Feet first...

by Les Bertrand

‍

So here's the thread of tweets around the one causing all the bother for Humza:

‍

An important factual thread from @Broonjunior KC, in contrast to some of the deliberate misinformation doing the rounds.

Also worth reading interview from Baroness Kennedy, a lifelong advocate for women's rights who led the working group on misogyny.

Baroness Kennedy’s report clearly recommended that the proposed offences in a misogyny bill should apply where the victims are ‘women or those who perpetrators perceive to be women’ this aligns with existing legislation protecting people from abuse that is motivated by prejudice.

If a man threatens to rape a woman, he is unlikely to know if the victim is born a woman or a trans woman.

That behaviour should logically be seen as misogynistic. Again, this aligns with existing legislation protecting people from abuse motivated by prejudice. This is not new.

The faux outrage claiming trans women have "double protection" under the law because of who they are is as ludicrous as being upset that a disabled Black woman has triple protection under the law. It in no way diminishes protection against misogyny for those who are born women.

Bad faith actors are intent on turning every issue into a culture war.

Let's not allow them to divide our society into those who are worthy of protection from hatred and those who are not.

Let's engage in robust debate, but one based on facts, not deliberate disinformation.

‍

As we type, the 'If a man...' tweet is approaching 1 million views and has had 340 'likes'. That, in itself, tells a story. But the story we're more interested in is why HY wrote this at all.

Has he slipped his handlers or have they abandoned him?

It's easy to kick a man when he's down. The hard part is knowing where to start.

But we can add nothing to the rage expressed in the replies to HY's message.

Whether the party hierarchy decides that the time has come for him to leave, or HY reaches that conclusion all by himself makes no difference. He can hang on until the next GE, whenever that is, and oversee the SNP's biggest drubbing in decades. That is going to happen with or without him.

In the meantime, he's single-handedly raising global awareness of Scotland and its 'progressive' government for all the wrong reasons.

He can't go soon enough.

‍

‍