Isn’t “fatigue” the perfect alibi? Since New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern left office last month on the pretext of “great fatigue”, it is no longer uncommon to invoke exhaustion, weariness or the stroke of a bar to justify a resignation. Who could have the insolence to question such a noble motive? As if fatigue had become for women what the unstoppable “family reasons” were still yesterday for men.
It is therefore officially due to fatigue that the first Scottish independence minister Nicola Sturgeon left office last week, at barely 52 years old. However, no one was fooled. Those who follow Scottish politics and scrutinize the polls were hardly surprised. Especially since the resignation of the charismatic leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is only the latest example of what is happening to many so-called progressive parties carried by the wind of societal radicalism blowing over our societies.
Considered a political star, Sturgeon had experienced a veritable descent into hell for several months. Thanks to exceptional political talents, great energy and two consecutive electoral victories, she had nevertheless managed to keep the independence fervor of the Scots afloat. Which is nothing. However, frozen at around 45%, it has not really progressed since the 2014 referendum. Even Brexit, disapproved of by 62% of Scots, has not moved the lines. As for the project of a second referendum, it still comes up against the categorical refusal of London and the Supreme Court.
But the main thing is not there. For months, Scotland has been rocked by a curious debate over ‘gender’ identity. Parliament, where the SNP is in the minority and governs with the Greens, was torn over a law allowing any citizen aged 16, by simple declaration, to have the sex they want entered on their official papers, while the British law sets this age at 18 and requires a medical diagnosis.
The project has met with opposition from mainstream feminist organizations grouped under the For Women Scotland banner. This text, they said, would have allowed sexual predators to access spaces reserved for women, thus jeopardizing their safety. This is what the trans Karen White (previously named David Thompson) did in 2017, accused of sexual assault against two inmates of a prison in West Yorkshire.
The creator of the series Harry PotterJK Rowling, who resides in Edinburgh, threw herself into the fray, saying Nicola Sturgeon was flouting the most basic of women’s rights. Shortly before, M.me Sturgeon was quick to call his opponents “misogynists, transphobes and racists.” Qualifiers for the less definitive while 65% of Scots said they were opposed to this reform.
All of this would have remained theoretical if the Prime Minister had not been forced, barely a month after its adoption, to repudiate her own legislation. On January 24, trans Isla Bryson (formerly named Adam Graham) was convicted of raping two women. While all of Scotland panicked at the idea that a proven rapist, who now claimed to be female, was incarcerated in a women’s prison, Nicola Sturgeon had to give in to popular pressure. She finally accepted the transfer of Isla Bryson to a prison… for men!
The episode culminated in a surreal scene where the prime minister, known for her intellectual rigour, clumsily tried to explain the inexplicable. Interviewed by ITV journalist Peter Adam Smith, she said that “trans women are women”… but not necessarily “in the context of prison”! Thus, “a trans woman is a woman, but not if she has to go to prison”, summed up the amazed ITV host! Despite the esteem previously enjoyed by Nicola Sturgeon, this grotesque interview had the effect of a cluster bomb. Especially since the law was finally censored by London.
How will the SNP, which was preparing for a referendum election in 2024, recover from this resignation? After four consecutive mandates, the fall is hard and could put off the holding of a new referendum. The episode is nevertheless characteristic of this tendency which pushes many left-wing parties to want to please their most radical wing, whose demands most of the time clash with the common sense of the population. In many countries, we have seen these parties alienate the working classes by locking themselves into societal struggles that concern only a tiny minority. Among certain separatists, as in Quebec and Scotland, this tendency is accentuated by the visceral fear of being qualified as conservatives, not progressive enough or, worse, identitarians! Unable to question themselves, here they are in the skin of the coyote of Road Runner who continues to run over the precipice long after leaving solid ground.
Until reality calls him to order. That’s what just happened to Nicola Sturgeon.