Asked whether she had regrets about her pioneering Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland ) Act, former SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently declared at an Edinburgh fringe meeting: “ if I had any regret, it’s that I didn’t manage to get more people into what I think is the sensible centre ground”.
Scottish Greens may well ask themselves: “What could she possibly mean by “sensible centre ground”?
Short of one MSP to form a government majority, they signed a deal with the SNP in 2021 whereby co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie were offered two key ministerial posts in exchange for support to Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
Central to the named “ Bute House Agreement” was a commitment on the part of the SNP to deliver on the Scottish Greens’ Stonewall inspired self-identification for the transgender community which read as follows:
- remove the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to obtain a gender recognition certificate ( GPC)
- extend the self-identification application process to 16 and 17 year-olds
- reduce the time someone must have been permanently living in their acquired gender before they can apply from two years to three months – or six months for those aged 16 and 17 – with a 3 months reflection period during which an individual can change their mind
After two full days of a lively debate held at Holyrood with no less than 150 amendments – where Nicola Sturgeon lead her party to vote for all of them but one regarding convicted sex offenders and self-identification – what was in effect the Scottish Greens Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland ) Bill was finally passed on December 22nd by 86 to 39 votes.
There was then no question of any “sensible centre ground”. The two days debate which went on well past midnight was a full throttle green identinarian transactivist Maggie Chapman’s show. Some of the more “ sensible centre ground “ proposed amendments which could have made the Bill compliant with the UK Equality Act and the UN Human Rights were brushed off as transphobic.
As a result and as now bluntly called for by QC Joanna Cherry, senior SNP and MP and other Sturgeon’s critics, the Bute House agreement will either be “ripped up or the deal renegotiated”.
What will the Scottish Greens do then ? Renegotiate the terms of self-identifation or withdraw their support to the Scottish Nationalist Party ?
As life member of the Scottish Green Party Robin Harper declared in his recent letter of resignation to co-leader Patrick Harvie, it would seem that the Scottish Greens have not only made a rod for their own back with their fundamentalist gender ideology, but indeed ” lost the plot”.
The Green Light 