Joanna Cherry

Throughout her memoir, Nicola Sturgeon emphasises her achievement in becoming the first female first minister of Scotland. While that achievement should not be underestimated, I’m sure I’m not the only woman who wishes she made a better job of it.   In her political afterlife, as in her political life, she evades real scrutiny It’s not just her determined blind spot on the implications of self-identification for women’s rights which emerges from this memoir, but also the fact that her much trumpeted support for women, including those under attack in the public forum, seems not to extend to those who dare to disagree with her.

It is difficult to describe the emotion felt by lesbian and women’s rights campaigners when Lord Hodge announced the outcome of For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers at the Supreme Court this morning. It was the culmination of a struggle for justice which has lasted years and during which we have been vilified as bigots and threatened with death and sexual violence. Some of us have lost jobs, positions and career prospects as a result of standing up for what we knew was right. No less a person than Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon called us bigots, transphobes, racists and homophobes. She said that our concerns were ‘not valid’. The highest court in the land has told her she was wrong. An apology to the women of Scotland is in order.

John Swinney said this week the SNP doesn’t have a problem with women. I disagree. Of course, some of the unsung founders of the party were women. Some of the party’s strongest and most famous politicians have been women – from Winnie Ewing, Margo MacDonald and Nicola Sturgeon. Yet under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, the rights of women in Scotland became conditional on their acceptance of gender identity theory.

Across the UK, NHS services are coming under increasing pressure. Hospital waiting lists are too long while A&E departments struggle with patient demand. Nevertheless, at an employment tribunal in Scotland this week, we have learned that health boards like NHS Fife can apparently afford to suspend a senior A&E nurse with 30 years’ experience and an unblemished record for months simply because she dared to question the presence of a transwoman doctor in the ladies changing room. Sandie Peggie's remonstration with Dr Beth Upton was described as a 'bullying' incident by the junior doctor.

There are 18 months until the 2026 Holyrood election and already talk is ramping up about who will stand. There are sure to be candidate vacancies – nobody seriously thinks that former first ministers who have had their day and fallen from favour are going to run again. Other MSPs may retire and there are sitting parliamentarians who could do with some healthy competition during the re-selection process. Fear of such competition no doubt underlies some of today’s expressions of antipathy towards SNP members of the Westminster parliament with Holyrood ambitions. Anyone paying attention knows that the unprecedented rule change was specifically designed to stop me challenging Angus Robertson for the Edinburgh Central seat.