The Scottish National Party (SNP), the Scottish independence party in power in Holyrood (Edinburgh’s parliament) for fourteen years, held its annual convention from 10 to 13 September. The meeting was entirely virtual because of the fourth wave of Covid-19: to say it lacked the atmosphere, amid pre-recorded speeches from the leaders, Nicola Sturgeon, the prime minister, or John Swain, his deputy, and Took the words of activists lost in the flow of social networks.
Party members still voted overwhelmingly for the creation of a national energy company – a major cause for concern. A month and a half before the opening of COP26 in Glasgow, the economic capital of Scotland. They apparently debated much about a second referendum on the country’s independence after the failed 2014 (55.3% of Scots voted to remain British). But, despite the frustration of many delegates, the very cautious Nicola Sturgeon was careful not to go beyond her vague promise of an election. “After the pandemic crisis” And, ideally, before the end of 2023.
At least the party has managed to avoid the topic that has divided it the most for at least two years: the rights of transsexuals. In 2016, the SNP announced that it wanted to review a British law (the Gender Recognition Act, GRA) to facilitate and accelerate the recognition of a person’s new sexual identity. Under the terms of the GRA, a person can change his gender identity on his birth certificate provided he has a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and can prove that he has lived at least two years according to his new sexual identity .
The anger of feminist unions
The new law proposes to eliminate medical diagnosis and extend the period during which a trans person must live according to their new sexual identity. “The SNP is keen to present itself as a very progressive party with values close to the Scandinavian democracies and, above all, it wants to be seen as an opponent of the British Conservative government. They would have thought that reforming the GRA There would be an easy political victory. But he was wrong”, Sarah Pedersen, an expert on Scottish feminist movements at Robert-Gordon University in Aberdeen, says.
You have 56.31 percent of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.