in their churches because hymns are evil or something so having a very traditional view on marriage and reproductive rights etc isn't exactly a surprise.

No, but some of the usual suspects have said it is misogynous to mention her affiliation, if you didn't say the same about Ian Blackford. The fact that Blackford explicitly said he didn't support the wees views on abortion or sexuality is, apparently, irrelevant.

 

[danny la rouge]

No, but some of the usual suspects have said it is misogynous to mention her affiliation, if you didn't say the same about Ian Blackford. The fact that Blackford explicitly said he didn't support the wees views on abortion or sexuality is, apparently, irrelevant.

Really? Wow, some people have a deep logic deficit. Blackford was actually censured by his local church for his views and votes on those matters.

Anyway it seems Forbes’ campaign is hitting the buffers already:

Kate Forbes loses SNP backers over gay marriage stance Kate Forbes loses SNP backers over gay marriage stance

 

[steeplejack]

Yes I know twitter but funny:



That’s a wee shame.

 

[steeplejack]

It's really big news, she set sail on her leadership bid with a massive bigoted hole beneath the waterline and it will sink her even if she toughs out the whole campaign.

Given that gay sex between even consenting men was illegal in Scotland until 1980/81 owing to the intransigence of religious bigots (fourteen years after it was decriminalised in 1967 in London), it is hugely gratifying to see that bigotry and religious mumbo jumbo are now as toxic for a political career as gay sex / sexual orientation once was. Even twenty years ago opposition to marriage equality and disatse for same-sex relationships on religious grounds would have absolutely been a mainstream position and not one that would have caused any trouble.

"I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman" is only heard from the likes of Lukashenko and Putin these days. Nice company she keeps.

 

[belboid]

Given that gay sex between even consenting men was illegal in Scotland until 1980/81

 

[steeplejack]

Yep a little known factoid that causes present day Scots politicians to look at their shoes in embarrassment.

The adoption of the Westminster 1967 laws on decriminalising homosexuality were trenchantly opposed by religious bigots across the spectrum in Scotland and they blocked and delayed as long as they could get away with it.

Thanfully the Kirk and Forbes' wee frees (both splinters) are a fringe irrelevance these days. A demographic study ten years or so ago showed that the Kirk will basically not exist in any meaningful sense by the 2040s- once the unquestioned moral authority in Scotland. Hasten the day.

 

[danny la rouge]

Yep a little known factoid that causes present day Scots politicians to look at their shoes in embarrassment.

The adoption of the Westminster 1967 laws on decriminalising homosexuality were trenchantly opposed by religious bigots across the spectrum in Scotland and they blocked and delayed as long as they could get away with it.

Thanfully the Kirk and Forbes' wee frees (both splinters) are a fringe irrelevance these days. A demographic study ten years or so ago showed that the Kirk will basically not exist in any meaningful sense by the 2040s- once the unquestioned moral authority in Scotland. Hasten the day.

Yup. I remember an English teacher (Ms Donald) at my school was absolutely astonished to learn the law hadn’t at that time been changed.

This shameful backwardness is one of the reasons the late Tom Nairn famously said “Scotland will never be free until the last [Church of Scotland] Minister is strangled with the last copy of the Sunday Post”.

The change in social attitudes in my lifetime has been immense. There is still sadly some way to go.

 

[steeplejack]

An added bonus is that Forbes' bigotry also sinks her own personal chances of leading neoliberal "reforms" to wit cutting back what she terms a "bloated public sector", which is just lovely.

Quite possible that whoever plays Davie Moyes to NS's Fergie will work to the same agenda, though, sadly. Big business demands it.

 

[steeplejack]

Comments have now surfaced appearing to show that Forbes believes having children outside of marriage is "wrong", in the Sturgeon-Murrellist fanzine The National. I hope the party can fund a flux-capacitator to take her back to the nineteenth century as a farewell present.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yousaf of course adheres to a religion that in the 21st Century kills people for being gay.

Either he espouses the tenets of his faith, which makes him a bigot, or, he is paying lip service, which makes him a hypocrite.

Add in the absolutely disgraceful conduct towards a Hindu nursery owner, and you have the picture of someone unfit to be an MSP, never mind FM.

 

[Tones]

Yousaf of course adheres to a religion that in the 21st Century kills people for being gay.

Either he espouses the tenets of his faith, which makes him a bigot, or, he is paying lip service, which makes him a hypocrite.

Add in the absolutely disgraceful conduct towards a Hindu nursery owner, and you have the picture of someone unfit to be an MSP, never mind FM.

That's a very broad brush to take towards Islam. There is a range of opinions in it.

 

[steeplejack]

Yousaf of course adheres to a religion that in the 21st Century kills people for being gay.

Either he espouses the tenets of his faith, which makes him a bigot, or, he is paying lip service, which makes him a hypocrite.

Add in the absolutely disgraceful conduct towards a Hindu nursery owner, and you have the picture of someone unfit to be an MSP, never mind FM.

Be best if we skipped to the stage where you put this thread on ignore to be honest.

 

[danny la rouge]

Yousaf of course adheres to a religion that in the 21st Century kills people for being gay.

Either he espouses the tenets of his faith, which makes him a bigot, or, he is paying lip service, which makes him a hypocrite.

Add in the absolutely disgraceful conduct towards a Hindu nursery owner, and you have the picture of someone unfit to be an MSP, never mind FM.

Whereas Iain Blackford’s parish church (Wee Free) did publicly censure him over his votes on equal marriage and abortion, Humza Yousaf’s mosque has not executed anyone for being gay, and connecting him or his local mosque in any way to the practice elsewhere is fucking out of order. In a major way.

 

[belboid]

Yousaf of course adheres to a religion that in the 21st Century kills people for being gay.

Either he espouses the tenets of his faith, which makes him a bigot, or, he is paying lip service, which makes him a hypocrite.

Add in the absolutely disgraceful conduct towards a Hindu nursery owner, and you have the picture of someone unfit to be an MSP, never mind FM.

conduct which the care inspectorate found to be perfectly reasonable, because the nursery did discriminate? Off you fuck with your bigoted bullshit