Catriona Stewart

John Swinney’s cross-party civic gathering – or 'anti-Reform summit' – met in Glasgow on Wednesday, with political party leaders from across Holyrood prepared to discuss how to rid Scotland of the hard right. Yet what began as a 'Democratic Resilience Summit' rather backfired for those politicians keen to push back against Reform UK's surge in Scotland – as it turned into a chance for Nigel Farage's party to enjoy free publicity. Some 50 organisations from across civic society – including religious and third sector groups as well as every Holyrood party leader except Russell Findlay of the Tories – met in the centre of Glasgow to agonise over how to improve the lot of ordinary Scots.

Following months of deliberation, the apex court in the United Kingdom is to rule on For Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers. The case has been brought by a grassroots group of gender-critical women backed by JK Rowling. It focuses on the legal constraints surrounding statutory guidance issued by the Scottish ministers on the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. Despite claims to the contrary, the Supreme Court will not on Wednesday decide an answer to the question ‘what is a woman?’ Rather, it is to rule on how ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are defined for the purposes of the law. This may seem a pedantic distinction but, in a climate where lack of clarity has caused mayhem, pedantry is to be welcomed.

At long last, Scottish Labour has clearly and decisively set out its position on gender self-identification. Party leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie have now robustly stated the case that Scottish Labour supports single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Good, clear, precise messaging of the type entirely absent from the SNP leadership – and long overdue. Yet that clatter you hear is the sound of jaws dropping violently at the audacity. Shock at this astonishing volte face by Sarwar will be most keenly felt by two of his MSPs, Claire Baker and Carol Mochan, who were forced to resign their frontbench posts in the Scottish parliament when they declined to support the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

Of all the self-inflicted harm to have felled politicians and undermined governments, was there ever a more curious case than that of self-ID and the SNP? In so bullishly battling the cause of Gender Recognition Reform (GRR), that would have allowed for trans-identifying people to self-declare their new gender, the SNP suffered the largest backbench rebellion of the Scottish parliament’s 25-year tenure, saw a minister defect to Alex Salmond’s Alba party, and lost two first ministers in rapid succession.       And after all such calamity, the SNP’s GRR Act was merely blocked by Westminster using a Section 35 order, a dead man’s switch designed to prevent Holyrood’s lawmakers passing incompetent bills that interfere in UK-wide legislation.