The SNP still doesn’t know what a woman is

Since the UK Supreme Court ruled on the definition of ‘woman’ in the Equality Act, there has been a firestorm of clashing emotions. Furious trans activists and their devout allies have been doing their best to snuff out the righteous jubilation of women’s rights campaigners.

In Scotland, it’s even more intense. On the one hand, it is a great source of pride that it was a Scottish grassroots organisation – For Women Scotland – that played such a vital role in securing the landmark ruling. On the other hand, it was the Scottish government that rendered the court case necessary, by steadfastly committing itself to erasing women as a sex class in law.

Indeed, Scottish first minister John Swinney’s response to the ruling has only betrayed women further. Shortly after the ruling, he decided to make the right noises and said that he accepted the result. This was promptly undermined when, a week later, he refused to answer the question of whether he believes transwomen are women. Surely, if he had truly accepted the Supreme Court’s definition, the answer would be an unequivocal ‘no’.

Perhaps this was because, only a few weeks ago, Swinney stated during a press conference that he ‘accepted’ it ‘to be the case’ that transwomen are women. To back down now would have looked extremely hypocritical (not that this stopped UK prime minister Keir Starmer from doing just that, of course).

Still, in ducking the question altogether, Swinney is sending the message that stating biological fact is somehow controversial, morally grey or even potentially wrong. This is a passive-aggressive sulk against the majority of the Scottish public, especially women, who oppose gender ideology.

To add an extra layer of brass to Swinney’s cowardly neck, last week he held a ‘summit’ between Scottish leaders geared towards combating the supposed threat of ‘hatred’ in Scotland. In the run-up to the summit, Swinney was quite clear that it would primarily focus on the growing popularity of Reform UK. Indeed, Reform leaders were deliberately not invited to the gathering. God forbid Scotland’s progressive elites should have to offer coherent arguments against Reform’s policies, which, as polls indicate, are clearly cutting through to the disillusioned Scottish electorate.

Russell Findlay, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, refused to attend. He rightly accused Swinney of being the one to cause division by, for one thing, not listening to commonsense concerns about gender ideology. Even Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar – who supported the now retracted Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill – called the event a ‘talking shop’. A broken watch can be right twice a day.

Given that the Supreme Court ruling has sparked unhinged protests, comprised largely of angry men chanting misogynistic slogans and bearing placards that call for violence against women, there is no shortage of hate to condemn in Scotland right now. Yet there has not been any acknowledgement of this intimidation from the SNP, and it certainly wasn’t mentioned at that ‘anti-hate’ summit.

So much of the cowardice and arrogance of the Scottish government stems from the lingering toxic legacy of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. It was she who demanded total party allegiance on matters like gender self-ID, regardless of what the broader SNP membership, let alone the public, believed. Swinney’s shoddy response to the Supreme Court ruling is a reflection of his own lack of vision and grit as a leader. He has clearly failed to emerge from Sturgeon’s shadow. The phrase ‘man up’ has perhaps never been so warranted.

The Supreme Court ruling handed Swinney the perfect opportunity to exercise some long overdue humility on the trans question. He could have recognised the SNP’s mistakes and apologised to the women who have now been vindicated. Instead, he has refused to listen to anyone outside his own echo chamber. The SNP remains as out of touch as ever.

Nina Welsch is a writer. visit her Substack here