Why the Scottish Election result is a triple-whammy blow for women

A worst possible outcome, however, was a triple-whammy gut kick. The first: an increase in the number of Scottish Greens, a party full-throated in opposing women’s sex-based definition and subsequent rights on that basis.

The second: the loss of superb advocates for women – such as independent Ash Regan and Scottish Conservative Pam Gosal - who staunchly defended women’s rights in the face of fundamentalist opponents last session.

Both have occurred, but the biggest kick, as expected, the continuation of a government unapologetic about spending millions of taxpayers’ pounds on court cases arguing women are not adult human females.

For those confused by basic facts, or think they don’t matter, we are, and it matters a great deal.

A tiny minority of the population, though probably a majority in postmodern arts institutions, Glasgow Southside’s vegan cafes, and – depressingly – possibly the next Scottish parliament, disagree. They live in a dream-like utopia where biological sex can (or should) be magicked away as irrelevant, by the secular religion and near-spiritual exaltation of ‘gender identity’.

While I can respect someone’s right to believe bizarre things, genderism of the kind we’ve witnessed this past decade is fundamentally incompatible with women’s rights. We need them, and some women died for them. But trying to uphold them has been made punishing in the extreme.

Which is precisely why For Women Scotland had to fight so hard against our intransigent SNP government - all the way to the UK Supreme Court - to confirm last year that yes, women are female, and yes, we’ve rights on that basis. They won.

The refusal of political and cultural elites to universally accept that eminently sensible judgment has been catastrophically stupid. While lambasting the rise of Reform, those doing so are apparently oblivious that advocating for obvious males in women’s sport, calling double-rapists ‘she’, and much besides, has led directly to the rise of the hard right in America and the rest of the UK.

Scotland isn’t immune to this and never has been. It wasn’t inevitable, though. But the demonising of largely left-wing or centrist feminists who predicted what might happen has been ongoing for many years.

A sizeable number of the oft-remarked-upon ‘scunnered’ voters see policies like ‘self-ID’ as proof the political class, while failing to address pressing social problems, has lost its collective mind. Which it has, on this particular issue. Of course, other factors are at play.

Backlash to the backlash: we’ve now 15 Scottish Green MSPs, the hard left mirror to Reform; just as divisive, illiberal, and intolerant. They’re better at hiding it, peppering their manifesto with words like ‘inclusive’, ‘community’, and ‘solidarity.’ Behind the waffle, a different story.This is a party so zealously opposed to women’s rights they’ve banished party members and able MSPs like Andy Wightman for daring to question their genderist agenda. Anyone who voted Scottish Green in 1999 is now voting for an entirely different party, so shorn of its former purpose its first MSP and convenor Robin Harper relinquished his membership in 2023.

Our new cohort of hard left Greens includes Holly Bruce, Green councillor, now MSP for Glasgow Southside. Despite having pushed for Glasgow to be a ‘feminist city’, Bruce was part of the screeching, abusive protest outside FiLiA, Europe’s largest feminist conference, held in Glasgow in October 2023.

In a disgraceful incident, women from all over the world, gathering to discuss male violence, mothers’ rights, lesbian activism and more, were subjected to chants of ‘F**** you!’ as they entered the conference venue. Why? Because FiLiA defines women as adult human females and has a perfectly legal woman-only policy.

We also have Q Manivannan, elected via Edinburgh’s regional list. Described as an ‘anthropologist of care’ and Tamil immigrant on a now protected X account, Q identifies as non-binary, is a recent graduate of St Andrews.

Manivannan’s also a poet. Performing on Creative Scotland funded stages, the new MSP has advocated for untrammelled immigration. In a recent interview with The Canary, Manivannan said: “‘trans’ doesn’t just mean transgender but also transnational, in the sense that our bodies and our identities don’t stop at a checkpoint, are not bounded by structures that do not serve us.”

That might pass muster at a self-congratulatory open mic session at some Russell Group literary society, but in the serious arena of hard politics, this cod-philosophising and navel-gazing simply won’t wash.

We also have trans-identifying Iris Duane who posted in support of a trans-activist group vandalising the entrance of Wes Streeting’s constituency office due to his acceptance of the Cass Review.

Meanwhile, newly elected Edinburgh MSP Kayleigh O’Neill, in a speech responding to the Supreme Court judgment said, “I really thought that second wave feminists had gone past the issue of women being more than their bodies and their ability to give birth or breastfeed or whatever.”

The lack of critical thinking – and dreadful oratory – is headache inducing. ‘Whatever’ indeed. This is the politics of Instagram-focussed, sloganeering, rank amateurs. But the electorate has spoken. Let’s see how it plays out. I predict hearing some maiden speeches will upgrade the headache to a painful migraine.

It’s safe to say our discontented nation’s parliament will, if nothing else, continue to provide fertile fodder for opinion and division. That the ongoing obsessions with identity politics surrounding race and gender is a gift to the reactionary hard right cannot be overstated.

Barely half the electorate of Scotland voted. Our parliament is diminished, undermined by apathy, and the election of women-deniers, opportunists, and the patently ludicrous.