Anger over trans woman on SNP all-female shortlist for Dumbarton seat at Holyrood

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the march for Trans Rights Now.

By Mike Wade, of The Times with additional reporting by BILL HEANEY

The SNP civil war over its gender recognition proposals has intensified after a trans woman was selected for an all-female shortlist.

Mridul Wadhwa, a trans rights activist who has no gender recognition certificate, appeared at a Stirling hustings, prompting allegations that SNP headquarters was ruling “by diktat” and had broken the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act, 2002, designed to promote all-women shortlists.

One SNP member said: “The whole idea of this law is to help support women and get more women into position to participate in political life.

“The suffragettes would be spinning in their graves. We’ve seen the abuse women politicians are getting at Westminster, but they’ve kept on going despite that. To then have a biological man rock up and say he’s a woman …”

This is happening at the worst possible time for the SNP in West Dunbartonshire, who are interviewing prospective candidates to run in the Dumbarton seat, currently held by Labour’s Jackie Baillie.

Woke, a a group that supports trans and gay causes and has infiltrated the SNP.

Gavinburn PS Gaelic classes PIC SHOWS Cllrs Karen Conaghan and Caroline McAllister with the Pupils

SNP Cllrs Caroline McAllister and Karen Conaghan want to take on Jackie Baillie MSP.

Their presence has caused Vale of Leven councillor Caroline McAllister to be dumped as a prospective candidate to take on Labour’s Jackie Baillie for the Dumbarton Constituency seat.

The word WOKE was officially added into the Oxford English Dictionary as an adjective in June 2017.

The dictionary defines it as “originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice”.

The Urban Dictionary, which published its original definition two years prior to the official dictionary, defines it as “being woke means being aware… knowing what’s going on in the community (related to racism and social injustice)”.

In other words, it means to be awake to sensitive social issues, such as racism, trans gender politics and gay rights. It mentions nothing about council tax, housing, education, health and social care and other important local government functions.

People who attach themselves to WOKE are usually avowedly secular.

At least two gay men have thrown their hat in the ring to take on Jackie Baillie. They are Toni Giugliano and Scott Lafferty, who lives with his husband in Dumbarton East.

Another of the competitors for the Holyrood parliamentary candidature is West Dunbartonshire Council’s education committee chair Karen Conaghan, whose father Ian Murray, a former SNP councillor, is a long-time Pro Life campaigner.

The SNP group on the local council however is made up of a large majority firmly in favour of a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. They voted for it although Cllr Conaghan may have abstained.

If only the SNP would lift the ban and boycott they have placed on The Democrat for reporting matters of public interest such as this, we could clear things up on that.

Meanwhile, the trouble mounts up as the pivotal court document from the Scottish Government’s doomed legal battle with Alex Salmond has finally been published.

The Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair has released the open record, which sets out the detailed pleadings of each side, ahead of evidence hearings resuming on Tuesday.